Effective password management is an essential aspect of cybersecurity. With the increasing number of online accounts and services, remembering all those passwords can be a daunting task. Password management tools provide an effective solution to this problem. This blog discusses the benefits of using password management tools and some password management best practices to be followed. Some of the key benefits of deploying password management tools are: Enhanced Security The primary benefit of password management tools is enhanced security. Password managers store passwords in an encrypted format, making them less susceptible to hacking and phishing attacks. These tools also allow businesses to generate and store complex passwords for their employees. As a result, businesses can ensure that their employees use strong and unique passwords for every account, reducing the risk of a breach. Easy Password Access and Management Password management tools offer an easy way to access and manage passwords. Rather than manually entering passwords every time an employee logs into an account, password managers automatically fill in the necessary information. This feature not only saves time but also eliminates the risk of human error. However, there are a few things to consider before you invest in a password management tool. One of the things to consider is a security breach. Password managers are third party platforms. If your password management experiences a security breach, it can put all of the stored passwords at risk. Additionally, if the tool goes down, you may not be able to access your accounts. Secondly, while password management tools reduce the risk of human error, they are not foolproof. Employees may still make mistakes, such as sharing their passwords or writing them down, which can compromise security. Additionally, if an employee forgets the password to their password manager account, it can cause problems. Hence it is important to ensure that you have good password hygiene in place. Password hygiene refers to the practice of creating and maintaining strong passwords and protecting them from being compromised. It involves using unique and complex passwords for each account, changing passwords regularly, and storing the passwords securely so it isn’t accessible to unauthorized entities.

Affordable” is a popular word on Google. If you landed here, chances are you just Googled “affordable computer repair services for businesses.” Who doesn’t crave affordability? Anyone who has read “The Millionaire Next Door” or listened to Dave Ramsey understands the importance of prioritising your spending. About twenty years ago, Dave inspired me to reevaluate my twice-daily visits to Starbucks. So I quit drinking Grande Caffè Mochas. Six months later, I was out of my apartment and into a brand-new Condo. The purpose of this article is two-fold: Apply similar thinking and critical analysis to the concept of “affordable computer repair.”Suggest some updated terminology to shift your thinking to a bigger, longer-term, more cost-effective picture. 1 – Computer Repair Putting the word “affordable” in front of “computer repair” seems like clickbait and an outdated service category just got married, especially if you’re running a business. The search results I reviewed featured advertising with dubious claims like “one call fixes it all” as well as break-fix home computer services and vendor rankings on Angie’s List. Most of the options were offered by very small businesses, targeting residential users and other very small businesses with transactional services based on trip charges and hourly fees. The following questions quickly spilled into my brain: Can they fix it?Is the equipment worth fixing?Do they have the tools to fully understand how the device is connected to a larger IT system?How can they afford to offer “affordable” services?What is the security, regulation, and compliance risk? If companies like Solar Winds can be hit by a consortium of state-backed, Russian hackers, an hourly IT repair technician tinkering with your workstation and system settings is probably not worth the gamble. Learn More: The Solar Winds Hack Strong opinion alert. Computer repair is dead. The assets simply don’t last long enough to justify band-aids. Around year three, you should be considering a new laptop. You can put this off until it’s four years old unless the device is constantly used in transit, where it gets beat up in planes, trains, and automobiles. If you have a desktop, you should be visiting the websites of Apple, CDW, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, around year four. Furthermore, both laptops and desktops from the major manufacturers come with warranties and reasonably priced extended coverage plans. Warning: each coverage plan becomes less reasonable and advisable once the device is past its useful life. I recommend engaging with established companies and well-known brands before initiating quick fixes with the mom and pop vendors in the Johannesburg or Cape Town area. When you consider average hourly minimums for site visits of R650.00 to R2000.00, the fees from two service calls are close to the cost of a new workstation. And remember, they only get paid to try. They can’t offer any guarantees. At the risk of sounding bossy and scarred by Murphy’s Law (I can’t help it), you’re better off scrapping the unit and making an upgrade. 