Is your smart device secure?

By the end of 2015 there will be 1.9 billion smartphone users worldwide. They will increase to 2.16 billion by 2016, up 12.6% in a single year. Even in Malta, smartphone and tablet use is on an exponential increase.

The two main players in the market, namely Apple and their Android counterparts, are in fierce competition to offer faster, rigid and new functionality on their devices.

Apart from the hardware functionality, apps turn your device into anything you need it to be –a car sat-nav system, a game console, an internet browsing machine and a monitoring station for your data centre. I once managed to configure an array of these and make LUNs (Logical Unit Number) available to hosts on a storage system while sitting on a bench in Hyde Park. My tablet was connected to my wife’s smartphone sharing a 3G network… and the storage array was connected to our office LAN in Malta!

This functionality and accessibility makes our lives easier, but we tend to overlook the risks associated with such technologies. Smart devices are becoming increasingly lighter and smaller with the aim to ease portability. This in turn makes them increasingly vulnerable for loss or theft. If no precautions are taken, you might end up losing a device providing easy access to your email and social network accounts, photos and other personal contacts and data.

Here’s how you can have a secure smart device:

• Is your device set to automatically lock after a short period of inactivity As with all electronic and computing devices back up your data in case you lose the device.
• Is your device locked? How easy is it to unlock it? Is it just a simple swipe or is an unlock code or touch multiple points on a grid? If you have answered yes to these questions, well done! You have made it difficult for an unauthorised user to gain access to your device.
• What about the data on the internal storage or the even easier accessible micro SD card within your device?
• The fourth step is to encrypt your device. This makes device data on both the phone and micro SD accessible only once it is decrypted when the device boots.

Make sure encryption is done before you start to use your device or else you will lose all data during the initial encryption process. These settings are usually natively available on most devices and can be found within the security section of your device’s settings.

Once these steps are taken care of you can be the proud owner of an secure smart device.

Companies, on the other hand, may opt to increase security and use mobile device management which would enable a wide array of remote options and capabilities.

Good luck!

Dennis Debono - Head of Technical Services & Stores, Technical Services & Stores

www.ptl.com.mt

Click here to download a free copy of Avira Antivirus for your device!

Start - IT - up

Start-IT-up (IT Services & Security)

Starting a business is a big step that is not for the faint hearted.  Entrepreneurs who take this step are usually driven by a strong sense of purpose and have a tenacity that steers them to take up the challenge and dominate the niche that they have identified.  This process involves high elements of risk and of the unknown as well as a great reliance on external factors outside the business’ control.

Start-ups are driven by passion and by purpose and they need to be extremely wise with their investments and choices especially in the areas of IT and security, two independent yet very inter-related areas that enable businesses to operate smoothly, keep constantly connected and ensure that their online and international presence continues to flourish despite their current size and resource limitations.

The delicate balance that needs to be struck between choosing a provider that will simply get the job done versus choosing a provider that will understand, consult and support the start-up in its current phase and future growth is a daunting task that, just like starting up in the first place, requires nerves of steel.  It is the choice between a short-sighted technical approach and a more long-term partnership with a reliable and trusted provider who can understand what the start-up business really requires to succeed.  It is the choice between a pure technical supplier or a trusted partner who can appreciate the start-up’s vision, share its drive and support its growth.

www.ptl.com.mt

10 tips about how businesses of all sizes can benefit from using managed IT services. 

1. secure SERVICES, USING the best TECHNOLOGY available

Thanks to PTL's long term partnerships with some of the best known brands in the industry, PTL is able to provide an excellent, secure service which focuses specifically on the needs of the customer and their business.

2. LOW CAPITAL Expenses AND controllable MONTHLY COSTS

The investment in specialist hardware and software will be high. PTL's managed service offers you the highest quality enterprise and carrier grade solutions. A fixed regular payment plan means you know what you're going to get and how much it's going to cost over the contract. No unexpected upgrade charges or changes in charges, guaranteed.

3. FLEXIBLE SERVICE

Since every business has different IT requirements PTL can offer a flexible service tailor made for your business' needs.

4. Single point of contact

PTL's service desk will receive your call and provide initial assistance. The call is then escalated to PTL's specialists to provide remote support or a scheduled visit. PTL will also use it's strong business relationship with other vendors to act as a single point of contact for your business.

5. Reliable, SECURE and stable INFRASTRUCTURE

A Managed Service Provider's data centres and managed network infrastructure is much more robust than a standard Enterprise IT service. Infrastructure is run under 24x7x365 management, with strict and high approval security procedures.

