Our Guide To Building Your First Mobile App

Did you ever dream of being the entrepreneur who created ‘that’ app?

Here are a few loose guidelines to help you along that process:

Come up with the ‘million-dollar idea’

All great ideas address a specific problem – one that can be, and needs to be solved. Successful entrepreneurs solve problems in a way that we cannot imagine, through using innovative methods or processes that make it, in retrospect, look easy!

Look around you; every product and service you use now was created to solve a problem. Start by looking at problems in your daily life and keep a list of them. Once you have the list review it and see which ones can potentially be solved with an app.

Refinement and research

Once you’ve identified several needs which could be targeted, reach out to others and see if they are having similar problems. It is important to remember that not everyone may have the same problems as you, but they may have in the future – the tricky part is gauging the problem against it’s need.

Write down every idea

Once you have identified a need and decided to address it, you can start to elaborate on the details. When you are noting your ideas down, be as detailed as possible and make sure to note down everything that comes to mind –  even things that might not seem helpful now, or may seem like a terrible idea.

Once you have finished noting down all you can, cherry pick these to construct a layout and the main, necessary features of the application – this gives you a base to work from.

Remove non-core features

From the previous notes, look closely at features that you can put aside and ignore for the immediate future - do not start out offering the world. You want the initial costs of the app to be as small as possible in the first release. The sooner you can get a basic app out there to market (to test the waters and gain feedback/interest) the better. There will always be room for additional features down the line.

Put user experience first

Even the greatest ideas fail if the user experience isn’t satisfying. If the user doesn’t ‘get’ the app, then it will never take off, regardless of how great the features are. Features are important, but how users perceive and use the app initially is crucial for longevity and uptake.

Hire a developer

You need to find a developer that suits your needs and fits the scale you are looking for. You can look for a freelance developer, directly approach a development company, or even do it yourself. This can prove to be the most difficult part of the process, as often you need to be able to work with other people to define your vision and have them buy into it, whilst meeting your budget.

Keep the updates coming

You should have released the first version with only a limited feature set. Now you can continue to evaluate the feedback over time, and look to tailor your development schedule around this. It is then a cycle of looking at your analytics and feedback, whilst continuing to update.

It’s important to note the steps above are not set in stone but are a simple guideline for moving yourself along the exciting journey of creating your first mobile application.

For more information on Application Development click here or contact us!

Security Considerations When Employees Leave

With an increase in the use of external websites which store data, personal mobile devices being used for work and the rising trend of employees performing their duties outside the traditional workplace model – you need to ask yourself, are you doing enough to ensure the security and confidentiality of yours and your customer’s information?

When an employee leaves a business, it is imperative that a process is followed to de-provision access to systems they may have used. Here a problem arises – it is likely that the Company has not kept sufficient records of what information the now ex-employee could access, and as such will likely miss one or more areas that the employee can access.

As an example, have a look at some access rights that an employee may begin with and gain over their tenure with your business:

• Internet Access
• Internal WiFi Access
• Domain Access
• Security/Alarm access codes
• Website Passwords
• Social Media Passwords
• Credit Card Details
• Car Keys
• WiFi access
• Stored login information on personal devices
• Cloud Account login information
• USB backups held offsite by that employee
• VPN Details to connect to the internal server
• Knowledge of other employee’s usernames and passwords

More information given in confidence to an employee results in more work that needs to be done to remove that employee, leaving the whole termination process liable to human error. It is vital to ensure that employee access to systems and data is de-provisioned completely and on-time to protect your business.

Simple Steps: Begin with provisioning and recording

Once a decision has been made to hire an employee for a certain role; access rights, hardware requirements and external access should be determined prior to their start date. This information needs to be recorded consistently, and an approval process needs to be in place for any security related process or device.

Using a hardware or software solution, you should enable enough security to prevent users from using their own file sync solutions (e.g DropBox, Box etc). The same applies with USB devices, implement hardware or software restrictions to ensure that USB’s can only be used with the right approval.

If users have private work information or data on a mobile phone, implement a device management system that supports the remote wiping of data on mobile devices – this includes tablets. An extra measure would be to encrypt laptops and hard drives to ensure that no sensitive information is lost when a device is lost or misplaced.

