Consider Microsoft Teams to help boost productivity!

Microsoft Teams is a powerful communication and collaboration tool that may become a major player in the market.  Teams was added to the Office 365 suite of services in November of 2016. Teams can play a significant role in the new workplace where workers are not all on site, travel regularly, or work remotely. A recent survey revealed that almost 80% of remote workers report greater productivity while working offsite.

Teams has a significant advantage over competitors like Slack. It comes with Business Essentials, Premium, or Enterprise Office 365 subscription which means many companies already own it. Teams allows you to set up multiple channels (discussion areas) for your team, share and store files, and conduct live voice and video meetings. 

Teams provides global, remote, and isolated team members the ability to work together and share information via common space.  Teams provides the ability to chat one-on-one, privately or publicly with team members. The Hub feature of teams offers a shared workspace for various applications in Microsoft Office including Power Point, Word, Excel, Planner, One Note, SharePoint, Delve, and Power BI. Teams also integrates with Skype, Exchange, and Yammer and allows for adding emojis to video discussions with Skype.   

More features of Teams include; E-Discovery for meeting various compliance regulations and making applications secure. Teams also provides views for scheduled meetings, subjects and attendees, and a Bots gallery for polling and reporting to mention a few. Available on both Android and iOS, Teams also has the capabilities to perform mobile and video calling.

Microsoft Teams boasts cutting-edge security and compliance capabilities that are present with any of Office 365’s platform services. Teams can be tailored to use API’s and connecting to applications for added functionality of notifications from third-party products as well.

Microsoft has announced that Teams will replace Skype for Business as the primary communications client in Office 365. Here are more features in Teams you can do to help you to make your workplace more collaborative:

·       Name your Chats – chats are all saved in Teams so they can be referenced any time  

·       Assign an email address to a channel and forward emails

·       Has a mobile App that can be used for messaging within channels

·       Track tasks by using Microsoft Planner

Using Teams can have significant advantages for your workforce; however you must consider how to treat the data within Teams. Consider what work as in documents, conversations, email, texts, and recordings, are being held or saved in Teams. Do you need to retain all the data, documents, emails, and recordings? Should this information be backed up as all the other data within your system? How should it be categorized or retained – separately or integrated with all like components or by timeline?

Contact us to learn more about Microsoft Teams and you can get started using this product you might already own. If you don’t own Teams and you are looking for collaboration software, we can walk you through selection, integration, and deployment for a more effective workplace and make better use of your Time, Talent, and Treasure.

Call or contact EIS at 440-918-1040 or ConsultEIS@gotoeis.com

Digital Disruption Delivered Through Agile, Lean and DevOps

In today’s fast-paced, information-centric world, it’s essential to have the right tools in place to improve your employees’ workplace experience. To do so, you’ll need the right technology-enabled programs. This blog post will take a hard look at the use of Agile, Lean, DevOps, and other learning initiatives to keep your digital disruption transformation manageable.

 

Agile

Agile software development is an umbrella term for a set of frameworks and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and the 12 Principles behind it.

To understand Agile more clearly, please take a moment to view this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/KLARQSoNAlc

How can you prepare for an Agile environment?

1.      Centralize and redefine your IT department.

2.      Develop four key areas:

a.       Technology – a movement toward self-service tools with automated delivery (i.e., AI, chatbots)

b.      Talent – Movement away from software developers toward infrastructural engineers who can build well-defined service offerings

c.       Processes – Teams are now responsible for end-to-end, repetitive, and streamlined service offerings

d.      Collaboration – Blending development and operations

3.       Start with a small project and cross-functional team for software development.

Lean

Lean Digital Transformation is the process by which companies apply Lean principles to the design, development, and delivery of new digital experiences. While methodologies are in order, the use of computer languages such as Java, COBOL, and ETL code is often needed to provide the right outcome.  

DevOps

DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development and information technology operations to shorten the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives. A good source for understanding and implementing this methodology is The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations.

Here an excellent introductory video to DevOps: https://youtu.be/3EyT1i0wYUY

How can you move forward on DevOps?

1.      Read the handbook listed above and refer to it often.

2.      Consider contracting DevOps engineers from EIS.

3.      Internally, start using tools like Git, Docker, Jenkins, Ansible, and Nagios.

4.      Certify some of your IT staff in DevOps which may include Microsoft Azure Certifications and becoming a Certified ScrumMaster.

Continuous Learning

Digitally disruptive organizations are implementing lunch and learn series or teaching days to allow employees to spread the teachings of Agile, Lean, and DevOps to their peers. The intent is to promote the latest IT practices and coding updates and methods.

 

Digital Disruption Benefits

The ability to release high-quality software sooner at a lower cost is part and parcel why there’s such a massive push toward disruption. Also, the automation of software testing allows for a much more efficient process.

