February 2022

Your business can benefit a lot from working with an IT provider. However, you need to avoid several key mistakes when choosing your team.

Time spent on trying to figure out the technology you use in your business can be costly. While doing that, you can’t focus on your business needs, which can then result in poor customer satisfaction. 

This is where IT providers come into play. 

They enable you to outsource hardware and computing-related services, such as managed IT security and cloud computing. IT providers can also provide a robust IT infrastructure so that you can direct your attention to revenue-generating activities. 

While there are numerous IT providers to choose from, not all of them may accommodate your business’s specific needs. And integrating with the wrong team can raise your spending due to irrelevant services, recurring security issues, data backup problems, and downtime. 

Therefore, you need to be extra careful when selecting your team. The only way to avoid disappointment is to avoid these eight common mistakes when looking for the right IT provider. 

The Eight Mistakes

Mistake #1 – Insisting on the Newest Technology

Many advertisers want to trick you into believing that the latest technology will resolve all your issues. While the newest virtualization or cloud offerings can boost operations in many enterprises, they might not suit your business. 

Hence, don’t let the hype surrounding new products dazzle you. 

Carefully consider the results your IT provider will help you achieve and determine if the investment enables you to fulfill them. Your provider shouldn’t confuse you with state-of-the-art features – they should guide you and allow for seamless integration. 

Mistake #2 – Failure To Consider the Response Times

Determining the response times of your prospective IT providers is essential. You need to ask them how long they usually take to reply to queries and resolve problems. Be sure to gauge their onsite support efficiency, too. 

Not inquiring about their availability is another grave error. Your IT team should provide round-the-clock services, including specialists that will monitor your system. 

Constant monitoring and availability can help ensure you can detect IT issues early. With this, the provider can immediately administer patches and updates to safeguard against disasters. 

Furthermore, your IT provider should offer simple access to their desk support. You should be able to contact them via email, phone, and chat for instant guidance. 

Mistake #3 – Neglecting the Security Aspect

Disregarding the security features of your IT provider might be the most severe mistake. Teams with improper defense mechanisms can’t shield your system from cyberattackers, increasing the risk of losing data and access to resources. 

To avoid this, look for IT providers that can protect you from malware and other threats. They also need to prioritize protecting your business’s confidential data, like trade secrets and customer information. 

When it comes to specific security measures, your IT provider should have features that prevent data intrusions instantly upon detection. The list includes phishing attacks simulations, web content filtering, DNS security, endpoint protection, mobile device management, and dark web protection. 

In addition, responsible teams should eliminate point-of-sale and network intrusions before they compromise your system. Making sure they abide by security compliance and government regulations is also paramount. 

Mistake #4 – Forgetting the Budget

Many IT companies operate under pay-as-you-go pricing schemes. Although this helps you minimize upfront investment, adopting a large number of technologies simultaneously without considering the recurring costs can cripple your finances. 

Thus, think twice before signing on the dotted line. 

Research your providers thoroughly and draft your budget with professional assistance. These steps can prevent considerable frustration down the line. 

Mistake #5 – Not Determining Scalability

One of the biggest impediments to growing your company is choosing an IT provider with poor scalability. 

By contrast, scalable IT teams allow your business to evolve and grow. They can continually extend their services to accommodate your company’s goals, even if these goals change. 

Mistake #6 – Opting for a Non-Responsive Service Level Agreement 

Service level agreements (SLAs) hold IT providers accountable for their services. It establishes standards for responsibilities, quality, scope, and delivery time in writing. Without it, you’ll have no way of ensuring transparent collaboration. 

When selecting your IT provider, find one with a responsive agreement. It can help guarantee the SLA scales with their services while rendering continual improvement. 

Mistake #7 – Lack of Team Training and Feedback

The story doesn’t end once you’ve found and partnered with a trustworthy IT provider. New technologies won’t magically increase your bottom line and decrease outputs. 

To accomplish your goal, your employees will still need to understand how to use your new tech solutions. But bear in mind that not every team member may be able to grasp new tools easily. Some may even prefer the existing platforms.

Fortunately, you can hire IT experts to train them. These professionals should simplify any complex steps and advise your staff on making the most of your new investment. 

Also, some enterprises set up regular training but fail to monitor their team’s performance. This is a huge mistake, as it keeps you from assessing your employee’s response to new technologies. 

So, conduct questionnaires and other forms of feedback collection to determine and address any weaknesses.

Mistake #8 – Ignoring Experiences With Previous Clients

Choosing an IT provider is similar to buying standard products and services. Failure to check user reviews can lead to disappointment. 

To get a clear picture of your IT team’s capabilities, analyze their current and previous clients from similar industries. Look for reviews, testimonials, and ask the provider for a list of projects and references. 

After doing your due diligence, you should be able to tell whether an IT provider is an ideal match for your company. 

However, keep in mind that every IT team is different. For instance, they might be well-versed in the healthcare industry but have no experience working with retailers. That’s why as mentioned, stick to IT providers servicing your industry to get the best results. 

Find the Right Fit

Nobody wants to end up with a poor IT provider that can’t deliver great results, leaves your company open to cyberattacks, and causes other vulnerabilities. Your investment goes down the drain, and your operations suffer. 

Luckily, we can show you a way out. 

Let’s arrange a quick, 10-15-minute obligation-free chat. We can discuss more ways on how to find the right IT provider for you and ensure you get your money’s worth.

 

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Featured Image Credit

 

This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.

Making the most of your Microsoft 365 apps requires you to adopt appropriate security measures.