Simple Steps: Employee leaving

Once an end-date has been determined for an employee, they should be put into a process to have their rights and access removed – starting with a review of your documentation on their current access. Once their end date is reached, the removal should begin almost as soon as they are out the door.

Retrieve any hardware and mobile devices that belong to the business, change passwords for accounts that didn’t have unique logins for each user (e.g social media), remove the users security access to the building (change the pin code if necessary) and if the office WiFi uses a single password, have this changed. If the employee had a credit card, ensure it is cancelled completely and they are removed from the account.

Simple Steps full stop

To reduce the impact of an employee’s departure, it is beneficial to implement policies and access methods that reduce the need for hands-on changes which can affect other staff (password reset’s, access code changes, etc)

Our tips:

• Ensure that each user has their own personal login where possible, including domain access, systems that are used and websites.
• Ensure that important financial information is never given out to employees. If they do have a credit card, it should be on the business account but under their details, with its own limit.
• Limit access to USB ports and other ports that can transfer information, ensuring that employees do not have installation rights.
• All employees to understand the importance of not sharing usernames and passwords
• Rather than using a WiFi password to authenticate wireless users, this should be done by MAC address with approval, keeping record of who devices belong to.
• Do not give any employee access to social media sites. This should be controlled by one person only and when that person leaves then all passwords should be changed immediately.

What can’t be helped

Even with the best security and processes in place, there will always be ways that your security could be compromised. However, with effective internal processes, good documentation, follow ups and reviews of your procedures you can drastically minimise the effect of an employee leaving.

Why not start looking at your systems now?

For more information on strengthening your IT security please contact us.

Minimising a Ransomware Attack

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a piece of software that has been installed or downloaded to a computer, that once activated it will block access to that computer system until a sum of money has been paid. Typically, the sum of money demanded is not a large amount compared to the cost of time and effort it might take to restore or otherwise resurrect the files.

For example, your work computer containing important documents has been held ‘hostage’ and you are required to pay USD$500 to regain access to your files – when calculating the time and effort required to restore the computer back to the original state, even with good backups, you are likely to exceed that figure.

Two well-known ransomware threats that have received considerable press coverage recently for their widespread nature are the WannaCry and Petya attacks. These aren’t the only Ransomware threats out there, there are hundreds and they won’t stop circulating.

How do I minimise my risk of getting ransomware or having to pay for my files to be decrypted?

This is truly a case of being vigilant and taking precautions so as not to be caught out and taken advantage of by a Ransomware attacker.

On your computer

Make sure important data is not only stored on the computer! Backing up important files to an external hard drive (not attached permanently to the computer) is a good idea. It is important to note that cloud backups with an automatic sync (such as DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive etc) may also be infected due to the infected files syncing. It poses the question; do you always need to have these turned on by default?

Ensure that your operating system and antivirus is up to date (including latest security updates and virus definitions) and that you use some form of ad-block to avoid the threat of malicious ads. To go even further, refrain from using an administrative account on your computer and disable macros in Office products by default.

Keep your browsers updated and remove outdated plugins and add-ons from your browsers. Remove Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Java and Silverlight from your browser plugins - if they are needed then set the browser to prompt for activation when these plugins are required to run.

General Behaviour

Learn the typical signs of a spam message and don’t open any suspected spam message from an unknown sender.

Be very cautious of any attachment within an email that you are not expecting. Sometimes a contact could be caught out and a virus distributed from their email account, which may look totally innocent. If in doubt you can ask the user whether they intentionally sent the attachment to you, over the phone or IM.

Be extra cautious of all links in emails, as links can be made to look valid but take you to malicious sites instead.

Conclusion

The best form of protection against a virus or ransomware is prevention. By changing your mindset around emails, links, attachments and computer updates you can drastically increase your chances of avoiding these threats. Stay vigilant!

For more information on minimising a ransomware attack in your business, speak to a member of the Advance team today!

Is Your Disaster Recovery Up To Date?

What should I do with my old hardware?

An all too common trend in the IT industry is to give ex-production hardware a new lease of life running the disaster recovery site. Tight budgets often restrict capital expenditure to areas where real value is visible, and the impacts and results are noticed throughout the organisation. 

These initial savings can be quickly forgotten when an unplanned incident forces the switch over to your disaster recover site. Previous testing may have been successful on the DR equipment during your routine maintenance and test restores, but when a major incident occurs, are you confident that your DR is up to the task?