According to McKinsey, Agile approaches can boost the productivity of software developers by 25-30% within 6-18 months. In fact, in one company they were able to cut IT costs by greater than 35% while doubling overall productivity.

Lastly, the team is continually finding ways to improve which cuts down on IT burnout and boredom.

Conclusion

Traditional IT infrastructures and management practices cannot compete with the fast-paced digital disruption delivery solutions. Old school thinking of stability first is gone due to multiple handoffs, delays and frequent misunderstandings as identified in the Agile video.

With the integration of DevOps, the product owner and ScrumMaster collectively flush out the scope, objectives, and metrics of the project. They are fully integrated into the process from beginning to end.

EIS is Committed to Digital Disruption

Our Consulting Solutions division will deliver high quality, custom software solutions to your organization quickly and within budget. We have the right talent and can provide the right resources for your organization today! Email ConsultEIS@gotoeis.com or give us a call at 440-918-0140 to learn more about our services.

Sound Business Practices + Cybersecurity = Company Bliss

These two measures are at the heartbeat of any organization. You’ve worked hard to grow your business and keep it profitable. Something is missing. That something is cybersecurity in which every employee is aware and involved. Having the right cybersecurity talent, processes and procedures in place before your business goes off the rails is vital to ensure everything you spent the last several years building up, doesn’t crumble before your eyes.

If you know how to recover from cybersecurity attacks and you’re sure you can recover all of your data and pick where you left off before the attack, and your employees are trained, then no need to read any further! Reality is there are so many ways of an attack that no one is an expert in recovering. Even the best preparation for an attack may be challenged, but experts will tell you the best-known preparation is prevention and avoidance. An attack could result in a very daunting and tireless effort with unknown results. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, 60% of small and midsized businesses that are hacked go out of business within 6 months.

Let’s take an in-depth look at both and how they intersect.

First: Start with Your Business Processes

At the heart of every business, there are things you must do to bring in revenue. You put in place procedures for two reasons: Accountability and Scalability. Focusing exclusively on growth (i.e., sales targets, opening in new markets) can be difficult without a clearly defined plan.

It’s important to take a holistic approach to avoid cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Map out every process and look for weaknesses, especially where sensitive data can be exposed if it falls into the wrong hands.

This audit requires the following:

• Document when each activity starts and ends

• What the outcomes are

• When and who makes the decisions

Ideally, this process will identify areas where things are either paper or process intensive. However, before you automate or streamline anything, you must define the cybersecurity risks.

Second: Inventory BYODs and Beware of Shadow IT

Employees are putting increasing pressure on their employers to allow them to use their own devices when accessing company applications and data. In areas where the CIO or department haven’t approved BYODs, it may be happening despite mandates that state otherwise. Shadow IT is the use of devices, software, and applications without explicit IT department approval. It has grown exponentially in recent years with the adoption of the cloud. From these devices, some data breaches have occurred.

Third: Implement a Good Cybersecurity Strategy

According to Hiscox, a cybersecurity insurance company, roughly 47% of U.S. small businesses had at least one cyber attack last year, and 44% had two to four attacks.

To prevent one from happening to your organization, we recommend the following:

1. Make sure all software, antivirus software, and firewalls are up to date. Outdated software, including and especially Windows 7 (no longer supported January 2020), will leave the door wide open for data vulnerabilities.

2. Establish a password policy. Strong passwords that are at least ten characters long with upper and lower case, special characters and numbers, are the best.

3. Train employees about phishing scams. Don’t do this once – it must be an ongoing process as hackers find new ways to clickbait your staff.

4. Hire an outside firm to: Hacking needs to be performed from the outside by security experts to be sure no vulnerabilities are present in hardware, software, and policies. Don’t leave your business in the hands of “I would have never thought of that”. A hacker lives and breathes hacking – you don’t.

   1. Complete a vulnerability assessment. This assessment should include all threats in the cloud, with mobile devices, and your data.

   2. Conduct ongoing employee training. It must include BYOD policies, password guidelines, phishing and consequences of violating policies.

5. Remember, cybersecurity isn’t one and done.
   Consider hiring one or more contract consultants to keep up on assessments, audits, testing, and regulations. This person can be onsite as a contract employee or manage your account as part of our managed services offering.

EIS can provide you with the proper technology solutions, recommend colleagues that can write your policies, and map out plans for continuous improvement.

 

Conclusion

Business process and cybersecurity go hand-in-hand. Understand your processes first, make sure you have a clear path to automation, and use policies, procedures and outside help to ensure your data is secure.  

Exodus Integrity Services Has An Unique Advantage

Our IT Consulting Team  is well versed in IT infrastructure, software development, and cybersecurity at the forefront of industry trends and state/federal regulations.

Contact us today to speak with one of our experienced IT consultants. ConsultEIS@gotoeis.com