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Drive Office Productivity by Using These Popular Features in MS Word  

Microsoft Word is an incredibly powerful tool for office productivity, but you’re probably not using all of these fabulous time-saving features.  Get the scoop!  

Microsoft Word

There are few software packages that are as pervasive in a variety of different industries as the Microsoft Office productivity suite that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.  The ability to quickly and easily edit, share and distribute documents is a massive draw for organizations, schools, and students, but few people fully master these powerful programs. Most people use only a small percentage of the tools that are available, which is unfortunate. There are significant productivity gains available to anyone who takes the time to dig deep and master the capabilities of these full-featured programs.  Ready to shave some time off your document editing or processing tasks?

Keyboard Shortcuts

The design of the ribbon across the top with commands also makes it straightforward to find the information that you want, with commands that are used regularly garnering spots in plain sight. Even with the ribbon available, there are repetitive tasks that could be simplified by using a keyboard shortcut.  There are plenty of options that will help you navigate through the system and make your work more efficient, here’s just a few that you may find yourself using on a daily basis:

  • Ctrl+A – A great way to select all the text on the page
  • Ctrl+Y – Redo or Repeat your last action, to quickly apply formatting as you work through a document
  • Ctrl+K – Insert a link to the document at the point of your cursor
  • Ctrl + DEL – Delete word to the right of the cursor
  • Ctrl + Backspace – Delete word to the left of the cursor
  • Ctrl + Home – Move cursor to the beginning of the document
  • Ctrl + End – Move cursor to the end of the document
  • Ctrl + 1 – Single-Space Lines
  • Ctrl + 2 – Double-Space Lines
  • Ctrl + 5 – 1.5-Space Lines
  • F7 – Run spell check on any selected text or the entire document
  • Shift + T – Insert the current time
  • Shift + D – Insert the current date

If you’re spending a big part of your day editing within Word, these keyboard shortcuts alone could save you time, effort and frustration!

Section Breaks

Part of the beauty of Word is the ability to create well-structured documents that make it easy for users to find what they need quickly and easily.  All it takes is a little planning and foresight — and a solid understanding of sections and styling — to output Word documents that your users will be pleased to use and that are ready for publishing in print or online.  Sections in Word allow you to differentiate between areas of the document, such as the title page, table of contents, main document and any appendices.  Create a section break in Word by accessing the Page Layout menu, and look under ‘Breaks’.  A section break allows you to change formatting, almost like having a mini-document inside your main document.  If you’ve ever struggled with setting different page number styles on your Title page than on interior pages, this tip alone will be a lifesaver.

Working with Large Documents

When you’re editing a book, school paper or other large documents, it’s important that you apply the correct styling to ensure consistency of design and structure.  If you need specific fonts, font sizes, paragraph styles or another formatting, it makes sense to take the time to edit your styles before you even start typing.  You can begin defining your styles for the entire document by editing the presets under Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 and Normal text — all of which can be found in the Style menu in the ribbon.  Select the style you’d like to edit, and making the change is as simple as making changes in the pop-up window and saving your adjustments. When you wish to apply that particular style to a block of text, select the text and then choose the level of style you would like to apply.

Using styles allows you to make universal changes to your documents.  For example, your boss wanted you to use Comic Sans font for all headers, but then when they realized how difficult that font was to read wanted it all changed back to Arial.  If you’ve properly applied and used your styles, this is the matter of a few clicks to update the entire document.  Styles are also very helpful when you’re creating a Table of Contents, which you can do by clicking on the References tab and then clicking Table of Contents to insert your selection.  Header levels are translated immediately into levels in the Table of Contents, saving you valuable time and clicks.

Track and Compare Changes

It’s not unusual to need to review someone else’s Word document, whether you’re in a contract review or simply editing out some sections of a marketing document.  The handy ‘Tracked Changes’ feature in Word provides you with a way of seeing exactly the changes someone else made in your document and allows you to accept or reject each change — and even add comments.  Access this feature by going to the ‘Review’ tab and clicking ‘Track Changes’. Changes are highly visible and tagged to the user who made the adjustment.  What happens if you forgot to turn on tracked changes before you sent a document?  Don’t despair, the ‘Compare Changes’ feature allows you to compare two documents with ease.  Click ‘Tools’, ‘Track Changes’, ‘Compare Documents’, and the modifications will be listed for your easy review.

Need to upgrade your Microsoft Office installations or considering moving to Office 365 in the cloud?

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New Ways That High Sierra Protects Your Privacy and Security  

Explore 7 Ways That macOS High Sierra Helps You Protect Your Privacy and Security  

macOS High Sierra

If you’re an Apple user, you have a lot of things to look forward to in the 13th release of the macOS operating system.  Some highlights include new features, improvements to existing features, and a few updates that will pave the way for future releases.  At the same time, device and internet security have become a growing concern with all internet and device users.  It’s a good idea to learn more about High Sierra security and privacy features, so you know what to expect and what to be careful of.

What Privacy and Security Features Does High Sierra Include?

The October 5 Password Patch

It’s worth mentioning that two security vulnerabilities with High Sierra made the news by the first day of its release on September 25.  These had to do with password hints and actual passwords stored in the keychain.  You can now upload a patch to fix these issues from Apple.  Apple released the patch on October 5.

Security analysts who had a chance to test the new operating system before it was released said they had notified the company about issues before release, so it is somewhat surprising that the company took several days to release this patch.  Prior to that, the company said that users who only downloaded apps from the Apple Store could protect themselves from these issues, but some security analysts weren’t so sure.  In any case, if you have already updated, you should certainly consider installing the patch.