These are the questions you should ask yourself:

Will the dated hardware run our complete production workload?

How big is the impact on our users?

How long can we operate utilising the DR site before losing business?

How big is the impact on our customers?

It is not unusual for companies to consider that having high-end hardware offsite, doing nothing 98% of the time to be a waste of resources…

The key is to justify the initial expense, leveraging the DR site to provide an additional return on investment. An effective strategy is to live boot a complete clone of the production environment on a separate virtual segment, presenting a fast and accurate test development system.

Utilising Veeam combined with HPE Nimble Secondary Flash Array technology and your favourite hypervisor, you achieve a fast, production ready DR solution. Accompanied with the additional benefit of a fully functional test or development system at your fingertips that can be spun up in minutes.

If you want to learn more about disaster recovery solutions, please contact the team at Advance today.

Consolidate Your Data and Make It Easier To Access

As organisations grow over the years, so does the assortment of tools that are employed for various projects and departments. This often causes a headache for employees and business owners while information can become scattered amongst several disparate systems and locations.

Generally there are different products on different platforms with different security and data requirements. Together they assist a user do their job, but they are on different servers and possibly even different locations with different access and user rights.

This is a problem that affects many organisations today, and the problem will only get worse as more data is made available to employees.

By using an Enterprise Portal organisations can optimise their information management and empower their staff with personalised information in one place, sometimes with just one click.

An Enterprise Portal can be designed to merge this disparate information into one place, ready for the user to click on a button to access as well as interact with the program. An example might be where information is gathered from the:

• ERP system

• Production planning and control system

• Employee timekeeping system

• Inventory management

to be made available to the user with a simple mouse click. An extra benefit here is that users don’t need to log into each individual system separately which saves time.

The security level is placed on the user’s login to the Enterprise Portal as to how much they see and what rights they then have within each produce. Effectively you now have one secure system that accesses all of the information relevant to that particular employee’s function.

Further, if an employee enters the number of a certain product component, all information on this component is displayed immediately on the portal page, including:

• How this product is selling

• What revenue the company achieves with this component

• Whether there have been any complaints

• An image of the component

• How much time has been estimated for producing this product

• How much time is actually needed to manufacture this product

The data for this comprehensive information page is compiled from different systems, and provides the validated employee with the right information just when and where they need it.

It’s a holistic view which allows employees to serve their customers and managers quickly with relevant information. When a customer calls to enquire about an orders ETA, customer service staff can access relevant information, quickly and with accuracy as it is linked to inventory and manufacturing systems.

Contact us to learn more about how the Advance team can assist with your technology needs.

5 Challenges Faced On Small Data Reporting

Five challenges faced on Small Data reporting

Big data is often touted as imperative to businesses, however in recent years perhaps we have been so blinded by Big Data that we are ignoring its poorer cousin, Small Data?

Big Data simply put looks at trends, information and patterns that can be utilised to forecast as well as give an overview of how your business is tracking. Big data takes high volumes of different sets of data and displays this information in a way that management can make decisions quickly and efficiently. Usually Big Data is generally generated outside of the business to assist the business make decisions moving forward.

Small Data on the other hand allows for the business to extract transactional information from data sources that end users can make use of immediately. Its focus is on providing information to the end user, so they can take action right now. It allows users to be able to determine why things happen, analyse this in real time and then take corrective action. Small Data can be generated as a sub set of Big Data or from other non-traditional data sources. The main thing to remember here is that it helps the end user achieve a result.

Big Data and Small Data each have their place in the business aiming to make inroads into improving decision making ability and resolve problems.

Formulating a plan to extract Small Data that suits each need within the company is paramount. If you ignore Small Data over Big Data then you are robbing yourself of some analytical tools that can help your company develop and improve.

Challenges facing managers looking at developing tools that allow Small Data reporting is:

• what type of data is required?
• where will it be obtained?
• who requires it?
• what format is it required?
• how will you extract the data?

The best methodology is to look at the problem you have and work backwards from that point.

