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Tag I.T. Continuity

Cloud , Tip

New labelling System helps IT Support Customers

MBM is rolling out a new system for managing customers’ devices which are included in their IT Support contract with MBM. The new labels, which are easily identifiable, will be placed on all equipment covered by MBM.

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The labels include a unique QR Code which provides MBM with all the information we need about the hardware including: device type, age, owner, location and support history.

Jason Timmins, technical director at MBM, explains: “It’s important for both our customers and our support team that we can easily identify a device when there is a problem. The new asset labels will help to provide us with a more streamlined process for repair, maintenance and inventory.”

The new labels will be rolled out during planned site visits. For more information contact jason@mbmltd.co.uk

Cloud , Tip

Are you just putting up with a slow broadband connection ?

If you’ve ever experienced a slow internet connection or the loss of your connection for an hour or two, you’ll understand just how frustrating it can be.

MBM_42Emails_Blog_smallWe use the Internet so frequently during our working day to send and receive emails, for research and information, to access documents or software within the Cloud and so on; that we forget what it would be like to work if we didn’t have it at all.

So why do so many businesses whose core activity is so dependent on a good internet connection, put up with a slow one that can’t cope with their business’s usage or one that’s intermittently up and down?

MBM’s Business Broadband Service

MBM’s Business Broadband service is supplied using four of the best broadband networks in the UK: BT, TalkTalk, Cable & Wireless an Opal Telecom. Using four networks means that we can offer our customers the best broadband service that is available in their location.

If reliability is key, we offer a pair of broadband services supplied over different networks so if one service goes down, the second service steps in thereby minimising disruption to your business.

And if you have a problem, you don’t wait in a call queue – you simply ring MBM.

Want to talk through the options available to you and your business? Call us on 01902 32 44 94

Cloud , Office , Tip

Do you know what a gateway is ?

A gateway is a node that allows you to gain entrance into a network and vice versa. On the Internet the node which is the stopping point can be a gateway or a host node. A computer that controls the traffic your network or your ISP (Internet Service Provider) receives is a node. In most homes a gateway is the device provided by the Internet Service Provider that connects users to the internet.

disksWhen a computer server serves as a Gateway node, the gateway node also operates as a firewall and a proxy server. A firewall is a system created to prevent unauthorized admission into a private network. A proxy server is located right between a client application such as a web browser and the real server. The proxy server sees if the client applications requests can be carried out by the real server.

Usually a gateway is associated with a router. A router is a device or sometimes computer software that lets you know the next network data should be sent to next. A router can be connected to two or more networks at a time, it decides the next destination of the data based on it’s comprehension of the condition of the networks. A gateway is associated with a router because a router which uses headers and forwarding tables to figure out where packets or data is sent provides the path through which information is sent in and out a gateway.

So a gateway is one of the many ways we can communicate over the World Wide Web. The gateway allows us to enter different networks on the internet so we can transmit data back and forth. There’s also software available where you can be able to run several networks on a computer. As you have come to see by now having a gateway on your computer has it’s many benefits.

You can get a little smarter by installing different gateways within your business – speak to MBM on how we can help you with this.

Cloud , Office , Tip

Are you aware what the withdrawal of XP really means ?

You are probably aware by now that very soon (just over a fortnight) Microsoft will withdraw support of their XP product. However what does that really mean for you and your business ? Well lets spell things out

officeIt means that there will be no security updates or patches brought out for windows XP not only that but there will also be no support provided either – yes this is a big deal. This will mean any machine or business that still runs on XP by the time that support is terminated will have their security greatly compromised, it will also most likely be a breach of security standards.

There will also be no third party application support for windows XP, meaning that it is more likely that third party applications will not run on windows XP.

There is a solution and we can help you get there but you really cant afford to leave it any longer – make no bones about it not acting could cost you your business. A cloud solution is just a phonecall away – call the goto guys for more info on Microsoft 365.

