Richard

Entries by Richard Reiffer
importance of network segmentation

Importance of Network Segmentation for Cybersecurity in Small Businesses

Owners and managers of small businesses may think they are immune to attacks from cybercriminals because they believe larger enterprises would seem to be a much more appealing target.

But security through obscurity is not a viable defense against computer hackers who have all the time in the world and plenty of software tools to gain access to systems lacking defenses or whose defense is minimal and outdated. To make a computer system safer, information technology professionals now rely on network segmentation.
What Network Segmentation Is
Essentially, network segmentation is the process of dividing a network into different segments, according to how much protection they warrant. It protects information and also helps you visualize it better. When you connect multiple devices to the same network, they can have insight into the network traffic of all the devices in your setup. Properly segmenting your networks is crucial for increasing the security of your data.

You isolate different parts of your computer network from one another in network segmentation. The idea is that if a criminal hacker penetrates one lower-level network, he or she won’t be able to leverage that access to gain entry into a more valuable network, such as a database holding customers’ payment details.

When you segment your networks, it’s easier to protect them all by applying appropriate levels of security to them.
Why Network Segmentation is Important for Small Businesses
You must adhere to network segmentation best practices because the safety and security of …

cybersecurity strategies for small businesses

3 Cybersecurity Strategies Your Small Business Needs

When faced with unknown dangers, it pays to formulate a strategy to protect your small business.

A case in point: Your business has a computer network that you rely on to keep everything humming along smoothly. If your system crashed or if criminals broke in to steal data or delete files, how long would it take for you to restore the network? Not only will employees be idled until you sort out the problem, your customers also will be left in the dark, waiting for you to restore service.

Cybersecurity attacks happen pretty constantly, and you don’t want your small business to be the next victim. A cybersecurity attack will cost you more than money—you’ll also be paying in the form of your reputation as a business and lost customers.

The minimum requirements for good cybersecurity for businesses are endpoint security, firewall and intrusion detection, and vulnerability scanning. With that in mind, here are three cybersecurity strategies that your small business needs to implement sooner rather than later.
1. Endpoint Security
The endpoints in your company are the devices used by the end-users. This includes smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers. They are the main point of contact to your company’s computer network and as such need protection.

If your organization allows workers to carry their own smartphones and laptops to do company business under a Bring Your Own Device program, your IT department will need to establish a policy to keep them secure.

This will include …

Is Your Company Equipped to Fight a Cyber Attack?

 

Cyber criminals are constantly employing new approaches to infiltrate businesses — making security breaches inevitable. That’s why understanding the security landscape, developing a strategy and engaging the right suppliers to help implement or strengthen your customer’s security is so important. Taking these measures will help minimize the impact of any security event that may occur.

Additionally, time is the most precious resource when responding to a threat. The faster you can help your customers recognize and eliminate a threat, the less damage it will do to their business, and the more you will be the hero.

Questions to consider:

What are the biggest security concerns facing your organization and does the staff have the budget and expertise to handle them?
Have you recently conducted any type of security review on your people, processes, or technology?
Have you adopted any cloud-based applications, and if so, are you aware of the risks that have been created?
Is your organization’s information system access limited to authorized users, processes, or devices?
Do you have a contingency plan in case of an emergency?
Is physical access to systems, equipment, and operating environments limited to only authorized individuals?

Products:

Does the fireway include modern functions, such as application awareness and network intrusion detection? 
Is anti-virus installed on all endpoint devices? 
What cloud-based security options are available?
What functions (e.g., remote wipe, data encryption, etc.,) should be enabled on mobile devices? 
How is data being controlled, restricted and tracked? 
…

Millennia Technologies Is Now Part of the RingCentral High-Performing Partner Program

Millennia Technologies, a telecommunications provider for Midwest businesses, has been accepted into the elite RingCentral High-Performing Partner Program at the premium level.

Becoming a RingCentral Premium Partner confirms Millennia’s status as one of RingCentral’s most strategic partners. As a High-Performing Partner, Millennia Technologies now has access to exclusive materials which they can offer to their customers. These include logos, social cards, and other Premium Partner Program information.