As an example let’s look at the problem statement “Average Days Debtors take to pay have increased”. If we look at our challenge we can see that want to interrogate each customer and determine what the payments days are for each invoice payment has been made against (What). We check with accounts and find that this data can be retrieved from their SAP Accounts database (Where). It has been determined that Accounts Staff and Sales Account Managers will use the data (Who), accounts to chase up overdue accounts, and sales to check credit terms prior to selling. The decision then needs to be made as to what format they want to see the data in (What). An example may be a program that can run real time analysis of the accounting data and display that to screen. Selecting the right tool to extract and display this information is paramount to ensuring that the tool gets used (How). There are many good Business Intelligence tools that will allow quick extraction, analysis and display of the results the user requires.

As they say “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”. In other words Small Data can and will affect Big Data if looked after properly.

5 Public Cloud Myths Exposed

The public cloud is a hot topic in IT today. Even though it has been around for about ten years, cloud offerings from AWS, Azure and Google cloud have made the public cloud more mainstream and easier to get onto. In some instances though companies are jumping on board without really understanding it. So in an effort to debunk some myths here are five myths to consider if you are contemplating moving to the public cloud:

1. Public Cloud is Cheaper

The AWS/Azure public cloud “pay by use” methodology was a huge game changer for companies jumping onto the pubic cloud, but there is an assumption that “pay by use” will automatically make the subscription cheaper.

It can in some instances, but it should be noted that in many cases High Availability environments will usually come out cheaper with a hosting provider rather than a public cloud option. Data out transfer costs and dedicated resource costs both come into play in a big way in a High Availability environment, and things can get very expensive, very quickly. Many companies have tried out the public cloud and have gone back to dedicated resources in a managed cloud where the investment is more reasonable and consistent.   

2. Everything should go to the Public Cloud

Due to the time it can take to tailor your application to the public cloud (not all applications are really built for the cloud/virtualization, much less the public cloud), not all companies environments are sitting in the public cloud. You really need to have an in-depth discussion with your IT Provider to determine what can be in the public cloud and what should be in the public cloud.

3. Full Security/Compliance Comes with Cloud Infrastructure

Security is much better in the cloud today than it has been in years past. Even though public cloud offerings like AWS and Azure offer HIPPA or PCI compliant solutions, it does not mean that will automatically make you compliant on moving to the public cloud. The infrastructure they provide to you is compliant, but once you configure your application on top of it, it becomes a completely different story.

4. Moving to Public Cloud is Simple

Some applications can be moved to the cloud simply, however putting a full environment that has not been configured and is technical within itself is a different story. Use your IT Provider or someone with the right expertise and experience to migrate the environment as it can get complicated quickly and without a good foundation getting your application to work on top of it may end up being expensive.

5. Managing the Public Cloud is Simple

Once someone has designed, built and migrated your application to the public cloud, it should be simple to manage from there – surely? You would think so but it is not the case! You really need to have your IT Provider work on maintaining, tweaking and scaling the configurations to keep your cloud “humming” along.

The simple suggestion here is to let the experts build, migrate and manage it for you. Cutting corners in the public cloud will come back to bite you.

For more information on Cloud & IT Services click here

Which Backup Media Is Right For You?

Twenty years ago, backup media was easy to get your head around. Floppy Disk, Iomega, CD and Tape Drives, nothing to it.

Nowadays there’s so much more – what method of backup to use, where the backups are stored, how the backups are taken, when they are taken and how the backups are tested to ensure they are restorable.

Floppy disks and Iomega have gone the way of the dodo, but let’s look at current backup media still in use

• USB Stick

• Internal Hard Drive (via RAID)

• External Hard Drive

• NAS

• CD / DVD (some people still use it!)

• High Speed Tape Drives

• Remote Backup Services

• Syncing over internet (OneDrive, Google Drive etc.)

• Cloud Backup

Each of these methods has its place depending on many factors, but don’t fool yourself thinking that a cheaper version will be ‘OK’ - It rarely is.

Considerations when deciding on a backup media type

Type of backup

Whether you are backing up hourly or daily and what sort of files you are backing up should help determine what backup media to use. For example, if you have a large amount of data requiring a nightly backup, then you could not use DVDs.

Backup Media Cost

It is important to factor in the cost of backup media, as well as the number of devices you require to ensure a consistent and effective backup process.

Backup data security

Identifying what is backed-up and how sensitive that data is can help you decide the most appropriate backup media. If your data is integral to your business, don’t sacrifice quality for savings.