6. EXPERTISE and knowledge

With Many years of experience in the IT industry PTL gives you access to staff with specialist skills and knowledge. Sometimes you will only need this skill once, so you can save the expense of training your staff for skills they will never use!

7. CENTRALISATION

With a managed network you can benefit from the ability to centralise all your applications and servers within managed data centres or cloud services, this leads to improved performance of staff, regardless of location. Access to centralised data centres within the network can also provide access to virtual services, as well as storage and backup infrastructure.

8. Higher SERVICE LEVELS

PTL's Managed IT Services provide greater control of service levels and performance. With service level agreements in place you can be sure of continuity of service. 

9. DISASTER RECOVERY AND BUSINESS CONTINUITY

The delivery of services is the life blood of the Managed Service Provider. PTL has designed networks and data centres that will be available, resilient and redundant for maintaining business continuity. Your data will be safe and your main critical services will continue to be delivered even if you main office is lost.

10. Practice a green policy

By centralising your critical business systems within data centres and running your applications on a virtual platform, your business can benefit from a huge power saving - lowering your carbon footprint whilst reducing costs. 

For more info click here

IT MANAGED SERVICES - Putting your IT systems in good hands - PTL 

Has your business grown faster than your IT team?

PTL’s Managed Services package provides comprehensive IT services and support to relieve you of burdensome technology matters. That way, you are able to focus on serving your own customers better and winning new ones.

Acting as a single point of contact, PTL’s team of experts is able to provide a wide range of technology-related services to reinforce your IT capabilities, fill technology gaps, and even collate the data you need to submit business proposals. 

The Managed Services portfolio includes

 vendor management
 hardware support
 IT security
 data base administration
 server services
 business continuity
 and many more

PTL’s Managed Services package is tailored according to your requirements, no matter the size of your business or the sector in which you operate. 

Whether it is to supplement an existing complement of in-house technology people, create timely support function or be your outsourced IT staff, PTL can help you in a cost effective manner. PTL offers a large compliment of full time professional ICT staff, trained and certified in a large multitude of disciplines. Our service provides for regular maintenance visits as well as a responsive callout service. With PTL, your company can have a large accessible IT team, all at an affordable price.

www.ptl.com.mt

5 steps to solve common IT problems in a second! Home

Most of us get to use a computer on a daily basis and at some point or another we all come across a moment in the day where our PC's decide not to collaborate any more! Here are some quick foolproof methods you could easily learn in order to troubleshoot your pc and fix your problems quickly.

Step 1) Turn it off and on again

This is usual a common fix for most problems, and most support technicians will tell you to do this as a first attempt. Most of the time the issue is solved after this.

Step 2) Check your updates window

Run through the updates section of your pc to make sure everything is up to date, as even the smallest of updates may result in fixing a serious bug in your computer, or help achieve smoother performance.
 

In case of a slow computer:

All PC's slows down every now and then, and even though most users usually blame the hardware, it is not always the case. A slow PC could be the result of software too, and it will only take up a few minutes of your time in order to fix this.

Step 3) Check your System Configuration

Having a lot of programs and applications set to automatically run when your computer starts up may be the result of slow performance. This may cause the computer processor to overload, causing it to slow down … a lot!

In order to fix this, open up the System Configuration by typing in msconfig in your ‘run’ command window or in the ‘search window’ situated in the start menu at the bottom left of your screen.

Tick the programs which are really necessary to run at Startup. Any secondary programs which can easily be opened manually after would be better left un-ticked. By doing this you will be lightening the load on your computer.

Step 4) Check your internet connection.

If your PC tends to slow down when you’re browsing the internet, the result of this performance loss is probably network related. Using a speed test program or speed test website as shown below is probably your best option. Some programs may be downloading data in the background, putting a load on your network and causing it to slow down.

When performing a speed test you will be given the ping, download speed, and upload speed. 

Download and Upload speed should be the amount advertised by your Internet Service provider, or at least 50% of that speed, and the average time for your ping should be under 100 milliseconds. 

Anything lower than the above, would result in a slower performance and it would be best to contact your Internet Service provider.

Updates to the network card aren't all that common, but if one is released, be sure to download and install it because as mentioned before, even the smallest of updates could fix the simplest of problems.

Computer is overloaded with never-closing popups or restarts

Most viruses can cause various problems to your computer, from the opening pop-up ads on your desktop to restarting your computer automatically making you think your PC could be possessed!

