10 Ways to be More Productive with Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 has become a staple of remote working, allowing thousands and thousands of businesses to make the transition to remote working with ease. Many of you will already be familiar with Microsoft 365’s core features that allow you to draft up letters, create graphs, and video chat for a good five minutes before realising you’ve been on mute the whole time. However, Microsoft 365 has a wealth of features that could enhance your remote working experience even further. Here are ten Microsoft 365 features you may not have heard of.

Chatting with the team whilst in Office apps

With some of Microsoft Team’s great in-app integrations, you can actually be having a chat, whether by text, audio, or video, all whilst you’re working on a Word document or a spreadsheet. This is extremely helpful if you’re going through reports in Excel or perhaps putting the finishing touches to a PowerPoint presentation for an important meeting.

Power Map in Excel

If your work has any link to geography or demography, then this feature will be of tremendous use. Power Map is a feature on Excel that uses data relating to geography and transforms your rows of boring data into a 3D interactive map. This will enable you and your team to visualise your data in new and exciting ways, whilst seeming like actual magic to your impressed boss.

Team Collaboration

Going back and forth on the editing of a document can be very time-consuming. With Microsoft 365, you can actually collaborate on a document in real-time, discussing, and making edits as you go. This is a tool that can be used by multiple people, allowing whole teams to collaborate on work without having to be in the same room.

Resume Reading in Word

If you’re prone to start reading a document and then be distracted by another hundred seemingly equally important tasks – this feature is for you. Word automatically bookmarks the last page you were reading, so that when you come back to it, it reminds you and saves you scrolling for ages to remember where you got to.

Freedom to Work from any Device

One of the most amazing things about Microsoft 365 is that you can use Office Web Apps. This allows you to access your cloud-stored files and work from the internet on any device from anywhere in the world, without having to download and install the Office suite. This type of flexibility and freedom has been a real gift for companies looking to make the switch to remote working.

Microsoft Planner

Microsoft 365 is the gift that keeps on giving. Whilst we all know about its core programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – did you know that 365 has its own task management software? Not just that, but it’s genuinely very good. Microsoft Planner allows you and your team to manage workflows and collaborate on tasks, seeing projects through to the end.

Magic Inboxes

Okay, well not exactly magic – but as good as. Microsoft Outlook has a clutter feature that will use your mailbox rules to automatically organise and declutter your inbox so that your most important emails are visible first. Hands up if your inbox needs magic de-cluttering technology? That’s what we thought!

PDF Editing

This feature allows you to convert a PDF into a Word document without encountering the expected formatting issues that you usually get when slowly copying and pasting in chunks at a time. Edit your document and then re-save it as a PDF. Simple but a huge help!

OneNote

There’s something nice about making handwritten notes in a notebook, sure. However, when you later need to find that one number you wrote 3 weeks ago, it becomes not so nice. OneNote is an in-built digital notebook, that allows you to categorise and search your notes. On top of this, you can even turn notes into calendar events with the click of a button!

Sending Praise and Recognition

One of the moments lost with remote working is face-to-face praise when the boss walks into the room to the hushing of the team, only to reveal the great work of someone in the room. This lovely moment can now be replicated on Microsoft Teams by assigning a badge of praise to a particular team member and posting it to a public channel. This allows the rest of the team to send virtual high fives and enables the morale of the team to grow, even whilst apart.

Shocking Cyber Security Stats 2020

Cyber crime has increased significantly in 2020. Cyber threats are becoming more complex and larger in scale, causing huge damage and costs to businesses throughout the UK.

Phishing attacks, which target individuals, have particularly increased, so it’s really important you know how to identify a phishing email, because Cyber Criminals are very sneaky and won’t hold any punches.

There are very simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your business now. But, to reduce your risk from cyber crime in the long-term, we recommend you consult with a cyber security expert who will assess your risk and make recommendations to strengthen your security.