Restorability

You need to weigh the risk of your selected media - how often will a restore fail per 1000 times it is tried? Each type of backup media has its own pros and cons and you need to investigate them properly to make an informed decision.

Hardware Redundancy

Ensuring that your hardware is not going to become redundant over time is extremely important when choosing a media type. Five years down the line, you may need to restore data which seems recent today, and the hardware may be considered obsolete with the restore devices hard to find. Restoring from a 3.5” floppy disk today would not be the easiest task.

Restore speed and time

Depending on the data, whether it is ‘mission critical’ or whether you can do without for a day or more, all plays a part on which backup media to use and what processes to put in place. Consider putting your crucial servers on a quicker restoring media where possible.

These are only a few considerations when looking at backup media. You need to see the complete picture and envision where your organisation might be in five to ten years’ time. If you think back on how things have changed since the 1990s, you can appreciate that being open to new ideas and processes could not only save you time, but also money.

For more information on back-up software and processes, get in touch with one of our highly experienced staff today. 

Dimensions & Cost Centres With SAP B1

SAP Business One allows users to allocate cost centres to transactions with up to five dimensions. The purpose is to be able to allocate a cost centre to a transaction for transactional reporting, as opposed to general ledger account reporting. This provides users a more in-depth view of what is taking place in each area of the business.

Let’s take an example of this where dimensions come into play; say you have a general ledger account number and the accounting team does not require multiple segments for reporting (this would create too many accounts to monitor). Instead they enable cost accounting within SAP B1 by going to System Initialisation – General Settings – Cost Accounting and enable ‘Use Dimensions’. Generally, the option to display distribution rules ‘In Separate Columns’ is selected.

Once saved, the dimensions can then be setup for cost centres to be created per each dimension. A cost centre is a company, unit or division that performs a specific business function. Users define the various cost centres and can then assign revenue and expense accounts to those cost centres.

The cost accounting feature, and the ability to assign dimensions and distribution rules, is a very versatile function. Once setup correctly, cost centres can be allocated to transactions at the time of posting, providing users a complete view of the costs related to running each department. In addition, it allows you to generate reports that reflect the distribution of costs across selected dimensions.

This provides management ability to better understand its operations and can assist with future planning and deciding what areas require improvement. Through utilising this function, SAP Business One can help businesses better manage their operations and provide them with access to necessary data and information across all business lines or departments.

Note that any changes to your system should be discussed with your consultant prior to proceeding. Ensuring that workflows are not affected, that reporting requirements are achieved and that other areas are correctly setup to allow for cost centres to be allocated correctly is integral to achieving the desired result.

If you are looking to implement cost centre accounting within your organisation, please don't hesitate to contact our team today!

Mobile Device Management

What is it?

Mobile device management (MDM) software allows IT staff to manage, secure and monitor mobile phones provided to employees. MDM software can be implemented and used to manage devices across multiple different Service Providers and all major phone operating systems.

Why is MDM important?

MDM allows IT staff to have a centralised management portal covering all the devices provisioned with the MDM software. This allows IT to have quick access to device data and statistics, apply security profiles and give mobile device support.

The security profiles can be used to implement secure emailing, secure web browsing and the lock down of the app catalogue, ensuring only certain whitelisted apps are available.

An MDM platform can be utilised to setup and configure a VPN for use by those mobiles which have the VPN policy applied, allowing for centralised management for any updates needed.

MDMs can perform remote locking and remote wiping of data in an event where this could be necessary, if the device is lost or stolen and contains sensitive information.

For organisations using a corporate network, implementing an MDM profile on a mobile device can ensure that whenever that device is in range of a pre-defined WiFi network that it is granted access.

Other Benefits?

A major benefit of implementing an MDM is that it gives IT the ability to let staff utilise their already existing mobile devices for the work place and permit connectivity to the corporate environment. Due to the sheer number of people who have personal computing devices (smart phones, tablets, laptops), this gives a major advantage and saves costs for those organisations who do allow BYOD (bring your own device) with their MDM platform.

Advance and MDM

Advance work with the AirWatch platform, which is VMware’s MDM solution. Offering compatibility with Android, Chrome OS, iOS, macOS, Windows 10 and more, AirWatch is a leader in the MDM space.

