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Read into Axence

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<p style="margin-left:0px;">This year's edition is held in a new formula. For the first day of the event, we have invited guests to the studio, from where we will broadcast lectures and panel discussions for you. The workshop part remains unchanged - we will meet in dedicated groups for online meetings.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">ADG is a series of trainings and lectures created for administrators and IT professionals. For 5 years now, we have been creating a space to exchange knowledge and experience with respected industry experts.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">The Polish part of the event will be held on October 15-18, and the English-language part on October 22-24. In both the Polish and English parts, the first days will be key note presentations live from the studio, and the following days will be technical workshops.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">And what will we talk about at this year's event?</p><ul><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">cybersecurity</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">IT network management</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">AI</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">...and much, much more!<br>&nbsp;</p></li></ul><p style="margin-left:0px;">Who will be on the agenda?&nbsp;</p><ul><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Grzegorz Oleksy</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Adam Lange</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Grzegorz Tworek&nbsp;</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Louis Wierenga</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Martin Haller</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">Penelope Raquel Bise</p></li><li><p style="margin-left:0px;">... and many, many more!</p></li></ul><p style="margin-left:0px;">For the full agenda and speakers, visit the event website</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><div align="center"> 
<a class="btn btn-blue" href="https://admindays.pl/en/">Join us</a>
</div></div><p style="margin-left:0px;">&nbsp;</p>

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Join us for the Admin Days Global conference

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<img src="files/news/2023-02/MicrosoftTeams-image.png" style="display: none;">
      <h2>Here's all you need to know</h2>
  
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      <p><em>From servers and routers, through computers and printers, to the smallest devices, and even documents and licenses - the world of IT assets is immense and includes crucial elements of any organization. Therefore, handling an IT asset inventory oftentimes appears to be a time-consuming and labor-intensive activity. In this walk-through, we will show you what you should pay attention to when selecting an asset inventory management system so that it is the one with the features your business will really value.</em></p>
<h2>What is IT Asset Management?</h2>
<p>When talking about IT assets, it is important to understand what ITAM is. It stands for IT Asset Management and it is about far more than just creating an asset inventory. It is the lifeblood that helps provide better security for your business in general.</p>
<p>From the network security perspective, you can’t protect what you are not even aware that you have. It increases the risk of not knowing what is in fact connected to your network, thus, making it exposed to vulnerabilities. Therefore, being able to track and audit your inventory is the principal requirement for the majority of security standards.</p>
<p>Whether it is an outdated system or software, devices used outside the company, or some removable media, you can easily identify them all with an ITAM tool.</p>
<h2>What are the benefits of ITAM?</h2>
<p>Here are some benefits of ITAM:</p>
<ol>
<li>You can keep all your asset information in one place.</li>
<li>You have more detailed information on every asset and can easily track down their location.</li>
<li>You can keep your assets organized and thus, easily report on them.</li>
<li>You can track asset performance - have detailed asset logs and maintenance history.</li>
<li>You can minimize the chance of unexpected breakdowns.</li>
<li>You can track the asset through its lifecycle so that you know when to plan for upgrades or disposal.</li>
<li>You can optimize your procurement process and plan your purchases better.</li>
<li>You reduce potential risks.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Best Practices for ITAM</h2>
<p>You probably don't need to convince anyone that implementing ITAM is beneficial for the organization. However, to do that right, you need to keep a few principles top of mind:</p>
<ol>
<li>ITAM is a continuous process, not something that you do once and for all. You need to constantly update and monitor your IT assets.</li>
<li>Any new device within your organization should be immediately added to your IT Asset Inventory and have monitoring software installed onto it so that you can actively monitor it, making sure everything runs smoothly.</li>
<li>Use automation in the ITAM processes whenever possible - schedule periodic scans, set up alerts, etc.</li>
<li>Continuously track all your IT assets. It will give you greater control over your network.</li>
<li>Prioritize your IT assets in order of importance - it will enable you to make quicker maintenance decisions and support business uptime.</li>
<li>Introduce a lifecycle management approach to get the most of your IT assets for their entire lifespan. It will help you identify how long an asset will work and when it should be disposed of.</li>
</ol>
<h2>How to implement ITAM in your organization?</h2>
<p>With many Asset Inventory Management Software out there on the market, you should go for one that offers the features that meet your organization's specific requirements:</p>
<ol>
<li>It should be easily configurable and customizable so that you can adjust preferences, generate documents, and above all, suits the policies of your company.</li>
<li>It should be mobile compatible so that you can access it whenever you need it.</li>
<li>It would be great if it offers a great deal of flexibility and it is intuitive to use.</li>
<li>You can follow your company’s policies and processes with it.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, you can have it all with Axence nVsion® that comes in with its brand-new Mobile Inventory Assistant. It is a mobile application that will enable you to manage your organization's assets without limits! You no longer need to start your work computer and log in to the console – you can use your smartphone instead. Check it out and download the Inventory Assistant for Android!</p>    </div>