Premium Partner status also provides Millennia with customized benefits to offer their customers such as increased training, support and marketing resources.

“We here at Millennia are so pleased to find out we are a High Performing RingCentral Partner and to do it in such a short period of time is impressive! When looking at UCaaS options, with so many to pick from, RingCentral constantly shined and met all of our customer needs,” said Spencer Vereecken, Millennia’s Director of Sales.

With their partnership with RingCentral, Millennia is seeing great customer satisfaction.

“We needed to solve the strategic requirement of having a telephony solution that was not only flexible and stable but brought clear value rather than being a monthly sunk cost. Choosing to partner with Millennia Technologies and RingCentral made these requirements a reality,” said Justin Young, Head IT Operations of Oetiker Group.

Millennia is also very satisfied with their relationship with RingCentral.

“Developing this relationship was easy with such great channel engagement, sales, engineering, product management, and support on the backend. Something we have valued over our 20+ years in the …

Retirement: Robert Bonnell

Congratulations, Rob!
The team at Millennia Technologies is delighted (and very sad) to announce that Robert Bonnell has decided to close his professional chapter as Director of Operations and start his next adventure of retirement.
Rob has been an integral part of Millennia for the past 20 years. First, as an amazing client for 15 of those years and then, an even better Teammate for the last 5 years; providing support for day-to-day operations at Millennia while also helping support our many valued customers and their day to day technical needs.
We are all very sad to see Rob go but wish him all the best in the future and to enjoy your travels in the camper with your wife and family! If you ever had the pleasure of working with Rob, please join us in wishing him a happy retirement!

Get to know the team: Tony Louangrathphithak

Even in the midst everything happening in 2020, the Millennia Technologies team has been growing! We’re proud to introduce our newest team member, Tony Louangrathphithak.
Tony Louangrathphithak
Senior Telecommunications Engineer
What do you like most about your job? Putting a smile on customer’s faces when you help fix their issues.
What does a typical day look like for you? I wake up feed my 2 yorkies “Ace and Mino” then do my morning back stretches on my CHIRP Wheels.
What are you currently working on? Not currently working on it but I am planning to pick back up doing videography soon.
How long have you been in the industry? What is your background? I have been in the Telecommunications industry for over 8 years now. I have a background in Networking as well.
What is your motto or personal mantra? My favorite quote or motto is “The price of greatness is responsibility” – Winston Churchill
What’s your favorite line from a movie? “You’re Killing Me, Smalls!” – The Sandlot
Do you own any pets? If so, we need the details! I have 2 little Yorkies name Ace and Mino. Mino is about 4 years now and Ace is 3 years human years of course. 😊  Their personalities are total opposites of each other like Ying and Yang. Ace is the hyper one, always wanting to play fetch or tug on a rope. While Mino is the more chill and calm one, who just wants to play for a …

Amplify your Microsoft Teams investment with 8×8 Voice for Teams.

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams is Here
Enterprises standardizing on Office 365 want to optimize ROI by adopting Microsoft Teams for all of their collaboration requirements as well. Many organizations, however, are concerned about the prospect of adopting the Microsoft Phone System and Calling Plans for Teams as a telephony solution, as it lacks the rich PBX feature set that enterprises are accustomed to as well as a global PSTN footprint with unlimited calling plans.

Enter 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams, an enterprise-grade, cloud-to-cloud, Direct Routing integration with the Microsoft Phone System, providing enterprise-grade telephony and global PSTN connectivity to customers that want to retain Microsoft Teams as their sole collaboration interface.

A PSTN presence in 38 countries and unlimited calling plans in 47 countries worldwide, run on the industry’s most reliable telephony communications platforms. So, 8×8 is your best choice to enable PSTN communications globally for your Teams users.

Unlike other vendors, we don’t use clunky bots, apps, or browser extensions that break the Teams user experience and cause maintenance nightmares for IT administrators. Continue Teams users to make and receive calls without altering their user experience in any way, whether they are web, desktop or mobile.

And with a simple centralized administrative interface, the configuration of Teams users on 8×8 requires only a few easy steps. Meaning your Teams users can begin taking calls on the 8×8 network in minutes.