Source: https://info.varonis.com/hubfs/Varonis%202019%20Global%20Data%20Risk%20Report.pdf

Industry News Roundup August 2020

We aim to keep on top of all the latest IT developments here at Cyan, and like to make sure our customers are kept in the loop as well.  Each month we round up the most relevant and newsworthy information from around the internet, and deliver it straight to you in simple terms that doesn’t skimp on details. This time, we’re talking cyber security as Microsoft Office allows phishing simulations and there’s an eye-opening look at cyber-attacks during the pandemic.

Microsoft Research shows Uptake in Digital Cyber Security

The Covid-19 crisis and lockdown period plunged businesses across the globe into chaos, forcing companies to quickly look more closely at their cyber security measures. New data from tech giant Microsoft recently released showed that the pandemic caused a huge 58% of businesses surveyed to increase their security budgets, while an even bigger 82% expressed an interest in hiring security staff in the future.

The report also released details on the most popular security measures adopted during the pandemic. 20% of businesses had invested in multi-factor authentication (MFA), while endpoint device protections came in second at 17%.

Check out the full report on the Microsoft blog.

Microsoft Office Enables Phishing Simulations

Phishing emails are the kind of nightmare you want to stop before they’ve even started. Which is why we’ve welcomed the news this month that Microsoft has added an attack simulator to their Office 365 package.

Users who have signed up for the Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Plan 2 will soon be able to run imaginary scenarios on spear phishing, password spray, and brute force attack to test their employee’s responses. Phishing emails remain one of the main forms of cyber attack, and are often easy to miss, which is why Security Awareness Training is a security-must.

For more information, head over to the Microsoft website.

SMEs at Increased Risk of Cyber Attacks

Small businesses already have it tough enough, but a report from global recruiter Robert Walters has uncovered some worrying statistics regarding SMEs and cyber crime.

The report, carried out in collaboration with data provider Vacancysoft, showed that there are around 65,000 cyber security attacks on SMEs every day, and at least 4,500 of those end up being successful. Data breaches can cost companies vast amounts of money, data showed, with each attack having the potential to cause £2.48m worth of damage.

To read the full report, head over to the Robert Walters website.

How Staff Accidentally Help Hackers Steal Sensitive Data

91% of data breaches are the result of a spear phishing attack.

What is a Phishing Attack?

When cyber criminals attempt to obtain sensitive information by impersonating someone else or creating a sense of urgency.

Find out more about how cyber criminals orchestrate a spear phishing attack by downloading our infographic.

 

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Test your employees with a free phishing simulation.

A spear phishing attack is highly targeted towards a specific individual within an organisation. A spear phishing attack often involves an email that appears to be from a trusted source and contains content of an urgent or personal nature.

The goal is to provoke an emotional response from the victim which can result in the attacker gaining access to your intellectual property and costing your business its reputation and a lot of money.

Even with the best IT security in place, cyber criminals can still attack your business by targeting your employees.

Reduce the risk to your business by educating your employees with Security Awareness Training to help them identify the red flags of a phishing email.

Run a FREE phishing simulation test for your business.

Find out more

 

Industry News for July 2020: Remote Working

We aim to keep on top of all the latest IT developments here at Cyan and like to make sure our customers are kept in the loop as well.  Each month we round up the most relevant and newsworthy information from around the internet and deliver it straight to you in simple terms that don’t skimp on details. This time, we’re talking remote working; there’s new tools, new rules, and an interesting survey from Lenovo to check out.

Study Finds Productivity Increase in Remote Workers

Tech giant Lenovo released the findings from a recent study this month into how employees across the globe are adjusting to remote working conditions.

Titled ‘Technology and the Evolving World of Work’, the study surveyed 20,000 newly remote workers from various industries and organisations across the globe – and uncovered some interesting results. Overall, remote working seems to be winning a lot of fans. A huge 63% of people reported that they felt more productive at home, and 52% hope to continue doing so. Respondents were excited about the future of technology, with over 75% saying they were looking forward to engaging with 5G, AI, and Machine Learning.

