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This is potentially leading to ballooning costs where you may be persuaded to buy suites and add-ons that are not really appropriate for your business, leaving these expensive licenses wasted. Or, you may be buying what you think is the full suite, only to discover later that you need add-ons you did not budget for!
More than ever, it is so important to have a licensing and technical solutions specialist who can really help you navigate this complexity and only purchase the licenses that will truly add value and help you get more value from what you are already paying for. In Tirst Technology, we have been doing this for more than 25 years and have a lot of experience so we can really help with this.
You can read more about this flurry of add-ons from The Register here and Directions on Microsoft here. It's not just about paying for the licenses, it's about getting them to work properly as well, and with that, First Technology has ALL the engineering capability across all of Microsoft's competencies to get anything that Microsoft can sell to work!
Windows 12, Windows AI or Windows 11 24H2?
The rumour mill is grinding away furiously as to what we can expect from Microsoft in the latter half of 2024, but what we can be sure of no matter what name the next iteration of Windows gets, Microsoft is doubling down on AI - and it is important to heed the change in minimum hardware specifications - more powerful computers with new AI processing capability will be required no matter what new name Windows gets.
Even if you think AI is not important today, remember that any new PC you buy will be around for at least three years, so a bit of future-proofing (if you can afford it) will be a good idea. You can read more about what we can expect in 20204 here. There is more discussion about Windows 24H2 here.
Cloud & AI
Microsoft Launches CoPilot Pro
This new service is at $20 per month (which happens to be the same price as ChatGPT) but also brings AI to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Note the prerequisites I the product terms above. You can read more detail about CoPilot Pro here.
Sam Altman and Bill Gates talk about AI
This is a really interesting summary of the discussion between these two famous people. This is part of the Bill Gates Unconfuse Me podcast series - well worth listening to. A summary of the discussion and a link to the podcasts can be found here.
Security
SCAM Alert! It might look legitimate, but it's not!
Check this website out: https://kitchenwarehouse.co.za/
It is a professional-looking domain, and on the face of it, it looks professional, and the deals look amazing (1st red flag). When shopping online, unless it is a REALLY well known site like Takelot, Amazon, FirstShop, etc... pay very close attention to what is going on with the site. It has no information about the company, and the address is very dodgy, does the credit card vendor name match the site? have you searched the web to see if it is a scam, like here?
Is the offer too good to be true? (probably is).
70 Million credentials leaked.
You can never let up in trying to make sure your passwords are as secure as possible, and that you do not use the same password across different online accounts. Read more here about this massive leak, and how to check if your credentials have leaked.
Your computer's BIOS is not safe either!
All the top BIOS vendors are releasing patches and in turn these are being rolled out by all major hardware vendors. It is important to make sure that your devices are fully patched even at firmware level. Read more here.
What's up at FTG
With the ability to now buy one CoPilot license at a time, getting ready for CoPilot is very important, as utilising AI in your business will become increasingly important - especially when the AI can use your own data to support you.
BUI is offering an M365 CoPilot Readiness Workshop to help you get ready. You can register here.
Movies
Now Playing: Poor Things
26 January: All of us Strangers
26 January: Beautiful Wedding
26 January: Color Purple
26 January: The Beekeeper (Action Jason Stratham style - reviews out already)
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