High Sierra’s Built-In Privacy and Security

Besides the patches for these zero-day vulnerabilities, High Sierra also came bundled with plenty of new and updated privacy and security features on its own.

File System

Apple’s update to their new file system deserves the first mention.  Called APFS, or the Apple File System, it now relies on flash technology.  You should enjoy both better performance and improved security.

Improved security and protection features include:

  • Improved encryption capabilities
  • Crash protection
  • Easier backups

Since the upgrade may totally change the way that your device stores all of its data, it’s a good idea to ensure that you have backed up your system before you start installing High Sierra.

Browser Tracking Protection

You probably already know that advertisers try to track your actions as you use your internet browser.  They usually don’t have malicious intentions.  They simply want to gather data that helps them target advertising better.  At the same time, lots of Apple users would prefer to protect their privacy from this type of tracking software.  The Safari web browser now includes intelligent anti-tracking features that are supposed to be as smart as the advertiser’s trackers.

Advanced Secure Internet Connections

When you visited secure sites, like your bank, you probably noticed that you had an https:// connection and not a http:// connection.  Besides financial institutions, you might have also noticed this on many emails, downloads, or membership sites.  This is an example of improved security through a TLS connection.  This is important, but this kind of security relied upon SHA-1 certificates in the past.  These old-style certificates are no longer secure enough to perform as intended.

Currently, Apple wants all developers to move to SHA-256. certification, which uses much more advanced encryption to protect privacy and security.  This latest update actually applies quite a bit of pressure to get developers to change.  Before High Sierra, your Apple device would offer you a warning that the connection wasn’t truly private and secure.  Now, High Sierra will simply block your connection.  Before you upgrade, you may want to check any secure connections that you rely upon to make sure they will still work.

Weekly Firmware Validation

Once a week, High Sierra will automatically run a firmware check to validate your hardware against any installed firmware on your device.  According to Intego, most users should never see a warning from this check.  A warning could mean that your device has been maliciously tampered with, but it might just mean that you purposefully installed a hack to allow you to run this new operating system upon an unsupported computer.  If the weekly firmware validation does trip a warning, you will have the option to ignore it or to send a report to Apple for further investigation.

Kernel Extension Approvals

Some software will add kernel extensions that add certain functions to the operating system.  For instance, antivirus programs may do this legitimately in order to work.  Still, developers of malicious software may also add kernel extensions in order to cause mischief, so you should always know when it happens.

In any case, High Sierra will offer you a warning the very first time that any software tries to install a kernel extension.  If the extension was already loaded before you installed High Sierra or you have previously approved the extension with High Sierra, you won’t get a warning.  Some hackers have become clever at masking their work to look like legitimate software, so this system isn’t foolproof.

Mostly, High Sierra Offers Better Security and Privacy

This overview of new privacy and security features nitpicked a bit.  It’s important to understand how your device protects you and how that protection may be limited.  Mostly, you should enjoy better security and privacy with High Sierra than you have with your past macOS operating system versions.

 

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Steer Clear of These Negative SEO Practices  

Negative SEO is real, and it can have a serious impact on the overall search ranking of your business.  Learn what this means and how you can prevent damaging attacks.

Negative SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still the stuff of legend for many business leaders and marketers.  Even though the term is familiar and you know that it has to do with your ranking on search engines, exactly how it happens and the various factors that impact your ranking may feel as though they’re a bit cloudy.  Unfortunately, not only do you have to be concerned with SEO rankings, but there are ways that your competitors could unleash a devastating negative SEO attack that has the potential to cause long-term damage to your search unless you catch the problem quickly and take steps to reduce the impact.  Protect your business and make your competitors play fair when you steer clear of these negative SEO practices.

Importance of SEO

One of the most important things to know about SEO is that it’s a great leveler:  a small business who has a laser focus on SEO could easily rank above a much larger competitor in search results. The higher you are in search results, the more likely it is that you’ll get that customer, deal or offer.  Plus, a higher rank in major search engines often equates to credibility in the eyes of consumers.  Good SEO starts with a solid plan for keywords that are important to your customers, which can easily be discovered through a little work, brainstorming ideas and using tools such as the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to see the types of terms customers use naturally when searching for your business.  When you incorporate these keywords into the content produced either via a blog or on social media and your website, you’ll see your organic traffic begin to grow.

What is Negative SEO?

Negative SEO is often considered an attack by an unfriendly competitor or other organization and can be used to describe a variety of different tactics.  These include spammy links and forceful crawling, both of which can cause long-term damage to your site’s traffic and overall search results ranking.  Plagiarism is another potential cause of negative SEO.  If a site happens to grab your content, publish it, and have it indexed by Google before your site is crawled, there’s a possibility that you can be penalized for duplicate content.  While this doesn’t happen as often as some other causes of negative SEO, it does happen.  Forceful crawling is when a cybercriminal causes a heavy server load on your website, which can lead to slow loading times and reduce your SEO ranking and user experience overall.  Spam farms are the most likely cause of negative SEO and are also the easiest for outsiders to perpetrate against your website.

Shutting Down Spam Farms

Poor quality backlinks are the bane of Google, and it penalizes sites swiftly and harshly for this practice.  Unfortunately, that makes this an excellent tool for negative SEO practitioners who are looking for ways to reduce the ability to discover your website.  This manipulation of search engine rankings has led to an excellent tool that can be utilized to help shut down spam farms, the Google and Bing Disavow Links tool.  At it’s simplest, anyone can go to a bulk link-building service and generate tens of thousands of spammy links in a very short period of time.  While previously this practice was difficult to protect against, the Disavow Links tool from the two major search engines allows webmasters to take back some power by submitting links that appear to be spam back to Google and Bing.  By reporting these links, you can reduce or eliminate the impact of any negative SEO practices that include spam links.

