We would like to express solidarity with our customers, both frequent and ad-hoc. Despite this enormous challenge we are amazed by the resilience of businesses to carry on.

At Format we have been busily facilitating and organising ways in which our customers can work from home. These have included remote access enablement, cloud-based data storage and video conferencing. We are proud to be playing our part in helping our business community stay connected and to continue to do what they do best, albeit from a distance.

As an IT support company, it goes without saying but we are always here for you and will work with you to build solutions to match your biggest business challenges.

We wish you, your employees and your families the very best of health.

Team Format

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For-Cycle is the environmentally friendly way of disposing of your redundant IT systems without sending them to landfill or incinerating them.

How it works:

1. Compile a list of IT equipment that you would like to part with and send it to us
2. We will then arrange a free collection of the items on a day and time to suit you. The items are then wiped of data in accordance with GDPR guidelines.
3. Once the items have been processed any funds that have been created by the recycling will be paid back to you or alternatively you can pass this money onto charity.
4. You will also be provided with data erasing certificates and the items are recorded and certified in accordance with WEEE Directive and Environmental Protection Act 1990.

This simple, straightforward service allows you to dispose of your old IT systems while caring for the environment.

For more information please get in touch via our Contact page

The post For-Cycle: Helping you to help the environment appeared first on Format Computer Services Ltd.

The new add-in which is available this week to Office 365 users will show users examples of CV’s from a particular field so that they can describe their own work experience in the best terms. Also, the top skills for that job will be shown so that users can include keywords in their CV’s.

There is the added functionality called ‘Open Candidates’ that allows the job seeker to alert recruiters on LinkedIn that they are actively seeking a new role without their current employer knowing.

By design the new Resume Assistant should help create better CV’s and help job seekers be more competitive in the workplace.

If you wish to know more about Office 365, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The post Job seekers take note! appeared first on Format Computer Services Ltd.

This is especially true when talking about businesses, an estimated 120 billion emails are sent in business every single day!

It goes without saying that having an email system that is reliable is invaluable in today’s world.

Traditionally business’ would have a physical email server (or ‘tin’ as many IT professionals refer to it as!) set up in a dark corner of their office that would control inbound and outbound emails.

What’s the problem with that you may ask? Cost and reliability is the answer. Servers are expensive bits of equipment and for that matter so are the operating systems for them! Not only this but the cost of maintaining the set up can be excessive too. Finally, businesses have to replace old servers on average every 5 years due to on-site warranties expiring.

All of this adds up to quite a staggering amount of money, so what’s the alternative?

Hosting your email in the Cloud!

At Format, we have been moving clients across to Cloud based email since 2014 and it has transformed the reliability of their email system and presented an excellent cost saving in the process.

We use a UK-Based cloud hosting provider so your email data will never leave these shores. Further to that they also provide an advanced email security feature with spam filtering to ensure dangerous emails are kept at bay.

Each mailbox you have has 125GB of storage to use (that’s an awful lot!) which is the UK’s largest offering at no extra cost!

So it’s time to take a long hard look at that mail server you have and ask yourself, “Is this really the best solution for my business?”

If you want any further information and pricing please do not hesitate to contact us!

The post Take your email to the Cloud! appeared first on Format Computer Services Ltd.

Through the course of the year so far we have been focusing on the latest the Cloud has to offer, the future is here and we are embracing it.

Many of our customers use Hosted Exchange email services which offers business continuity in the event of on-premise server downtime, highly sensitive spam filtering and storage of up to 125GB.

What else is the Cloud capable of?

Well, on a visit to Microsoft’s HQ in Reading this month we discovered the fantastic opportunities that Microsoft’s Cloud Platform Azure has to offer. Azure essentially focuses on 3 areas:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)

In this blog, we will be focusing on IaaS.

Traditionally companies have an on-premise server, storage and network. Azure brings this concept to the cloud, the server specification, storage and security can all be set up to use Microsoft’s huge resources.

Now while most companies wouldn’t suit a cloud only solution, what is known as the Hybrid Cloud is a seriously strong option for all companies big & small.

You can keep your on premise server just where it is but provision a virtual server in Azure to be your off-site back up. At present many server rooms are awash with external drives used as an offsite backup, whilst these are attached to the server this is not a true off-site solution.

The days of swapping over backup drives can be something of the past, companies will have a backup in the cloud that is always there and can be called upon in the event of disaster.

It is time to look at your infrastructure and ask if you could be utilising the cloud.

We are here to help you find and execute the right Cloud solutions for your business.

The team @ Format Computer Services

The post Our heads are in the Cloud…. appeared first on Format Computer Services Ltd.

You may have seen in the news recently about the new EU Data Protection Regulations, this is the biggest overhaul of data protection since 1995. The penalties companies can face have risen significantly (up to 20million Euros or £17.5million) if a breach of a system occurs and personal data is violated.

Why the need for change? Well since the regulations haven’t changed in so long newer forms of data (e.g. Social media posts) have never been included and cloud technologies were also not developed so there is an extra complexity to protecting personal data.

From a wider perspective, each EU member state (28 currently) has individual data protection laws making cross-continent data handling time consuming with ensuring the right regulations are met for the country you are dealing with. With these new guidelines, every EU member will have the same regulations meaning more efficient dealings.

What does this mean for your business? An emphasis on ensuring your customers data is protected using the necessary measures. These include regular backups of your data for recovery in the event of a breach or system failure, a process for testing the effectiveness of security measures and encryption of data to make it unreadable in the wrong hands.

On that last point, our favoured security software vendor Sophos provides a product called Safeguard to encrypt your files within your network. This means that anyone trying to access files from outside will not be able to read the data and it is therefore secure.

It works in the background following your files wherever they go… even into the cloud! This means you always know you are protected and falling in line with one of the major changes in regulations.

Click on the below image to take a 60 second compliance test to see how ready you are for the changes:

For further information please see https://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/safeguard-encryption.aspx

The post New EU Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) appeared first on Format Computer Services Ltd.

We hope 2017 brings you success and we look forward to working with you again this year.

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Format Computer Services- For all your IT requirements!

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