Bongo IT Has Partnered With iwoca To Provide Finance On IT Equipment And Installation

What are the benefits of using short term finance for your business?

Short term finance can help unlock your business potential through increased cash flow. Investing in your business can take some time to show the results; being able to spread the cost of your payments means you can keep your cash handy. Here are some of the key benefits of using short term finance for your business:

● Invest in the future - wasting labour hours with old or outdated equipment? Invest in efficiency with confidence.

We pose the question: is it possible to get a future proofed machine, that will last me the next 10 years? 

There are three aspects to this, hardware, software, and warranty. 

Software 

As you are probably painfully aware software changes every 5 minutes.

The usage of self-managed mobile devices can leave you up the creek!

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - Just Don't Do Anything With IT!

it's great isn't it. All your work email on your phone, and access to file storage etc. What about those other apps your colleagues use though? A BYOD policy at many workplaces is great for the business, it empowers and enables staff to be better integrated with the business, and saves the business a bit of money on tablets and mobiles. WIFI Finder aims to make life even easier by sharing Wi-Fi access between users.

Our Experience With Business Networking

Business networking comes in all shapes and sizes, and at a huge range of costs. We don't think that you have to spend the earth to get good results though, but you do have to have a strategy, and work hard to achieve it.

In the beginning there was Lync. Then we got Skype for Business (SfB), which is a nice product, much like Skype (personal edition) but far more fully featured. SfB integrates very well with Outlook for setting up meetings to collaborate with internal and external parties, even if they don’t have SfB themselves. Early in 2018 Microsoft released Teams, and now this newbie is taking over from SfB as the new video/audio conferencing tool for Office 365.

A new study performed by ISE and funded by the Washington Post has found that many of the top Windows 10 password managers are vulnerable to malicious attacks. Popular apps such as Dashlane, KeePass, LastPass, RoboForm and 1Password have all been found to have weaknesses. The study has found that these apps are at risk of exposing passwords even in a (supposedly) secure "locked" mode. If you are using a browser app for your password manager, hackers may also be able to claim the master password for your entire database!

As businesses grow and develop, failure with IT systems will inevitably occur and qualified assistance will be needed to fix the problems. Unfortunately, many IT support businesses are run by IT specialists who adopt a technical and/or quick fix approach which doesn’t help users to understand the core problems or provide a truly supportive service.

We believe that IT should be seen as a simple utility like water and electricity – inherently reliable and always ON, with added flexibility to grow and adapt as organisations change. At Bongo IT, we offer a set of core services through a simple menu-based approach, such as broadband, email, telephony and general IT support to name a few. We audit current requirements and provide a comprehensive IT Strategy Review, ensuring that customers clearly understand their requirements now and into the future, and only pay for the services they need.

All SMEs and smaller charities rely on IT, but do not always have the time, skills or knowledge to fix problems when they occur, which can have a negative impact on business performance and productivity. Relying on external help, temporary fixes are often the solution, which doesn’t allow the organisation to understand the true underlying issues. This leads to the external IT team being perceived as a necessary (and often expensive) cost, without really understanding why, or being able to challenge the core problems.

We believe that IT should be seen as a simple utility like water and electricity – inherently reliable and always ON, with added flexibility to grow and adapt as organisations change. At Bongo IT, we offer a set of core services through a simple menu-based approach, such as broadband, email, telephony and general IT support to name a few. We audit current requirements and provide a comprehensive IT Strategy Review, ensuring that customers clearly understand their requirements now and into the future, and only pay for the services they need.

With single devices or small networks, it can be easy to set up additional devices, but this piecemeal approach can be dangerous as businesses grow. Over time, file integrity can be compromised and IT becomes unreliable, resulting in a negative impact on business performance and productivity. Relying on external help, users often don’t understand the core issues and don’t know what is being done to fix problems, or the longer-term impact.  This leads to the external IT team being perceived as a necessary (and often expensive) cost, without really understanding why, or knowing if they are providing value for money.

We believe that IT should be seen as a simple utility like water and electricity – inherently reliable and always ON, with added flexibility to grow and adapt as organisations change. At Bongo IT, we offer a set of core services through a simple menu-based approach, such as broadband, email, telephony and general IT support to name a few. We audit current requirements and provide a comprehensive IT Strategy Review, ensuring that customers clearly understand their requirements now and into the future, and only pay for the services they need.