2 – Managed IT Services You may not be looking for any of the following company types or service categories: Managed IT ServicesManaged Services ProvidersMSPs in South Africa or NamibiaBackup and Disaster RecoveryIT Services in Gauteng or Windhoek or Cape TownIT Support near meCloud ServicesSoftware as a ServiceManaged Security Services However, I bring them to your attention because their search engine results will help you to start thinking beyond computers and more about the significance of the applications and the support you need to excel at your job. Hardware is increasingly disposable and should never be a potential point of failure when your business (and everyone else’s) will be increasingly reliant on Software as a Service (SaaS). Managed Services Providers (MSPs) can partner with you to monitor, manage, support, secure, and procure, everything you need to maximize the effectiveness of your IT systems and users. This is on ongoing strategic relationship versus one based on break-fix transactions. While your MSP can certainly assist with “affordable computer repair services,” they have systems in place to minimize the need for this particular activity. Remediation is expensive and time-consuming which is why professional IT services firms focus on finding best-in-class, standardized workstations that fit hand in glove with your IT system architecture. They will also follow strict guidelines and employ volume discounts to make sure every machine in your digital estate is up to the task and fiscally justified. MSPs don’t make a lot of money procuring hardware and software. They make a bulk of their revenues from management fees. In many cases, technology procurement is a loss leader. However, the right technology reduces breakdowns and noise in client environments. And with all endpoints and systems quiet and maximized for uptime, the MSP can focus on higher-value strategic initiatives to help their clients grow and innovate. What’s Next? I referenced Dave Ramsey and Starbucks at the beginning for a very pointed reason. I eventually sold my condo at a premium and bought the townhouse of my dreams. One small adjustment catapulted me from a money-wasting renter (getting way too much sugar and caffeine) into an equity-building homeowner. I hope I triggered something equally transformational for your business. The MULTi IT team has decades of experience, and we look forward to guiding you. Get in touch to discuss with us Today Johannesburg – +27(0)11 435 0450, sales@multi.co.zaCape Town – +27(0)21 879 1950, sales@multi.co.zaDurban – +27(0)31 331 0735, sales@multi.co.za Namibia – +264(0)84 000 8310, sales@multi.com.na

There are five ways to improve morale in the workplace (and lower frustration) with technology. As a Windows Vista survivor, reducing workplace technology anxiety is a labor of love for me. For our younger readers, Windows Vista was an operating system from 2009 so beset with problems Microsoft’s former president used to make derogatory comments about it in public. I vividly remember spending an hour per week rebooting my computer and begging anyone within earshot to help me. And I suffered this “demon-possessed” operating system for six months! This experience was the least soothing way to kick off a productive day for my office colleagues and me. Little things can irritate your staff in alarming ways: “This screen is too small for me to see everything!”“Why doesn’t this monitor from the IT closet work?”“Great, I’m out of USB ports. Now I can’t plug in my new Blue Yeti microphone!”“Why do I have to go on a wild goose chase to perform simple functions with all of my applications?” This article aims to stimulate fresh thinking around practical recommendations that will energize your organization. It just may improve your collective mental health as well. #1 – Improve morale by providing centralized access to all of your applications. By providing centralized access to applications, employees will love the convenience of having one point of entry for everything. Most organizations have hybrid IT environments with onsite digital assets and cloud solutions. Pairing legacy technology with innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings (hosted in offsite datacenters) can be challenging to negotiate conveniently, quickly, and securely. Microsoft has you covered with Azure Active Directory for Apps, which (in their words) provides “secure and seamless access for all your users, devices, and apps.” That’s one entrance via Single-Sign-On (SSO) to everything they need to excel at their jobs, with no time or distance limitations. #2 – Enhance the employee experience by establishing a carefully defined tech support process. Provide your employees with a carefully defined tech support process, and they won’t waste energy and good cheer suffering computing malfunctions. It doesn’t matter if you have an internal IT department or if you outsource this infrastructure