For almost 20 years, incovo has enabled businesses to communicate better and interact smarter. And now, we’re helping you do all this from the comfort of your own home, hot desk, or coffee shop. In fact, Remote Easy from incovo can help your team connect and collaborate from almost anywhere.

From cutting edge technology to ergonomically designed furniture – Remote Easy can supply your team with everything they need to work remotely. We can also deliver, install, and maintain the equipment.

And we can do it all whilst offering the same level of exceptional customer experience so many businesses across Scotland and beyond have come to expect from incovo.

 

2020 – The year the world changed forever

When the world went into Lockdown, countless businesses switched to remote working literally overnight. One year on, the benefits of this dramatic change have become abundantly clear.

In terms of workforce wellbeing, many are reporting a greater sense of job satisfaction amongst employees who now enjoy a healthier work / life balance. In relation to corporate commitment to minimising environmental impact, the end of the daily commute has enabled remote workers to drastically reduce their carbon footprint. Not to mention the huge monetary savings made from doing away with the costly overheads of running an office.

 

Long-term positive changes

Crucially, in order to ensure remote working remains a viable long-term alternative to the traditional office model of working, employees need to be properly equipped. This means they need to have a suitable set-up – such as an ergonomically designed desk and chair, storage solutions, ICT equipment, up-to-the-minute IT packages, and anti-virus software.

Until now, this has presented many companies with a logistical nightmare involving multiple suppliers, each providing different elements to different employees.

But now thanks to Remote Easy, you get can it all in one place. In fact, we’re one of the only providers in Scotland that can offer your business the complete package.

We can deliver, install, maintain, and manage everything your team needs to work remotely, enabling you to scale back or even completely remove the need for an office.

 

We practice what we preach

Switching to remote working could revolutionise your business. And we should know. incovo proudly became a fully remote working company in 2020, a move widely reported in the press such as this article in The Scotsman, and we’ve never looked back.

And that’s why the team at incovo are so keen to share the benefits of remote working with as many other businesses as possible – hence the reason we founded our new sister company, Remote Easy.

Speaking ahead of the launch, CEO Chris Thomas commented; ‘Remote working has benefitted the incovo team in so many ways, but in order to make the switch as smooth and seamless as possible, we understand that certain things need to be in place.

Judging by the experience of other businesses, it’s not an easy task to kit out a remote team with all the right furniture, equipment, and software if multiple suppliers are involved.

So, in-keeping with incovo’s commitment to going one step further for our clients, we decided to take the lead, streamline the process, and help make the switch to remote working as slick as possible by providing everything businesses could possibly need’.

 

What’s stopping you?

Technology has advanced to a point where most organisations can benefit from some degree of remote working. Thanks to developments in the internet, wi-fi, cloud computing, smartphones, and other virtual communications tools, we can now stay connected, communicate, and collaborate better than ever before, no matter where we are.

 

Quality brands you know and trust

Thanks to our unique partnerships, Remote Easy can provide your team with a range of quality furniture and hi-tech equipment from leading names such as Microsoft, Avaya, HP, Sophos, Apple, and Dell. So you can rest assured your business is in safe hands, regardless of where you operate from.

 

The best bit…

There are no additional or hidden costs and you only pay for what you use on a subscription basis. It’s that simple.

 

Find out more

To find out more about all-in-one provisioning, supply, and finance for remote teams and the difference it could make to your business, head to www.remoteeasy.co.uk.

If your business is currently utilising Microsoft Teams, then you may have already heard of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, but do you know what this service is or how it works? And if you are not a user of Microsoft Teams, you’ve quite possibly never heard of it! We therefore asked David Wilkinson, AKA the Scottish Microsoft Dude, to explain exactly what this service entails and the benefits it can provide for your organisation.

 

What is Microsoft Teams?

First of all, it is probably a good idea for us to explain what Microsoft Teams is. In a nutshell, this application is Microsoft’s all singing, all dancing communication and collaboration suite. Teams is a chat-based workspace within Office 365 that has been designed to bring together people, conversations, and content, so that colleagues can easily collaborate to achieve much more.

Packaged up within Office 365, this tool allows businesses to fully embrace collaboration amongst their teams whilst increasing productivity and making it easier than ever for people to communicate with one another. Its feature-rich functionality comprises of chat, voice call, video call and file sharing, to name just a few of the key features.

 

What is Microsoft Teams Direct Routing?

Microsoft Teams Direct Routing from incovo is a fully managed, carrier-class high performance solution that connects your Teams and Office 365 deployment to the PSTN network, allowing your users to make and receive external calls from anywhere on any device running the Teams application. This simple solution delivers all the features you would expect from a traditional phone system but saves you time and money by removing the need to install and maintain an on-premise phone system.

