When you are winning new clients or building your professional profile, LinkedIn allows you to research on various key contacts. It seems “it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know” still holds value.

We looked though the features of LinkedIn and found various ways in which you are able to personalize your account.

Ask for Recommendations
Recommendations are a valuable part of your profile and could be the one thing that gets you the deal when a possible client/recruiter is comparing you to your competitor. Most people forget to ask for a recommendation; however they can make you stand out from the crowd.

Research
If you are meeting an employer or potential client, by looking them up and finding something out about them, can help break the ice.

Update your Summary
Ensure you include your unique abilities and differentiators, such as industry awards and honors. In the second paragraph, you should define your career aspirations, including a summary of your work experience.

Improve your Connections
By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with.

Increase your visibility
Some users only put their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities. Using your existing C.V. can make it easier to fill your profile.

If you would like more tips on how to make the most of your LinkedIn Profile call 0207 644 2610 or email info@fifosys.com

It is predicted that by 2016, 9.5 million employees in the UK will be using their own devices for work.

Even though it is a recent topic of discussion this concept has been used within the Higher Education Sector for many years as majority of students prefer using their own equipment for their personal or academic usage rather than the ones provided.

The BYOD scheme would work within some organisations, depending the type of data that is being transferred. When thinking about implementing this scheme the organisation need to ask themselves, what is the information that it is trying to protect? What is it worth? It is important that everyone in the organisation understands how important IT security is and should be educated on security risks all employees should understand the rules that are in place.

Advantages and Disadvantage of BYOD

Advantages

• Businesses that adopt a BYOD policy allow themselves to save money on such high priced devices that normally they would be required to purchase for their employees.
• Employees maytake better care of a device that they view as their own property.
• Employees are able to decide on the technology that they wish to use for work.

Disadvantages

The most important challenge in a BYOD environment is ensuring network security. This is a major concern for organisations which deal with confidential data. If users bring their own devices, it becomes very difficult to monitor various devices. Some devices may transmit viruses and damage the network and other devices connected to the network.

However due to security issues employees do not have true full control over their device as the company they work for would need to ensure that private information is secure at all times. It is an out-of-pocket expense for the employee and they would be responsible for repairs if the device was damaged or broken while doing work required by the job.

What are your views on BYOD? If you would like any more information about various devices contact the Fifosys team on 0207 644 2610

We have found that users either have extremely secure passwords like K!*1urd~1# that are so difficult to remember that they have to write them down (which defeats the security of a password) or extremely unsecure to start with, like London.

We have compiled a list of top tips of how you can have a secure password;

• Use BOTH upper- and lower-case letters.
• Place numbers and punctuation marks randomly in your password.
• Make your password long and complex, so it is hard to crack. Between 8 to 20 characters long is recommended.
• Use one or more of these special characters: ! @ # $ % * ( ) – + = , < > : : “ ‘
• To help you easily remember your password, consider using a phrase or a song title as a password. For example, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” becomes “Sw0tR8nBO” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit” becomes “sMll10nspT.”
• Make your password easy to type quickly. This will make it harder for someone looking over your shoulder to steal it.
• Create different passwords for different accounts and applications. That way, if one account is breached, your other accounts won’t be put at risk too.
• Don’t share your password with anyone else. Once it’s out of your control, so is your security.
• Never enable the “Save Password” option, even if prompted to do so. Pre-saved passwords make it easy for anyone else using your computer to access your accounts.
• Never walk away from a shared computer without logging off. This will ensure no other users can access your accounts.

If you would like help with ensuring your password is secure then contact us on 0207 644 2610 or info@fifosys.com

We researched reasons social media isn’t an option and should be used to its full potential;

1. Brand Savvy
Consumers are more and more aware about who and where they purchase products from and people will take the time to research online before making a purchase. By having a social media presence that is both engaging and engaged it helps reassure clients that your business is reputable and can be trusted.

2. Show you are Human not just a machine
Social media gives your business the opportunity to reach out and actually connect with your audience. Show your audience some personality

3. Build upon your Connections
Everyone has a circle of trust therefore; use your connections to influence the people around you and your brand. They will often share your brand with others in theirs.