If you are interested in more information, or wish to try out AirWatch contact Advance Business Consulting below.

Our Top 6 Internet Safety Guidelines

We have all heard stories about people being held to ransom by their own computer, an identity being stolen online, or even credit card information and passwords being stolen. Many of these occurrences can be traced back to the end user not being diligent when opening emails, clicking on links, downloading files etc.

So here are our top 6 rules when browsing online:

1. Keep your personal information private

Personal information in the public domain can be used against you maliciously in a multitude of ways – the best way to avoid this is keep your personal information offline.

1. Ensure privacy settings are switched on

To further ensure information isn’t unintentionally gleamed from you; ensure that you enable privacy settings on web browsers, social media, etc. as some sites will try and gleam as much information as possible, whether for marketing or to sell on. This includes when they ask you to opt in - seriously consider what information you might be allowing even reputed sites to take.

1. Maintain safe browsing habits

If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. It’s very commonplace for a tempting offer, a link to something that sounds very appealing or a notification that you’ve won a competition. One unthought-out click could expose your data or even put malware onto your device.

1. Ensure you are using a secure internet connection or WiFi network

As we discussed in our article Is Public WIFI Worth the Risk?, using a public WiFi network opens you up to all sorts of vulnerabilities as you can’t tell where your data is being routed. We strongly recommend not using any personal information or login credentials when connected to an unknown or public WiFi.

1. Be careful what you download

The easiest way for a cybercriminal to get a virus or malware onto a targets PC is for them to voluntarily download it. When you are downloading from the internet, make sure you are getting it from the provider’s webpage and from a site that you trust.

1. Maintain strong passwords

One of the biggest vulnerabilities and typically an easy target for those with malicious intent, is the end-user’s password. People tend to use passwords that are easy to remember, and typically easy to guess (or brute force). We suggest using at least a 10-character password and a combination of letters, numbers and characters. It is also common to use a password manager, which can generate a password of varying complexities for all websites, using one master password for the password manager. Obviously, it is crucial to use a very complicated password for the manager as it is a single point of failure, and enable two factor authentication wherever possible.

For more information regarding internet safety and how you can better protect your information, get in contact with one of our team members.

Antivirus Software and Firewalls

Antivirus Software and Firewalls

These days almost everyone uses the internet on a regular basis, whether at home, work or on the go. The internet is a tremendously valuable resource; as the number of people accessing the internet grows, so do the risks associated with it. Regardless of whether you are accessing the internet for personal or professional purposes, it is imperative to ensure you are doing so safely.

Two vital components to protect yourself and your system online are an effective anti-virus and a firewall.

Antivirus software

Anti-virus software is your primary defense against malicious threats online and offline. An anti-virus runs in the background of your computer, quietly checking every file that is accessed, monitoring for threats (this is often referred to as ‘real-time protection’). Your anti-virus runs these files through its database, checking against known viruses and other malware. Because of this method, it is very important that you regularly check for updates with your anti-virus software or set it to auto-update.

Anti-virus software can also perform a ‘full system scan’, where it will scan the selected locations to ensure there is no malware lying dormant. Full system scans are typically used when initially installing the software, or when you think your computer is acting up and something could have slipped through the cracks of your real-time protection.

Firewalls

In the most basic sense, a firewall is a barrier to keep damage away from your property – hence the name firewall. A firewall is a piece of software or hardware that sits between your computer or private network and the internet. Its job is to filter information (packets) coming through your connection, and if need be, reject them. A firewall gives you several options to establish rules to identify the traffic allowed in and out of your network, whether restricted by IP, certain ports or through application filtering amongst others.

By rejecting this unwanted traffic, the firewall prevents those with malicious intent being able to probe your network and attempt to cause damage by stealing information, uploading malware, performing denial of service attacks, using remote login, source routing and more.

Firewalls are effective at protecting your system from unauthorized entry, but they are not capable of removing malware from an already infected system – therefore firewalls should always be used in conjunction with some form of anti-virus software, ensuring that both are always up to date.

For more information on Managed Technology and Security please contact us

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How Important Are Windows Updates?

We’ve all seen the notifications for when Windows Updates are available, and I’m sure most of us have thought to ourselves “Again?! I only just installed one last week!”.

