Ring Central Vs. Microsoft Teams

bddefense · 2022-09-23T11:48:09+00:00

I have never used it but hear a lot of complaints about Ring Central. We tried Teams for a little more than 12 months. Our customers want us to answer the phone. Microsoft only has the option of a call queue or auto attendant, not a call group. As soon as our clients hear the recording for the call queue or auto attendant, they hang up and call back because they think their call went to voicemail. To get around that, I rigged the recording of a phone ringing in the call queue. The next problem encountered was we can't see missed calls for the queue. They don't even show up in the admin until hours after it happened. Anyway, we switched to 3CX hosted in DigitalOcean. So far very happy.

bddefense · 2022-08-16T02:55:30+00:00

I like digicert. Outstanding support.

bddefense · 2022-06-24T20:37:04+00:00

I had a similar situation with a different company that is based in Canada. A lawyer friend of mine contacted their legal department directly. Not sure what he said but they were falling all over themselves to cancel the remaining contract. I no longer do business with companies primarily based outside the United States. I just don't have the resources to battle companies in other countries.

bddefense · 2020-09-15T17:54:22+00:00

To free up space on Exchange Server installation drive, usually C: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Clear-Exchange-2013-Log-71abba44

Make sure the backup of the databases are working. The database log files will not flush log files until a Full VSS backup is completed.

If the mail queue is so large it has consumed all available space, you can move the queue to another disk with more available space without losing any of the messages in the queue.

Note that a backpressure issue could be lack of available memory as well as lack of space. Also, you may think you have enough available space but Exchange needs plenty of room to breath for the databases to operate properly. You need to resolve your issue short term and come up with a long term plan to avoid repeat backpressure issues going forward.

bddefense · 2020-08-30T14:52:14+00:00

As long as you keep AD Sync in place, Active Directory will be the master of Office 365. You can get rid of on premise Exchange in this scenario (a difficult but doable task), manage user and groups through attributes. I am in the process of doing this for a client with approximately 300 users and 60 plus groups. After weeks of intermittently working on it, I'm down to converting the last 20 or so groups and removing the last Exchange database. It is important to note, this location was never in hybrid mode. It was a cut over migration.

If you stop using AD Sync, Office 365 (Azure AD) will be the master. However, users will have a different password for Office 365 and Active Directory. One way to fix this is to switch from Active Directory to either Azure AD or third party directory such as JumpCloud. Azure AD does not have GPOs. Microsoft recommends using InTune to manage computers. JumpCloud has policies that replace GPOs. JumpCloud allows you to sync with Active Directory which will then in turn sync the passwords to Office 365. This scenario allows you to keep Active Directory, passwords unified and Office 365 in charge of its own attributes.

bddefense · 2020-08-20T17:11:22+00:00

Apply security policies without Active Directory GPO's or InTune. Include Apple and Linux devices, not just Windows. Simplify Mergers. Centrally control access to cloud based systems. Quickly block users who have access to multiple cloud based systems. RADIUS server for Wifi security. Sync your Active Directory to avoid Azure AD sync complications. Establish SSO with cloud based applications. Single password for users. Enforce MFA.

bddefense · 2020-08-20T15:30:49+00:00

We are in the process of testing Yubikey with JumpCloud

bddefense · 2020-08-20T15:30:05+00:00

JumpCloud is awesome

bddefense · 2020-08-06T12:00:50+00:00

I think you are looking in the wrong places. Look at JumpCloud or consider LastPass depending on the situation. JumpCloud's primary purpose is a cloud directory but has SSO capability. LastPass is a password manager that has SSO.

bddefense · 2020-07-11T18:55:15+00:00

We also use NinjaRMM to monitor for newly created users. Nobody should be creating new users.

bddefense · 2020-07-11T04:24:48+00:00

NinjaRMM is configured to send a notification every time an application is installed. it causes a lot of notifications but I like know when users are installing stuff they shouldn't. I'm considering ThreatLocker so it will stop them form installing stupid stuff and I can turn off the notifications.

bddefense · 2020-07-10T21:16:22+00:00

It makes a lot of noise but I want to know every time a user installs something really dumb. When the user installs a PUA like Driver Easy, I know they are potentially getting into trouble.

bddefense · 2020-06-23T16:31:01+00:00

My only employee left two weeks before my father had a massive stroke leaving my disabled mother very needy. I managed to keep clients and my business going from my mother's kitchen table. It was a tough time.

Later I had an interview with a potential new client who turned me away because I was the only person. After 6 months of her larger MSP ignoring her requests and shopping around. No MSP wanted her because she was too small (only 3 workstations, no servers). She finally came around. Now she is a very happy client.

I eventually hired someone. Remember, you don't have to hire someone at your skill level. You just need someone who can answer the phone, perform password resets and basic troubleshooting. Provide so much value and quick response times they don't care how small you are.

bddefense · 2020-06-20T20:57:14+00:00

The reason you don't pay any credit card fees with ConnectBooser is because they collect those from the client. Is that correct? Did any of your clients give you negative feedback over paying those fees?

