Did You Know?

Companies spend on average more than $4500 per employee per year on SaaS.

You can be efficient and spend less!

First Marketplace has landed – and it’s about to make software procurement as painless as ordering a takeaway without delivery fees!

SIX routes to market (Azure, AWS, Huawei, private offers, local aggregation and more) – utilising a central catalogue.
Procurement in any Geo, in any currency.
For South Africa, Rand-based invoicing, BEE credits.
Zero credit card drama means finance signs off in minutes, not months.
Always-on price intelligence auto checks your existing cloud commitments and applies the best deal – we’ll even work to beat your current quote.
Hard to find title sourcing specialists hunt them down to your exact requirements while you get on with what's really important in your day.

Why wrestle with the how, where and when of software procurement, when First Marketplace does it all?

Book a 5-minute meeting with your First Technology Group Account Manager and watch “advanced” procurement become effortless.

Hardware

AMD brings datacenter-level AI to Windows PC's

AMD has announced the AI MAX+ 395 processor capable of running Meta's Llama 70B model locally (with 128 GB of RAM). You can read more about this release here. This is a reminder of how important it is to be working with Sovereign AI's as many of them have all the power you need to perform many tasks in your environment. Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our AI specialists to arrange for them to demonstrate their capabilities and discuss how AI can be deployed in your environment.

Even TOP STORIES has a sovereign AI that you can interact with!

You need to request access from your M365 admin.

Microsoft

Microsoft beats Q4 earnings - the implications

Directions on Microsoft has published an assessment by long-time Microsoft veteran, Mary Jo Foley where she summarises the implications of Microsoft's exceptional results for customers. What's clear is that the pressure to upsell customers to E5 and then to upsell into a never-ending stream of addons will continue with AI being attached to everything.

You can read the Directions on Microsoft article for more details here.

If you are on M365E3, expect many calls from Microsoft to persuade you to upgrade, and if you are not already buying CoPilot licenses, expect more calls to persuade you to start investing in that too!

Please contact your First Technology to start planning on how to deal with those inevitable calls, and be ready to understand where you see value in upgrading (or not)!

What is VERY important is to start planning how you start your journey to experiment with AI, as that is inevitable, and it is so important not to get left behind.

IT Admins can run Teams calls to test network performance

Microsoft has announced a proactive monitoring capability to run 60-second test call simulations to monitor for any network instability issues and, through establishing a baseline, proactively address developing issues.

This feature is expected to roll out worldwide in September. You can read more about this feature here.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our Teams specialists to assist in getting the feature activated and establishing a performance baseline.

Security

Microsoft's Direct Send feature hacked to deliver Phishing attacks.

A brand new attack vector for getting attacked has been discovered targeting M365 tenants, by worming their way in to access email security appliances with valid SSL certificates, allowing malicious messages to be sent using spoofed internal addresses that look completely legitimate, and they are! You can read more about this particularly clever attack here.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our security specialists to get the necessary assistance in making sure this new type of attack is stopped in it's tracks.

Cloud & AI

OpenAI prepares for GPT-5

It seems that GPT-5 is going to launch very soon indeed, as Microsoft is also preparing to launch it's version of GPT-5 (Smart Mode?).

It looks like we are going to get quite a leap in intelligence for OpenAI and CoPilot, and it might be as soon as this week! You can read more here.

As we wait for GPT-5 it is becoming even more urgent to start experimenting with AI in your environment, starting with securing and categorising your data, and then to start encouraging users to start experimenting with CoPilot to see how it can enhance what they are doing. This needs to take place along with workshops to show users how to start using AI. Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our AI specialists to start this journey.

What's up at FTG

First Digital Makes AI History

First Digital just became the first SA-headquartered company to earn Microsoft’s Advanced Specialisation for Building AI Apps on Azure.

This confirms what we already knew: our AI isn't hype. It works. And now Microsoft agrees!

Please contact your First Technology account manager to explore what we can do for you.