4. Brand exposure
If your brand can really embrace the nature of social media, through providing great content and engaging and interacting with
your audience in a manner that leads to building a great community that people want to be involved with, then your brand will get a great boost.
5. It’s the new age referral
Everyone is aware that referrals are the best source of credibility and what better way to interact with new potential clients than via people who have already experienced what your brand has to offer? When your social media presence starts to generate conversation and reactions such as; likes, shares, tweets, pins or whatever else it maybe then you get their approval. This social recommendation is visible to that persons individual following and acts as a great gateway for their friends or family to
get to know more about your brand.

6. Offer​ discounts: Once you have an account on Facebook or Twitter or even before you gain a significant following the best thing you can do is offering discounts. People will follow you then and they also will buy.

7. Watch the competition: In case you are not on social media your competition probably already is. You can watch their steps and try to learn or mimic them. As long as they excel on social media you have to do that. Than you can just watch them like you watch your overall industry and mentions of your brand. Google Alerts is your first love to do it but plenty of other tools assist you here.

What is Foursquare?
Foursquare, is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones, users “check in” at various locations by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application.

Why should I use it?
Foursquare is primarily for letting your friends know where you are and figuring out where they are. Secondarily, it’s for collecting points, prize “badges,” and eventually, coupons.

How is this different to Facebook’s Check in?
You are able to check in to various locations using Foursquare as you can with Facebook, however with Foursquare each check-in awards the user points and sometimes “badges”. By checking into various locations you’re able to see what offers and discounts they offer. For example if you check in to a local restaurant, you may be eligible for various discount and/or promotions.

Can I use it on my portable device?
Foursquare currently has iPhone, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry applications. Users may also use their mobile browsers to access foursquare mobile, but feature phone users must search for venues manually instead of using GPS that PDA applications can use.

How can I use it?
Like all social networks, just go to the foursquare site and sign up with a free profile.

How to collect points?
Each time the user checks into a place, he or she receives points. Scores break down as follows:

• Checking in to a new place – 5 points
• Adding a new venue – 5 points
• Being the first of the user’s friends to check into a new location – 3 points
• Checking in to a place the user has been before – 1 point
• Location multiplier for each place a user goes in a day – 1 point per location
• Points for checking in with the same friend at multiple locations – BFF bonus

Let us know what you think?

You will need to remember that an open networking gives hackers a free pass to sneak into your system and steal your data or even your identity.

However don’t be alarmed and not use this service because of the risks , just simply take a few precautions;

1. Don’t connect to networks with strange names
If you’re out in a coffee shop and you have decided to connect to the Wi-Fi network and you are offered two options “Ian’s Coffee” and “Free Public Wi-Fi.” Which one would you choose? It is likely that majority of customers would choose the latter, however this is when alarm bells should be ringing as it could be a fake network set up by hackers. And by connecting to it, you run the risk of exposing every piece of data you send and receive.

If in doubt, ask someone who works there what their network is called. If you’re a customer, they should be happy to tell you the network name and password so you can start surfing.

2. ‘S’ is for ‘security’
When you type a Web address into your browser, preface it with “https” instead of the usual “http.” The former activates something called Secure Socket Layer (SSL), which is a fancy term for encrypted browser traffic.

Without SSL, hackers find out exactly what you are searching for and even typing, so just double check when you want to view your online banking or when you weant to access any personal information.

3. Always Log Off/Turn Off
If you have finished checking your emails, then turn off your Wi-Fi. That’s the best protection you can buy, and you’ll even gain longer battery life.

4. Lock it down
Data security is one thing, but don’t forget about securing your actual laptop. In the minute or two when you get distracted or walk away, a thief can easily walk off with your portable device.

If you would like more information about “How to safely connect to public Wi-Fi” then contact the Fifosys team on 0207 644 2610

Using The All List
Many organizations have distribution lists so employees can send the same message to everyone on their team. Users must remember the list usually goes to everyone in the organization.  Not everyone needs to know when their daughters are selling cookies, when they’re going on vacation, when they’ve moved their office, when they’re collecting for a good cause etc. This breach of good manners annoys everyone.

