• Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • OUR PARTNERS
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • BLOG
Contact Us: 0207 952 8123
Cloudscape
  • Cloud
    • Hosted Email
    • Hybrid Cloud
    • Online Backup
    • Private Cloud
  • IT Support
    • Apple Mac Support
    • Managed IT Support
    • Network Support
    • Ongoing Support
    • PC’s & Servers
  • Telecoms
    • Hosted VoIP
  • IT Services
    • IT Relocation
    • IT Projects
    • IT Consultancy
    • GDPR Services
  • Cyber Security
  • Contact
  • Menu Menu

Tag Archive for: challenges

What to implement to solve the problems from 2020

in Cyber Security, IT Tips

As we explained previously, 2020 has been unprecedented. Covid-19 has caused problems internationally, both for people’s health and their ability to work and provide for their families. Business owners have been doing everything within their power to continue trading whilst adhering to ever-changing government rules. Some made a full transition to remote working, others partial, and some continued trading on-premise at a limited capacity. There were, however, many businesses that did not make it through this most difficult of years. To be sure your business does not follow suit, we will now take a look at the two goals highlighted in the previous blog in the series and what you need to implement to achieve these goals.

 

Let us remind ourselves what those challenges/goals are:

  1. Reduce risk – increase security and compliance
  2. Increase profit – be more productive

Technology is the main driver to make the transition to full-time remote working. It can also assist a hybrid of on-premise and remote working, or it can revolutionise the way you work currently on-premise. Tech can drive a change and achieve it.

Finding a solution to both challenges that compliments the way you work has benefits that can carry your business to long term success throughout 2021 and beyond.

We will now take a brief look at what can be done to ensure you achieve your goals.

 

  1. Reduce risk – increase security and compliance

We can split the requirements needed to find a way of achieving them into 4 subheadings:

  • A cultural change
  • Technical controls
  • Infrastructure
  • Data

 

A cultural change

  • A cultural and procedural change within your business is essential. Changing your staff’s attitude toward security and making it a more prevalent part of their workday is important – the only way this can be achieved is by a good standard of training and support for users. They need to be trained on the need for passwords and data management procedures, and also the dangers of using the wrong apps and Shadow IT.

 

Technical controls

  • Implementing the best cybersecurity practice is essential. You can start to do this by using two-factor or multi-factor authentication (depending on your required level of security). Requiring two distinct forms of identification in order to gain access is a great starting point to protect your system.
  • Another is the use of Firewalls. A Firewall acts as a gatekeeper to your system and a filter between your computer and the internet, only allowing through what is safe and blocking access to unfriendly/ unfamiliar data and entities. Firewalls can protect your system well whilst still letting you go about your normal daily functions.
  • When working on a mobile device, encrypting that device is a good idea. It is easy to misplace your mobile device and just as easy for someone else to access the data on it. The idea of mobile encryption is to protect your data from falling into the wrong hands should someone get a hold of your mobile – full disk encryption (FDE) encrypts all the data on it.
  • Anti-malware is another important step to ensuring your business is protected from cyber-attack. It is a software program with the sole purpose to prevent, detect, and remove malicious software on IT systems. Malware comes in a variety of different forms including viruses, rootkits, spyware, and ransomware; all of which have the ability to stop your business functioning if you do not have Anti-Malware installed on your system.
  • Eradicate the use of Shadow IT; you have no control over it, you cannot control the backup and recovery of data or control who is accessing the resource either. There may be employees with lower access privileges that should not be able to see, modify, or copy certain data. Before introducing any new technology into your infrastructure, you should test said tech to see what potential impact it could have and what can remedy any inefficiencies that it could cause. When using Shadow IT, it is introduced outside of normal business practice and does not undergo these checks. Yes, it can potentially make a process faster, but having not undergone the checks it could also do irreparable damage to a vital business function, thereby causing untold problems for the entire IT infrastructure.

 

Infrastructure

  • Be sure you have good infrastructure for your IT, check the age, lifespan, and level of support of current systems and legacy applications. Check end-user devices are secure and find out if they are owned by work or the employee themselves. If they are not owned by you then you should rectify this immediately, as having control of what your employees access and what they access it on is important to ensure security.

