Microsoft 365 was initially launched in 2017 as a licensing bundle for enterprise customers. The bundle provides customers with a combination of Microsoft’s most popular tools – Office, Windows and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS). The product has come a long way since then and is now best described as “the world’s productivity cloud” thanks to their integrated applications and services that allow you to harness the power of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge tech to work for you.
In March, Microsoft announced they are launching the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family Subscriptions. Alongside this, Microsoft has changed their Office 365 subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses – moving forward all those products will go by the Microsoft 365 brand.
The new product names came into effect on Tuesday 21st April. If you are already a subscriber, your subscription name will change automatically – and there will be no change in price or features for the time being. The product name changes are outlined below:
- Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic.
- Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
- Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
- Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus will both become Microsoft 365 Apps. Where necessary we will use the “for business” and “for enterprise” labels to distinguish between the two.
Sourced from Microsoft’s website.
Microsoft may have only announced name changes, but this sets them up to continue driving innovation within Microsoft 365. Within the past few years’ they’ve brought you features such as Teams, Cloud App Security and more. But it doesn’t stop there. Microsoft has plenty of new innovations that will be coming to Microsoft 365 in the coming months.
If you’d like to discuss what Microsoft 365 subscription would be best for your business, please get in contact with our experts.
Businesses across the world have had to quickly rollout remote working solutions to ensure employees can work remotely when needed. There are plenty of platforms out there to provide your employees with the ability to seamlessly communicate and collaborate whilst working remotely. The top three solutions that have taken the market by storm are Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts. Whilst they all have similar features at a glance, there are some key differences that you should consider before investing. In this guide we compare the three solutions, so you can see which is best suited to support your business needs.
At a glance…
| Feature list | Microsoft Teams | Zoom | Google Hangouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $5.00 | £11.99 | Custom |
| Platforms supported | Web based, iPhone App, Android App, Windows App | Web based, iPhone App, Android App | Web based, iPhone App, Android App, Windows App |
| HD Audio and Video Conferencing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Record any call | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transcribe any call | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Screen share | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Instant messaging | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Take control of someones screen within a call | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrates with other apps and bots | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blur background on video calls | ✓ | ||
| Comprehensive security controls | ✓ | ||
| Fully integrates with Office 365 | ✓ |
There are free versions available of all three platforms, but for this blog post, we are comparing the paid-for licenses.
You can see from the surface there isn’t much difference between the platforms. But once we dig deeper we will unveil the real differences between the products.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a unified communication and collaboration platform made up of an instant messenger, video conferencing, file storage and application integration. There are now 44 million daily Microsoft Teams users, making this Microsoft’s fastest-growing product. Microsoft Teams is more than just a communication tool – it empowers your employees to collaborate even whilst working remotely. Microsoft Teams will allow you to fully integrate with Office 365, meaning all calendar invites, files and chats will simultaneously sync with the rest of your modern office.
Communication
Some of the key communication features of Microsoft Teams include:
- Internal and external video conferencing with the ability to blur backgrounds – minimising any distractions.
- Audio conferencing with the ability to enable in-line transcriptions of your calls.
- A seamless file and screen sharing experience which others can take control of.
- Instant messaging between other employees. Either one-to-one or in groups.
- The ability to record any video or audio call – allowing you to share it or relate to it later.
Collaboration
But it doesn’t stop there. Microsoft Teams is not just a powerful communication platform, but also a place for employees to collaborate effectively. Some of the key Teams collaboration features are:
- Share any files with teams or individuals and edit them in real-time.
- Access Microsoft Teams from any device – allowing employees to work from any location, anytime.
- There are endless bots and integrations to improve
- Seamlessly integrate with your email, allowing you to access contacts, emails and shared calendars.
Security
Microsoft invests over $1 billion every year to improve the security of their products. Microsoft Teams is built on the security and compliance capabilities of Office 365 – so you can be reassured your business will stay protected whilst communicating through Teams. You’ll reap all the security benefits of Office 365, such as advanced threat protection and data loss prevention. But it doesn’t stop there. Microsoft Teams meets the compliance obligations of over 42 national, regional and industry-specific regulations.
