5 hidden costs of aging technology

Did you know that most business owners don’t even think about replacing technology until it fails? That can make it more expensive than it has to be. Here’s why.

• More downtime – Lost time is lost money for essential equipment and software 
• Lower efficiency – Competitors with newer solutions can do more in less time 
• Higher maintenance costs – Spending more money to get the job done hurts margins 
• Costly rentals – Substitute equipment is expensive and can create cash flow issues 
• Urgent replacements – Emergencies can lead to rushed decision making on long-term solutions

Is any of your technology getting to the place where it may be costing more than you thought? Get in touch and let’s break down the costs to see if an update could save you some money in the long run.

Don't forget that the cutoff for support of Windows 7 is coming up on January 14th 2020.

Message Center Major Change Update Notification

Microsoft sent out notification of another change in their Office 365 licensing that will be starting Nov 22, 2019. It involves Microsoft Teams Licensing and states:

To align Microsoft Teams with other workloads, we will be retiring the ability to disable Microsoft Teams for all users of a particular license category.

Note: Edu Faculty and Edu Student license categories are excluded from this change.

We'll be gradually rolling this out to customers starting November 22, 2019, and the roll out will be completed by the mid-December.

[How does this impact me?]

Users who were previously disabled for Teams via this option will now become enabled for Teams. Admins who wish to continue to disable these users will have to do so via the “Manage Product Licenses” option in the Office 365 Admin Portal Active Users page.

I normally jump to the How Does this impact me? section to see what we need to do. I don't currently know of any of you that this will cause a problem for but if it does let us know and we can address it.

Google chief warns visitors about smart speakers in his home

We put signs up around our businesses when we have video surveillance shouldn't we do the same thing in our homes if you have voice activated devices to warn visitors of their presence? Here is an interesting article that caught Rick Osterloh a little off guard when asked if Home Owners should warn about these devices in their homes. He said that he does… sure.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/10/22/google-chief-warns-visitors-about-smart-speakers-in-his-home/