If your business is already using Microsoft Teams or you are looking to migrate away from another business telephony solution, such as Skype for business, Direct Routing provides an ideal integrated solution to help your business effectively embrace remote working and increase levels of collaboration amongst your teams.

 

What are the benefits of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing?

At present and excluding those working from home due to COVID-19, there are over 4 million remote workers in the UK alone. Ensuring these employees remain connected to the wider workforce is important for keeping morale and productivity levels high in a business, as well as making sure your staff feel valued and part of a team, no matter their location. Ensuring your remote working strategy comprises of both communication and collaboration tools is imperative for achieving positive and productive working practices.

Microsoft Teams Direct Routing can deliver you a fully managed cloud telephony solution. When used in conjunction with Teams, this solution ensures your workforce feels empowered and able to collaborate and communicate seamlessly, regardless of their geographical location.

Using Teams with Teams Direct Routing makes working from home much more like working in the office, turning Teams into a cloud telephone system and connecting it to the PSTN (telephone network). The benefit of this is that it allows your customers, suppliers, etc, to call you directly in Teams from their landline or mobile phone and likewise, you can call them directly from Teams.

Another benefit of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing is cost efficiency. The costs of outbound calls with Teams Direct Routing are very competitive, providing the opportunity for significant savings as well as a greatly improved user experience.

To make use of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing you will need appropriate Microsoft licensing which could come in the form of a phone system add on for E1 or E3, or if you have E5 licensing, it is already included. Once the appropriate licensing is in place (incovo can help with that also!), setup and implementation of Teams Direct Routing is a pretty quick and non-disruptive process.

 

So, what are you waiting for? Learn more about Microsoft Teams Direct Routing by contacting incovo on 0345 450 8400 or email enquiries@incovo.com.

Cyber incidents are consistently ranked at the top of business concerns. At the end of 2021, it was said that the estimated cost of cyber-crime would rise by $6 Trillion. This estimate was made before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted businesses worldwide and offered new opportunities for hackers and bad actors. Since the pandemic began, Marriott suffered a data breach affecting 5.2 million customers, and a ransomware attack forced Honda to shut down global operations.

Changing cybercrime tactics and a shift to employees working from home elevates the importance of security strategies. The overall message: Working from home may change a lot of employee behaviour, but relaxing security standards shouldn’t be one of them.

We asked David Wilkinson, AKA the Scottish Microsoft Dude, for his top advice on how to protect your cybersecurity during the pandemic and beyond.

 

Look out for pandemic-related scams

Bad actors online have adjusted their methods to take advantage of the pandemic. Hackers are opportunistic and that is, I think, the biggest change brought about by COVID-19.

Hackers have pivoted from sending phishing messages asking for bitcoin to something COVID-19 related or something that is more personal and pulling on the heartstrings.

Hackers have also started attacking collaboration platforms – a data breach affected more than 500,000 Zoom users last April, for example. The pandemic and shifting to remote working has changed the adversary opportunities, and shifted their focus on to some of the other tools that many of us are using.

These kinds of changes in behaviour by hackers is expected though, and it happens whenever there is a crisis. This time, security experts are doubling down on awareness about phishing – emails that try to trick people into sharing personal information or clicking on fraudulent links that upload malware, and SMishing – which is sending phishing messages via text message.

Any of these pandemic-related phishing scams can be disguised as information from the World Health Organisation or the centres for Disease Control, or purport to have information about test results.

 

Other areas of added vulnerability during the pandemic include:

• Information stealing scams – Hackers embed code into websites that look real and provide legitimate information about the coronavirus. For example, hackers created an identical version of a map of global COVID-19 cases with embedded malware.
• Ransomware and malware attacks – Netwalker, a sharing of ransomware, is using files with coronavirus in the name so that they look important. The files embed code that will encrypt your files.
• Work from home vulnerabilities – These include unprotected videoconference links or hacked videoconferencing passwords, which can be used to access a company’s network. Also, some people working from home might be using unsecured networks. With more people now using Microsoft 365 and less people using a secure VPN to access company data, there is a higher risk with people working from home using home Wi-Fi that company data can now potentially be accessed easier by the scammers and hackers.
• Fake products – Several websites purport to sell masks or coronavirus remedies, but take money from customers without providing any product. Others sell fake face masks and exemption cards claiming to come from an authorised body.

 

Adjust security for a remote majority workforce

In the face of a wide range of threats, businesses should begin by reviewing the basics. Here are some best practices for cyber security during the pandemic and otherwise:

• Employees should beware of any requests for information and verify the source, including unexpected emails or calls from co-workers.
• Make sure laptops, mobile phones, and apps are updated and install any required patches.
• Screen locks should be something that are configured correctly, especially with home-schooled children in the house. All it would take is for a child to click around on your computer while you go to make a coffee and you have an issue! If screen locks are configured correctly, then your computer will lock automatically when you leave your computer.
• Consider multi-factor authentication.

