July News:

• • • On The Calendar
    • Implementing Microsoft Teams - Are You Ready To Get Started?
    • 10 Steps to Cybersecurity During a Pandemic 
    • Cybersecurity SPOTlight: The Privacy Issue
    • Vistage Executive News: Vistage/Wall Street Journal June 2020 Report
    • Did You Know...? Microsoft Teams Deployment 

On The Calendar

Whether you're frolicking in the waves or in the a/c as midsummer cranks up the heat, we hope to see you at a couple of special virtual events we'll be hosting:

What:  Fulcrum Group Bi-Weekly Microsoft Teams Tips & Tricks

When:  Every other Thursday 2:00 pm

Description:  Every other Thursday we’ll have a 30 minute Microsoft Teams Tips & Tricks meeting, sharing some of our favorite tips & tricks, using Microsoft Teams in your environment.

Who is this for?  Fulcrum Group team members and Fulcrum Group clients’ team members

Note:  You can view the volumes of recorded sessions that have been added to our Playlist from our Events page.

What: Microsoft Cloud Security Virtual Lunch & Learn 2020

When:  Wednesday, July 29th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Description: Enjoy lunch on us via DoorDash, along with an informative discussion on cybersecurity for Microsoft 365, via Microsoft Teams virtual meeting.

Your attendance automatically registers you for a $250 Amazon gift card.  Signup to attend right here:

If interested in attending either of these special events, reach out to david@fulcrumgroup.net to be added to the calendar appt or visit our Events page to register.

During this Coronavirus Pandemic, while we're learning to manage remote teams and implementing new best practices and managing various life challenges along with work, always feel free to check in with our extra-helpful Extraordinary Times blog series, for great, useable-now tips, sanity-savers and life and work hacks. These include some great strategies to use yourself and/or pass on to colleagues. 

We'll let you know about any additional upcoming special events through our social media pages, which we'll update on our Events page as they occur. Quick links to our social media pages are accessible right from our website and in every monthly newsletter email you receive from us.

If you're new to our newsletter and you'd like to subscribe, let us know.

Implementing Microsoft Teams - Are You Ready To Get Started?

By Fulcrum Group President, Steve Meek

Like any great technology, Microsoft Teams benefits from a little bit of advance planning. Our organization, and probably yours, may start off with basic chat and video meetings and get great value. But there is so much more that your firm could get out of it.

As a growing organization not normally functioning in a Work-From-Home world, we are looking for ways to streamline workflow or work around new challenges. Here my five quick tips for planning a Teams implementation:

1. Identify internal champions to roll Teams out to first.

   Before getting ahead of yourself, find the people best able to help. This could be an owner, key manager, a top producer, the busiest person or just somebody who understands parts of the key processes of the organization. Once you have a small group, you will be better able to identify needs such as

   1. a way to publish HR information that is easy to access,
   2. creating a process to approve payroll/checks/expenses,
   3. identifying important documents that multiple teams must edit together,
   4. identifying meetings that would benefit from video or recording.
2. Clean up the groups you currently have in Windows Active Directory. Teams is based on groups and these get unwieldy after time. Simpler is better; fewer is better to get started and be the foundation to your future deployment. Eventually you’ll think of new collaborative teams based on workflow, client projects, geography or others that traverse normal departments. When you build out your environment, think "people" when you create Teams and think "topics" when you create Channels.
3. Get help or research the governance and security aspects of Teams. Microsoft is evolving Teams to replace Outlook as the final bucket in your communication world. This requires you to make some decisions in your tenets and how your organization plans to take advantage of the tool.
   1. Who can create groups?
   2. What naming conventions keep us organized?
   3. What’s our opinion on guest access?
   4. How do we ensure data security?
4. Think about people and organizations outside your company that you work with. Teams allows collaboration between different organizations inside Teams you create. This is one of the reasons Microsoft promotes allowing everyone to build and create groups. It gives power to anyone who can conceive an important team to do it themselves, without IT involvement.
5. Identify your most important applications for publishing in Teams. Teams allows connectivity to other applications in your world. Create a list of top 10 applications, then Google-search their name + “teams integration”. We use QuickBooks desktop but I saw there was a good connectivity with QuickBooks online. We use Power BI and I discovered I can now publish dashboards into teams channels. Several of our cloud-based applications have integrations to provide content without opening a different browser window. One of the biggest challenges for senior people is avoiding context switching that comes from having 20 different browser windows open to all the different applications you need to run your business.

With a little preparation and the right people on the bus, you can get your teams implementation into production quickly and generating ideas. The Work-From-Home era is pushing Microsoft to rapidly innovate Teams and add improvements. The good news is you don’t need to identify all of them - you only need to identify one great idea that adds value in your business (or your client’s business). Are you ready to get started?  We encourage you to check out the on-demand training session, "Master Working At Home With Microsoft Teams" for a virtual training experience at your convenience!

10 Steps to Cybersecurity During a Pandemic

Cybercriminals and their malicious attempts and successes are abundant during the Coronavirus pandemic.  Make no mistake they've ramped up their cybercrime activities - in particular, phishing.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre recently released their 10 Steps to Cyber Security.  It covers cybersecurity basics and best practices that any size organization can follow.

Below is a quick, general summary of the 10 steps. A recent entry in our blog expounds more on each step and why it is important. See our blog for a more rounded explanation of each step's implications - and, of course, always feel free to reach out for more information.

1, Setup Your Risk Management Regime Prioritizing and accessing risks

2. Network Security Layered approach - securing, reducing opportunity and monitoring

3. User Education & Awareness Arm your people

4. Malware Prevention Antivirus and endpoint security concerns

5. Removable Media Controls Restricting access

6. Secure Configuration Network device considerations

7. Managing User Privileges Reviewing and limitation

8. Incident Management Have a detailed plan

9. Monitoring Detect to protect

10.  Home & Mobile Working Security-aware staff following policy is key

Cybersecurity SPOTlight: The Privacy Issue

Your digital footprint, world-changing compliance regulations and Covid concerns - in this month's Cybersecurity Awareness Newsletter.

As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have questions.