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IT Asset Inventory

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      <h2>What is 'Follina' Zero-Day Vulnerability and how can you protect against it?</h2>
  
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      <p data-renderer-start-pos="81">Until now, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it was enough to have macros disabled to deal with infected Microsoft Office. However, it is not the case with Follina vulnerability that works completely different - you just need to open a text file to run a dangerous script.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="360">In short, the way it works is that opening a Word document downloads an external HTML file that contains the instruction that executes the msdt.exe command. This is how the MSDT* system tool is launched, with which you can execute any code in PowerShell.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="618">Unfortunately, as of today, no security patch from Microsoft is available. To protect yourself from Follina vulnerability, go to Axence nVision<sup>®</sup> in:</p>
<div class="fabric-editor-block-mark fabric-editor-indentation-mark" data-level="1">
<p data-renderer-start-pos="768"><strong>Users -&gt; All Users -&gt; Atlas Info -&gt; Locks -&gt; Application Blocking → and then block the msdt.exe application.</strong></p>
</div>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="878">It is also advisable to create an automatic report displaying the employee's accounts on which msdt.exe was run and checking it on a regular basis. In nVision, such a report can be automatically generated and sent to the indicated e-mail address.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1126">It is also worth considering permanently disabling PowerShell from being run by employees. Our experience shows that the vast majority of organizations do not have such a blockade, and thus, make themselves more vulnerable to potential attacks.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1373">Here’s the way you can do that:</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1406"><strong>Users -&gt; All Users -&gt; About Atlas -&gt; Locks -&gt; Application Blocking → and then typing powershell.exe.</strong></p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1508">In this case, it's also a good idea to set up automatic reports showing which computers PowerShell is run on. If you want to find out more information about Follina vulnerability, check out our next article.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1720">*MSDT (Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool) is an embedded tool used by Windows to report, diagnose, and troubleshoot operating system errors.</p>    </div>

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Cybersecurity Alert: 'Follina' Zero-Day Vulnerability

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      <h2>Mitigate potential risks and keep a closer eye on your network vulnerabilities with our short walk-through of cyber security essentials</h2>
  
