HTL Support News

Read the latest information and thinking on the world of IT Support Services.

How to Deal With Software End-of-Life (EOL)

How to Deal With Software End-of-Life

Much as companies would like to use their devices and equipment for decades, sadly there’s an end for everything. Well not all perhaps, but at least for the programs and applications that are installed in workstations of organisations, the end may come sooner than anticipated. And enterprises must be prepared for this.

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Remote Working Is the Future – Can Your Business Keep Up?

Remote work is the future

We’re heading towards the end of the year and it’s becoming crystal-clear that remote working is going to be much more common in the medium and long term. The British Council for Offices suggests, for example, that most office workers do not think that they are going to return to the established pattern of five days in the office.

One novel aspect of the COVID emergency earlier this year was that many businesses were able to continue operating with relatively little disruption due to the wide range of accessible remote working tools on the market. However, facilitating remote working in an emergency is one thing: established, persistent remote working is another matter altogether.

In this article, we outline five key considerations to ensure that your staff can work remotely in a sustainable, competitive, and secure way.

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The Real Consequences of Poor IT Support

The Real Consequences of Poor IT Support

IT support services are a vital component of every organisation. Enterprises today operate in a tech-dominated landscape, and IT support is key to helping them efficiently run their operations. Its primary role is to provide help to businesses that produce, market, and use technology products from phones and computers to hardware and software. That’s about every business out there.

But in the same way that strong IT support can boost an organisation’s capabilities in so many aspects, ineffective support can also cause some grave consequences for the business. Results from a study conducted by UK-based IT services firm A&OA revealed just how important IT support London is to companies.

Four in ten businesses claimed to have lost sales due to the lack of IT support, while 38 percent of the surveyed organisations said that their service provider failed to offer suggestions for system improvements, leading to poor performance. Clearly, IT support in London and elsewhere in the globe has a huge impact on businesses.

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What's next for the Established Productivity Leader – Office 365?

What's next for the established productivity leader – Office 365

Not that long ago, countless businesses were hotly debating whether to adopt Microsoft’s cloud productivity suite – Office 365 – thereby shifting their on-premise solutions to the cloud.

Today, cloud productivity suites are essentially the accepted route unless a business has very specific reasons to host its data locally – compliance or regulatory obstacles, for example. But Microsoft Office 365 is still a hot topic simply because the cloud productivity solution changes so rapidly.

It’s worth keeping an eye on what’s changed in Microsoft Office 365 because businesses can easily get caught out by features that are mothballed while missing out on new benefits. In this article, we take a look at the most recent updates to Office 365.

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Store It Like a Pro: How to Maximise Cloud Storage Benefits

Store It Like a Pro

Cloud computing, the delivery of on-demand computing services over the internet, has revolutionised the way businesses operate across many industries. Cloud storage is one of its most commonly-used applications. This storage method offers many benefits that can prove to be very advantageous for every company that uses it.

Numerous organisations have already switched to the cloud for their storage needs, and it’s only a matter of time before the majority of all data of most enterprises will be stored in the cloud.

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Data Democratisation - What is It and Why is It Important?

Data Democratisation

In this Information Age, businesses have been inundated with all types of data from various sources—social, machine, and transactional data. Despite the rapidly growing flood of big data however, access to information primarily remains with those who have the technical capability to analyse the data.

Now, as more organisations realise the power of data to transform a business, many have recognised the need to make data more accessible to others. Hence, the conversation on data democratisation. In this post, we discuss what it is and why it could be beneficial to your business, why access to data was previously limited to a select few, and what you can do to implement a data democratisation strategy that equally addresses both risks and benefits.

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Why Hyper-convergence Matters for Businesses of All Sizes

Why Hyperconvergence Matters for Business IT

IT managers never want technology solutions that are more complex than they need to be. At the same time, we also want technology solutions that are easy to scale. Of course, complexity gets in the way of scalability.

The trend towards hyperconvergence solves both issues: complexity and scalability. For many workloads, a hyperconverged approach can make life much easier and save costs at the same time. Read on to find out what exactly hyperconvergence is and how can it benefit your technology environment.

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Mobile Payments: The Benefits and Risks for Business

Globally, more and more SMEs are now integrating mobile payments into their payment options because of the ease of acceptance, and are improving sales and offering convenience to customers. This does not mean, however, that there are no downsides to adopting this technology into your business.

In this post, we go over the various factors that should help you evaluate the suitability of using the mobile payment system. But first, let’s have a clear understanding of what it is.

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Six Common IT Mistakes Made by Small Businesses – And How to Avoid Them

Six Common IT Mistakes Made by Small Businesses – And How to Avoid Them

In a tech-first world, even small businesses are highly reliant upon technology to get through the typical business day. Make the wrong decisions around technology, or skimp on IT support services, and it could cost your growing business dearly.

However, with so many things to focus on, growing businesses often leave IT on the backburner – and that leads to mistakes. Here, we list the ten most common IT mistakes growing businesses make – and what they can do about it.

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5 Best Use Cases of Internet of Things

5 Best Use Cases of Internet of Things

Nothing brings together the defining elements of this technological era-connectivity, devices, and data-like the Internet of Things. Put simply, the IoT is a system which connects a vast number of well, things; from simple sensors and consumer wearables, to IoT applications and industrial machines. All of these can be connected through the web to share data and ‘communicate’ with each other.

One of the simplest and best-known applications of IoT is a smart home, in which internet-enabled appliances such as security, lighting, and heating systems can be controlled remotely. While not everybody needs home automation, and some IoT devices should not have seen the light of day (think connected mirrors and smart salt shakers), it cannot be denied that in the more sensible use cases, the Internet of Things does improve how people work and live.

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