Fighting the Fire

Perhaps one of the best ways to guard against any type of cyber attack is to ensure that your security procedures are in full effect.  This includes applying patches in a timely manner and only utilizing CMS (Content Management System) software that has top-notch encryption capabilities. Security protocols are especially important as they can protect against potential hacks to your website that could tamper with your robots.txt file — which could lead to a massive drop in rankings should your entire site be de-indexed.  Staying vigilant involves keeping track of your site’s overall search ranking and taking immediate action to remediate should your ranking fall dramatically.

Negative Reviews

Finally, negative Google reviews for your business can be nearly invisible unless you’re looking for them — yet they are a strong indicator of whether or not your site will show up well in search rankings.  If your competitors suddenly submit a large number of negative reviews against your brand, you may find that your search ranking is falling fast, and for no reason that you can quickly identify.  This is why it’s important to Google your business often and ensure that you stay on top of any reviews that are suspicious.

The ways that negative SEO can be leveraged against your business can be subtle, but the impact to your business can be significant over time in terms of lost traffic to your website and even lost business.  Protect your organization by ensuring you have the latest security patches in place, checking your ranking often and staying aware of incoming links on your sites.  Want to learn more about best-practices for security on the internet?  Contact our Omaha professionals by contacting InfiNet Solutions at (402) 895--5777 or via email to [email protected].

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Switching IT Service Providers

Switch IT Services Providers In Omaha Without Any Pain

We Make Switching IT Service Providers in Omaha Quick and Painless – Here’s How

Prolonging inferior IT services can harm your ability to maximize your technology potential and operate your computer network at a productive, beneficial level. Instead, why not let our IT service providers in Omaha take the wheel? We truly understand your information technology framework, needs, and requirements.

Making the switch to competent and responsive IT services can be quick and painless – just like ripping off a band-aid. And, you never pull it off slowly – that just hurts more – you rip it off in a fraction of a second and smile, don’t you?

In that way, switching IT service providers can be a quick, pain-free process when you simply make the call to an IT company like InfiNet and get no-nonsense, direct IT service provider on the job.

After all, you only have inflated costs and subpar IT vendor management to lose.

How IT Service Providers in Omaha Should Perform

To us, many companies miss the true meaning of the term “service providers”. We aim to fulfill the inherent dictionary definition and go well beyond it, if possible. Our client base expects better IT productivity and cost-efficient management of their technology, and we strive to deliver nothing short of that.

In that spirit, we invite you to trade in poor IT management for superior IT services. After all, it only takes a phone call – and then the pain is over.

You can choose better IT services right now, by switching IT service providers in Omaha and getting one of the leading computer support companies in Omaha NE – InfiNet Technology People – to take over your IT management, security, cloud services, and much more!

If you’re like many business owners, you’re looking for trusted and highly-rated IT outsourcing, primarily due to the adverse consequences (such as costly and catastrophic data breach or data center downtime) that can occur to businesses and livelihoods without reliable IT management.

In response to this great shift away from more basic IT support of days past to a wider spectrum of IT services, we’re answering the call and meeting challenges in very solution-driven and innovative ways.

We’re proving to more and more businesses in Omaha that ripping off the band-aid of substandard IT services takes just a split second, and the wound will quickly heal with us on task, on target, and carrying out your specific IT goals.

What Your Omaha IT Service Providers Should Deliver

One of our biggest goals is to heal the unhealed wound beneath that old band-aid that represents short-term fixes for chronic, systemic IT problems, and make sure no “poor IT” wounds ever occur again.

Our small business IT support is geared towards growing companies who need all the advantages they can get when it comes to their technology management, and IT consulting services that won’t waste their time or money.

In our eyes, those things are of paramount importance, and further reason why our values are (and must always be) aligned with our clients’.

As diligent and dedicated IT service providers in Omaha, we bring more one-on-one, client-specific strategies to the table, that fit each unique customer’s requirements, including:

  • Help to migrate to the cloud, and with more resilient cloud services (e.g. Security as a Service).
  • Microsoft support on multiple MS platforms (Exchange, Skype for Business, Office 365, etc.)
  • A built-in IT business partner who understands your objectives, and much more.
  • Detection and prevention of network security
  • Iron-clad data backup and disaster recovery services, and much more.

Our business IT support can handle the optimization of all computers and devices on your network, and we’re also IT service providers in Omaha who can deliver quick and long-term fixes (both proactive and reactive).

Because of this, we’re winning over more and happier customers – in all kinds of industries – all the time.

Already convinced we’re the Omaha IT service providers to get the job done right? Call us now at 402.547.4300 or email us at [email protected] for more information on how to get started right away facilitating greater business growth and IT productivity.

If you’re finished with IT service providers in Omaha that sell you one thing and deliver another, let us show you all the benefits of having more engaged, diligent, honest and direct IT management professionals working for you.

How Can a Managed Service Provider Enhance Your Business Operations?

There are, in fact, many ways this can happen.

As a managed service provider (MSP), we deliver network, application, system and e-management services across a network to multiple enterprises, using a “pay as you go” pricing model. We focus on management services as our core offering, but we go well beyond just technology management.

We’ve taken the “textbook” definition of an MSP and have expanded upon it, offering much more as IT service providers in Omaha than the average MSP.

