Judging the success of a business’ technology used to be easy. If the email was coming in and going out, and all staff were able to work in their Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, the computer technicians were doing their job and all was rosy. Of course, we weren’t really measuring server uptime, the effectiveness of filtering of spam email, or whether we really needed to click through six screens before we could get to our inventory screen. So perhaps measuring IT…
How long can any specific copy of Microsoft Office be usefully retained? The answer to this question might not be as straightforward as you think. Recently Microsoft made an announcement concerning the future of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is still the de facto productivity suite for business, so any changes Microsoft makes have the potential to affect millions of business users. Almost certainly, your own business relies on MS Office software. In the past, buying software was as simple as…
The weekend of 12-14 May 2017 saw a mass outbreak of a malicious software virus which aimed to lock data files and hold them to ransom. Within three days the virus, dubbed “WannaCrypt”, had been halted, but the damage was done; businesses and services and government departments across the world were taken down, unable to operate properly until they had either paid the ransom or implemented costly, time-consuming recovery efforts. This kind of malicious software, known as “ransomware”, is not…
If you have bought, or considered buying, new computer equipment in the last few years you will have come across the offering of SSD drives for storage. A high proportion of new computers and servers still use the time-tested hardware of a standard hard disk drive (HDD), but it is increasingly common to find new computer supplied with SSDs, or with a combination of SSD and HDD. So what is the difference? How do the different technologies affect cost? And…
As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the business case for Office 365, Microsoft continues to build new features and add them to the suite for existing and new users. These new features come with cryptic brand names like Delve, Yammer, PowerApps and Flow. Each of them meets a particular business need, and in combination they add up to a whole ecosystem of Microsoft apps. Today we’re looking at one of the most recent new feature additions: Microsoft Planner.…
How can a business judge whether Office 365 is an appropriate solution for them? What are the costs and benefits of migrating? We take a look at some of the benefits of Office 365 compared to an on-premises Exchange server. From the late 1990s through to the 2010s, business email has typically relied on having an up to date on-premises server to host and run a local copy of Microsoft Exchange. Having an internal email server meant businesses had total…
Today’s businesses operate in an increasingly dangerous world of internet malware of all kinds. Every internet user today is aware of the threat of viruses and “trojans” – software designed to compromise your computer for external access, or to steal data that the attacker might be able to sell. Most internet users now are aware of the importance of maintaining effective antivirus tools. Adams Consulting Group implements and supports antivirus and anti-spam software for all our clients as a matter…
A new Windows – again? On 29 July 2015, Microsoft released the newest version of its operating system, Windows 10. You might be forgiven for thinking it seems only last year that Windows 8 came out, but it has been almost exactly three years since the release of Windows 8, in line with Microsoft’s release schedule. Microsoft has a patchy history with Windows releases. There is a good likelihood that your business still operates some computers…