 

Data

  • Knowing the basic information about your data is important and knowing where it is stored can be essential to ensure you are complying with legal obligations. For example, data of residents in the EU cannot be stored outside of the EU. Access to data also needs to be monitored so you can check who is accessing it and why.
  • Backup and recovery are a part of GDPR in that you must be able to recover any data that you lose – especially where you have had to keep a record of people that are omitted from lists, so you do not inadvertently reuse their data at a later point. Depending upon your industry there are different details to take note of from industry regulation but, as a general rule, it is good business practice to have a disaster recovery plan. Many businesses have one for practical purposes, a fire or a loss of power, for example. The technological aspects of ‘how to keep the lights on’, how to keep your team productive when IT fails, or your access to IT services are often forgotten about or are not as comprehensive as they need to be in this digital age.

 

  1. Increase profit – be more productive

Like we did previously, we can split the methods to achieve these goals into subheadings.

  • The right tools
  • Integrations and automation

The key to increasing profit is being more productive, and the key to being more productive is having the correct tools; ergo, having the correct tools increases profit.

 

The right tools

  • Shadow IT can be a problem when it comes to productivity when often that software seems to do something better than the alternative and hence why the employee chooses it. But it often falters on something, leading to employees downloading apps to improve it – these downloads are not backed up and could pose a number of risks to your organisation. The Shadow IT may not have the capabilities of the one that you are providing, in turn making the productivity possible from it limited in comparison to the alternative.
  • Ensure that your staff have the correct training. When working on-premise, or remotely, ensuring your staff have a good knowledge of how the system you use works is essential not only for security reasons but for productivity purposes too. With a good knowledge of what they will be using every day to carry out their daily tasks, they will learn the best ways to be productive with it. Showing that you are willing to invest in them being productive and happy with the tools they are using every day can only be a positive thing for your company.

 

Integrations and automation

  • Use Microsoft 365 range of tools. 365 has tools designed specifically for communication, collaboration, and productivity, the most popular of which is Microsoft Teams – with 115 million daily active users they must be doing something right. The entire range is also integrated and has automated features – it offers a “single pane of glass for business operations” – giving more scope to be productive as everything is in one place. You can automate the more mundane tasks to allow more time for productivity. 365 offers a platform to revolutionise your technological infrastructure and direct it toward a new, more productive future.

Do you need help to be certain your journey into 2021 is a fruitful one? We can help you!

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

Cloudscape is an IT company based in Central London serving the city and the Greater London area. We specialise in business IT services with engineers that are highly qualified in Apple Mac and Microsoft systems. With that and over 30 years’ experience, we can make your IT journey into 2021 a breeze! Contact us now to find out more about our services. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

 

https://cloudscapeit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/new-year-new-start-2.jpg 800 1200 Mike Casey https://cloudscapeit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cloudscape_logo_white.png Mike Casey2020-12-18 15:41:192020-12-18 15:41:19What to implement to solve the problems from 2020

What to implement in 2021: New year, New start

in Cyber Security, IT Tips

2020, a year that most want to forget! With Covid-19 came one of the worst health epidemics of modern times, which forced a shift in the way we work practically overnight. Bosses that are usually organised and prepared were struck with urgent business-defining decisions on a regular basis. Work practices became a struggle and the focus shifted to a ‘muddle through’ mentality with no one knowing what the rules would be from day to day. Lockdowns and constant tier changes made it impossible to plan for the future, or so people thought.

In this blog series, we will highlight some of the issues that have been posed by this unprecedented year and what you can implement to solve those problems, which will, in turn, allow you to be as prepared as possible no matter what 2021 may bring.

Business matters have been exacerbated due to the hectic nature of this year; any limitations and weaknesses that existed already within your IT infrastructure, applications, or communication services, for example, were felt as greater operational headaches than they might otherwise have been in ordinary times. Challenges which are age-old and likely required attention at some point, are now centre stage and demand resolution to unburden the business to move forward and grow.

Luckily, businesses muddled through at very short notice. We used home PC’s to help us do that, but, unfortunately, that presented us with a number of other challenges.

 

The challenges of the wrong IT

In the frenzied rush to set up offices within our homes, employees were often using the wrong tools – some provided by the boss, others by themselves – that may have included outdated software and hardware; both of which can have a serious derogatory effect on your business operations.

If employees lacked the right functionality within the IT services they had at their disposal, they will have gone looking for a solution themselves, leading to the concept of ‘Shadow IT’ creeping into your business.

Shadow IT is information technology that is deployed by someone other than the formal IT function for a business. In layman’s terms, it is IT that the employer has no control over, and it increases risks as there are no organisational requirements for control, documentation, security, reliability, etc.

The use of Shadow IT will affect your business negatively in the long run – “77% of IT pros agree that, if left unchecked, Shadow IT will become a bigger issue at their company by 2024” ¹.