With our strategic IT provisioning, you’ll find out how greatly improved IT system performance often equals greater profitability.

Our clients from multiple industries and sectors have helped us to expand our own horizons in the IT world. We’ve pushed the envelope of what an IT support service provider can and should be in 2017 and beyond.

What Makes for a More Qualified IT Service Provider?

Maybe it’s our dedication to going above and beyond in delivering the best IT services for Omaha small businesses.

Maybe it’s how we put client needs before our own. Or, at the very least, align them with ours.

Whatever the reasons, if you don’t have quality IT consultants (and for many companies, managed IT services that can provide full business continuity services) in your corner, you’re risking everything from a compliance violation to catastrophic data center downtime to an unrecoverable cyber breach!

Don’t wait until disaster strikes to call upon managed service providers like us for help staying secure, compliant, and cyberattack-free.

Because, that band-aid covering up poor IT management has to come off sometime.

Why not save yourself time and money and do it now?

Get the IT Services in Omaha Your Company Deserves

InfiNet is leading IT service providers in Omaha by working primarily for small business enterprises who want to optimize their computer-networking productivity and enjoy enterprise-level benefits for small-business service fees.

Contact us today at 402.547.4300 or by email at [email protected] for more info on how our Omaha IT service providers will deliver the best results for your IT management and business growth trajectory!

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Boosting Your Business Communications System Has Never Been Easier

Upgrade your outdated PBX phone system with 3CX from InfiNet Solutions.

Business Communications Omaha

The biggest hurdle to adopting a new business phone system is the setup. Installing and maintaining any new technology infrastructure is tricky without the right support – so why not leave all of that hassle to the experts?

With both on-premise and cloud deployment options to choose from, your business can take full advantage of a PBX system that suits your specific needs. Whichever option you choose, your business will benefit from:

Straightforward Installation and Configuration:

  • Use pre-configured templates to connect with prominent SIP trunks within minutes
  • Plug-in an IP Phone or Gateway to your network for automatic configuration
  • Avoid interop Issues with 3CX tested IP Phones

Use Of An Easy Management Console To:

  • Create, edit and delete extensions and DIDs
  • Upgrade IP Phone Firmware.
  • Reprovision & reboot IP phones remotely
  • Import or delete all your important contacts at once

Anywhere Access From Any Device:

  • Take your extension wherever you go and work remotely from anywhere
  • Make free VoIP calls with your smartphone
  • Save battery life with “PUSH” notifications
  • Connect all clients simultaneously via SIP Forking
  • Most Progressive Android & iOS VoIP clients in the UC market
  • Initiate IP Phone calls from your desktop with CTI mode
  • Use the Receptionist view to make calls, then drag and drop calls for a swift call transfer
  • Launch calls directly from your CRM; integrate seamlessly with Office 365, Google contacts or Internal Phonebook
  • Automatically obtain reports on customer and agent activities and view the presence of your colleagues
  • Includes Wallboard and Q-Manager view
  • Integrated WebRTC technology resulting in reduced bandwidth usage
  • Click to Call Chrome Extension

Integrated Video Conferencing:

  • Free for up to 5 participants
  • Unlimited users regardless of edition
  • Initiate a conference with one single click
  • Correlated operability between VoIP and video
  • Bandwidth Management and Control
  • Remote control assistance for quick and easy troubleshooting
  • Pre-upload PowerPoint & PDFs before meetings
  • Easy to use polling tool for feedback

Top-Notch Security and Backup:

  • Secure web server configuration
  • Automatic detection and blacklisting of known SIP Attack tools
  • All traffic to 3CX clients is encrypted via SBC
  • All voice traffic is encrypted via SRTP
  • Automatic generation and management of SSL certificates
  • Revolutionary VoIP Security with an A+ rating from SSL lab
  • Automatic Failover for instant backup
  • Encryption between the browser and the website via HTTPS

Budget-Friendly Solutions:

  • Cut down on your phone bill by up to 80%
  • Pay for licensing based on number of simultaneous calls instead of extensions
  • Avoid per extension licensing and pay per PBX instead
  • Make free Inter-office calls and branch calls
  • Use prominent SIP trunks to reduce outbound call charges
  • Reduce travel expenses with integrated web conferencing
  • Eliminate 800 number phone bills with WebRTC integration
  • Use International DIDs and IP Telephony so your customers can call in at competitive rates

Retire your old, outdated PBX solution and upgrade to the efficient, affordable, and feature-laden IP phone solution provided by our partners at 3CX. This is the business communication system your team has been waiting for.

Ready to learn more about what 3CX provided by InfiNet Solutions has to offer? Contact us at [email protected] or (402) 895--5777 today. We’re the business technology experts businesses in Omaha trust.

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Business Continuity And Natural Disasters: How to Be Prepared

Proper planning allows companies to protect data, systems, and people while keeping the business operational during a disaster.

Disaster Planning

The recent devastating hurricanes to hit the mainland United States and Caribbean countries and territories destroyed entire communities. Families, businesses, and governments were left reeling, forced to pick up the pieces, where possible.

The catastrophic impact of the recent storms reinforces the importance of having a sound business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Creating such a plan allows companies facing a natural disaster to follow a deliberate set of actions. In a time of chaos, having clearly defined contingencies can help leaders and employees weather a storm.

Business Continuity Defined

Business continuity plans allow a company to continue providing essential products, services, and customer support. In some industries, these tasks are critical for the company’s short-term viability, customer safety or meeting legal requirements. Disaster recovery plans, a subset of business continuity, often focus on recovering IT assets.