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      <p data-renderer-start-pos="4">In wake of current crisis, there has been obsereved a significant increase in cyber-attacks. One may wonder about their reasons, but from historical perspective, such cyber-activites usually escalate when geo-politcal tensions are high and this time it isn’t any different. As a result, some alerts and warnings to organizations have been issued in order to boost their cyber defence and prevent further attacks from emerging. Hopefully, with our short walk-through of cyber security essentials, you will mitigate potential risks and keep a closer eye on your network vulnerabilities.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="591">Here are a few key points you should pay special attention to. In particular, make sure that:</p>
<ol class="ak-ol" data-indent-level="1">
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="689">Monitored <strong data-renderer-mark="true">network devices</strong> are properly <strong data-renderer-mark="true">described</strong> and whether they are <strong data-renderer-mark="true">classified</strong> in terms of their importance for the organization and its business continuity.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="852">In case of unavailability of critical and important equipment, <strong data-renderer-mark="true">notifications</strong> will be sent.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="946">The critical load and <strong data-renderer-mark="true">important devices</strong> in the area of CPU, RAM, etc. are <strong data-renderer-mark="true">monitored</strong>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1034">If the <strong data-renderer-mark="true">performance parameters</strong> of the critical devices increase significantly, you will be notified of that.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1145"><strong data-renderer-mark="true">User workstations</strong> are fully monitored.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1289"><span id="b313967d-6da8-41c9-a646-e713b144925f" class="inline-highlight" data-renderer-mark="true" data-mark-type="annotation" data-mark-annotation-type="inlineComment" data-id="b313967d-6da8-41c9-a646-e713b144925f">Employees' </span>devices, especially the ones designated for remote work, have the current version of the <strong data-renderer-mark="true">operational system</strong> and are protected by <strong data-renderer-mark="true">anti-virus software</strong> that is set to regular updates in order to increase chances of removing ever-evolving new types of viruses.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1460">Employees' workstations are cryptographically secured against any <strong data-renderer-mark="true">unauthorized access</strong>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1550"><strong data-renderer-mark="true">Website blocking policy</strong> is applied, especially the one based on the authorized dangerous domain list.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1655">Possibility of downloading <strong data-renderer-mark="true">files with specific extensions</strong>, e.g. bat, exe, ps1 or msi is blocked.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1756">A <strong data-renderer-mark="true">password manager</strong> storing and encrypting all passwords is utilized.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1828">When visiting websites a <strong data-renderer-mark="true">secure protocol </strong>is followed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="1886">The use of <strong data-renderer-mark="true">removable devices</strong> is considerably limited and approved only if there is a valid business case for its use.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2007">Popular <strong data-renderer-mark="true">cloud storage websites</strong>, eg. Google Drive, Dropbox, are blocked on company devices.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2102">The use of company devices is <strong data-renderer-mark="true">GDPR compliant.</strong></p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2152"><strong data-renderer-mark="true">Remote desktop applications, </strong>eg. TeamViewer, AnyDesk, VNC, that allow for remote control of any computer in another location, are blocked.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2295"><strong data-renderer-mark="true">Admin applications,</strong> eg. powershell.exe, wscript.exe, that are available on Windows stations are blocked.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2404">The process of <strong data-renderer-mark="true">saving files </strong>on employees' workstations, especially to desktop, documents, and downloads folders, is audited on a regular basis.</p>
<p data-renderer-start-pos="2551">&nbsp;</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>We do hope that with the above recommendations, you will manage to keep your organization safe and thriving. And if you are on the lookout for software that will help you implement them, don’t forget to contact us at <a class="sc-cvbbAY hsAczK" title="mailto:sprzedaz@axence.net" href="mailto:sprzedaz@axence.net" data-renderer-mark="true">sales@axence.net</a>.</p>    </div>

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Cybersecurity in a nutshell

<img src="files/news/2021-06/wyzwania_aktualnosc.jpg" style="display: none;">
      <h2>We often encounter an opinion stating if everything is running smoothly within the IT network, the administrator has truly little work to do...</h2>
  
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      <p>On the other hand, however, when any IT-related problem arises, the administrator is the only one who is the most reliable and responsible person we come to for a solution.</p>
<p><em>The Administrator’s daily work is faced with a number of challenges. But above all, it has to ensure continuous and smooth operations of both the IT equipment and the business services under all conditions</em>, says Marcin Matuszewski, Senior IT Support Engineer at Axence, the IT management and security solution producer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>REMOTE WORK IS THE MAIN CHALLENGE&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Today, the main challenge for network administrators in many companies around the world is to support remote work due to the current coronavirus pandemic. A lot of employees request for remote work assignment on their own initiative, but a large number of companies now consider home office as a standard policy of operation. According to Gartner research, as many as 88% of organizations worldwide have implemented mandatory remote work or encouraged their employees to do so.&nbsp;Many companies introduced hybrid work mode and perhaps it will stay with them permanently. Despite the relaxation of the pandemic restrictions, IT Admin has to be prepared for the possible need to return to full remote work.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>The main obligation of the administrator is to secure employee network traffic, increase data security and provide work accountability</em>, according to Marcin Matuszewski.<em> I would also like to draw attention to the fact that sometimes a parent may make their company equipment available to their child or spouse, and this also affects the security of company data. The parent leaves the computer with the child who may click something inadvertently and cause the computer to become infected. In terms of security, the admins have to look very widely and educate employees - especially during home office</em>, he explains.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span data-contrast="auto"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/securing-remote-work-still-key-challenge-axence-net/?trackingId=RJVZtrt98JXgIpArtkEk5Q%3D%3D">Continue reading...</a></span></p>    </div>

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Securing remote work is still a key challenge