There were some concerns, though. Top challenges were identified as a reduced personal connection with co-workers, and difficulty in working collaboratively. Security was an issue, too, with a massive 72% of people worrying about personal data breaches on their work devices.

You can check out the full report over on the Lenovo website.

NCSC Launches Remote Working Test Tool for Small Businesses

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) added an exercise for home and remote working to their Exercise in a Box toolkit this month. The move came in a bid to help small and medium-sized businesses test their security levels after employees found themselves suddenly working away from the office.

Launched last year, Exercise in a Box is a kind of ‘cyber fire-drill’ which sets role-play exercises and allows companies to refine their responses to cyber attacks. Home and Remote Working is the tenth exercise in the series, and focuses on helping to reduce the risk of data compromise while staff are working from home. Three key areas are covered; accessing networks safely, secure employee collaboration, and remote management of cyber incidents.

You can read more, or sign up for Exercise in Box over on the NCSC website.

Vodafone Launches Support Platform for SME

It’s been a good month for small and medium-sized businesses with regards to technology and IT. Vodafone has teamed up with entrepreneur Piers Linney to launch their new platform V-Hub, which aims to boost business owners’ digital skills and allow them to work more efficiently.

V-Hub has been designed to be super easy to use, with three segments:

  • Remote Working focuses on working collaboratively and boosting staff wellbeing
  • Digital Security concentrates on cyber protection for SME and staying safe online
  • Digital Enablement goes into detail on how businesses can boost their online presence and branch into eCommerce

The free guidance comes at a great time, as many small and medium-sized businesses continue to struggle through the effects of Covid-19. To find out more about V-Hub, or to listen to the small business podcast, head over to the Vodafone website.

Why you should be making plans to implement remote working long-term

Remote working is by no means a new concept. In fact, before COVID-19, 54% of UK workers were already working flexibly in some way.

If you weren’t offering flexible working before, you may find remote working will be a key factor in retaining your employees post-COVID-19. Let us tell you why…

Better work-life balance

Let’s face it, we could all be better at this. The positives that can be drawn from COVID-19 include time gained for ourselves.

We’ve all discovered that we could be using the time we’ve previously spent stuck in traffic to be more productive in our personal lives. Whether that’s doing exercise, spending more time with family, walking the dog, tidying the house, or just catching up on well-deserved rest, we’re putting that time to good use and we’re all the better for it.

Remote working enhances wellbeing

The freedom to choose where and how we work has a significant impact on our happiness. By gaining more time at home, we have become more rested and less stressed. With a more positive approach to work, our days are spent productively.

Communication has improved

Believe it or not, remote working can encourage better communication and unite your workforce. People are making a conscious effort to check-in and support each other now more than ever. Colleagues are still greeting each other every morning on Microsoft Teams, and they’re jumping on video calls to talk things through with more purpose than they may have had in the office. Your employees are the foundation that will empower your business to bounce back fighting.

Technology that makes your business more powerful

It’s apparent there will be a strong demand for flexible working post-COVID-19, and a proactive response now, will not only help you retain your employees, but also strengthen your business. Now is the time to switch from reactive to proactive, and we’d love to help you come out fighting.

We can review your existing IT, and make recommendations that will facilitate remote working, strengthen your continuity plan, make your business more resilient, and improve efficiency throughout. If you’d like help exploring your options, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

How to be proactive and retain business while working remotely

It’s a testing time for businesses, so maintaining customer loyalty is more important than ever. Here are some suggestions to help you…

Remind your customers how much you care

Connect with your customers to ask how they’re doing. No ulterior motive, just show them that you care about their business. It’s these gestures that are most valuable at times like this.

Connect with video

The lack of face to face interaction is apparent and businesses are in danger of losing that personal connection with their customers. Using video for your calls is the simplest way to inject a more personal element into your communication. Whilst this may seem uncomfortable for some, you may find it surprising how quickly people adapt.

Offer reassurance

Let your customers know you’re still there to support them. If you’re not able to provide a full level of service, communicate transparently to manage their expectations so your customers can make arrangements within their continuity plans.

