OneDrive as a portable scanner

Working from home, working away from the office and suddenly realised you need to print, sign and scan a document but don’t have a scanner.

Microsoft 365 has an answer.

The App on your phone has a scanner built into it if you have the 365 app installed.

Watch the video to see how easy it is

Data Security: What if your office is on fire?

Not something you want to happen but it does happen.

Fire causes damage but so will the water typically used to put out the fire.

If there had been a fire in your office last night, what do you wish you’d done yesterday?

Computers can be replaced and are usually covered by insurance but what about the data on them. Yes you can get business insurance to get you back on your feet but you can’t just recreate all that data that has typically grown over many years.

That’s one of the many reasons we need to protect and back up data.

Have a read of our data protection guide. It will show you things you need to prioritise to keep your data protected from any disaster.

Data Security: Are you locking the doors but leaving the windows open?

Most of us will take care to make sure our homes and cars are secure. We lock the doors, close the windows and, in some cases, lock them.
Sadly some business owners do the equivalent of locking the doors but leaving the windows open and even worse, some will leave the doors and windows open when it comes to their business’s data security.

Get a Super-Deduction: Buy new computers and claim 130% capital allowance

If your business is a Limited company and pays corporation tax it can currently claim 130% capital allowance against certain new equipment. Equipment includes new computers, servers, NAS boxes and other IT equipment.
This means that if you buy some new computer equipment for £1000 it will reduce your corporation tax bill as if you had spent £1300.
This Super-Deduction tax relief scheme is running from 1st April 2021 and lasts two years.

Your 5 step plan to prepare and protect your business from cyber-crime

Some type of incident relating to cyber-crime was reported by two thirds of all organisations a couple of years ago.

That number is going to be higher now due to changes we have made in the last year to work from home, possibly in a rush, creating further opportunities  for fraud.

Overall the world economy loses more than $1 trillion to cyber-crime every year. That’s a figure that’s increased by over 50% since 2018.

Your business needs to be as prepared as it can be against the threat of cyber-crime.

Ransomware: How to spot an attack before it does real damage

Ransomware attacks are on the rise and they are one of the most troubling things that can happen to your business and its data.

Hackers take control of your computers, cloud accounts, network and encrypt all your data, making it unusable. They won’t undo the damage unless you pay a “ransom” fee.

They can do so much damage because they secretly break in to your system a long time before the attack is launched but you can keep an eye out for symptoms you’ve been breached and hopefully take back control before it is too late.

7 signs that you need a new computer

It’s can be tempting to put off  buying new computers and other IT equipment but it can sometimes cost you more if you hang onto equipment for too long.

If a device is more than 3 years old it can actually be cheaper to buy a new one?

A 5 year old PC could cost twice as much to run as a new one
A 4 year old PC suffers 55% more security incidents than in its first 3 years

Getting the balance right between equipment that can be repaired or upgraded and will happily last another couple of years – versus slow, unproductive equipment that really needs to be replaced is important.

Read our brand new guide now. We have 7 signs that will tell you whether or not you need new computers.

Top 5 Phishing Scams: How many have you heard of?

Which of these phishing scams have you heard of?

You’ve probably all heard of phishing.

This is where someone send you an email, pretending to be someone else (like your bank), to try to get sensitive information from you.

How about vishing? Or smishing? Or even whaling?

These are all forms of phishing designed to steal your information, and ultimately your money.

We explore each one in our brand new video.

The more aware you and your staff are; the better protected you’ll be.

Bloatware: Why your new computer is slower than it could be

You get a new computer and you start to unpack it and plug it in – it can be exciting (for something related to a computer anyway)

You then switch it on for the first time and discover, once you get through all the initial question and answer section that the machine is full of software you don’t need or want.

This is called bloatware.

Help plan 2021 with Microsoft Planner

Microsoft 365 has some amazing productivity and collaborative tools already built in.

Did you know that within Teams there’s a useful project planning tool?

Watch our short video for the lowdown on how to use Microsoft Planner.