Limping through is no longer good enough. Decisions need to be made to move on to a longterm plan for prolonged business functionality and growth. The experience of 2020 has made many businesses go back to the drawing board and review their high-level strategy on how and where they work and what changes they need to make to their service delivery going forward.

 

A new strategy for a new year

Many firms are considering not returning to the office at all and converting to an entirely remote team. Others are contemplating a partially remote workforce after seeing the benefits of having a smaller team on-premise in case of another lockdown. For some, the transition to a remote workforce is not for them, but this does not mean they are not in the process of a transition. This year may have highlighted issues otherwise not noticed that need rectifying.

Technology will help you make this transition as smooth as possible and will be the main driver to alleviate your worries coming out of 2020. Tech will help you stay secure, be productive, and allow you to make smooth transitions to different ways of working at your discretion. It allows you to keep up with the advancements happening daily in the tech world – helping you to run your business as securely and productively as possible now and into the future.

Let us take a look at two business challenges that have become more apparent due to Covid-19, and why you should resolve them as soon as possible.

The two challenges:

  1. Reduce risk – increase security, ensure compliance
  2. Increase profit – be more productive

 

Why you should address these challenges

  1. Reduce risk, increase security, ensure compliance

If you do not address the core of the risk to your business, you will feel a number of impact points, including:

  • Loss of time
  • Loss of data
  • Loss of reputation
  • Loss of clients

All of the above inevitably lead to the most important one of all:

  • Loss of revenue

We will now take a look at the risks that can lead to the above impacts.

 

The risks that can lead to the impact

  • Cyber threats

Cyber attacks can cause multiple problems within a business; they can result in the theft of valuable, sensitive data or even cause electrical blackouts and failure of equipment if sophisticated enough. Cybersecurity threats come in multiple different forms – Phishing emails, Malware, and Ransomware being some of the more popular methods preferred by cybercriminals. There are many more out there and more sophisticated methods are emerging daily.

Protecting against cyberattacks could not be more important in the current climate, statistics show – “Covid-19 drives 72% to 105% Ransomware spike”. ² All forms of cyberattack are on the rise since Covid-19 drew our attention elsewhere. We should always keep an eye on our cybersecurity – it can mean the difference between a successful thriving business and a failed one.

Cyber attacks can lead to downtime if sophisticated enough. They can also lead to a loss of data which will damage your reputation and cause clients to stop using your services, all of which will lead to lost revenue.

 

  • Industry regulation/ legislation

Arguably one of the most important risks is legal compliance – not complying with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), for example, can lead to hefty fines. In the most serious of cases, this fine could be up to £15.3 million or 4% of a company’s annual turnover.

If you do not comply with regulation surrounding your IT you are likely to be prosecuted and fined (as explained previously), but potentially more detrimental to the business is that you are not protecting people’s data to an industry standard. If customer data is lost or stolen this is clearly catastrophic for the company’s reputation and will lead to customers taking their business elsewhere – meaning a drop in revenue.

 

  • Reduced pressured resources

Businesses are generally pressured to use resources as efficiently as possible; it is essential to find a balance of resources at their disposal to make a fully functional, thriving workplace possible. The pressures have been accentuated due to the unwelcome changes thrust upon us by Covid-19. Unfortunately, many have had to downsize their workforce and production; this puts the effective use of resources in jeopardy.

Not using the resources you have at your disposal efficiently (money, people, time, etc) will slow work processes leading to a negative impact on the reputation of the business if the service you provide is struggling to achieve promised finish times – again, in turn, resulting in lower profits.

We will now take a look at the second challenge, the impact of not rising to the challenge, and the risks that can lead to that impact.

 

  1. Increase profit – be more productive

The impact if not remedied

  • Loss of time
  • Loss of reputation
  • Loss of clients
  • Loss of revenue

As you have already noticed, the impacts for challenge two are almost the same as challenge one. This is because these impacts are widespread across all businesses and are the biggest things to consider to ensure you continue thriving through 2021 and beyond.

 

The risks that can lead to these impacts

  • Poor use of resources

As mentioned previously, pressure has never been higher for the average workplace to keep things going as fluently as possible. For all its good intentions to ‘keep working as we always have’, this way of working can be having an impact on how much productivity is possible. Understandably, business owners are doing whatever is necessary (in some cases with a considerably reduced workforce) to keep trading through this most difficult and uncertain of times, but by working with a ‘day to day’ approach to your business functions you are not allowing your business the opportunity to thrive and be more productive.