Microsoft 365 is one of the best collaboration and productivity tools around. It provides users with seamless communication, scalability and supports remote work with various features. The security is also solid due to a wide array of defense mechanisms. 

But this doesn’t mean you’re impervious to cyberattacks. 

Data leakage, unauthorized access, and malware can still jeopardize your system and offer ideal entry points for hackers. Should your business fall victim, the consequences can be dire, ranging from operational disruptions to severe reputational damage. 

The only way to fend off hackers is to take your Microsoft 365 data protection to the next level. And this article will list the 11 most effective security measures to help shield your data in Microsoft 365.

The 11 Effective Security Measures

Security Measure #1 – Activate Multi-Factor Authentication

Microsoft 365 users have just one method of verifying their identity when using a username and password. Unfortunately, many people don’t follow robust password protocols. If you’re doing the same, you’re exposing your organization to intrusions. 

That’s where multi-factor authentication (MFA) comes into play. 

It can boost your Microsoft 365 security with one-time passphrases or other factors to verify user identity. Best of all, this measure is easy to apply. 

However, enabling MFA should only be your first step. The next one is to activate Security Defaults, a Microsoft feature that enforces MFA in each administrator account. 

Another great idea is to implement MFA in all accounts without administrator permissions. It’s because these accounts can still endanger services and apps in your ecosystem. 

Security Measure #2 – Use Session Timeouts

Many employees fail to log out of their accounts and lock their mobile devices or computers. This can grant hackers unlimited access to enterprise accounts, enabling them to compromise your data. 

Incorporating session timeouts into internal networks and accounts automatically logs users out after a certain inactivity period. That means hackers can’t take over their devices and access sensitive information.

Security Measure #3 – Refrain From Public Calendar Sharing

Calendar sharing enables your employees to synchronize and share schedules with colleagues. While this facilitates team collaboration, it can also give hackers insight into your operations and vulnerable users. 

For example, if your security administrator is on vacation and this information is publicly available, attackers can use this window to launch malware. 

Security Measure #4 – Employ Advanced Threat Protection

Advanced threat protection (ATP) is a robust solution that recognizes and prevents advanced threats that usually bypass antivirus and firewall defenses. 

It grants access to a database that receives real-time updates, allowing users to understand the threats and integrate the data into their analysis. 

ATP notifies you about attacks, the severity, and the method that stopped them, regardless of the source. It’s especially effective at preventing phishing. 

It relies on machine learning and a massive database of suspicious sites notorious for malware delivery or phishing attempts. 

Security Measure #5 – Leverage Policy Alerts

Microsoft 365 lets you establish your policy notifications in the compliance center to meet your company’s security needs. For example, they send your employees tips on sending sensitive information whenever they’re about to send a message to a contact outside your network. 

These warnings can safeguard against data leaks while educating your team on safe data sharing methods. 

Security Measure #6 – Secure Your Mobile Access

Your team often uses smartphones to access work email, contacts, documents, and calendars, especially if they work remotely. So, securing their devices should be your top priority when protecting data. 

The best way to do so is to install Microsoft 365 mobile management features. They can let you manage your security policy, permissions, restrictions, and wipe crucial information from stolen or lost devices.

Security Measure #7 – Deactivate Legacy Protocol Authentication

It’s worth noting that legacy protocols don’t support several security features in Microsoft 365 that reduce the chances of intrusion, such as MFA. This can make them perfect gateways for adversaries who want to target your organization. 

That said, your best bet is to deactivate legacy protocols to mitigate risks. 

However, you may not want to disable legacy authentication if your team needs it for older email accounts. The good news is that you can still make your network safer by restricting access to users who don’t need this protocol. 

Security Measure #8 – Integrate Role-Based Access Control

Access management is a convenient security feature that can limit the flow of private information across your business. It allows you to establish the users who can access data in your company. 

For instance, you can minimize data leaks by preventing rank-and-file team members from reading and editing executive-level files.

Security Measure #9 – Rely on Unified Audit Log 

Unified audit log (UAL) includes logs from several Microsoft 365 services, such as Azure AD, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. Enabling it can give the administrator insight into malicious activity and actions that violate organizational policies. 

You may also want to incorporate your logs into an existing SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) tool. Doing so enables you to connect logs with current log monitoring and management solutions to reveal abnormal activity. Plus, it can improve the overall security of your Microsoft 365 suite. 

Security Measure #10 – Encrypt Emails

Encrypting sensitive data is often the last resort when dealing with data breaches. But if cyber attackers access your emails, robust encryption tools can make them unreadable. That’s why email encryption is something worth looking into.

This feature is essential for Microsoft 365 users who share emails and files regularly. 

Security Measure #11 – Train and Educate Your Employees

The above measures are undoubtedly effective, but they may amount to nothing if you leave your employees out of the picture. In fact, human error is the leading cause of most data breaches.

One of the best ways to prevent security breaches in your business is to schedule employee security training and education. It can raise their awareness of potential threats and guide them on how to address them. 

This is especially important when recruiting employees. Make sure they undergo in-depth security training before granting them access to sensitive data and organizational devices. 

Don’t Leave Your Business’s Data Protection to Chance 

Microsoft 365 offers a bunch of intuitive and convenient tools. The experience can be so smooth that you may even forget about protecting your data. 

However, you’re taking a huge gamble in doing so, as it leaves your system open for hackers. 

With that in mind, applying the defense mechanisms mentioned in this article will dramatically decrease security threats to your business. 

We can help you further ensure your security when using Microsoft 365 apps. Contact us for a 10-15-minute chat that’s obligation-free. Let’s discuss how you can keep cyber threats at bay. 

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Featured Image Credit

This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.