Have you ever thought to yourself why they pop up at what seems to be the most inopportune moments, and with such importance?

What is a Windows Update?

Windows Update is an inbuilt Microsoft service used for periodic updating of system files, to patch known issues and vulnerabilities with Microsoft products. This includes the Windows OS itself, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge, etc.

Each Microsoft Update is assigned an associated Knowledge Base number (KB) which gives further information on the updates. Updates are classified as one of four types:

Critical Updates

• These fix major issues, found across all Microsoft Products, that cause errors or unexpected functions. Alongside Security Updates, these are the highest priority updates to apply and should be done as soon as possible.

Security Updates

• Security Updates are applied to address security vulnerabilities which can allow a system to become compromised. Security updates have five different levels of importance; Critical, Important, Moderate, Low or non-rated. Security updates classed as Critical are the most important updates for your system and ignoring these can leave your server or computer vulnerable to hackers and other malicious attacks.
• Security updates are provided with a Microsoft Security Bulletin number (MS) for further details.

Software Updates

• Applied to cover non-critical problems, often applying feature updates and addressing minor bugs.

Service Packs

• Service packs are an amalgamation of all updates up to a certain date, for a specific piece of software or operating system, typically including feature updates.

How can I ensure that my systems are secure?

All recent Microsoft Operating Systems have in-built automatic updating features, which allows you to schedule and download high-priority updates.

If you are managing multiple desktop computers and even servers, the most efficient and effective way to stay up-to-date is to offload what can be a mammoth task to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). Managed Service Providers employ professionals with years of experience maintaining, reviewing and applying Microsoft patches to a vast range of different environments.

Using monitoring software MSP’s are able to monitor patch statuses remotely and schedule regular patching cycles to ensure that all critical and relevant patches are applied as soon as they are available. If issues are to arise from any patches pushed by Microsoft, your MSP is able to analyse the issue and determine which patches can be causing the issue and disable them, or roll-back where necessary.

By removing the burden of responsibility internally and placing it in the hands of experienced professionals, you can rest easy knowing that your systems are receiving the best in pro-active care.

If you are interested in what Advance can offer in this scope, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

What Makes A Good Website?

Can you remember the last time you used the phone book or newspaper to find a product or service? I can’t.

The internet is now the main tool used to search for whatever you need; products, services, assistance, etc. If someone is looking for something and your business is a potential candidate, you need to be seen and you need to look good.

Your website is typically the first impression a potential customer gets when investigating your business and what you offer – you maintain a tidy and appealing store for when potential customers visit, why should your website be any different?

What makes a good website?

Modern, clean and easy to navigate

• An effective website is modern, easy to navigate with all necessary information in easy reach – this includes contact details, location and opening hours if you have a store. It’s important that your website isn’t too overwhelming to the visitor, saving most of your information for pages other than the landing page.

Give the customer a solution to their problem

• Typically, the reason that someone has arrived on your site is that they are looking for a solution to a problem. It’s imperative that you offer the customer a solution, or an easy way to get started on the right track. Whether this is a product section or an offer for a free quote online, it’s important that the customer knows you can help them within a short time from arriving on your site.

Your website needs to look great on all platforms

• As of 2017, it’s estimated upwards of 35% of all web traffic in Australia was done on mobile devices, whether a mobile phone or tablet. It’s crucial that if a visitor uses their mobile device to view your site, that your site is just as accessible and clean as the desktop version.

Make it look professional

• When a user is viewing your site, it’s not a good look if there are visible spelling mistakes, or even blurry images that have been blown up too big. It pays to regularly ensure that all links are still active, with no dead links – it’s never a good look when a user hits a ‘404 Not Found’ error

The result of not having an effective website is your potential customer using that most useful of keys – the back button. If you want potential customers to stay on your site, envision yourself as a potential customer and keep the above in mind.

If you have questions about your website, or what we can provide for you, contact Advance Business Consulting below.

Which Backup Media Is Right For You?

Twenty years ago, backup media was easy to get your head around. Floppy Disk, Iomega, CD and Tape Drives, nothing to it.

Nowadays there’s so much more – what method of backup to use, where the backups are stored, how the backups are taken, when they are taken and how the backups are tested to ensure they are restorable.

