As the CORONApocalypse continues to fade and we all get back to whatever normal is, it's a good opportunity to look back at the changes we have made in the workplace over the last 12-16 months to keep our businesses going and ask ourselves, "is this good?".
Since March 2020, technology has become more entwined in our lives than ever before. Connecting with friends and loved ones on video calls, home-schooling children on laptops, and being entertained via Netflix and Disney Plus – who didn’t watch Tiger King or The Mandalorian last year?! Unsurprisingly online retail sales grew by 36% in 2020, the highest annual growth since 2007, according to the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, and social media usage increased exponentially. In a time where we were apart, technology enabled us to come together.
So when should you use it? Whenever you need information to be available in your business over the web, either for collaboration or for one-way communication to your teams. The form of the information is very flexible, but what matters more is the audience - anyone either inside your business or externally who you trust to give access to your systems.
With things starting to open up again, and workers beginning to transition back to the office, we chat to our Compliance and CSI Manager, Julie, as she gives us her top tips of what businesses should consider when making the move back to the office, as well as discussing what Select Technology will be considering and implementing as we start to return.
2021 marks the beginning of the end for Skype for Business, with the Online version being unsupported from July 31st 2021, followed by the server versions (2015+) becoming unsupported in 2025.
We are proud to announce that Select Technology has been shortlisted for the CRN Sales and Marketing Awards' "Best New Business Win" category. The new business win in question was Locate in Kent who we now provide Prestige IT support to, and we also migrated them to Microsoft 365.
The technology revolution that has taken place over the past year means customers are interacting with businesses online more than ever. Therefore, it is vital to ensure you have an edge over your competitors when it comes to customer experience.
We always talk about the technical elements of cybersecurity, what tools, software, and processes that you should use to protect your business. Cybersecurity and data protection (or the failure to truly consider this as an essential forethought) rather than an afterthought is by far of significance importance today.
We’re all aware that we need to be vigilant of our own cyber security and it goes without saying that this should be of paramount importance to any business. The news of the recent Microsoft hack is a stark reminder of just how vital it is to have cyber security monitoring in place.
The shift towards remote working, has meant we spend a huge amount of time in either Microsoft Teams meeting or Zoom calls etc. One of the things that we all do, is present! PowerPoint has become an application that really makes it easy to share compelling stories. However, sharing a presentation has been “not easy”.
Microsoft Teams is an application that has significantly been developed over the last year, this is a trend that is going to continue. Some of the updates include customisable praise badges, together mode, presenter spotlighting, and updates coming soon include Dynamic view, SharePoint home app, increased meeting sizes, out of office scheduling in Teams and a branded lobby.
We are excited to announce our partnership with Locate in Kent on their Future Forward initiative. We will be working with SMEs across Kent and Medway to align their strategies with technology and to help enable them to plan for the future through digital transformation.