Understand and adapt

Businesses have needed to shift their focus to remain operational, with many decisions and actions being reactive. Take the time to ask your customers what they need from you and adapt your services and support as appropriate. Demonstrating flexibility and resilience will reinforce trust and reliability.

Be proactive

Now is the time to shift from reactive to proactive. Businesses are now establishing a rhythm with remote working becoming the new norm. Once you’re confident your customers are stable, start having conversations with key decision-makers about refocusing their strategy to help them strengthen their business.

It’s time to look to the future and consider how you will rise stronger. How can you deliver valuable experiences to your customers? What can you do to prepare your business for when you reach the other side of COVID-19?

We’re here to help you. If you would like advice to help you through this current crisis, please email us at [email protected] and we will get in touch for a chat.

A quick guide to keep personal devices secure

If you’re using a personal device to work remotely, follow this simple guide to reduce the risk of cyber-threats. 

Updates

Keep your device’s operating system (e.g. Windows or macOS) up to date with the latest security patches.

In Windows: Start menu > Settings > Update & Security > Windows update

On a Mac: Apple menu > System Preferences > Software updates

Antivirus software

Ensure your antivirus software on your laptop or PC is kept up to date to protect yourself against cyber-threats.

Strong password

To make your password stronger, combine multiple words, numbers and even symbols to create a passphrase. We suggest joining a sentence so you don’t have to write it down to remember it.

Identify the threats

It’s important to be able to identify threats because cyber-criminals are sneaky and they’ll use names and subject lines you recognise to trick you. Watch this video for tips to stay safe online.

If you would like advice on working remotely, please email [email protected] and we’ll get in touch for a chat.

Three super simple things you can do now to protect your business

Cyber-criminals are taking advantage of those working remotely, and launching cyber-attacks where businesses are vulnerable. Here are three things you can do now to reduce the risk to your business…

1. Combine words to create strong passwords

​​​​​​​Stop cyber-attackers guessing your passwords by joining multiple random words, or combining a sentence, to create a ‘passphrase’. Ask your employees to do the same, and remember, don’t write it down, and don’t share it with anyone. If you think it may have been compromised, change it!

2. Ask your employees to be extra vigilant

There have been incidences where cyber-criminals have used dashboards and maps that appear to track the spread of coronavirus, but instead install malicious malware to steal sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and payment details.

Educate your employees to help them identify threats. Ask your employees to report anything suspicious and not to open any links or attachments within unfamiliar or unexpected emails.

Here is a free training video that you can share with your employees.

3. Limit access to corporate information

Where possible, restrict employees from downloading sensitive corporate information onto their machines while they’re working remotely.

Share this simple security guide with employees who are using personal devices while working remotely.

We’re offering free advice to businesses affected by Coronavirus, so if you have any questions about remote-working, please email us at [email protected] and we’ll get in touch for a chat.

Keep devices protected while remote-working

With businesses actioning their continuity plans, and many now working remotely, we’d like to share our guide to help you protect your business from cyber-attacks.

1. Always make sure your device’s operating system (e.g. Windows or iOS / Android) is kept up to date with the latest security patches. You can automate this process in your device settings to make it easy.

2. Antivirus software must be installed on laptops and PCs, and where possible, mobile devices. Keep this software up to date to make sure it’s protecting you against the latest threats.

3. Stop attackers guessing your passwords by combining multiple random words, or by using a sentence, to create a ‘passphrase’. Don’t write it down, don’t share it with anyone, and make sure you change it if you think it has been compromised.

4. Don’t click on links in emails or on websites unless you are certain that they are legitimate. Be skeptical of emails sent from people you don’t know, or where the content doesn’t match their normal character. Especially if they are encouraging urgent or immediate action.

5. Avoid storing or processing company information on laptops and PCs, instead use the web version of applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint etc.

6. Enable the inbuilt firewall on the device to protect against incoming attacks. Learn more at: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028544/windows-10-turn-microsoft-defender-firewall-on-or-off