If this is currently happening to you, you have most probably fallen victim to adware. Getting rid of these viruses isn’t as easy as you may think, as these viruses where made to stick.

Step 5) Get yourself an Anti-virus

The first step in getting rid of, or protecting yourself from adware, is to run your anti-virus software as well as having them run in the background giving you real time protection. Running a full-scan will search for any virus software, including adware and aid you in removing them. Make sure that the software you use to scan for these viruses is credible, as most small utility-tools which promise the removal of such viruses can be worse, resulting in fuelling the fire.

Below is a comparison of anti-virus software for your disposal, showing you which software is best rated for malware detection. 

Find out more about our Antivirus partner, Avira: www.ptl.com.mt/it/partners/avira

Can you keep up with your company’s IT infrastructure?

With all the new challenges of these days, companies and organisations are increasingly looking for ways to increase their productivity by focusing on their business. With the advent of mobile technology, cloud services and various internet threats, companies are becoming more aware of the benefits of aligning with companies that provide Managed Services.

Comprehensive and flexible Managed Services, enable businesses to free resources in order to focus on strategic initiatives and new projects rather than engaging in fire fighting efforts to maintain their systems.

The evolving technology puts additional pressure on companies to hire specialised staff to cover the diversity in technology. If we just take mobile devices, they come in three flavours:  iOS for iPhones and iPad’s, Andriod and Windows.  The same happens in applications, as some use MS SQL, others use Oracle, and you will find applications running on premise whilst others as a service on the cloud. As the businesses grow, so does the need to rapidly scale, deploy and manage IT services.   

Managed Services providers are designed to cater for this diversity with people specialised in different areas of operation and take out the headache for businesses of having to engage in an ever more sophisticated IT recruitment process.

Most of all, by providing flexible services, Managed Services providers personalise the services to their client’s budget, availability and needs.   Businesses that opt to outsource their IT to a Managed Services company such as PTL will benefit from overall cost effectiveness as well as peace of mind with reduced operational risk through better systems functionality and availability.

For more info visit: http://ptl.com.mt/it/content/managed-services

Enterprise resource planning for medium and small companies - By Julian Rausi

Flexibility and quick response are hallmarks of business competitiveness.  Access to information at the earliest possible time can help businesses serve customers better, raise quality standards and assess market conditions.  Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a key factor in instant access.  Although some think that ERP systems are only for large companies, this is not the case.  Medium and even small companies can also benefit from the ERP approach.  This is possible if the ERP system being employed is a modular system where one can implement only the necessary modules and adds more as the business grows. 

The use of information systems to add value to the organisation is strongly influenced by organisational structure, culture and change.  No system alone will successfully be implemented if there isn’t a willingness to adapt and change existing processes.  Information systems teams are the key to unlocking the potential of any new or modified system.   They support the cultural change within the organisation and guide the business owner on the process to successfully implement an IT system.

Businesses need to ensure that improvements or completely new IT systems help lower costs, increase profits, improve service or achieve a competitive advantage.   These can be achieved through the use of various modules which most ERP systems provide, including accounting, sales, purchasing, distribution, warehouse management, asset management, project costings and business intelligence tools.

The smart use of an ERP system in today’s ever evolving operating environment, where customers, competitors, suppliers, shareholders, financiers are closer to each other, enables businesses to have information available on demand consistently. This is critical for an organisation to not only to survive but to thrive. 

For more info visit: www.ptl.com.mt/it/solutions/finance-software-accountingerp  

Business Intelligence explained!

Have you been hearing the term "Business Intelligence" often but still do not quite grasp what it means? Check our our latest video that simply explains it in 2 minutes and find out the benefits BI can have on your business! :D

for more info visit: www.ptl.com.mt/it/content/business-intelligence

How Real Time are you?

Take a moment.  How current is the latest information you have to hand? Whether its real-time sales intelligence, or just in time feedback, any business of its sort is rapidly becoming a consumer of highly available and detailed data.

The big question is why is there such a gap between usability and capability? The art of building and using these data tools is still a mystery to most business owners, and has a price tag to match.

Past generations were able to defer decision making by weeks, because the information superhighway simply didn't exist.  Our generation has had to take steps to meet the thirst for information that the front and back office now requires.

Shouldn't the gathering and analysis of business critical data be intuitive, in-depth and economically viable? In short the answer is, yes, and it can be.  The real bar to entry is not the software, but rather our willingness to learn and change our business practices to take advantage of the new information that we are being supplied.