And if that doesn’t demonstrate how secure Microsoft Teams is, internationally renowned computer security expert Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey, recently said that “where I have taken part in government briefings where it is for the participants’ ears only we have used Microsoft Teams”.
Did you know, Microsoft has created a Zoom for Teams add-on, allowing you to join external Zoom calls within Microsoft Teams.
Zoom
Zoom is a cloud-based audio and video communication platform, allowing people to communicate across different devices. If you’re looking for a platform where you can confidently communicate with others, then Zoom may be right up your street. In 2020, Zoom has received 2.22 million new users, most of which are people wanting to stay in contact with their friends and family during COVID-19.
Communication
Some of the key communication features are as follows:
- Full HD video and audio.
- Ability to record and transcribe any session.
- Share your screen with other participants.
- Can support up to 1,000 participants.
- The option to upload images as backgrounds.
Collaboration
- Integrates with Outlook and Gmail.
- Screen sharing and co-annotation.
- Chat within a group you’re in.
- Have the ability to share any files with other participants.
Security
Zoom prides itself on its end-to-end encryption. However, Patrick Wardle, a former NSA hacker and now principal security researcher at Jamf, has recently identified two bugs within Zoom that he shared with TechCrunch. One of the bugs allows an attacker to take control of someone’s computer, allowing them to install malware or spyware. The second bug exploits a flaw in how Zoom handles the webcam and microphone on Macs. Zoom, like any app that needs the webcam and microphone, first requires consent from the user.
Google Hangouts
Hangouts is Google’s communication platform. It started as part of Google+ before becoming its standalone product in 2013. It’s safe to say it sits between Zoom and Microsoft Teams in terms of functionality. Again, Google Hangouts has become increasingly popular amongst friends and families to communicate during COVID-19. But here’s how it could support your business:
Communication
Google Hangouts provides employees with the basics when it comes to a communication platform.
- You’ll have an instant messaging feature at your disposal.
- All audio and video calls will be in HD.
- Have the ability to use Hangouts across multiple devices.
Collaboration
Similar to Microsoft Teams, Hangouts will integrate with the rest of your G-Suite products. But how good is Hangouts for collaboration?
- Share your screen with other participants.
- Have full integration with your G-Suite.
Google also pride themselves with end-to-end encryption within Hangouts. Meaning if you did want to use it as your business communication tool, you could.
What’s the right communication platform for me?
So, there we have it. If at this point, you’re still unsure on what platform to use, fear not. If you’re just looking for a simple audio and video conferencing tool, then Zoom or Google Hangouts might be the platforms for you… depending on how security conscious your business is of course. But if you’re looking more comprehensive collaboration tool, Microsoft Teams is your answer. Unified communication and collaboration platform which seamlessly integrates with your existing Microsoft applications to empower your employees.
For us, there’s a clear winner. And that’s Microsoft Teams. But it’s not just us who thinks that. 91% of the Fortune 500 already use it.
Want to find out more about Microsoft Teams? Our experts can help. Simply get in contact today to discover how you can harness the power of Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Azure is a business treasure box of opportunity. Not sold on Azure yet? Find out why you should be here. For those of you already on board, once you’ve dabbled in the shallows of the public cloud, before you deep dive into its enticing depths you need a buddy. An expert to pro-actively support your business investment. That’s what our Azure Managed Services are for.
To help you understand the value of an Azure Expert Managed Service Provider, I’ve compiled the top five benefits our customers love.
Increase ROI
The flexible cost structure of Azure is one of its biggest selling points. But without the right structure and tools in place, it can become a full-time job trying to keep track of costs. Our Azure Managed Services include regular cost efficiency reviews and enhancements where our team of expert engineers identify opportunities to manage and operate your environment in the most cost-efficient way possible. Right-sizing Azure resource to match the workloads they’re used for, spotting un-used items and checking the most cost-effective licenses are being used are all included. These continued proactive reviews ultimately match cost to need.
