EasylifeIT Blog

EasylifeIT™ Blog

EasyLifeIT unite with DSM – Improving and diversifying their IT solutions portfolio.

In the summer of 2008, a friend and I setup a new IT company. Not the most auspicious timing as Leeman Brothers collapsed jus...

EasylifeIT is recertified for Cyber Essentials
EasylifeIT™ Blog

EasylifeIT is Recertified For Cyber Essentials

The process was changed in 2020 and confess it threw us a little in the beginning … but pleased to say that we have been rece...

How secure is my office Wi-Fi?
Cyber security and resilience EasylifeIT TechTalks Learning Centre

How Secure is My Office Wi-Fi?

How secure is my office Wi-Fi?

A vulnerable route straight into the system.

Earlier this year I sat in a restaurant (remember doing that?) awaiting the arrival of a customer, ready to discuss the final details of a project. Habitually, I was very early; having allowed for traffic, natural disasters, et al, none of which occurred and I, therefore, had plenty of time to catch up on emails. I asked the restaurant manager if Wi-Fi was available and without hesitation, and a proud little flourish, I was presented a code on the back of a card designed just for the purpose. All very efficient and organised I thought.
How should I prepare for a successful video meeting?
EasylifeIT Director Expert Articles Learning Centre Microsoft Teams Working from home

How Should I Prepare for a Successful Video Meeting?

How should I prepare for a successful video meeting?

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FORE! A technophobe has just joined the video meeting 

Before COVID-19 drove us all indoors, I enjoyed the occasional game of golf. Golf has a somewhat stuffy reputation, with some justification. It is particularly well known for its mysterious etiquette, a set of usually unwritten rules, completely separate to the technical rules of the sport but apparently almost equally important. Players are expected to observe this etiquette or face some very severe tutting and muttering. Woe betide you if you tread on the line of another player’s putt. 

Golf is very long established game, so the etiquette has had time to evolve and become part of the game’s culture. Whatever your opinion of its principles, it certainly does create a consistent level of behaviour recognisable in clubs across the world. And much of it is well intended, for example to prevent slow play and show some respect for your fellow golfers. 

Video conferencing by contrast is a very young sport. It has recently experienced an explosion in new players thanks to COVID-19 and extensive home working. People are joining clubs such as Zoom, Teams and Skype and heading off ill prepared for 18 holes. If this were a real golf club, the impact would be quite anarchic and frightening – a load of novices turning up on the first tee with little experience, dodgy equipment and dubious technique. Balls flying in all directions, a few broken windows in the clubhouse and fury in the members’ bar as etiquette disintegrates. 

What benefits can SharePoint Online bring while working remotely?
Expert Articles Learning Centre

What Benefits Can SharePoint Online Bring While Working Remotely?

What benefits can SharePoint Online bring while working remotely?

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So, for the whole community who have been using and leveraging Office 365 and realising its business value for many years now this may seem like a really fundamental questions – however imagine you are new to the platform – the evolution of SharePoint actually presents a kind of muddy picture now.

So, happy to oblige and call out why SharePoint is still one of the key tools for facilitating remote working. Rather than starting with SharePoint and its evolution lets dive into where and how you can use the SharePoint Online platform today for your remote teams;

Are changes in technology usage here to stay?
Expert Articles Learning Centre

Are Changes in Technology Usage Here to Stay?

Post-COVID Technology Shifts – What’s Here to Stay?

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If I hear one more expert talking about the ‘new normal’, I’m going to blow a fuse. For starters, there was no ‘old normal’. In fact, ‘normal’ as a concept doesn’t mean much – every person, every business, every household is unique, so who’s going to decide what constitutes normal?

An acceleration of adoption

What the COVID-19 crisis has done is accelerate people’s thinking and adoption of different ways of doing things that were habitual in the world we once knew. A significant part of this acceleration involves technology; doing things online that weren’t done that way before, or using technology to facilitate real-world activities in a different way.

Expert Articles Strategy and policy

The Leaver: Gone – But Too Often Forgotten

The leaver: gone – but too often forgotten

You’ve had the farewell drinks. You’ve signed the ‘Good luck’ card and wished your soon to be former colleague well in their new role.

It’s unlikely the next thing you do is tell them to keep a spare set of keys for their company car and pop back any time they like to have a spin.

No one would dream of being this lax with their physical assets when an employee leaves their company

It is astonishing how many firms are not similarly vigilant when it comes to their digital assets. For example, do you know how many of your former employees still have login details for your main corporate Wi-Fi network? If not, it is a cyber equivalent of having a pool of unauthorised key holders for the company car fleet. There could be little to prevent those past colleagues standing outside the building and having a quick surf to see what they can find. If they feel aggrieved over the circumstances of their departure, that risk may be increased.

What is a default diary?
Expert Articles Learning Centre

What is a Default Diary? Manage Your Time by Using Immovable Objects

What is a Default Diary?

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How to Manage Your Time by using Immovable Objects

By deciding to divide up the earth’s journey around the sun into 365 days and its rotation around its own axis into 24 hours, humans invented a concept of time that has governed us ever since.

The measurement of time heralded the invention of deadlines, which are considered by some to be a good thing. Without them, procrastinators would rule the world and not much would get done. Deadlines apply pressure, allow for financial time penalties and generally help people to focus on the task at hand.

In many parts of the world, our daily lives are ruled by systems designed around time; bus and train schedules, meeting calendars and school timetables force us to be in a certain place at a certain time.

How do I secure a WordPress website?
Cyber security and resilience Expert Articles Learning Centre

How Do I Secure a WordPress Website?

How do I secure a WordPress website?

Any website which has an online admin panel can be a target for hackers and a well-kno­wn CMS like WordPress is especially vulnerable. So what can you do to keep the bad guys out and secure a WordPress website?

Why do so many small businesses fail?
Expert Articles Learning Centre

Why Do So Many Small Businesses Fail?

Why do so many small businesses fail?

5 Proven Techniques to Wreck Your Business Completely

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Have you ever wondered why so many businesses go bust? Around 12% of companies go out of business every year – that’s about 1 in every 8 going to the wall, with all the subsequent impact on owners and their families. There’s plenty of reasons why. All you need to become the director of a limited company in the UK is an idea, £12 and an internet connection. Notice I didn’t say a ‘good’ idea; some businesses don’t make it because they’re providing a product or service no-one wants. The majority of the others simply run out of cash.