The AI you use to query the TOP STORIES archive(TSAI) is one of those apps!!

South Africa’s First Cyber Warranty

While other companies are saying you should have this, BUI has done it!

BUI, FTG's Cloud and Security division, has become the first Microsoft Cloud Solutions Partner in South Africa to launch a Cyber Security Warranty.

That’s right — they’re so confident in their security operations, they’re backing it with a financial warranty.

Think of it as putting your money where your Security is. If you suffer a cybersecurity incident, they will assist your organisation up to the value of R1,000,000.00.

It’s the kind of assistance customers didn’t even know they needed — until now.

You can read more about the announcement on ITWeb here.

Please contact your First Technology Group Account manager to connect you with the BUI team to discuss how you can take advantage of this new level of protection.

Cloud costing you more than expected?

First Technology Group is stepping up your cloud financial management game with Umbrella (formerly Anodot Cost) — our preferred platform for FinOps and Cloud Cost Management. Umbrella unlocks faster innovation, deeper insights, and robust cost optimisation, empowering you to proactively manage your cloud spend and enhance financial efficiency.

As a Platinum preferred partner across Africa, FTG brings you unmatched expertise and tailored support, ensuring a smooth integration of Umbrella into your current systems with minimal operational disruption.

Here's what Umbrella means:

Enhanced Cost Management: Full visibility of your cloud expenses to pinpoint savings.
Improved Financial Efficiency: Powerful analytics to guide smarter cloud investments.
Seamless Integration: Effortlessly combines with your existing infrastructure.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect with our SAM or FinOps teams to see how they can help you optimise your cloud costs. Even if you may think you have your costs under control, there is no harm in asking somebody else to take a look.... just in case!

The END of free Microsoft Support

Microsoft has ended free technical support for Azure.

The only free support you now get is for billing and subscription issues.

Microsoft now charges $650 per support incident - NB! Not a typo!!

BUI, FTG's Cloud and Security division has introduced a new support model that mitigates some of this impact - you can read more and sign up for more information here.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to discuss your support requirements, as First Technology group can provide GLOBAL SUPPORT 24/7/365 for a wide range of vendors, including Microsoft.

New Asset Visibility Assessment Available

The most certified SAM team in the country has announced a new service, which every company should be interested in, even if it is to validate inventories that you already have.

• One scan, full picture of every on-prem, cloud, HW & SW asset

• Block64 tech → shows what’s installed, licensed and actually used

• Pin-point over/under-licensing & the real cloud cost drivers

• Built-in FinOps actions to kill idle spend, right-size, reserve & save

• Results land in a single Power BI dashboard

You can also contact the SAM division to participate in a 7-10-day PoC with First Intel and apply Real World FinOps practices.

Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our SAM specialists to see how their service can best be applied to the challenges in your business, to gain insight into all assets.

Pitfalls with Dynamics 365

The CRMTeam, the same Team that does the Monday.com workflows have published a document on ITWeb about avoiding the pitfalls of a D365 Customer engagement implementation.

If you are looking to dive down the D365 rabbit hole, this is a good article to read. Then, contact our Dynamics 365 specialists on the CRM Team website or through your First Technology account manager.

What does a World Class SoC look like, and how does it work?

You are invited to book a tour of one of our SoC (Security Operations Center) nodes (and there are still parts we can't show you). You can book for the tour here.

BUI blog - 8th, 9th and 10th Videos Available

FTG's Cloud and Security Division, BUI's Video Blog, has posted 3 new videos focusing on Entra ID. It is highly recommended that you review these videos as they give you an understanding of how to squeeze value out of the Microsoft suites as opposed to buying alternative products which may not be necessary.

No. 8: Streamlining employee onboarding

No. 9: Modernise Remote Access

No. 10: Secure Internet access based on business requirements.

Joint Standard 2 on Cyber Security and Resilience

BUI has published a 1-page guide for you to gauge your compliance and, if you have concerns, to reach out to the BUI specialists for assistance. The guide is available here.