“With Cloud Direct we are working more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before.”
Habib Bilfaqi, Network Manager, IPC
Proactive optimisation
Managed Azure is more than keeping the lights on. As an Azure Expert MSP (find out why that’s important here) we’re at the forefront of Microsoft’s latest technical advancements and Azure best practice. The wealth of experience we’ve gained gives our expert teams the confidence to tailor our client’s environments to meet their unique requirements and growth goals. They monitor performance, speed and reliability and optimisation wherever possible, all to ensure your Azure environment will operate as expected with provisions to minimise disruption.
“We knew we wanted to work in Azure, but we needed an expert partner who could explain the options available to us and help us develop our global cloud strategy. Rather than simply focusing on the technology, Cloud Direct’s specialist engineers listened to our business needs before exploring the different solutions that could work for us.”
Sanjay Sood, Global Executive, RSM UK
Protective security
Our customer’s security is our security. When we take on full management of their Azure environment, we take on shared responsibility for their cloud security, meaning it’s always personal. The threat landscape may be constantly changing, but so are we. And so is Microsoft. We use Azure Security Centre alongside a host of best practice tools and technologies to enable proactive security, which involves 24/7 monitoring of your Azure environment with over 200 pre-set alerts.
Adopting the latest Microsoft tools such as Azure Lighthouse means we’re able to further enhance the security we offer customers using technologies such as Microsoft 2 factor authentication, Conditional Access and Advanced Threat protection. Azure Lighthouse also allows us to have a centralised set of security policies that we can apply to all our customers at the same time. So, any patches or new best practice policies can be quickly and efficiently applied.
“Security is very high on our agenda, and we now have added confidence with Cloud Direct.”
Ian Russell, IT Consultant, 2TG
Supportive support
Your IT needs to be reliable, efficient and a strategic enabler. Our cloud consultants and developers are backed by a talented team of more than 100 world-class IT support staff to provide you with a fully managed IT service, available 24/7 for unlimited support with our Managed Services. As is our comprehensive knowledge base with thousands of support articles and guides. Whatever the question we have the answer. Our own in-house PROVIDE portal gives customers a centralised system to manage their IT all in one place. We’re talking everything from predicting Azure spend to raising support requests. Our PROVIDE portal has your back.
“I could just rely on their ability to do it, without having to spend too much of my time getting involved in things. It all worked in the background in a very smooth manner.”
Stewart Martin, Partner, Edmund Carr
Time to innovate
The role of internal IT is changing. Now the centre of business innovation, IT teams are supporting the wider business to optimise services and drive revenue. If they can find the time in between everyday system and hardware maintenance that is. As amazing as Azure is, your environment can’t be left to fend for itself. With a Managed Azure Service our experts and support teams in our Centre of Excellence can manage the day to day running of your Azure environment. Giving your IT team the most important gift of all – time.
“Around 80% of what we do now is focused on helping the business to move forward. We don’t worry about maintenance or upgrades at all thanks to Cloud Direct.”
Jason Moon, Head of IT, Simarco
“Cloud Direct has been great at helping us transform our business and lead the way in our market by supporting us to adopt the latest technology.”
Sebastian Ailioaie, Group Digital Manager, ACE
As you’ve just read when it comes to Azure, we’ve been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Our experience plus advanced accreditation makes us one of the leading Microsoft Cloud Partners globally. We’re here for the long haul. Not just to lift and shift but to continue to apply our honed best practice optimisation tactics to drive your business growth whatever your goals may be.
If you want to find out more about our Azure Managed Services or just want to chat with someone outside of your household give us a call on 0800 0315 966 or drop us an email.
Unexpected events highlight the importance of establishing and keeping open lines of communication within an organisation. The spread of COVID-19 has meant businesses have needed to adapt quickly to a developing situation. With the UK in lockdown, all but essential employees are now working remotely, and offices are remaining shut until further notice.