Business continuity includes the plans and arrangements that ensure that the essential products, services, and support can be provided, which allows the company to recover its property, data, and assets. It’s also a means to identify the employees, equipment, data, infrastructure, counsel, and accommodations that support business continuity.

While the recent hurricanes are the most recent, visible example of why business continuity is important, they are not the only incident where such plans are needed. Other actions that can prompt the launch of a business continuity plan include:

  • Other natural disasters such as blizzards, fires, earthquakes or tornadoes
  • Sabotage
  • Accidents
  • Power or energy disruptions
  • Environmental disasters such as spills, contamination or pollution
  • Communications, transportation or safety infrastructure failures
  • Cyber attacks and hacks

Threats and Trends in Disaster Recovery Preparedness

There are many threats, perceived or actual, that can shape a company’s disaster recovery planning. Here are some of the leading issues companies are considering:

  • The increasing number of natural disasters worldwide. A New England Journal of Medicine study indicated that the number of climate-related natural disasters increased by 300 percent from 2000-2009 compared to 1980-1989.  The scale of these disasters has also grown and now affect more than 200 million people each year.
  • Disruptions may be more predictable. With massive amounts of data, often generated by connected devices in the growing Internet of Things, there’s an opportunity to predict some threats.  With more advanced information, companies have more time to prepare for the disruptions, test plans and deploy resources accordingly.
  • Malicious cyber attacks continue to persist. The massive Equifax hack is just the latest in a litany of attacks where data is being stolen or held hostage.
  • Cloud computing offers an excellent defense. The growing use of cloud-based tools, data storage, and applications, gives companies more options when it comes to data recovery.  Cloud providers usually have built-in safeguards for their services, including multiple data backups, universal access via devices and locations, and physical and digital protection systems.
  • Disruptions are the norm. The preponderance of natural disasters and rogue agents means businesses have no excuse for not having disaster recovery plans in place.  Organizations need to embrace business continuity and disaster recovery as a cost of doing business.
  • Communications are expansive and expected. In the digital age, customers, employees, and the general public expect to have access to updated information about companies and services, even in the direst situations.  Fast communications and frequent updates are the norms today and companies need to incorporate communications into their planning.  Fortunately, the ubiquity of mobile devices and social media platforms means it’s relatively easy to disseminate key messages.

A Closer Look at Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery may vary depending on the industry and company but generally, focuses on a few core areas. Broadly, it’s the work a company does to maintain or recover access to data, software, and hardware needed to resume or continue critical business areas.

In addition, a disaster recovery plan needs to consider the human assets necessary to ensure continuity and ensure that the right people have the tools to ensure disaster recovery plans are acted upon. In some cases, those people may be dealing with their own personal issues in the throes of a disaster, so redundancies in personnel are important.

One key element of a successful disaster recovery or business continuity plan is the need to practice. Drills and scenarios should be developed to test systems, responsiveness, and efficacy.

How to Plan the Plan

How should a company begin the process of business continuity and disaster recovery? Here are a few key tasks:

  • Develop a risk assessment. Having a clear idea of the likely and unlikely risks and having specific plans for each possibility is an important first step.  What natural disasters are likely in your area? What cyber attacks or events would have a significant effect on your business?
  • Detail the impacts. Once a threat is identified, play out the potential impacts of that scenario.  Which customers would be affected?  Which employees?  Would inventories, documents, systems, services be impacted?  What are the long-term risks to your customer base and your business?
  • Create the continuity plan. For each identified threat, a plan needs to be established, including the systems, data, people, and communications necessary.  While some of these contingencies may be the same for multiple threats, each one should have a clearly defined plan.
  • Prep the people and technology. If key personnel is expected even in disasters, they need to be notified and trained about how they will be notified, where they need to report and what tools they will have.  Employees should also be aware of how to exit buildings safely in an emergency and have access to emergency stores of water, food, radios, chargers, and flashlights.  Services and data should be migrated to cloud solutions, backup facilities and alternate media well in advance of a disaster.
  • Protect the business. You should check with your insurance provider to make sure you have the right coverage and protection to keep your company whole when disaster strikes.

Time dedicated to planning can ensure that your business not only survives but thrives when facing daunting challenges.

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Stop Hunting and Pecking for Apps With the Office 365 App Launcher 

How to Use the Office 365 App Launcher to Work Smarter and More Productively 

Office 365 App LauncherFew people will argue that Office 365 offers many features that can help them work more productively. For instance, the cloud-based software and storage will let you work from just about anywhere, use multiple devices, and also collaborate with ease. Typically, Microsoft productivity products have a good reputation for functioning well and offering the features that most people need to do their jobs.

In fact, the main complaint about Office subscriptions is that they come with so many different features that it’s often difficult to find the right tool or document to start working. For example, in the past, lots of us have run into a few snags with these apps:

  • Opening up the apps: When you want to open up Word, Excel, or other apps do you find yourself searching for existing documents that you can open just to get the app to open? Yes, we certainly used to do the same! Sometimes, it seemed quicker to just find a Word document than to hunt around for the Word App icon on the computer or other devices.
  • Knowing which apps are included: The other issue with bundles of apps like the ones that we buy with Office 365 is that they’re first purchased for a few driver apps, like Word and Excel. Like us, you might not even be aware of every piece of software that you have purchased access to. Plenty of users waste time and money to find free or paid applications for certain tasks, and only later, they realize they already had paid for access to a Microsoft product that would have worked very well.

