smart technology for smarter small businesses
Email, had you believed the tech prophets, should have been dead in the water years, possibly decades, ago, but it is still here and stronger than ever. Despite the multitude of messaging apps and services like Microsoft Teams, Twist and Slack, email remains at the core of interpersonal communications and the pandemic and working from home has highlighted the importance of having a decent email system.
Just when I thought that Newton email was finally dead and buried after its parent company Essential crashed and burned, it has risen phoenix-like from the ashes, yet again. At this rate, being flippant, I think the new owners should rename it Boomerang, but I realise that has already been taken.
I should be jumping for joy as I have championed Newton, and its predecessor CloudMagic, in this and my previous blog over its fledgeling years. Hell, I even championed the $50 a year subscription because the service was, well, just bloody brilliant.
If you are working from home during the Corvin-19 pandemic, you may be struggling to pick up business emails from your corporate servers. If your organisation has provided you with Office 365 to work with you may find that Outlook is struggling to cope. A company I do consultancy work for provided me with Office 365 but I found that Outlook was, like most Microsoft software, bloatware. Fortunately, for this blog, I had examined alternatives and offer three alternatives for you to consider.
In the wake of the coronavirus, many organisations internationally are allowing people to work from home to lessen the risk of contagion, but is this wise from a cybersecurity point of view? While companies generally have a cybersecurity policy in place that governs the use of anti-virus and firewall protection, individuals without any tech knowledge could fall foul of cybercriminals.
I have been an advocate of home working since the mid-1990s when it was called teleworking. I was self-employed and worked on a four-year project for the European Commission. Our virtual company, called Telework Europa, was charged by the EC to examining the then-emerging Internet technologies and how they could benefit the geographically disadvantaged, Eurospeak for those stuck in the back of beyond, away from the main employment areas.