More employees are working from home than ever including many for the first time, which means sharing an announcement isn’t as easy as just gathering everyone in the office. It’s important to find new ways to communicate with your employees when needing to share information, providing them with the ability to stay in touch and with up-to-date health information from reputable sources
COVID-19 creates an increased risk of absence due to illness; it is, therefore, essential that businesses can accurately predict, track, react and allocate resources to cover business demand.
At Cloud Direct we’re working to do our part by ensuring the safety of our employees, striving to protect their health and well-being and providing technology, tips and resources to ensure everyone stays briefed on the situation and any likely business impacts. That’s why we have deployed the Microsoft Crisis Communication application.
What is the Crisis Communication App?
Microsoft has released a Crisis Communication Application to help businesses cope with the current situation. You can see how many employees across your business are off sick and allocate resources accordingly to cover any absent staff.
Key features of the Crisis Communications Application
Key features of the Crisis Communication Application are as follows:
- Employees can report on their status. Employees will have the ability to report on their status and set out of office responses so you can have a clear view on who is working from home, working in the office, off sick, annual leave or self-isolating. This will allow you to track and coordinate your resources accordingly. You’ll also be able to keep ontop of everyone
- Push news and business updates to employees. Push any company news and updates to all employees, keeping them updated with the latest information.
- Share trusted sources with the business. Share an RSS feed from reputable sources such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). This way you can point your employees to trusted sources rather than getting muddled amongst COVID-19 myths and rumours.
- Share FAQs. Businesses are getting lots of questions daily and new updates are made available. You can upload any common questions you’ve been getting in this section and start directing employees to the FAQs section. You can also share links to the relevant policies e.g. home working or expenses.
- Send a message to a Teams channel. Users can submit questions to a monitored teams channel, allowing your HR teams to respond and direct any questions to relevant resources.
How we’ve been using the application
Cloud Direct has been using the Crisis Communication Application for a few weeks now and has been reaping benefits – helping the company better communicate with everyone working remotely.
Better tracking
With employees based across the UK, Europe and South Africa, keeping track of all staff can be challenging. Since rolling out the application we have been able to better track who is working and where they are working from. Allowing us to ensure resources are spread if someone is off ill. Plus, by tracking who is self-isolating, you will be able to claim their wages back.
Updating staff immediately
Within the application, we can push notifications immediately to all staff with any update or business news. This is a great way to share any updates you have on changes within the business or any urgent COVID-19 information worth sharing with employees.
How we can help
Our experts are ready to share the application with businesses to help them communicate better during this challenging period. We’re offering a free 20-minute demo and Q&A session to help you roll out the Crisis Communication Application within your organisation.
If you have any questions on the Crisis Communication Application, home working or any other business challenges or would like further support during this time, please get in contact with us. Our experts are here to support you where they can during this period.
Moving to the cloud can be a daunting prospect for any organisation, and to remove that fear there are several key questions that every business needs to answer before they start their journey:
- What should I migrate?
- How should I do it?
- How do I manage costs?
But if you’re a not for profit organisation, the questions just keep coming:
- How can you ensure value is being found from your vital funding?
- Will there be disruption to vital support for service users?
- How can you complete a cloud migration with the limited resources many charities have?
To be able to proceed confidently you need a secure and safe starting point. A platform that you know will help you to make a positive change within your organisation and an expert partner to support your journey without exposing your organisation to risk.
A place from which you can take advantage of the vast possibilities in the cloud to transform the digital capabilities of your organisation. You need a safe landing zone and an expert partner to help you build it.
What are Landing Zones?
Landing zones are one of the first stages in Microsoft’s recommended Cloud Adoption Framework. Designed to help you build your own scalable Azure platform, the Azure Landing Zone is designed to give you a platform to build the scalable environment you want in Azure whilst meeting security and governance goals.
So how can the Landing Zone concept be applied to charities looking for growth in the cloud?
Get the Basic Building Blocks In Place
The landing zone concept refers to an environment that has been provisioned and prepared to host the essential workloads that you will be moving into Azure. In simple terms, this means making sure that you have ready the compute, network, storage and data you will need to successfully scale up in the cloud.