How the Office 365 App Launcher Will Help You Work Smarter

If you’ve ever found that the setup for Office products has hampered your productivity, you should take a few moments to learn more about how the Office 365 App Launcher can help you work smarter and get even more value out of your software products.

Since Office relies so much upon providing online and cloud-based services, you might consider the recent suggestions from the official Office 365 blog to use your products directly from the new app launcher within your browser.

Find Your Customized App Launcher at Office.com

To get started, simply log into Office.com directly. After you have logged in, you will find that the Office 365 App Launcher has already been personalized for you. For example:

  • You will see icons for your own set of most-used apps at the top. You can get started without having to look around for them.
  • On the lower area of the screen, you will see a list of recent documents. You can simply click these to continue working with them right away.

You won’t have to hunt around in different directories or app menus for the apps that you regularly use. Instead, you can just get started by clicking the app icons or one of the recent documents on the list. This feature should help you save time and frustration when you just want to resume work fast.

Explore Your Apps

The features described above will help you get started with common or recent tasks very quickly. However, because those features have been tailored to your typical usage patterns, they won’t help you explore features of Office 365 that you have never or infrequently used. In order to make sure you make the most of your products, the app launcher also includes a feature that helps you learn more about all of the products that you already have access too.

To start learning about different apps, find the link below the list of app icons that invites you to: Explore all of your apps. This exploration function can help you get the most out of your software:

  • You don’t need to know the name of a particular app that you may want to use for collaboration, image editing, and so on. Instead, you should just have a task that you would like to perform in mind.
  • This feature will base its first app suggestions upon your subscription and typical usage patterns. For example, you may see some suggestions that are based upon other apps that you use.
  • Of course, you may want to perform some task that isn’t closely related to your typical work. In that case, you can improve the suggestions by using search terms in the search bar towards the top of the screen.

You can also use this exploration feature to do more than simply comb through all of your apps. For instance, you may have collaborated with a particular person on a document that you need to find so you can search for that person’s name to find the documents you worked together on.

Let the Smart Features of the App Launcher Help You Work Smarter

The new Office 365 Office App Launcher offers a great solution for people who want to make the most of their subscription. Its smart search and listing features can almost serve you as an office assistant that will rapidly help you find the documents and software that you need.

If you have any questions, you can rely on us here at InfiNet Solutions in Omaha. Simply contact us by calling (402) 895--5777 or sending an email to [email protected] for more information.

Stop Hunting and Pecking for Apps With the Office 365 App Launcher  Read More »

Are You Still Risking Your Data with Local Storage?   

If you aren’t storing your business data in the cloud, you’re risking physical damage that may not be recoverable. Learn how to quickly overcome these vulnerabilities in the Cloud.  

Local Data Storage

There was a time when backing up business data included checking the date stamp on a physical tape drive, making a copy, laboriously labeling it, and storing it in a drawer. Well, things have definitely changed for business data storage solutions – And for the better!

Today’s backup options still include on-premise storage but have expanded to provide cloud-based options as well as hybrid alternatives.  They support the need for immediate and full backups with lighter connectivity requirements.

Here are some answers to questions we often receive. They should help you decide which storage option is right for your business.  

Why Are There Risks with Traditional Backups?

There’s a strong likelihood that your current backup solution has been working well for years—So, you may ask, “Why switch?” Until now, you’ve probably been fortunate enough to avoid a physical or cyberattack—But continuing to use less-secure options like jump drives or tape backups simply isn’t sustainable for the long term.

Perfect examples are the recent hurricanes and wildfires ravaging through the country. If your office was in one of those areas, and you relied purely on physical media storage, you would have lost all your data.

The same goes for theft—Hacking of your systems, or someone breaking into your office and physically stealing your backups means your data is gone forever. While this is less likely, a disgruntled employee could do a great deal of damage by doing this.

While automated backup options such as Apple’s Time Machine or other scheduled backups are better, these alternatives are quickly showing their age. They are still vulnerable to physical attacks, and susceptible to cyber attacks as well. The configuration could be either external hard drives attached to each computer and server or an advanced local network setup that stores all backups in a central location.

How About DIY Data Storage?

Proponents can counter the argument that hard drive backups aren’t susceptible to fire, flood, and theft if you take them offsite to a secure location (such as a storage facility, your home or other business location). While this may mitigate some risk, it certainly doesn’t provide the same level of security as a managed security and backup solution. The sheer amount of physical data storage required could get expensive—And restore from a backup can be incredibly challenging, especially if you need data quickly.

What is Cloud-Based Document Storage?

There are different types of cloud-based storage: general document storage and dedicated cloud storage. General document storage includes options such as Dropbox, Box, Microsoft’s OneDrive, Google Drive and more. These services are excellent for providing collaboration capabilities and the ability to retrieve documents regardless of your physical location. However, when you’re dealing with vast quantities of data far beyond standard document and individual file storage, a more robust option is required.  For instance, these general cloud storage alternatives work well even for large files such as photos and videos, but they’re not ideal for highly secure data such as personal information or anything covered by HIPAA regulations.

Are Managed Cloud Services Appropriate for My Business?

This is one of the most professional and reliable options available to businesses of any size. Managed cloud services provide you with peace of mind — Why? Because security professionals will continuously monitor your data for incursions and inconsistencies.  This, plus the convenience of quick file restoration and secure physical storage, makes it a good choice. Dedicated cloud storage often includes a facility that’s staffed 24/7/365, and boasts the latest in state-of-the-art security systems—much more security than any business could afford.

My Business is Seasonal.  What’s the Best Choice for Me?

