IT Tips & Tricks: Setting Up for the Festive Season December 19, 2023 – Posted in: IT Support, IT Tips & Tricks – Tags: , ,

It’s nearly Christmas! Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year to all from Ontraq.

You might be thinking of pudding and nog, but there are a few boring but key considerations that’ll keep things running smoothly whilst you’re away. Here’s a list of items you might want to consider for your IT systems over the holidays:

1. Your phones
If you want your IT company to set up some sort of message on your phones to let callers know when you are closed or if you are running a skeleton crew, let them know as soon as possible. 4pm Friday will be a difficult time to sort it out.

2. Business wide out of office
Again, if you want a business wide autoresponder applying for the season then your IT company will be much happier if you let them know earlier rather than later.

4. Working from home
If you plan to let staff work from home between Christmas and New Year it’ll all go more smoothly if they’re prepared. Anyone who hasn’t worked from home before will need a computer they can work from – either a laptop to take home or a connection from a home PC to work on their work PC. They’ll need a VPN set up, permissions on the work PC to connect from another computer, and a way to take calls from home. Talk to your IT company before you send the staff home for the best results. Anyone who is planning to connect from a home PC to a work PC will also need to make sure they leave their work PC on when they leave the office.

5. Your backups
Are you backing up to the cloud or to disks? If you change disks or tapes daily how will you handle it over the holidays? If you’re closed for the season you may not need to take new backups because your data isn’t changing, but if you have an on premises Exchange server for your emails you will want to keep some sort of backups running to keep up with new mails.

6. Servers and air conditioning
Many HVAC systems combine heating and air con. If you’re prepping to close over the holidays and you turn off the heating system, make sure you aren’t turning off the air con in the server room at the same time. Even at this time of year servers can overheat in a small room with no ventilation.

7. Lights and glitter
If you’ve put up decorations then make sure you turn off the lights before you leave. Aside from saving on electricity, the more electric devices you leave running the greater the risk of a fire.

If you’re looking for someone based in Essex to provide IT Support, give us a call on 01245 265 100 or email us at .

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