For not for profit organisations this could mean starting from the key services you provide to the people you engage with and working backwards from there.
For example, if your organisation works in social care, what are the applications that staff making visits require and what resources need to be applied to keep them working? If you have a webchat service that can be a key first port of call for people who need help, how can you make it more efficient and effective by hosting it in Azure?
Build Governance From The Start
Effective governance is vital in any not for profit organisation, and nothing changes when looking to scale in Azure! Keeping track of the access, costs and security of your Azure environment is perhaps the key component of building a scalable and trusted platform for growth.
In the landing zone process, this means creating a clear plan for costs, access control, subscription level policies and more. For many not for profits this means the senior IT decision-maker working with a partner such as Cloud Direct as an Azure Expert MSP to ensure this is consistently built into the platform.
Understand The Risks But Avoid The Myths!
There are many myths about moving infrastructure to the cloud, many of which contribute to organisations holding themselves back from scaling their environments in Azure.
These myths can be particularly effective in the not for profit sector, where budgets and teams are tight and all resources are focused on the achievement of the overall mission.
The Azure Landing Zone process helps you to manage these concerns and make decisions based on the facts available. If something isn’t viable to move into the cloud yet, keep it out of the Landing Zone and build your hybrid strategy. For the other aspects of your infrastructure, our experts can work with you to optimise them for a scalable future in the cloud – with clarity on the costs and performance that give you the facts instead of the myths.
Like what you hear and ready to learn more? Download our landing zones webinar today!
Our Azure Expert, Matt Leach, shows why landing zones are one of the first stages in Microsoft’s recommended Cloud Adoption Framework.
In this webinar we explore:
- What are Azure landing zones?
- How do landing zones help to achieve your security and governance goals?
- Building your scalable Azure platform
We recently partnered with Microsoft to host a legal roundtable in Bristol. Bringing together leading legal IT teams from across the South West to ask how legal businesses are utilising cloud technology to drive business growth. During this event, we discussed the trends and challenges the legal industry are currently facing and what Microsoft technologies can be used to help overcome these.
Don’t worry if you couldn’t attend. We’ve written up the key discussion points here, so you don’t have to miss a thing.
“Business as usual is not an option for many, indeed for any, traditional legal service providers. Innovation in services and service delivery will become a key differentiating factor.”
The Law Society ‘The Future of Legal Services’
Microsoft kicked off the discussion outlining the current trends and challenges legal businesses are facing. Which can be categorised into two key areas; Managing the realities of regulations, disruptive technology and changing business models and Meeting the expectations of increasingly digitally savvy clients.
We highlighted security as the biggest challenge many legal businesses are facing. With the cost of a security breach in the legal industry over £2,000,000 you can see why. So, we looked at how Microsoft cloud technology can help legal firms achieve their strict security goals by taking advantage of Microsoft’s annual investment of $1,000,000 in cyber security. This goes towards helping businesses enable digital transformation through a comprehensive platform, unique intelligence, and broad partnerships.
Microsoft then went on to discuss how legal businesses can start digitally transforming their business to keep up with changing industry trends. They broke it down into four key steps:
- Engage your clients. The technologies available now will provide you with new and efficient ways to engage with your customers.
- Optimise your matters. This will involve optimising your operations with the technology available, allowing you to focus on what truly matters.
- Empower your professionals. Provide your employees with the digital tools they need. Allowing them to do what they do best.
- Transform your proposition. This will involve transforming your products and services through the latest technology.
Cloud Direct’s Lead Azure Consultant, Jeff Field, spoke about which Microsoft technologies legal business can adopt to help them digitally transform and meet the expectations of their clients and workforce.
Azure Sentinel
Azure Sentinel can help the legal industry continuously monitor security analytics for your entire business. In short, it provides you with a 360 view across your entire business highlighting any security alerts and sophisticated attacks. Microsoft Azure Sentinel focuses on monitoring four key areas;
- Collecting data at a cloud-scale
- Detect previously undetected threats
- Investigate threats with artificial intelligence
- Respond to incidents rapidly
Windows Virtual Desktop
Windows Virtual Desktop is a comprehensive VDI that’s delivered in Azure.