When you outsource your data storage, you can quickly and easily scale up or down based on your needs. Instead of having to purchase, install and harden a new server to grow your storage capacity, cloud systems scale automatically, or with only a phone call from you. The same is true when usage drops as well and is easily handled by your storage provider. Since you only pay for the storage that you need, many businesses find that this is a cost-effective option that has all the benefits and few, if any, negatives.

What’s Active Monitoring?

If someone hacked into your network or released malware into your systems, how long would it take you to notice? Chances are you wouldn’t see it right away, which is another reason to work with a trusted managed cloud services provider who will actively monitor your network. Active monitoring of your account means proactive patching of any security vulnerabilities, plus quick action once the danger is identified.

Want to learn more about which backup and data-storage solutions are right for your business in Omaha? Contact InfiNet Solutions at (402) 895--5777 or [email protected] to speak with one of our IT security professionals.  We’ll listen to, and understand your needs before suggesting any solutions.

Are You Still Risking Your Data with Local Storage?    Read More »

Business Telephone Services

Business Telephone Services & VoIP Business Telephones

Replace Your Outdated PBX System with New 3CX Phone Service in Omaha

If you’re having less than desirable results with your PBX system, there’s a new business phone system you can connect with. Our 3CX phone service in Omaha will go a long way to optimizing your business’ voice connectivity, and we can get you optimum results in a relatively short time-frame.

Easy Installation & Management

Are you looking to replace your company’s outdated PBX – but only want to replace it with something that’s at least as easy to manage? With 3CX phone service in Omaha there’s no need to worry about management and installation issues.

InfiNet has you covered on both points. And, we make Omaha 3CX Phone Service scalable, cost-efficient, and user-friendly as well.

Installation & Configuration

Our Omaha 3CX VoIP phone service makes installation and configuration simple, allowing you to:

  • Connect with prominent SIP trunks within minutes with pre-configured templates.
  • Plug-in an IP Phone or Gateway to your network for automatic configuration.
  • Avoid interop Issues with 3CX tested IP Phones.

What Else Does Our Hosted 3CX IP PBX Phone Service Provide?

There’s much our 3CX hosted phone system provides, for the same familiar prices you’re used to for business VoIP phones. Through the easy-to-use management console you can:

  • Create, edit and delete extensions and DIDs.
  • Upgrade IP Phone Firmware.
  • Reprovision & reboot IP phones remotely.
  • Import or delete all contacts at once.

Deploy On-premise or Cloud: The Choice is Yours

With 3CX phone service in Omaha, deployment of your VoIP PBX is straightforward and flexible. Whether you choose to set up in the cloud or on-premise, a 3CX IP PBX system offers a solution anyone in business today can appreciate.

Itemized 3CX Cloud Hosting Benefits

  • Use the PBX Express tool to deploy your free Cloud PBX, in minutes.
  • Select from a range of mainstream cloud providers such as Google, OVH, Amazon, 1&1 and many more.
  • Jump aboard the PBX Express and benefit from the 1-year Free Edition License offer.
  • The free Edition License includes: 8 simultaneous calls (up to 25 extensions), 1 SIP Trunk and 5 web conferencing participants.

On-premise Solutions

  • Deploy on existing Windows or Linux machine.
  • Deploy on a MiniPC Appliance.
  • Virtualize and segregate on Hyper-V or VMware.

Security & Backup

When it comes to VoIP security, 3CX sets the standard. 3CXs inbuilt security has been exclusively developed to protect your PBX system from attacks. We’ll ensure that your 3CX phone service in Omaha delivers:

  • Increased secure web server configuration.
  • Automatic detection & blacklisting of SIP Attack tools.
  • Traffic to 3CX clients is encrypted via SBC.
  • Voice traffic is encrypted via SRTP.
  • Automatic generation and management of SSL certs.
  • Revolutionary VoIP Security with A+ rating from SSL lab.
  • Automatic Failover for instant backup.
  • Encryption between the browser and the website ensured via HTTPS.

On-Demand Cost-Efficiency

By opting-in on our 3CX phone service in Omaha, your ongoing telco cost savings will be significant – and so will the cost of buying, expanding and maintaining your PBX. You can also:

  • Decrease your phone bill by 80%.
  • Get licensing based on a number of simultaneous calls and not extensions.
  • Avoid per extension licensing and pay per PBX instead.
  • Make free Inter-office calls and branch calls
  • Use prominent SIP trunks to reduce outbound call charges
  • Reduce travel expenses with integrated web conferencing
  • Eliminate 800 number phone bills with WebRTC integration
  • Use International DIDs & IP Telephony so customers can call in at competitive rates

3CX Phone System Clients & Features

With a 3CX phone system, you can take your extension wherever you go, from VoIP clients for Android and iOS, Soft Clients for Windows and Mac, to clientless web conferencing and the integrated web client, you are guaranteed to be kept in the loop wherever you go.

Download 3CX Clients on your Android / iOS Device:

  • Use your extension from anywhere.
  • Free VoIP calls with your smartphone.
  • Save battery life with “PUSH” notifications.
  • Connect all clients simultaneously via SIP Forking.
  • Most Progressive Android & iOS VoIP clients in the UC market.
  • Benefit from integrated features such as, Presence, web conferencing, conference calling.

Easy to Use Windows & Mac Softphones:

  • Initiate IP Phone calls from your desktop with CTI mode.
  • Work remotely from anywhere.
  • Easily view the presence of your colleagues.
  • Use the Receptionist view to administer calls, then drag and drop calls for a swift call transfer.
  • Launch calls directly from your CRM; integrate seamlessly with Office 365, Google contacts or Internal Phonebook.
  • Automatically obtain reports on customer and agent activities.
  • Includes Wallboard and Q-Manager view.