<img src="files/news/2020-08/premiery_aktualności_64_EN.png" style="display: none;">
      <h2>In order to increasing performance of processing huge data volumes, we have decided to transfer Axence nVision® to the 64-bit architecture.</h2>
  
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      <p>Minimum requirements for nVision server and remote console will change. At least 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be mandaory. The nVision Agents will continue to monitor network in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.</p>
<p>We are planning to finish whole proces in the end of current year, but final date can change. However, we will be informing you about every new details via email.</p>
<p>Please let us know If your nVision server or remote console is still running on 32-bit Window.Send message to: <a href="mailto:marketing@axence.net" target="_blank">marketing@axence.net</a></p>    </div>

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Axence nVision® - 64-bit version

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      <h2>Read the latest expert commentary and learn about the costs of poor IT management. Find out how to protect your organization.</h2>
  
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      <h2><strong>How much does bad IT management cost?</strong></h2>
<p>The lack of adequate knowledge about network and IT security management can lead to huge financial losses, or even bankruptcy. Data from reports and analyses, together with stories from the front pages of newspapers show how much can you lose when your IT infrastructure is poorly managed. How to avoid the high costs? Read the latest bylined article written together with Axence Senior Technical Support Engineer Marcin Matuszewski and find the answer.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="button large" title="Read the full article here" href="files/upload/articles/how_much_can_the_wrong_it_management_cost.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>Read the full article here</strong></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><img src="files/upload/articles/how_much_can_the_wrong_it_management_cost.png" alt="How much can the wrong IT management cost? Infographics" width="800" height="565"></strong></p>    </div>

How much do you lose on a bad IT management?

<img src="files/upload/baner_paa_en.png" style="display: none;">
      <h2>IT Asset Management Software implementation provides several business benefits to every organization. Lower operating costs, better work efficiency or time savings are only few examples. These ones are particularly significant in third sector.</h2>
  
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      <p><strong>IT Management in third sector? It works!</strong></p>
<p>Professional IT solutions for network infrastructure management brings important profits to non-governmental organizations, so they can efficiently carry out its services. An example is <a title="the Polish American Association" href="https://www.polish.org/en/home/about-us" target="_blank">the Polish American Association (PAA)</a>, the biggest and oldest association providing a comprehensive range of bilingual and bicultural services to the Polish community in the United States. How PAA benefited from the implementation of the Axence nVision software?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Axence nVision made our work significantly easier since we have a global view of PAA network and configuration. All requirements and areas of interests were met or even exceeded our expectations. IT department can now focus its attention on simplification and unification of our solutions</em> – says Michał Chybowski, PAA IT Director.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">We encourage you to see a full story. Just click on the button below.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a class="button large" title="Case Study - Polish American Association" href="files/upload/case-study/polish_american_association_case_study_EN.PDF" target="_blank"><strong>Read case study</strong></a></p>    </div>

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The biggest NGO for Polish community in US with Axence nVision

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      <h2>The grey area of software used at work without authorisation from the IT department is growing and may entail harsh consequences. How do you combat shadow IT?</h2>
  
