Keep Connected While Working at a Distance

As the COVID-19 crisis continues companies have had no choice but to set up their staff to work remotely. We need to adapt quickly or be left behind.

Cyber Essentials

How Cyber Essentials can protect business data

One question all businesses face over the coming months is maintaining a level of security across all devices that access and use corporate data.

Migrating to a new system doesn’t have to be a painful and stressful process. Although there may be a little inconvenience or downtime, inevitably the new system will be more efficient, and with more capability than the one you are using currently. This can help your business run more efficiently and gives you potential to grow.

So, what are the benefits of migrating to Microsoft Office 365 for business?

The Mistakes You Can Make When Purchasing IT Hardware

When you are just starting your business, you have to make a lot of decisions, but none are as important as the sort of hardware you will need going forward. Making the wrong decisions and purchasing inappropriate hardware can be expensive and will give a bad user experience.

Make an app password

How To Make An App Password - Multi-factor Authentication

Generate App Password - Outlook Keeps Asking For A Password

Once 2 Factor Authorisation is turned on your Office Suite applications will (probably) start asking you to type in your password and verify it's really you once again. It is often the case that Outlook will be the first to not accept your normal password.

If Office Suite applications are not accepting your regular password try the following solution:

Go to https://portal.office.com and log in to your Office 365 account

How to add a shared mailbox to Outlook Web App

What is a Shared Mailbox?

A Shared Mailbox is the best way for a group of people to monitor and send email from a generic email address like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (i.e. not a named person). When a person in this group replies to an email it will appear to come from that shared address, not from the individual.

By Default Exchange (ergo Outlook) Will Move Deleted Items To Recoverable Items 30 Days From Date Of Deletion - 14 Days Later Those Items Are Gone For Good

You can change the recoverable items retention time by following these "simple" PowerShell commands...

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...