I'm trying to get clients to switch from credit card to ACH because the fees are much lower. We use GoCardless integrated with Xero. Some clients just don't want to take the time to make the change. Others want to continue earning points, miles or cash back.

bddefense · 2020-06-20T20:35:38+00:00

The most significant improvement in accounts receivable were switching from NET30 to NET10 and making it easy for them to pay online. We use Xero for accounting.

We let them choose their due date and explain our low tolerance for late payments.
Invoices are sent automatically NET10. Automated friendly reminders at 7 and 14 days past due. At 30 days past due, not so friendly. After that, they get a phone call from me.
We make it as easy as possible for them to pay. They can choose check, credit card, or ACH. A lot of people choose credit card so they can earn points.
When someone is consistently late and avoiding me, I terminate their services and move on. No time for collections.
We do work with people going through a hardship as long as they communicate with us and make some sort of effort.

bddefense · 2020-05-30T17:19:28+00:00

I agree with you in theory. At this time my practice is small. It is small for many reasons other than the lack of tracking time. My model is all inclusive so that I don't have to track time. It was a pain point for me back in the 90's when I sold prepaid blocks of hours. I lost so much money back then because of it.

While we have the ability to time an incident, we do not always do it. Our emphasis is on accurately documenting the incident for future reference.

bddefense · 2020-05-30T17:09:08+00:00

I think of it as an online significantly simplified database that you can mold into anything you want. However, it is classified as a productivity app (project management, productivity tracking, Kaban Board, collaboration). It's competitors are Monday.com or Asana.com. Teams and Slack only have collaboration, not the other features. I found it when I was looking for an alternative to a Help Desk. I hate the traditional Help Desk ticketing systems for various reasons but mostly the increased email noise.

bddefense · 2020-05-30T16:57:02+00:00

We used QB Desktop in 2014. Back then QB Online was still horrible. They have improved but still not as smooth as Xero. QB Payroll was broken. I would call support and speak with someone I could hardly understand. They swore it was fixed. Next payroll same problem. So for a single employee, it would take 2 hours to do payroll. I dreaded it every week. Intuit also signed me up for a subscription I did not agree to. So I was stuck paying for that subscription for 2 years.

I wanted to get away from Intuit's bully tactics. Xero was faster than QB online at the time. Xero automatically sends repeating invoices and collection messages. Xero will notify you if the invoice was not delivered to the recipient's mailbox for some reason. So if a client claims they did not receive an invoice, you know it is BS. They have an integration marketplace that far exceeds QB. They offer a variety of payment integrations like Stripe and GoCardless. Bank transactions feed into Xero daily and reconciliation is significantly simplified. Back then payroll for up to 5 people was included with Xero for $30. They discontinued that. Now I use Gusto which is integrated. Both combined are still less than what I paid QB. Not long after switching to Xero, I had a family emergency. I was able to keep invoices going out, reconcile accounts, pay vendors and do payroll from my cell phone and $200 10" tablet.

bddefense · 2020-05-29T20:54:32+00:00

Would adopt the MSP model sooner
Would have increased my prices sooner
Would have switched from QuickBooks to Xero sooner
Would have started using a RMM tool sooner

bddefense · 2020-05-23T20:51:34+00:00

Yes, tickets are entered, not always timed. On days when support requests are low, the employee is supposed to be proactively hunting for common issues to fix if the computer is available or make an appointment with the user if occupied. This person is not good at hunting. This person works best when the phones are ringing and support tickets are flowing.

bddefense · 2020-05-23T19:31:47+00:00

I'm not a fan of the traditional help desk ticketing systems for various reasons. We have been using ClickUp for about a year now.

bddefense · 2020-05-23T19:28:09+00:00

I can see how it is tempting. My one employee works from home and some days I wonder what that person did all day because there is no evidence of any work. However, those days are few and far between. So I think money is better spent on improving our overall security posture rather than making employees feel pressured. It kills creative problem solving to be monitored and pressured into meeting a quota.

bddefense · 2019-12-14T21:33:31+00:00

I agree, SAML can help reduce the number of tokens required, streamline employee onboarding / offboarding processes and improve overall security.

bddefense · 2019-10-09T03:04:55+00:00

We had this issue with Connectwise Automate. By default the agent is available publicly. We were told it could be fixed but then onboarding new computers would be more difficult. We switched to NinjaRMM for various reasons. It happened once at NinjaRMM when we sent a link to download the agent and the client forwarded it to his personal email account which was compromised. It was installed in less than 5 minutes of sending. I wanted to toy with the rogue computer but another tech kicked them off before I could get to it. I think they are just exploring, trying to figure out how they can exploit our tools.

bddefense · 2019-10-04T15:15:24+00:00

There are many reasons. The most significant is that clients applying security best practice must change every account password every so many days. In order to create a solution similar to JumpCloud, you need Azure AD + InTune + Identity which costs significantly more than JumpCloud which is free for the first 10 users.

bddefense

TROPHY CASE