All SMEs and smaller charities rely on technology for maintaining digital records and systems, but small businesses are unlikely to have ready access to in-house IT support to manage their requirements. As they don’t have the time or expertise to manage IT internally, they will look for external support, often being faced with complex and expensive answers that tie them into a contract, with no guarantee of reliability and often a need to spend even more!

We believe that IT should be seen as a simple utility like water and electricity – inherently reliable and always ON, with added flexibility to grow and adapt as organisations change. At Bongo IT, we offer a set of core services through a simple menu-based approach, such as broadband, email, telephony and general IT support to name a few. We audit current requirements and provide a comprehensive IT Strategy Review, ensuring that customers clearly understand their requirements now and into the future, and only pay for the services they need.

Before you start using your new Office 365 account on you iPhone or iPad, you'll have to remove your old account, or it will automatically get logged in when you download Outlook.

To do this just follow the steps below:

1.  Open the settings app
2. Tap "Passwords & accounts" above mail. Some iPads/iPhones may have this named Mail/Mail, Contacts, Calendars or Accounts.
3. You should have the list of accounts added to your device. Tap the email you wish to remove, and you will be shown more details.
4. Then press the Delete Account button at the bottom of the page.
5. Confirm this by pressing "Delete Account", or for some versions "Delete from my iPhone".
6. Once you have done that, you can add your new Office account.

Happy New Year to all and to all, stop changing your passwords!

"What" I hear you say "actually stop changing my password often? But you have been telling us for.. years, many years that regular password changes make computers more secure"

Okay we admit it, we have been saying that but, times they are a changin. There are two aspects to this:

So here we are, waiting for Microsoft to iron out the bugs before we delve into the new exciting features Windows 10 brings to us. Here are those new features in an easily digestable format...

To Update Or Not To Update

Before going into detail about these bugs the first thing to know is the lifecycle and nomenclature of Windows 10 products. When we talk about updates, we use numbers to identify which one we are talking about, the “code” is a simple one.

Spring update “1803” means March 2018, “1809” is September 2018. You can check which “build” you have in the About section of Settings, under Windows Specifications, Version.

You have been running your business / charity / CIC on mostly free software and are getting by, so do you really need to invest in a "centralised system"?

Nb: centralised system in this context means a CRM or suite like Office 365 or G-Suite

Does this sound like you?

We run a small charity / business which has organically grown in size to 15 (or more) people. Staff / volunteers all work remotely, use their own computers, and email addresses, to do their work and send us data about our clients. We are worried about compliance with GDPR, and what we can do when we don't own the computers.

As you are probably aware, new laws under the general data protection regulation (or GDPR) are now in full force. In our previous blog we covered two-factor authentication (2FA), which is a great way to keep your online accounts safe from hacker, but what about your offline data? Probably the best way to prevent this is by using a sort of secure encryption for your device. Most mobile phones are now encrypted by default, so why not encrypt your laptop too?! This blog will show you the simplest way to configure Bitlocker for Windows 10 Pro devices.

Two Factor Authentication (2FA) is a quick and easy way to greatly increase your level of security when logging into your systems. Two factor authentication is based on needing two things that will act as a security token, rather than just one. This is usually something you know and something you have; like your normal password and a code off your phone. You may already use two factor authentication with your personal online banking but with GDPR coming up, it is important you review your security, and potentially implement 2FA across other systems.

Earlier this month Microsoft released a blog explaining that OWA (outlook web app) for mobiles will be shutting down on the 15th of May 2018. "On May 15, 2018, the OWA mobile apps will stop working." This quote was taken from the blog, confirming that OWA will be shut down. What does this mean for OWA app users? Many people use OWA to access their shared mailboxes such as info@ or sales@. Luckily for us there is a way to connect Shared Mailboxes to the "standard" Outlook application for mobiles, along with some new ransomware protection.

Try Out These Deliciously Entertaining Google Easter Eggs

What Is An Easter Egg, Andrew?

Good question. An Easter Egg is not only a timely chocolate confection but also a hidden or secret area in a game or program, left there for us to stumble upon and amuse ourselves. Google has a few of these dotted around, and here's how to find them...

The Window's 10 Fall creators update, or Version 1709 was released a few weeks ago. This update included a very useful new addition to Window's Defender. Designed to block ransomware and crypto-locker style viruses, Controlled Folder Access keeps Window's 10 one step ahead of hackers. Keep reading for the solution...