 

The sudden shift to working from home has raised other security concerns. For example, the last year saw many businesses carry out a two-year digital transformation project in less than two weeks. This has led to an increase in the use of third parties. For example, some workers that are based abroad couldn’t move their laptops from offices to homes, so there was a scramble to get them new technology and ensure it was secure.

 

Some key questions that need to be asked:

• Is the technology setup correctly?
• Are the individuals using the technology appropriately at home?
• Are they using personal devices or shared devices?

 

Pay attention to your employees’ state of mind

While it might be uncomfortable to think about, employees’ stress brings an increased risk of inside threats. People whose emotional health might be a bit taxed right now, people in different economic situations than they were previously, for example, are things that might make somebody more likely to be an insider threat to a business.

Also under the umbrella of employee mental health is the question of whether companies should continue with regular “bait-phishing” exercises, in which companies send a phishing-type email to their own employees to make sure they remain alert to potential scams.

While some companies have pulled back on these because of increased stress, some other companies decided to continue, deciding that now more than ever companies need to make sure these skills are kept sharp.

 

Prioritise access more than ever

Beyond the pandemic, cyber security has shifted away from perimeter-based security models where all assets inside a network are trusted. Instead of these system-centric security models, companies are looking at protecting access to information and emphasising identity as part of trust.

Companies should adopt a zero-trust architecture. The idea that individuals, devices, and applications cannot be trusted by default and need to be authenticated and authorised.

Some guiding principles include:

• Assume there has been a breach
• Never trust, always verify
• Follow the principle of least privilege access – giving the fewest people access to data and information as possible

Always remember to consider design thinking and customer experience. Security can’t be viewed as an obstacle or users will be incentivised to go around it.

 

Embrace industry collaboration

Companies benefit from working together and sharing cyber security best practices.

 

Stick to your enduring principles

Looking forward, companies should be making sure their information is secure, plans are in place in case of breaches or illnesses, and their employees are holding up during a stressful time.

If companies don’t already have a Business Continuity Plan or Disaster Recovery Plan then this is something that needs to be created and / or updated if you already have one. It’s good to have solid plans in place in case of an emergency.

Want to chat further about cybersecurity? Join the conversation over on my social media channels.

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Last year saw many UK businesses pivot, adapt, or completely overhaul their way of working. The biggest change was of course the switch to remote working, with one in three UK workers now based exclusively at home. Staggeringly, one in five of these home workers has received absolutely no cyber-security training, according to a recent survey by legal firm Hayes Connor Solicitors. Quite frankly, this is a disaster waiting to happen!

Cyber attacks on remote workers are on the rise so the IT experts at incovo are urging employers to take all necessary precautions to protect their staff and their business.

Top three ways to protect your business from cyber attacks

• Educate your team: Do your staff know what to look out for? Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated so teach them to be cyber savvy – ensure they think twice before they click a suspicious link, reply to an email about re-setting passwords, or inadvertently download a virus.
• Supply your own equipment: When a staff member uses their own laptop at home, for example, there is nothing to stop other (less cyber savvy!) household members from using it, therefore putting your business at risk. By supplying a work laptop, you can ensure all software has been correctly installed and that all security controls are in place.
• Report any problems right away: If the worst happens and your business comes under attack, make sure all staff know who to report a problem to immediately.

incovo recommends…

To keep your business safe, the IT experts at incovo recommend the Sophos Company Overview. Why? Because Sophos is named a global visionary for cyber security by Gartner Quadrant, no less! Sophos Central allows administrators (such as the IT team at incovo) to view your entire cyber security estate instantly and have visibility of security attacks, alerts, and reports. The stand-out USP is the self-learning neural network which basically pinpoints hack attacks, deciphers them, and enables the pros from the Sophos labs to create a prevention for them. It’s second-generation anti-virus which is exactly what modern businesses need to stay safe online.

Take it from the experts

incovo CEO, Chris Thomas, explains; ‘Sophos protects businesses from attacks, which often result in a ransom. Sophos also protects people from their personal data being leaked. Not all heroes wear capes! incovo is proud to be a Sophos partner and our IT experts are readily available to provide support to UK businesses’.

Book your FREE cyber security audit now!

The IT experts at incovo can carry out a cyber security audit of your business for FREE! The results of which can lead to savings of up to 30% once you switch to incovo.

To book yours, call 0345 450 8400 or email support@incovo.com today.

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