If we desire to be real time, then keeping up with the times both technologically and in the way we do business should be at the for front of every decision we make and the first question any of us ask when we build or buy any new system. 

Visit: www.ptl.com.mt

HOW TO BECOME INTELLIGENT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

Time is one of the major challenges businesses face today. With information overload and an accelerated business pace, decisions must be taken quickly in an ever-changing market place.

Unfortunately, decision-makers spend 70 per cent of their time compiling information, leaving 30 per cent to analyse the data and understand what needs to be done. However, thanks to business intelligence, those percentages may not only be switched but allow for better decisions to be taken.

The first priority is facilitating access to the necessary data and presenting a visualisation – a picture – of the organisation that can easily be understood. Access to the right level of information at the right time will improve the decision-making process.

Business intelligence solutions present decision-makers with a ‘dashboard’ on which key performance indicators (KPIs) such as cash, revenue, budgets and profitability are displayed in a graphical user interface.  The concept is very similar to the dashboard we are all familiar with – the one we keep our eyes on while we are driving to ensure there is enough fuel, etc.

Any variance from the budget figures and business rules that require attention will be flagged. In this way, a ‘management by exception’ environment is created in a user-friendly environment.

The amount of data created by other operational systems may overwhelm executives. What executives really need is a panoramic view of the organisation’s performance with the ability to use analytics to drill down into the detail when required.  This is the slicing and dicing concept – a decision-maker can dynamically analyse performance by various dimensions such as segment, industry and brand to report on different measures such as revenue, profit and quantities.  Every dimension tells a different story of business.

Business intelligence solutions empower executives to pick and choose the data they require to take ad hoc decisions. This is revolutionising the way we work by unlocking the full potential of the data that exists within our organisation.

Sometimes this information resides in a number of operational systems that create ‘silos’ – a huge amount of detail on a specific subject matter such as accounts, customers, stocks which do not lend itself easily for sharing across systems. Business intelligence provides the methodology to extract, transform and load the data into a data warehouse.

Connecting to multiple ‘silos’ of data generates an unparalleled synergy and business value creating one version of the truth. This process reconciles the multiple sources of data and creates confidence ensuring the integrity and reliability of the information.

With such large amounts of data, trying to identify variances in performance may be difficult.  But advanced business intelligence tools provide insight to the data and guide the analyst by pinpointing variances and trends and suggesting the reasons for the results.

We live in a virtual world where today’s generation share ideas, discuss and collaborate over social media. Imagine the possibility of discussing performance and trends of the business using the same techniques where executives can share, comment and ask questions all based on dynamic content linked to live data.  Business intelligence tools with these facilities create the ideal forum for decision-making.

Mobile business intelligence is the latest innovation in this sphere. Many decisions are taken on the field, while meeting customers and suppliers.  Giving the mobile work force access to business analytics to dynamically slice and dice the data during a business meeting could prove to be invaluable and provide that edge which could make or break a business transaction.

These business intelligence solutions can give your business that competitive advantage and help executives take the right decision in today’s dynamic marketplace.  Sustained profitability and growth demand investment in such innovative solutions.

Julian Sant Fournier is Innovations & Solutions Manager at PTL

www.ptl.com.mt

Start-IT-up

Start-IT-up

Starting a business is a big step that is not for the faint hearted.  Entrepreneurs who take this step are usually driven by a strong sense of purpose and have a tenacity that steers them to take up the challenge and dominate the niche that they have identified.  This process involves high elements of risk and of the unknown as well as a great reliance on external factors outside the business’ control.

Start-ups are driven by passion and by purpose and they need to be extremely wise with their investments and choices especially in the areas of IT and security, two independent yet very inter-related areas that enable businesses to operate smoothly, keep constantly connected and ensure that their online and international presence continues to flourish despite their current size and resource limitations.

The delicate balance that needs to be struck between choosing a provider that will simply get the job done versus choosing a provider that will understand, consult and support the start-up in its current phase and future growth is a daunting task that, just like starting up in the first place, requires nerves of steel.  It is the choice between a short-sighted technical approach and a more long-term partnership with a reliable and trusted provider who can understand what the start-up business really requires to succeed.  It is the choice between a pure technical supplier or a trusted partner who can appreciate the start-up’s vision, share its drive and support its growth.

http://www.ptl.com.mt/it/news/start-it