Cloud , Data Backup , Office , Online Backup , Tip

Three Reasons why you should use an IT Support Company

As a small business, your resources are undoubtedly limited. Many small businesses attempt to make due with an in-house IT person, however, this arrangement rarely works out for long. There are many reasons businesses have begun opting for IT support services instead of keeping an IT person on staff.

1: Managing costs

Payroll is probably one of your biggest expenses, if not the biggest. Keeping an IT professional on staff may not be cost-effective because that person’s salary is most likely much higher than the salaries of your other employees. Even larger corporations have discovered the value of outsourcing their IT needs to save money in this area. You’ll find that you’re able to save a great deal of money in your budget by only paying for IT support when you need it, as opposed to keeping someone on staff strictly for that purpose.

2: Freeing up your resources

Once you make the switch to outsourcing, you’re going to find that a great deal of your financial resources are freed up, and able to be utilised in other areas of your business. This money can be used to expand your business, offer a new product, or even build upon your current facility. Regardless of where you redirect those funds, you can find ways of better using them to help grow your business.

3: Focus on your business

In addition to the money you’ll save by outsourcing your IT support needs, you’ll also find that you’re able to focus on your business even more. Even with an IT professional on staff, when you’re handling your own IT in-house, it takes up a great deal of your time and energy.

SOSAccording to Heidi Murphy, a blogger for the Huffington Post, “When you’re handling all of your IT support internally, your focus is often divided by a bunch of different technical priorities to keep your site, product and/or application up and running. Outsourcing IT lets you focus on what matters: growing and supporting your business – not troubleshooting software, hardware and user issues.”

Above all, managing your own IT in-house is a lot of hard work and expenses that you don’t have to have. If you’re looking for an IT solution that will allow you to save money and grow your business, we can help. Contact us for more information.

Like to take it a stage further ? Speak to Micro Business Machines without obligation

Office , Tip

Before you use the Sledgehammer

Have you found that your computer is running a little on the slow side recently? Been tempted to take a sledgehammer to it? Before you do that, you might want to see if we can help you!

Over time a PC will build up unwanted registry entries, unused programs and general clutter, which are the biggest contributing factors in reducing the speed at which systems run.

MBM_42Emails_Blog_smallTo help resolve these problems – and rescue you from the verge of insanity here are some tips for giving your computer a clean up to help it run more efficiently:

1. Review your programs

With so much free software available to download, it’s easy to start accumulating unwanted programs that you rarely use. We recommend that you review and uninstall any programs that you don’t use.

2. Clear out temporary files

When you visit a website, some files are saved to your computer to make it faster when visiting that site again.

3. Update anti-virus & anti-spyware software

If you’re using the internet or email we highly recommend that you have anti-virus, anti-spyware and malware software loaded onto your computer. It is important that you keep these updated and run them regularly.

4. Run Windows Update

It is important that you install the latest security updates otherwise you are open to hackers.

5. Duplication of information

If you save files to your computer to work on, plus you also have the same document saved as an attachment in an email, you’re doubling the amount of storage space taken up.

6. Add more hardware

There are many options available should you need more space.Typically you could install an external hard drive.

7. Compressing pictures

Digital pictures can take up vast amounts of storage space on your hard drive or memory card.

8. Upgrading RAM

If memory is a problem, your computer will be slow whenever you start a new application. Talk to your IT expert about installing more RAM

SOS9. Give your computer a physical clean inside and out!

lots of Products are available to do this but dust clogging cooling grills even your mouse will hinder performance.

We at MBM are happy to discuss your needs from one laptop to a hundred seats we can help you keep on top of your computer maintenance Contact MBM today.

Cloud , Data Backup , Office

How Legal is your Software?

More than half of small businesses in the UK have either bought or downloaded illegal software – according to research conducted by the leading global advocate for the software industry.

According to Business Matters Website and Magazine – The BSA research, carried out by Vanson Bourne, polled decision makers with responsibility for purchasing software in 250 small businesses in the UK.

NIgel_Mills_MBMFor a sizeable proportion of these businesses, the way they bought or downloaded illegal software appeared to be pre-meditated. More than one in five admitted to using a software key generator for business purposes – a small programme that will generate an unauthorised but working registration key or serial number for a piece of software. It is typically used to create an illegal version of a software application.