support function to a managed services provider (MSP). You need a ticketing system in place and a process to classify support requests based on their severity and business impact. This structure gives users clear-cut options to call, send an email, or log the request through a web-based portal. All matters should then generate a ticket governed by a time-bound service level agreement (SLA). Generally speaking, a Priority One means all systems are down, so the in-house IT team or MSP is contractually obligated to address this enterprise-level threat before they remediate Priority Two, Three, and Four requests. You should also remove any intermediaries and allow everyone to open support tickets directly with internal IT or your MSP. “Middlemen” don’t work well attempting to run interference on support requests. Too many nuances get lost in translation. This approach also creates bottlenecks and delays for busy people trying to crush their goals. #3 – Increase employee efficiency by planning technology refreshes around the useful life of each asset. Refresh desktops, laptops, peripherals, and accessories on a strict schedule, and your team will thank you for the increased efficiency. Your IT assets and office equipment are extensions of your brand and culture.  And keeping this infrastructure modernized is like a warm handshake throughout the workday. Most people are unaware of the root causes behind system issues like slow network performance and file synching delays. Both could be related to older server appliances, end-of-life operating systems, degraded low-voltage wiring, and switching gear. However, they will zero in like hawks on pieces of equipment that barely sputter along or frequently fail them. Recycling three-year-old executive laptops is a recipe for frustration—especially devices with significant wear and tear.  When employees with a lower rank in the company get an older computer, the machine usually operates on fumes. The same is true of five-year-old workstations. Both instances are a recipe for performance shortcomings that will widen over time. Recipients may also feel devalued by the exchange. #4 – Reduce employee frustration by following regulator-approved standards and best practices. You arm your employees with proven technology when you design IT systems that follow regulator-approved standards and best practices. When it comes to IT harmony, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line between a long-standing government approved framework and an enterprise-grade cloud solution backed by a company with a market cap that exceeds $1,000,000,000,000. I’m referring to The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Microsoft 365. Neither entity is going anywhere, and both seem to be gaining prominence as cloud innovations and cybersecurity threats advance in tandem. This blueprint gives your team secure, 24/7 access to popular programs like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Intune, and Azure Information Protection. That should put a smile on everyone’s face. (I’m using many of these tools as I write this article, and I’m all grins.) It also allows you to check off all of the right regulation, security, and compliance boxes. How so? NIST has a cybersecurity framework known as NIST CSF. And Microsoft has created a convenient mapping system to match its services to four pillars of security: Identify, Protect, Detect, and Respond. #5 – Reduce cybersecurity anxiety by instituting ongoing cybersecurity awareness training and testing. One obvious way to earn the wrath of your employees is to have your network taken down while you spend a week or two negotiating a bitcoin ransom. Cyber awareness training is critical since users trigger over 95% of cyber incidents. Annual cybersecurity awareness training was novel five to seven years ago. I was a trainer and frequently conducted seminars for MULTi IT clients and prospects and did speaking events for associations and Rotary clubs. About three years ago, it became less intriguing because I couldn’t cite cyber breach examples that weren’t already common knowledge from everyday news stories. Today, cyber breaches are an unfortunate fact of life. And fortunately, the cyber training industry response has been impressive. It’s automated and delivered throughout the year. Users can be ethically phished and tested, then retested. It’s affordable. And it’s one of your best defenses against disruptions that will impact your entire workforce. One of the most visible computer-based training providers is KnowBe4, but there is no shortage of alternatives. Improving morale is a journey. I hope I have brought some perspective and candor to ways you can harness technology to elevate your game and imbue your culture with positivity. Retaining (and attracting) talent is a challenge, and well-designed IT systems are a powerful weapon in your arsenal. How do your employees feel about their technology toolset? Get in touch to discuss with us Today Johannesburg – +27(0)11 435 0450, sales@multi.co.zaCape Town – +27(0)21 879 1950, sales@multi.co.zaDurban – +27(0)31 331 0735, sales@multi.co.za Namibia – +264(0)84 000 8310, sales@multi.com.na