Floppy disks and Iomega have gone the way of the dodo, but let’s look at current backup media still in use

• USB Stick
• Internal Hard Drive (via RAID)
• External Hard Drive
• NAS
• CD / DVD (some people still use it!)
• High Speed Tape Drives
• Remote Backup Services
• Syncing over internet (OneDrive, Google Drive etc.)
• Cloud Backup

Each of these methods has its place depending on many factors, but don’t fool yourself thinking that a cheaper version will be ‘OK’ - It rarely is.

Considerations when deciding on a backup media type

Type of backup

Whether you are backing up hourly or daily and what sort of files you are backing up should help determine what backup media to use. For example, if you have a large amount of data requiring a nightly backup, then you could not use DVDs.

Backup Media Cost

It is important to factor in the cost of backup media, as well as the number of devices you require to ensure a consistent and effective backup process.

Backup data security

Identifying what is backed-up and how sensitive that data is can help you decide the most appropriate backup media. If your data is integral to your business, don’t sacrifice quality for savings.

Restorability

You need to weigh the risk of your selected media - how often will a restore fail per 1000 times it is tried? Each type of backup media has its own pros and cons and you need to investigate them properly to make an informed decision.

Hardware Redundancy

Ensuring that your hardware is not going to become redundant over time is extremely important when choosing a media type. Five years down the line, you may need to restore data which seems recent today, and the hardware may be considered obsolete with the restore devices hard to find. Restoring from a 3.5” floppy disk today would not be the easiest task.

Restore speed and time

Depending on the data, whether it is ‘mission critical’ or whether you can do without for a day or more, all plays a part on which backup media to use and what processes to put in place. Consider putting your crucial servers on a quicker restoring media where possible.

These are only a few considerations when looking at backup media. You need to see the complete picture and envision where your organisation might be in five to ten years’ time. If you think back on how things have changed since the 1990s, you can appreciate that being open to new ideas and processes could not only save you time, but also money.

For more information on back-up software and processes, get in touch with one of our highly experienced staff today. 

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Our Guide To Building Your First Mobile App

Did you ever dream of being the entrepreneur who created ‘that’ app?

Here are a few loose guidelines to help you along that process:

Come up with the ‘million-dollar idea’

All great ideas address a specific problem – one that can be, and needs to be solved. Successful entrepreneurs solve problems in a way that we cannot imagine, through using innovative methods or processes that make it, in retrospect, look easy!

Look around you; every product and service you use now was created to solve a problem. Start by looking at problems in your daily life and keep a list of them. Once you have the list review it and see which ones can potentially be solved with an app.

Refinement and research

Once you’ve identified several needs which could be targeted, reach out to others and see if they are having similar problems. It is important to remember that not everyone may have the same problems as you, but they may have in the future – the tricky part is gauging the problem against it’s need.

Write down every idea

Once you have identified a need and decided to address it, you can start to elaborate on the details. When you are noting your ideas down, be as detailed as possible and make sure to note down everything that comes to mind –  even things that might not seem helpful now, or may seem like a terrible idea.

Once you have finished noting down all you can, cherry pick these to construct a layout and the main, necessary features of the application – this gives you a base to work from.

Remove non-core features

From the previous notes, look closely at features that you can put aside and ignore for the immediate future - do not start out offering the world. You want the initial costs of the app to be as small as possible in the first release. The sooner you can get a basic app out there to market (to test the waters and gain feedback/interest) the better. There will always be room for additional features down the line.

Put user experience first

Even the greatest ideas fail if the user experience isn’t satisfying. If the user doesn’t ‘get’ the app, then it will never take off, regardless of how great the features are. Features are important, but how users perceive and use the app initially is crucial for longevity and uptake.

Hire a developer

You need to find a developer that suits your needs and fits the scale you are looking for. You can look for a freelance developer, directly approach a development company, or even do it yourself. This can prove to be the most difficult part of the process, as often you need to be able to work with other people to define your vision and have them buy into it, whilst meeting your budget.

Keep the updates coming

You should have released the first version with only a limited feature set. Now you can continue to evaluate the feedback over time, and look to tailor your development schedule around this. It is then a cycle of looking at your analytics and feedback, whilst continuing to update.

It’s important to note the steps above are not set in stone but are a simple guideline for moving yourself along the exciting journey of creating your first mobile application.

For more information on Application Development click here or contact us!