My three top tips

  1. Pick a productivity platform
  2. Get the right tools
  3. Protect your business

1. Pick a productivity platform – Office 365 or G Suite?

Both Office 365 and G Suite provide the power of $100’s of dollars of cloud apps, in a single unified platform. Sorted is on Office 365, however other businesses might prefer the familiarity of G Suite if they have used Gmail in the past. You can’t beat the value, with both offering starting prices at $8 per user per month. (Yes, some businesses even have both!)

2. Get the right tools – Avoid Cloud App Sprawl

While it’s tempting to sign up for every app under the sun, it’s important to figure out what is most important in your business and get the most suitable app. In our business, we live and die by our forms system, ticketing system and IT management system, but in other businesses, you won’t need either of them. Sorted is a consulting business, so anything that can automate booking of time is important, however if you own a bakery, you won’t need this system. If you followed Tip 1, you might find your main productivity app already has it built in, for example, Teams instead of Slack, Planner instead of Trello, Teams video calling instead of going to a meeting.

3. Protect your business – Be Secure

Specifically;

  • Treat your email and Facebook account with as much care as your bank account
    • Your identity is more important than your bank account, so guard it wisely. Remember, if someone can access your email, they can legally sign things on our behalf and do almost anything you can do now.
  • Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on everything that’s important to you.
    • MFA ensures that if a hacker gets your password, it’s still not enough for them to get into your accounts. The idea is to use something you have, for example, your phone, and something you know (your password) to get access to your accounts.
  • Use a password manager
    • I use a product called Lastpass, which remembers all your passwords for you. There is a personal edition which is free, or there is a business edition for people who have staff. It’s dirt cheap and allows you to have a different password for every service. Make sure you enable MFA/2FA though!

Brenton Johnson is an IT and Cyber Security Consultant that helps businesses be safer and more efficient by using technology better.

 

Brenton Johnson, ICT Consultant

Phone: 1300 303 138

www.uptakedigital.com.au/contact