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      <h2>Do you know everything about your network?</h2>
<p>Every introduction of a new IT solution into a company’s business departments (e.g. dedicated marketing or sales software) should have the support of the internal IT cell. However, when the cell has limited resources and the business needs are urgent, we have an anything goes scenario, which produces the uncontrollable effect of <a title="Gartner - Shadow IT" href="http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/shadow/" target="_blank">shadow IT</a>, the IT grey zone.</p>
<p>The workers take it upon themselves to install software on their computers and they also have a much easier time taking advantage of SaaS solutions in the age of technological development. In most cases, it is enough to configure an online account. The common denominator is the IT department’s lack of control over the applied software, which could endanger <a title="Shadow IT Risk Highlighted in Security Report" href="http://www.securityweek.com/shadow-it-risk-highlighted-security-report" target="_blank">the company’s security chain</a> or expose the company to fines for not holding the required licenses.</p>
<p>Rafał Janus’ article published in <a title="Computerworld" href="http://www.computerworld.pl/news/405293/Zarzadzanie.ryzykiem.w.szarej.strefie.IT.html" target="_blank">Computerworld magazine</a> reads:</p>
<p>The company’s IT department is responsible for all technology, even that it is not aware of. It may seem unfair, but that’s the way it is. In events of unauthorised access or audit failures, the heads of IT are the ones summoned before the chairman regardless of the cause. The IT department faces the challenge of finding and securing such applications. In many instances, the heads of IT are reluctant to apply measures of security to avoid business conflicts, especially when they do not have enough funds to realise all business expectations. However, the risk created by the grey IT zone is much greater than business dissatisfaction stemming from new measures of security.</p>
<h2>Protection from shadow IT</h2>
<p>You can protect yourself from shadow IT by monitoring the traffic outgoing from the company, but there are also other ways: you should also monitor the processes active in the network and audit the installed software. Besides solutions such as firewalls, you can also take advantage of IT management software. The <a title="Axence Inventory" href="en/nvision#nv-n" target="_blank">Inventory</a> and <a title="Axence Users" href="en/nvision#nv-u" target="_blank">Users</a> modules of Axence nVision offer key functions for preventing shadow IT.</p>
<p>The first allows for monitoring changes in software installed on all working stations in the network, which makes it easier to take appropriate measures when there are missing licenses or in the event of a potential hazard presented by a given application. In turn, the Users module allows the Administrator to block a given program until the reason for its installation is clarified and a consensus with the business is reached. When someone installs something, it is important to know what and why, which is something the users often can’t say. This module also allows to check whether the workers are using the secure SaaS services in the online browsing history. The IT department also has the option of creating blacklists of applications and questionable domains, which will be blocked from the employees.</p>    </div>

What is shadow IT? How do I protect my network?

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      <h2>6 Benefits of Innovative Helpdesk Solutions | Axence</h2>
  
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      <div>
<div id="wpv-column-ae5f4674a331982a3cfbc5a33e88d94e">Technical support, the popular helpdesk, is one of the most important departments of any company or organization. The specialists who deal with IT failures on a daily basis serve as the first line of defense from expensive downtime and breakdown repairs. How many business processes can you improve in order to minimize the risk of a serious incident? How many resources, including money, can you save? This is common knowledge to anyone who has ever experienced a situation when IT system failures shut down the work of key associates or departments, often for many hours. The conclusion is simple: provide top helpdesk quality. But how?
<p>History shows that technical support engineers often need various forms of support themselves. With limited human resources, an avalanche of service tickets can entail a bottleneck, which raises the risk of a serious failure. What should you do? Implement software, which “helps to help”. Its costs are considerably lower than the potential losses to your company. Which features of this solution can improve the work of the support department and what benefits do they entail?</p>
</div>
<div id="wpv-column-295b65be888b7e8057910692af6e64da">&lt;center&gt;<img src="wp-content/uploads/Marcin_Matuszewski_Axence.jpg" alt="Marcin Matuszewski - Axence Technical Support Engineer" width="200">&lt;/center&gt;&lt;center&gt;Marcin Matuszewski<br>Axence Technical Support Engineer&lt;/center&gt;</div>
</div>
<h3>1. Knowledge Base</h3>
<p>This is one of the “most visible” functions of any helpdesk software, which allows you to create guides for employees containing solutions to the simplest problems. Its implementation allows technical assistance specialists to focus more on the submitted tickets.</p>
<h3>2. Process automation</h3>
<p>Automations, which make it easier to process the tickets, have been available in selected helpdesk systems for a while. They can be used to create individual rules for various scenarios, which can potentially appear in ticket circulation. They save the time of the technical support team and the people reporting the problems. Assign tickets to appropriate categories based on certain key words, generate answers referring to articles in the Knowledge Base, change the status following a user action – these are only some of the tasks which you can automate with dedicated software.</p>
<h3>3. Mobility</h3>
<p>More and more companies have a branch structure, which makes things difficult for technical support engineers. Most problems can be solved remotely, but some require on-site visits. How do you manage tickets when you’re on the road? Every innovative helpdesk system should provide access from mobile devices, which ensures a quick reaction to critical problems from anywhere in the world.</p>
<h3>4. Real-time refresh</h3>
<p>You should check whether the helpdesk software allows you to refresh subjects/tickets and notify in real time – this enables smoother and faster ticket processing. An additional advantage is ticket categorization, which immediately tells us what kind of a problem to expect.</p>
<h3>5. Ticket history all in one place</h3>
<p>This feature makes it easier to analyze user behavior and establish who or what causes failures most often. Analyzing such data enables you to take countermeasures, which will minimize the breakdowns in the future: referring the most destructive employers to a security training course or buying new equipment to replace the most faulty one.</p>
<h3>6. Data on local server</h3>
<p>Even though cloud solutions are popular, only a local database ensures completely secure information sharing, because the data concerning errors and failures never leaves the company. This is especially important for publicly traded companies, where such leaks can entail downturns, loss of shareholder confidence, or damage to the company’s reputation.</p>
<p>Marcin Matuszewski, <a title="Axence" href="en" target="_blank">Axence</a> Technical Support Engineer.</p>    </div>