WVDI allows your legal business to deploy and scale your Windows desktops and apps on Azure with ease. This will open your business up to creating a flexible workplace where staff can work from different locations of different devices, opening your business up to a range of different opportunities.
Legal businesses are known for having legacy apps, which is why WVDI allows you to manage specialised workloads, including these legacy apps you have. And what’s best is WVDI allows your legal business to stay secure whilst meeting regulations.
Talk to an expert
If you want to find out more about how your legal business can adopt Microsoft technologies, then get in contact with our experts. We’d be happy to provide you with a copy of the slides from the event and discuss any of the topics in more detail.
As the spread of Covid-19 changes working practices for businesses all over the world, the requirement for staff to be able to work from home effectively is in the spotlight more than ever before. It has been predicted that at its peak, 20% of the UK could be off work.
There can be no doubt that instructing employees in high-risk areas to work from home can be an effective strategy for stopping the spread of the virus, but how can you manage the potential implications for business productivity?
CNN has called the outbreak the ‘biggest work from home experiment in history’ and the changes bought about from it have the potential to permanently change the way that many businesses work in the long term if they prove to be successful.
Microsoft has released some guidance on the issue, and staff at leading companies across the world have already been advised to work from home wherever they can.
Many organisations are facing the prospect of making the transition to a work from home culture almost overnight, with little time to prepare or implement new tools or policies.
At Cloud Direct we already have a distributed workforce, with staff working from home and our offices in various locations.
Our remote working policy is well established and has been refined over time, so what are some of the key factors we have learnt that you could learn from?
Make use of the tools available for working from home
Many businesses already have access to unified communication tools that are not being used to their full potential. One of the most common and effective of these applications is Microsoft Teams. The full Teams solution is included in all Office 365 subscriptions of Business Premium or above, and there are even free tiers you can use to get started with connecting your users.
Microsoft Teams includes a range of features to keep your organisation productive whilst everyone works from home, including:
- Live chat and collaboration features to keep communication lines open
- Video call capabilities built in to keep meetings going ahead
- Connected apps for collaborative work on files
- 3rd party integration for a wide range of apps and plugins
At Cloud Direct, Teams is central to our business, with the majority of meetings both internal and external set up through the application and all files accessible through integration with Sharepoint. Our team members communicate and collaborate easily wherever they happen to be located all through the single application view that Teams provides.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Having staff working remotely makes communication crucial. Even more so than before. It’s easy for team members to quickly feel isolated when they are used to the natural conversations that occur throughout a working day in an office.
Combat this by setting regular catch up calls during the working from home period. Have a set time each day where all members of a team can ‘huddle’ and share their task list, any planned meetings and cover any recent updates or achievements can make a big difference to the morale and spirit of a remote team.
At Cloud Direct each manager runs these regular huddles, ensuring all team members are included and contributing to the shared goals of the business. Supplemented by the chat feature in teams, this regular communication means one of the key blockers to remote and home working is overcome.
Consider how teams work differently
Using technology to work remotely may come as second nature to many, with some of the more tech-savvy departments and staff in businesses potentially already using applications such as Slack or Microsoft Teams to collaborate on tasks and communicate wherever they are.
Others may need a period of adjustment to make working from home effective for them and may require additional support and training to allow them to be productive. It’s important for team members must be provided with the tools they need to feel comfortable in their newly adapted roles, even if the working from home period is a short term enforced one.
Enabling these workers in the short term to adapt to the current situation will pay off further in the long term when they are enabled to work and collaborate in new ways. From any location
Make security your #1 priority
When staff start working remotely, they will be connecting from networks that are not provided or controlled by the company. This can increase the risks associated with their work and you should have the tools and policies in place to guard against this.