And 70 per cent of those who have purchased OEM software not accompanied by the hardware did so more than once. The same applies to repeat downloads of normally-paid-for-software for free from torrent sites and warez sites, as well as normally paid-for software for free from other sites.

For others, the buying and downloading of illegal software appeared to be accidental. A significant amount took action to remedy the situation once they discovered they’d been duped into buying fraudulent software.

More than half of small businesses replaced the software with a legitimate copy whilst 10 per cent uninstalled the software and did not replace it. However, these actions suggest that in many cases these businesses had to pay twice; making illegal software a false economy; particularly for those downloading illegal software multiple times.

Michala Wardell, UK committee chair of BSA | The Software Alliance, comments: “The practice of downloading illegal software amongst small businesses is clearly widespread. The research suggests that a large number of UK businesses have an unclear understanding of what constitutes illegal software use, at best; and a blatant disrespect for copyright law and business ethics, at worse. It’s encouraging to see that many of these businesses have taken action to address the error, often at their own expense. But to avoid undue costs and security risks, businesses need to be more vigilant about where they buy their software from in the future. As things stand, too many small businesses are exposing themselves to unnecessary hazards.”

The study reveals an irresponsible attitude to software management. Fifty four per cent of small businesses don’t have procurement records for all of the software their organisation uses. And yet the average cost for software is approximately £17,000 per business, to perform vital tasks.

disksHandley Brustad, Trading Standards Institute Joint Lead Officer Intellectual Property said: “The BSA research confirms our suspicions that while some small businesses are knowingly and opportunistically downloading illegal goods, a significant proportion of companies are being fooled into buying illegal software. It’s easy to assume that if a website is easily searchable online, the software is genuine. In many cases, it might seem easier to just press download, than ask too many questions. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case. Small businesses are leaving themselves open to security threats, liability claims and more. While we strive to bring down dishonest traders, we rely upon businesses to take proper precautions when purchasing their software. “

Can you afford to be using unlicenced or illegal software?  Talk to us about a software audit – it could just save your business in more ways than one. Why not consider Cloud computing and ensure all your software is legitimate?

Office , Tip

Numbers of 3D Printers will double in the next Two Years

Sales of 3D printers are set to double in the next two years, according to Gartner. Computer weekly reports.

Gartner has released a report claiming shipments of the consumer and enterprise level products – valued at up to $100,000 – would grow by 49% in 2013 to over 56,000.
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disksHowever, this figure would be dwarfed by a 75% growth in 2014 – with unit shipments just shy of 100,000 – and a doubling of sales by 2015.

“The 3D printer market has reached its inflection point,” said Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner.

“While still a nascent market, with hype outpacing the technical realities, the speed of development and rise in buyer interest are pressing hardware, software and service providers to offer easier-to-use tools and materials that produce consistently high-quality results.”

The revenue from the sales is expected to reach $412m in 2013 – up from $288m 2012 – with most coming from the enterprise sector ($325m).

This spending will increase to $669m in 2014 but will remain primarily a target of businesses, with $536m coming from enterprise and $133m from consumers.

“As the products rapidly mature, organisations will increasingly exploit 3D printing’s potential in their laboratory, product development and manufacturing operations,” added Basiliere.

“In the next 18 months, we foresee consumers moving from being curious about the technology to finding reasons to justify purchases as price points, applications and functionality become more attractive.”

Gartner claimed 3D printing would have a major effect on consumer products and manufacturing. However, it also believed industries such as construction, education, energy, government, medical products, military, retail, telecommunications, transportation and utilities would feel some impact from the technology.

“Most businesses are only now beginning to fully comprehend all of the ways in which a 3D printer can be cost-effectively used in their organisations, from prototyping and product development to fixtures and moulds that are used to manufacture or assemble an item to drive finished goods,” said Basiliere.

“Now that many people in the organisation, not only the engineering and manufacturing department managers but also senior corporate management, marketing management and others, have heard the hype, they want to know when the business will have a 3D printer.”