All provided from one vendor running on one platform globally.
Amplify your Microsoft Teams …

In Loving Memory… Jeremy Eugene Blackburn (Jebbi)

We’re saddened to inform you that Jebbi Blackburn passed away on November 9, 2019, after an unexpected illness. Jebbi was just two months shy of his 47th birthday. His passing has left us with an instant—and enormous—void.

For our customers who knew and worked with Jebbi Blackburn, we wanted to inform you of his passing and tell you a little more about this remarkable human being.

Jebbi worked for Millennia Technologies from February of 2005 through his passing. He was an honorable man of great integrity, with a love for and faith in God that developed him into the person he was.

While visiting his parents, who were on a mission trip in Paraguay, Jebbi met a young lady who would later become his wife of nine years. He loved the slower pace of life in Paraguay and decided to start his life with Gabi there.

Jebbi worked for Millennia as a remote engineer, supporting customers who would call for help or open trouble tickets. Over the years, he took literally thousands of calls and performed hundreds of upgrades and installations.

For those who did know him, we’re sure you loved him as much as we did. For those of you who didn’t know him, be assured that he is exactly the type of person that every business would search for.

Jebbi was devoted to God and had a strong belief in the Bible’s promise of a better life in the future. He rests in …

CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTERS: MAXIMIZE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WHILE CONTROLLING COSTS

“This is the era of the customer.” You’ve probably been hearing that phrase a lot lately. Among other things, it refers to increased customer expectations regarding service and communications. The customer experience has never been more important, and contact centers play an important role in that overall experience.

Although customers typically begin their service journey with an automated system, when that fails (which it does when the support issue is too complex), customers want to talk to a real person. For instance, did you know…

Automated Telephone Systems (IVR) and the inability to reach a live person for support is the number one complaint from customers. According to Microsoft’s 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report, 34% of U.S. respondents found this the most frustrating aspect of the customer service experience.
The survey also revealed that 44% of people in the U.S. still prefer phone or voice as their primary customer service channel. That’s 21% higher than any other channel available, with live chat coming in second at 23%.
The global cloud-based contact center market is expected to grow from $6.8 billion to $93 billion by 2022!
Despite advancements in call-back technology, telecom, airlines and retailers were listed as some of the worst offenders for putting customers on hold and not offering call backs.

 

Most importantly, studies indicate that customer experience is rapidly becoming the main differentiator for customers when choosing between companies to do business with. Many industry experts note …

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PHONE SYSTEM MORE INTELLIGENT

Let’s be honest, we’ve all experienced phone rage at some point. It occurs when you call a company and get put on hold for what seems like an eternity, while being forced to listen to the instrumental version of classic rock tunes, or worse, an endless loop of commercials. Equally frustrating is being put in perpetual transfer mode, where there is no escape except to hang up and start over! These experiences do not leave you feeling positive about the company you’re dealing with.

You know this type of interaction is bad for business, but do you know how your company is handling customer calls? Are phones being answered in a timely fashion? Are customers being transferred properly? How long are they on hold, and more importantly, how long are they willing to wait before hanging up?

If your phone system is not collecting and analyzing this data, it’s merely a communication tool—when it could be a strategic asset to your business. Using Brightmetrics Business Intelligence provides invaluable data to help you make informed business decisions to improve customer engagement, as well as employee productivity.
Tap into the Power of Analytics
Brightmetrics makes it easy to tap into the vast amount of data that the Mitel MiVoice Connect (formerly known as ShoreTel ShoreWare 10.1 through Connect ONSITE) system collects. While many other companies can give you basic reporting for your Mitel MiVoice Connect phone system, Brightmetrics delivers the full breadth of data necessary …

footer_logo

Millennia Technologies is a full-service voice and data solutions company for midsize to enterprise customers. Specializing in UCaaS , CCaaS , Cybersecurity , IoT , Voice , Cloud , and more. Our passion is firmly rooted in showing clients how well-designed data solutions can significantly accelerate business operations, and then celebrating their goal-shattering successes.