Before moving to a work from home policy ensure you’ve got all grounds covered. Make sure you’ve taken the simple steps such as enabling Multi-Factor Authentication for all users. If you are providing laptops and other equipment to staff, ensure that they have up to date firewalls, device encryption, web filtering and other security measures applied. Set clear policies for working on public Wi-Fi networks and add encrypted VPNs where possible so that sensitive information is not being accessed on open networks. Providing a secure workplace, in and out of the office, should be a priority for your business.
These steps should be supported by regular training and security awareness updates for staff. In the case that working from home needs to be enforced at short notice, create a clear one-page document that aligns the key security policies and expectations for your organisation that is accepted by all team members before they start remote working.
When it comes to increasing security in Microsoft, Cloud Direct can support with a range of solutions including
Getting started with working from home
Whether widespread working from home will be enforced in the UK over the coming months remains to be seen. However, by implementing effective tools and creating robust policies, you can put your business in a strong position for building a flexible and adaptable modern workforce enabled by technology.
The threat landscape is ever changing, meaning protecting email for your business can be an intimidating task.
Whilst unsophisticated brute force attacks remain common and building a strong gateway defense against these is vital, threats are increasingly coming from attackers that are using a variety of smart techniques to avoid detection.
This is illustrated by the fact that only 7% of spear phishing attacks come as a result of direct business email compromise. The rest take advantage of techniques that are much harder to detect, such as domain impersonation and conversation hijacking amongst others.
Many of these attacks rely on social engineering and human vulnerability rather than technical means, meaning most email threat protection solutions and strategies are unable to detect them.
The costs to businesses from these types of attack can be very high.
So what forms can these attacks take?
Account Takeover
Account takeover is where a hacker is able to gain access to an account using legitimate log in credentials (often taken from some of the large scale leaks that have been widely reported) which are then repurposed and used for malicious means.
Stealing of credentials in this way takes advantage of the fact that many people re-use the same passwords for different log ins. In this form of attack criminals can impersonate the true owner of the account and for example ask for money to be transferred into an account that appears legitimate.
Spear Phishing & Social Engineering
Spear phishing is an attempt to gain access to unauthorised information by targeting a specific individual. Emails are spoofed to appear as if they come from a trusted source, often with an urgent request for an action. Once a user clicks, they are then taken to a page that installs malware or captures important details that the hacker can use.
Spear phishing differs from phishing in that it is aimed at specific individuals (for example a company CFO) with the intention of getting them to complete a specific action and these attacks are often engineered over time.
Domain Spoofing & Impersonation
This is a variation of phishing where communications are designed to impersonate legitimate domains or sources. For example, an email address may be misspelt by one letter with the intention that the recipient will not notice such a minor difference. These email addresses are then used to send communications that appear to be genuine, with the aim of instigating money transfers and compromising other information through forms and malware.
So how can you protect yourself against them?
Luckily there are some key steps you can take to protect your business.
- Educate employees — Teach your employees how to recognise email attacks such as phishing, business email compromise, and conversation hijacking, as well has how to report suspicious messages. Use phishing simulation such as Barracuda Phishline to train users to identify cyberattacks, test the effectiveness of your training, and evaluate the users most vulnerable to attacks
- Add account-takeover protection — Make sure you have technology in place that can detect and block business email compromise and other impersonation attacks. Barracuda Sentinel is available from Cloud Direct and uses AI based behavioral analysis and awareness of the latest threats to intelligently protect your business.
- Watch for unusual logins or IP addresses — Use an email security solution to identify suspicious activity, including logins from unusual locations and IP addresses, a potential sign of a compromised account.
- Establish policies to confirm transactions — Help employees avoid falling for this type of attack by putting procedures in place to confirm email requests for wire transfers, for example two step sign offs and secure password policies.
- Enforce business wide security policies – Features such as multi-factor authentication are built into Office 365 and will immediately make your business more secure. Ensure all staff are aware of the policy and make usage an essential for access to the system.
How can Cloud Direct help to keep you secure?
Our Modern Workplace Experts build security into every project and integrate solutions such as Microsoft ATP and Barracuda Total Email Protection to ensure customers are protected as best they can be.