Opening Attachments From Strangers
Some users see an attachment as a gift — surprise! They just can’t help themselves. You can tell users not to open attachments, but good virus protection will usually protect the system. However intrigued users still open attachments from strangers. Best practice would be  not to open attachments if in doubt

Clicking Links
Clicking links take you to interesting siteswith all kinds of offers however embedded controls and scripts do all kinds of negative
things to the system. Most links are harmless, but most users can’t establish a legitimate link from one that leads to a phishing site, hard drive failure, or worse.

Making this mistake can mean the user can’t work until the system is fixed.  By implementing the best software defenses you can, consistently remind users not to click links in unsolicited emails.

Sharing Stuff
The amount of bandwidth and storage user’s waste spreading gossip and chain letters and pictures of their nights is phenomenal. So please be aware you are slowing down the internet for everyone else!

Just an idea – use a USB stick if you would like to show your pictures to colleagues.

Ignoring Messages
Some users just don’t want to communicate via email however it is the key way for co-workers to interact. Unfortunately, there’s always one or two users who ignore emails or claim, “I never got that message.” You can try to correct this behavior by sending a read receipt!

Deleting Necessary Items
Why do Outlook users delete: emails, tasks, appointments, etc. to then find they need them again.  Just a bit of friendly advice; always double check what you delete.

A successful new business can increase in size very quickly requiring new members of staff, new software and hardware, and even new systems to manage, store, and work with data. It’s during this expansion when the IT infrastructure will first be placed under the kind of stress it hasn’t yet experienced. A scalable infrastructure that was designed and developed with this very situation in mind will be able to cope well under the increased pressure and the IT team will be able to implement the necessary changes without too much additional work.

An IT infrastructure that does not include the provisions for expansion will either require a major redesign or will need scrapping and completely replacing. Both of these outcomes will cost a business money and, perhaps more damagingly under the circumstances, time. The new team members will have no IT access and existing team members will have to find a way to work around the problems that will quickly surface. When considering IT infrastructure design always consider that your business is going to expand in one way or another and make adequate allowances for that expansion.

There are many solutions available that offer scalability – talk to one of our consultants to see which solution is the best fit for your business

The two most obvious factors of a high speed Internet connection are the receipt and delivery of email as well as quicker Internet browsing. Email completely changed the face of business communication and where it was once necessary to wait several days for responses to letters, B2B and B2C clients now expect responses to their emails in considerably quicker time. Of course, these expectations are two fold and you and other email users will also expect information quicker.

Data isn’t just transmitted by email any longer. Online business collaboration tools are becoming an integral part of many business IT networks whether this is through a VPN or through web based collaborative tools. High speed Internet access allows the effective use of such tools and allows access to high speed networks that make working practices even more profitable. High speed Internet access should be considered an integral part of any business IT network especially when prices are often similar to those of standard Internet connections. Similarly, it can also pay dividends to check your network connections and settings to ensure you’re getting the most from that high speed connection.

The main benefit of business continuity planning is enabling your business to recover quickly from unexpected events that disrupt your IT systems.
A business that can demonstrate an effective business continuity plan has a competitive advantage. For example, if you provide services to customers that are dependent upon your IT systems, like an internet service provider, then evidence of a sound plan can be used to win or retain customers. For instance, if your business is a partner in a supply chain, business continuity planning may well need to be an integral part of your quality assurance.

Your Business Continuity plan should aim to reduce the risks posed by disruption to your business processes. Measures that you need to include:
• A back-up and data recovery strategy, including off-site storage.
• The development of a resilient IT infrastructure with redundancies (spare capacity) in case of failure. For example, mirrored central server computers sited in different locations, each containing the same information, so that if one goes down, the other one is available to ensure continuity of service and alternative storage facilities.
• The elimination of single points of failure, such as a single power supply.

Question for your IT manager
Q. In event of a disaster (such as a fire) how quickly can you have us back up and running?
A. If they have considered the above – the answer should be less than 4 hours