As the popularity of 3D printers increases, Gartner predicts the price will drop and at least seven of the 50 largest multinational retailers will be selling them by 2015.

Data Backup , Office , Online Backup

Busy time as local company upgrades and when did you last back-up?

Its been a busy week or so at Micro Business Machines but we wouldn’t have it any other way !

Microsoft as ever moves on and a local company has taken the step to upgrade 33 machines to Windows 7 from Windows XP Pro. This has involved our engineers being on site at every stage of the process. Migration from XP pro was vital to our client as support for the product ends in April 2014. That date will soon come around – if you are still running XP please contact us to discuss the options available to you. Don’t leave it too late to plan your IT future!

MBM_42Emails_Blog_smallOn the other end of the scale we have cleaned up two Laptops  heavily infected  with viruses and successfully restored the data on those machines. The biggest issue that these problems highlighted was the lack of data backup. Had we not have been able to save the data then much of the work if not all would have been lost.

So what options do you have on Data back-up ?

The very least you should have in place is a copy of you files on some separate source – typically a hard drive stored separately from your laptop but that relies on you remembering to adhere to a strict back-up routine and removing the back-up source to a safe place. There are many options when it comes to cloud options – storing your work securely on the internet. A back-up solution can be put in place to automatically so no need to remember ! This solution will work from one to hundreds of machines and is available now.

And if you do nothing ?

So, please take a minute to think about how long your backup would take to restore and then consider if you can afford to be down for that long.

If you want an IT continuity solution that will get you working again in hours rather than days, please call us on 01902 324494 to discuss your requirements.

Online Backup

We all grumble about email, but what if you couldn’t access it for 4 days?

‘Great, I could get on with some work’ a lot of business leaders might say. Most business people receive on average 42 emails in MBM_42Emails_Blog_smalltheir inbox everyday, and for many it can run into hundreds.

And while many of these admittedly can be junk mail it’s likely that unless you run a totally automated online business, email is the vital conduit that ensures your business runs smoothly.

Imagine then the chaos that would ensue if you and your team/s were with out access to business emails, not for just one day but for up to four working days. This would impact every part of the organisation, from new business, scheduling, order processing, delivery – everything. To make matters worse most businesses using Microsoft Outlook would also suffer the knock on effect of using integrated calendars, a problem exacerbated once networks of staff all sharing calendars are involved.

The four horsemen of the I.T. apocalypse

That is likely to be the real outcome of any one of a number of disasters that can befall an organisation –

  • Flooding is more common than ever before with 2012 now the second wettest year on record
  • Theft is on the increase due to a tougher economic climate
  • Hardware crashes can occur, even to relatively new equipment
  • Fire can never be ruled out
  • Virus attacks are on the increase due to the rise of mobile and tablet technology

Jason Timmins, Micro-Business Maintenance technical director, said:

“Too many business owners think IT disasters won’t happen to them. If their computers or server gets stolen or damaged they’ll just quickly replace them. But they fail to appreciate how long it can actually take to install the operating system and the software onto new hardware, install a new data server with all the patches and security updates, and restore data from any backups. And during that period how many enquiries may be lost, sales unable to be fulfilled, or staff unable to access files and use email? But with the right Disaster Recovery / I.T. Continuity solution in place this process can take a few hours. If you’ve ever had a computer problem at home and tried to fix it, imagine it ten-fold at work!”

So as we plan the year ahead, cast an eye across your email inbox, then consider that the average daily cost of Disaster Recovery Support* equates to the same amount spent on typical daily business costs such as a pack of printer paper or a Skinny Latte and Ham Panini for lunch!.

Free Disaster Recovery ‘second opinion’

Why not put us to the test and book a free ‘Disaster Recovery second opinion’ from MBM for us to review the security of your I.T. ? For more information email Jason Timmins, Technical Director at jason@mbmltd.co.uk, visit mbmltd.co.uk/DisasterRecovery or contact us on 01902 324494

*Based on supporting one server

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