We were the first Microsoft partner in the UK to roll out Microsoft 365 for one of our customers, and we closely monitor the Secure Score for each business we work with so that we can make recommendations that will help them stay protected. Our modern workplace experts have put together a number of resources on this subject, showing how you can make use of the secure score for your business.
To find out more about our security services including our modern workplace security kickstart get in contact with a member of our team today.
The retail and hospitality industry has completely transformed in the past decade thanks to the technology that’s become available. Businesses that are not keeping up with these changes are quickly falling behind.
Customers have more choice and convenience than ever thanks to the power of the internet, which is why high-quality service is one of the most valuable assets for retailers in 2020.
- 61% of retailers believe that efficient customer service is the most important factor in providing their customers with the best experience possible.
- Customers are willing to spend up to 16% more on products and services with companies that offer a better experience.
Microsoft has been building on the capabilities of Skype for Business within Microsoft Teams since September 2017. Now Teams has been developed into Microsoft’s one-stop-shop for chats, meetings, calling, collaboration, app integration and file storage. Your employees will have the ability to utilise these tools to provide the first-class customer service your customers deserve.
Here are three ways you can improve your customer service by using Microsoft Teams.
1. Provide staff with the tools they need to sell
It’s normal to see everyone equipped with a smart device, and this is starting to apply to employees on the shop floor too. It’s now becoming the norm for employees to have a mobile device with them whilst at work. Whether this is for taking orders, communicating with others or checking stock levels to avoid running back and forth to the stock room. Being mobile is the nature of the job within the retail sector – you need to share information with employees in different locations. Microsoft Teams allows employees to collaborate and communicate securely, from any location.
And why’s that? Employees will have instant access to all the information they need, can pass on urgent information as a private or group message and communicate with the people they need in seconds. Microsoft Teams allows you to do all of this and more. It’s a centralised hub for you to store and share knowledge with other employees, whether they’re on the shop floor or head office.
79% of customers say being able to engage with knowledgeable store assistants is important.
Customers are now expecting staff to know the answers to all their questions when they are shopping. Microsoft Teams can be used to store and share all sorts of information on products and stock, employee training, in-store promotions and more.
2. Effective workforce management
Managing your team’s time can get complicated, and the challenge many managers face is staying on top of this. It’s important that you effectively manage and organise your team as it will allow you to save time and focus on what really matters. The first step to achieving this is having the right tools in place.
Organising your team’s time has never been easier with Microsoft Teams. A recently added feature in Teams is the schedule management tool, Shifts. It allows you to plan shifts that employees can review and make changes to within their mobile device, all in real-time.
Employees will have the ability to view their upcoming shifts, view who they will be working with, put in a request to swap or pick up extra shifts and request time off. They will be able to manage all of this within Microsoft Teams and managers will be able to add specific activities to a specific shift, allowing employees to ensure tasks get done.
Your team will be able to clock in and out of a shift with one tap on their mobile device, making it easier for both employees and managers to view timesheets at the end of the month.
The Microsoft Teams, Shifts feature provides managers with a holistic view of their team’s tasks and time. Allowing employees to be more efficient during their shifts.
3. Keep employees engaged and motivated
Shop floor workers play a key role in representing your brand. They’re the ones that interact with your customers daily, yet they typically have the highest turnover rate.
Microsoft Teams has a tool called Praise. Praise allows you to recognise your co-worker’s achievements and efforts and share them with the wider business. This feature will not only help motivate employees but keep them engaged when they’re on the shop floor interacting with your customer, helping strengthen and improve your brand.
Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%.
Engaged employees are more likely to stay in the job for longer. By utilising this tool, you could see your high turnover decrease, giving you more time to train and invest in creating your next dream team.
Want to transform your customer service with Microsoft Teams?
If you’d like to find out more about how your retail or hospitality business can adopt Microsoft Teams, watch our webinar. Our Modern Workplace experts discuss the importance of customer service and how Teams can support this change.