Not using the resources available can mean tasks take more time, meaning you are not being as productive as possible. Time wasting could lead you to fall behind, which triggers a series of events leading to the client taking their business elsewhere and, again, causing a drop in your revenue.

  • Not moving with the times

Being stagnant and not moving with the times can have serious ramifications to the amount and quality of productivity your business can produce as opposed to your competition. Sticking to the established way of doing things and not over-complicating certain work processes can be a positive thing, but most of the time doing things the modern way, with the help of technology wherever possible, will help you to ensure and increase productivity.

Your business could be left behind with regard to the amount you produce, the quality of what you produce, and the effort involved in producing it. If your competitors are using modern techniques for productivity, they will undoubtedly be producing a better quality product, again possibly leading to a loss of your reputation followed by client loss and, as a result, a loss in revenue.

Being as productive as possible increases your profit. With the correct productivity tools and procedures in place, your business has the power to expand production and therefore make more money. Increasing productivity can come from multiple sources – we will explore these more in the next blog in the series.

If you address these issues correctly you can go into 2021 and the future confident that you will continue to be successful, despite the poor year most businesses have had.

Moving on now to the second and last blog in the series, we will explain how, by changing the culture in your business and the infrastructure, along with the use of the correct technical tools and controls, you can solve these two problems, in parallel with others, to improve the way your business is run.

Concerned how your IT will fair up going into 2021? Have you got the tools to get you through another lockdown? Need some help?

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

That is where we come in! We at Cloudscape have the skills and experience to alleviate any concerns you are carrying into 2021. Our engineers are highly efficient and work with you to understand your business needs. We take the strain of your IT so you do not have to. Contact us now and let us take the burden off of your shoulders and transport you into the future of business functionality. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

 

¹ https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/shadow-it-a-business-risk-or-competitive-advantage.html

² https://www.zdnet.com/article/ten-disturbing-coronavirus-related-cybercrime-statistics-to-keep-you-awake-tonight/

https://cloudscapeit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/New-year-new-start-1.jpg 800 1200 Mike Casey https://cloudscapeit.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cloudscape_logo_white.png Mike Casey2020-12-17 14:54:142020-12-18 15:40:56What to implement in 2021: New year, New start

Recent Posts

  • What to implement to solve the problems from 2020
  • What to implement in 2021: New year, New start
  • How can the cloud industry adapt to a post-COVID world?
  • Twitter Fined Half a Million Dollars for Privacy Violation
  • Spotify Resets Passwords After Leaking User Data to Partners
  • Remote work is here to stay — but it will not be cheap or easy
  • Is remote working putting you at regulatory risk?
  • 5 Ways To Make Remote Working Your New And Better Normal
  • How hybrid work models are altering cloud strategies
  • Top metrics for effective multicloud management

Archive

Categories

Pages

  • Adapt. Evolve. Grow. Guide
  • Business Continuity Health Check
  • Cloud Services
    • Hosted Email
    • Hybrid Cloud
    • Online Backup
  • Computer Support London
  • Free IT AUDIT
  • Home
  • IT Consultant London
  • IT Services
    • Cyber Security Services London
    • IT Consultancy NEW
    • IT Projects
    • IT Relocation
    • Make Your Business GDPR Compliant
  • IT Support
    • Apple Mac Support
    • Network Support
    • Ongoing Support
    • PC & Server Support
  • Managed IT Support for London
  • Microsoft 365 Secure Landing Page
  • Network Solutions
  • Privacy
  • Private Cloud
  • Tailored for Financial Services and Accounting
  • Thank You
  • Hosted VoIP

FREE IT Technology Audit

Get the most from your technology with a
FREE IT Support Solutions Audit – worth £300.
We‘ll produce a full network report covering 30 key areas in your business. This will give you a great idea where your IT systems need the most attention and importantly where cost savings might be achieved! There is no obligation on your part – the report is completely FREE OF CHARGE

Recent Blog Posts

  • What to implement to solve the problems from 2020
  • What to implement in 2021: New year, New start
  • How can the cloud industry adapt to a post-COVID world?
  • Twitter Fined Half a Million Dollars for Privacy Violation
  • Spotify Resets Passwords After Leaking User Data to Partners

IT Support for London

Cloudscape IT
47 Oxford Drive
Magdalen Street
London
SE1 2FB

0207 952 8123
Email: info@cloudscape.it

© 2020 Cloudscape IT LTD. Registered in England & Wales No. 04565979. Registered Office - 47 Oxford Drive, Magdalen Street, London, England, SE1 2FB. All rights reserved.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Scroll to top