6 Benefits of Innovative Helpdesk Solutions

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      <h2>How are the requirements of IT departments and managements changing in the scope of IT infrastructure management? In which direction will the software evolve?</h2>
  
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<h3>Learn about the hottest trends and directions in network <br>and asset management, and stay up-to-date in 2016.</h3>
<p>Check out the latest guest post on the Capterra blog,<br>written by Marcin Matuszewski – Technical Support Engineer at Axence.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.capterra.com/top-9-it-management-trends-for-2016/">Read the article</a></p>
</div>
<div id="wpv-column-6671dbc145a663dde2a48236289cfe93"><a href="http://blog.capterra.com/top-9-it-management-trends-for-2016/"><img src="mail/20160302/capterra.png" alt="Top 9 IT Management Trends for 2016"></a></div>    </div>

Top 9 IT Management Trends for 2016

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      <h2>The issue of monitoring employees has been raising heated discussions for years. The European Court of Human Rights has expressed its opinion on this matter. What differences does the latest judgement make?</h2>
  
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      <h2>The employer’s rights and the employee’s privacy</h2>
<p>The judgement of <a title="the European Court of Human Rights" href="http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre-press?i=001-159906%23" target="_blank">the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)</a> of 12 January of this year, in the case of Bogdan Barbulescu from Romania, grants the employer with the right to monitor the employees’ activities in justified cases. In this specific case, the issue was how the management board of the company in which Barbulescu had been employed checked the method in which he was performing his duties. During an audit of archive conversations, it was found that he had used the company Internet messenger for private purposes. It was proven that the Romanian citizen was engaged in personal correspondence during work hours, which, according to the employer, had a negative effect on his productivity. As a result, his contract was terminated and he sued his company for this. ECHR sustained the judgements of previous instances stating that the employer did not violate Article 8 of <a title="the European Convention on Human Rights" href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf" target="_blank">the European Convention on Human Rights</a> on the right to respect privacy, as the employer’s verification of the activities performed within working hours by persons employed at a company was natural and justified. Furthermore, the employer did not disclose any sensitive data of the people with whom Barbulescu kept in touch privately.</p>
<h2>What differences does the judgement make?</h2>
<p>It is said that the decision of the ECHR allows all European employers to monitor employee activities without any limitations. However, the contents of the judgement indicate that the rights in this matter always depend on the circumstances of a specific case. If companies monitor their employees only to make sure that they are performing their duties properly, as was the case with the company employing Barbulescu, they should not fear any legal consequences. This similarly applies if the control refers to the employee’s honesty or verifies whether they are not unintentionally causing a threat to the network safety. Above all, one must remember that monitoring is all about prevention and not surveillance.</p>
<h2>Good practices in monitoring employee activities</h2>
<p>In order that the monitoring of employee activities does not become a bone of contention, but brings about advantages to the entire company, one must bear in mind a few good practices related to this matter. They were remarked upon by the Portuguese judge of ECHR, Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, who indicated that companies should base any potential monitoring on internal regulations that every employee should read and accept prior to the conclusion of the employment contract. What is more, the employer’s actions in this scope must be justified at all times. The fact that monitoring software has been installed cannot be the basis for the constant tracking of every mouse movement which the employee makes. Only when it is suspected that the employee’s behaviour, work performance or other factors may be to the company’s disadvantage, one should access the records of their professional activities which have been gathered by the software. The tools for IT infrastructure management, eg. <a title="the Users module of the Axence nVision" href="en/nvision-pro/users-activity-monitoring/" target="_blank">the Users module of the Axence nVision</a> programme offer a number of functionalities for the so-called computer forensics.</p>    </div>

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