The Web Client feature allows you:

  • Multifunctional Web Client with inclusive multiple features.
  • Integrated WebRTC technology resulting in reduced bandwidth usage.
  • Click to Call Chrome Extension.

Integrated Video Conferencing features include:

  • Free for up to 5 participants.
  • Unlimited users regardless of edition.
  • Initiate a conference with one single click.
  • Correlated operability between VoIP and video.
  • Bandwidth Management and Control.
  • Remote control assistance for quick & easy troubleshooting.
  • Pre-upload PowerPoint & PDFs before meetings.
  • Easy to use polling tool for feedback.

Let Our Omaha Business Phone Experts Elevate Your Connectivity

If you’re ready for better business phone solutions in Omaha, then contact us today at 402.547.4300 or by email at [email protected] for more info on how our IT services company will deliver the best business VoIP phone results for you with our 3CX phone service in Omaha.

Business Telephone Services & VoIP Business Telephones Read More »

Don’t Make a Bad Situation Even Worse.  Beware of Equifax Scams.  

The Equifax breach was bad enough. Read about the most common Equifax-related scams to keep from being a victimized twice.

Equifax Security Breach

Over 143 million US residents have a reason to worry about the fallout of this year’s Equifax hack. As we all try to sort out how this massive breach has affected us, there are new dangers on the horizon. Consumers from all over the country are reporting an increasing number of Equifax-related scams that attempt to take advantage of the hacker’s victims.

I strongly suggest that our clients take the necessary steps to minimize exposure to this breach. Whether you sign up for aggressive credit monitoring or freezing credit reports, it’s important to take action to keep a bad situation from getting worse by recognizing Equifax scams.

Common Equifax Scams to Avoid

Fake Help Scam

Don’t trust anyone who contacts you out-of-the-blue offering to protect you from the Equifax breach. Many consumers report getting phone calls from people pretending to work for Equifax. Once the scammers convince the target that they’re from Equifax, they explain Equifax is helping vulnerable individuals sign up for credit monitoring. But before the target can sign up, he needs to verify personal information.

This scam has a high potential to trick many people, specifically because Equifax publicly promised to provide free credit monitoring for all US residents. A similar scam involves conmen posing as employees of another credit monitoring service.

If you receive a call like this, hang up instantly. Equifax won’t contact customers by phone. While Equifax did promise to provide credit monitoring, you need to sign up yourself.

Don’t let a scammer trick you into giving up your sensitive information. And just because your Caller ID says the phone call is coming from Equifax or another well-known company, it doesn’t mean you can believe it. Spammers can spoof your Caller ID to confuse you. Remember, you can check for yourself on the Equifax’s website to determine if you’re at risk because of the hack. If you are, you can sign up for their free credit monitoring for a limited time.

Tax Refund Fraud

Most people don’t realize that an identity thief can file a false tax return using their stolen information. After all, the IRS is part of the government—Don’t they keep records to prevent this thing from happening? While the IRS does maintain records on US taxpayers, they don’t scrutinize every tax return before sending out a refund check.  By the time you realize someone stole your identity, the thieves are long gone. Now you’re faced with the difficult task of explaining what happened to the IRS.

With the popularity of eFiling, the IRS saw an increase in the number of identity crimes relating to tax returns.  The good news is that this number has declined during the last few years. In 2015, there were over 700,000 reported cases of people filing tax returns using stolen identities—But in 2016, the number fell to 377,000.  This was due to tougher security checks, and people working with tax preparers to minimize fraud. However, tax experts expect an increase in the number of fraudulent tax returns this year due to the enormous amount of personal information hacks stole in the Equifax breach.

One of the best ways to protect yourself from being a victim of a tax return scam is to file your taxes as soon as possible. Once the IRS receives your tax return for the year, any subsequent tax returns it receives won’t be processed.

Spear-phishing Scams

A phishing scam is an attempt by a fraudster to persuade you to reveal useful information. I am sure there isn’t a week that goes by when you haven’t opened your inbox and discovered at least one phishing scam. These types of emails are usually easy to spot and don’t cost people much more than a momentary delay while they delete them. However, there’s a deadlier version of a phishing scam circulating—It’s called spear phishing.

A spear-phishing scam is similar to a regular phishing scam, but it’s a lot more sophisticated. These scams are extremely dangerous because the scammer customizes the email for each victim. Instead of using generic information, like in a regular phishing email, a spear-phishing email includes real information, the same type hackers stole during the Equifax breach.  In this way, they convince a victim that the email is legitimate. Spear-phishing emails can include your name, the names of your friends or coworkers, your place of employment, or even your current purchases or available credit.

Since spear-phishing scams are difficult to recognize, I tell my clients to never click links from inside an email.  Always type the name of the website in a browser to verify that it’s trustworthy. And, be especially careful when dealing with emails that ask for private information. The best way to remain safe is to never send sensitive information via email. Instead, contact the sender of the email by telephone to make sure the correct person really requested the information from you.

The Equifax hack should serve as a wake-up call for many business owners.  Take a second look at the way your business handles data. Make sure your company has a properly designed data security plan, and that your staff knows how to reduce the risk of data loss by conducting frequent training throughout the year. Feel free to contact me to find out if your data is secure.

Don’t Make a Bad Situation Even Worse.  Beware of Equifax Scams.   Read More »