PURPOSE Developing and maintaining a team of motivated and effective technical support professionals is challenging, but the rewards can prove significant. Certainly, there’s no substitute for a capable help desk team dedicated to assisting end users. Organizations typically don’t achieve goals if users struggle or employees don’t know how to maximize investments made in applications, ...

PURPOSE Do you go through a yearly ritual of cleaning out your inboxes because you’ve exceeded your allotted mailbox space, or you find rooting through that collection of missives to be so daunting that you’d rather just mass delete everything and start all over, only to have to go through the very same ritual in ...

PURPOSE When you evaluate cloud platforms, you need to compare features, costs, benefits, limitations and implementation details. TechRepublic Premium takes a look at the three biggest players — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. From the cloud platform spotlight: AMAZON WEB SERVICES SUMMARY Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon, has led ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this policy from TechRepublic Premium is to provide procedures and protocols for supporting effective organizational asset management specifically focused on electronic devices. This policy can be customized as needed to fit the needs of your organization. From the policy: ASSET CONTROL POLICY DETAILS Definition of assets Assets can be defined both ...

PURPOSE Every department, regardless of size, needs to employ and account for depreciation — particularly if that department manages assets such as laptops, servers, and production machinery. How else are you going to know when it’s time to purchase new equipment? With the help of this worksheet from TechRepublic Premium, you’ll be able to calculate ...

PURPOSE Collaboration tools exist within a wide range of services, from voice calls to version control systems and everything in between. But for average enterprise businesses, the tools that make work-life exponentially easier are the basics: Voice. Video. Screen sharing. LDAP integration. Web and mobile apps. Third-party integration. Your business might be able to get ...

PURPOSE Some of the most important tools in business are used for collaboration. Without these types of solutions, your staff would struggle to remain as productive as needed. TechRepublic Premium dug into some of the top collaboration tools on the market as a comparison to help you know which offers the tools you need and ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this Security Response Policy from TechRepublic Premium is to outline the security incident response processes which must be followed. This policy will assist to identify and resolve information security incidents quickly and effectively, thus minimizing their business impact and reducing the risk of similar incidents recurring. It includes requirements for both ...

PURPOSE This policy provides termination guidelines, including the process of disabling former employee access, reclaiming company equipment and finalizing payroll/benefits details. It complements our Employee termination checklist, which should be filled out by involved individuals/departments and can be printed or used in electronic format shared with appropriate personnel. From the policy: POLICY DETAILS Access and ...

PURPOSE As more and more users work from remote locations, the need for secure access to networks, systems and data continues to grow. This policy from TechRepublic Premium provides guidelines to help IT ensure that VPNs are properly deployed and outlines acceptable use policies for end users on company-issued and personal devices. From the policy: ...

PURPOSE This policy provides guidelines for the delegation of user privileges on organization-owned systems. It also provides guidance for usage of high-privilege or administrator accounts. From the policy: Limiting the use of superuser accounts Users must not use administrator or root accounts — or similarly high-leveled account types — for tasks that do not require ...

SUMMARY Risk management involves the practice of addressing and handling threats to the organization in the form of cybersecurity attacks and compromised or lost data. The process of establishing appropriate risk management guidelines is critical to ensure company operations and reputation do not suffer adverse impacts. It’s not an easy process, achieving a sound risk ...

It’s common practice for companies to use offshore employees or contractors in order to offload work to specialized individuals or reduce costs associated with certain tasks and responsibilities. This can free up staff to focus on more complex and valuable initiatives, and also ensure 24×7 operations for companies which rely upon on-call staff and subject-matter ...

Today, many businesses rely on outside companies, known as third-party organizations, to handle their data or services. Some examples might include vendors, marketing firms, recruiting organizations and other external entities. In these instances, it’s likely third-party vendors might collect, store or refer to confidential or sensitive information regarding the business or its customers. To ensure ...

The importance of quality technical documentation cannot be overstated. Whether using this documentation to educate and inform internal employees, external customers, seasoned technological professionals, technology-averse end users, millennials, the senior population or any kind of target audience, it can make or break your organization. From the policy: Quality, accurate and easy-to-understand technical documentation can help ...