Harness Group Blog

As we close out the first quarter of 2025, I wanted to share some upgrades to how we support you and your team here at Harness Group.

 

New Ways to Communicate with Harness Group

Over the last year we’ve switched to a new platform to manage you and your resources with some new cool features including easier ways for you to reach out and create a ticket with us:

The upgraded communicator on your computer: The communicator appears as the Harness logo in the bottom right of your main screen in Windows, and as the Harness logo in the menu bar across the top of your Mac, our communicator is always just a click away. We’ve included some useful links in it that will be updated over time. It currently includes our contact information, the ability to create tickets and your system information as seen here:

 

 

 

If you right-click you will get the small menu seen in the 1^st image. If you left-click you will get the box seen the 2^nd image, then you can click on the 3 dots in the blue bar across the top.

Please don’t use the Help Desk Chat feature just yet. More to come on that feature in the future!

 

Use Ethereal Accounts and Cards

 

Ethereal credit cards and email addresses are a great way to protect you and your information online. Ethereal items are ones that exist only for a short period of time to accomplish a purpose and then they disappear or are deleted. I use this feature to make purchases online with my credit card whenever it’s offered. A virtual card is created for a single purchase and then when the purchase is completed, the card no longer exists.

This is also a feature that you can use with both Apple and (coming soon to) Android for email addresses with ‘hide my email’:

How to use Hide My Email with Sign in with Apple

Google is working on its own version of Apple’s Hide My Email

 

Skip the Support Emails with our Portal

 

The Harness support portal is the absolute best way to see and manage all of your Harness Group tickets in one place. You can input tickets, see who’s working on the ticket, its status, and all communication about the ticket up to this point and update the ticket with your own notes to us. Now you don’t even have to remember the web address for the portal; it’s been added to the bottom of the communicator! As our email inboxes get fuller, the portal is a much better place to clearly see all IT tickets (present and past) with Harness Group. There’s also a knowledgebase that allows you to look up resolutions to some common tickets from your organization.

If you’re not currently set up with a portal login, reach out and we’ll get you in! We’ll be moving more and more in this direction for project and ticket management to help keep everyone on the same page, prevent duplicate tickets, keep all information together, and most importantly keep you informed in one place without having to search through emails to serve you better and faster!

 

How Should I Handle Phishing Emails?

 

Quick Fact: Did you know that according to research by Deloitte and KnowBe4 91% of all cyberattacks begin with a phishing email?

If you receive an email that you KNOW is phishing/SPAM, report them as phishing as you doing that trains the servers when a legitimate account has been compromised (right click on message > report as phishing). This goes much further than reporting to Harness Group when you as the recipient report it directly to Microsoft.

 

 

If you’re unsure if it’s SPAM/Phishing forward it on to us for review at . Pay attention and stay safe out there.

 

Have a co-worker, family member or friend who could benefit from this email content and may want to receive it in the future? Have them go to our website, https://www.harness.group/news-a-events, and sign up for our newsletter on the right side of the page!

Thank you for allowing us to serve you!

Hello Everyone, I hope that you're energized for the week ahead! We've curated some fantastic articles and videos to help you stay productive, secure, and inspired. Dive into these sections to discover new hacks, tips, and personal stories that will surely make a difference in your daily routine.

1. Microsoft Loop Hacks to Stay Productive

Discover how Microsoft Loop can revolutionize your productivity with these amazing hacks. From organizing your tasks to collaborating seamlessly with your team, this article has it all. Don't miss out on these game-changing tips!

Read more: https://www.androidpolice.com/microsoft-loop-hacks-i-use-to-stay-productive

2. Mastering Microsoft OneDrive: Tips and Tricks

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft OneDrive with this comprehensive guide. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned user, these tips and tricks will help you work smarter and more efficiently. Say goodbye to frustration and hello to productivity!

Read more: https://support.microsoft.com/office/b30da4eb-ddd2-44b6-943b-e6fbfc6b8dde

3. From Passwords to Passkeys: A Personal Journey

Join us on a personal journey of transitioning from traditional passwords to modern passkeys. This insightful story highlights the challenges and benefits of making the switch, offering valuable lessons for anyone looking to enhance their digital security.

Read more: https://www.androidpolice.com/changed-password-to-passkey-my-story/

4. All your Microsoft 365 Apps

If you've got a Microsoft 365 subscription, it's more than just an email address, Word, Powerpoint and Excel. You've got access to a whole world of useful applications. You can click here, or go to this address, login with your company email and password to see all of the applications that you have access to along with a short description:

See them all: https://www.microsoft365.com/apps?auth=2&home=1

Watch Out for Ads as You Browse the Internet

As you navigate the web, it’s crucial to stay vigilant about the ads you encounter. Recent reports highlight that Google searches have become a significant target for malvertising hackers. These malicious ads can lead to harmful websites or download malware onto your device or get you to give them sensitive data. Always ensure your browser and security software are up-to-date, and be cautious about clicking on ads, especially those that seem too good to be true.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/05/google-searches-big-target-for-malvertising-hackers.html

Mastering VLOOKUP in Excel

I’m not an Excel guru, but I would consider myself a light power user. VLOOKUP is one of my favorite and most used functions. Excel’s VLOOKUP function is a powerful tool for anyone dealing with large datasets. If you’re looking to enhance your Excel skills, check out this informative video tutorial on VLOOKUP here. The video covers everything from the basics to advanced tips, making it easier to find and analyze data efficiently.

https://youtu.be/xIynD1gFOLo?si=5DRXtRKua-AFltrU

The Importance of Subject Matter Experts for Your Major Line of Business Applications

In today’s fast-paced business environment, having subject matter experts (SMEs) for your major line of business applications is more critical than ever. SMEs bring specialized knowledge and experience that can help streamline processes, improve decision-making, and ensure that your applications are used to their fullest potential. Investing in SMEs can lead to better performance, reduced errors, and a more robust business strategy overall.

Our primary line of business applications here at Harness Group are ConnectWise and Office 356 admin center among others. We require regular general and specialized training so that we can stay up to date on the use of the software and gain efficiencies as new features are rolled out. Every staff member has a baseline understanding of our platforms, but some of us go further so that we can be our own internal support for the tool.

Each of our clients has their own line of business applications where it would be of major benefit to invest in an SME(s) to help use your software to its fullest potential day to day. We help as best we can with software-related troubleshooting among the hundreds of pieces of software that our clients use daily, but someone who is in the software day in and day out with this specialized training is going to be a massive asset in the nuances of their company’s software setup, configuration, inner workings and functions.

NotebookLM - AI is starting to show promise for us common folks

NotebookLM is an experimental AI-powered research and writing assistant developed by Google. It allows users to upload their documents and then leverages the power of language models to provide insights, summaries, and explanations based on those sources. This tool is designed to help users synthesize information more efficiently by generating summaries, answering detailed questions, and converting complex material into easy-to-understand formats. NotebookLM aims to be a virtual research assistant, making it easier to connect ideas and gain deeper understanding from the documents you upload. One of its coolest features is that it has the ability to make an AI generated audio podcast with two AI hosts from documents that you upload! NotebookLM isn't something that we sell or support, but I wanted to share what we're seeing in the AI space as it progresses. Here are a couple of links to the NotebookLM site, and a Forbes article about the podcast feature:

https://notebooklm.google/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2024/10/04/how-to-create-an-ai-podcast-about-anything-in-seconds-with-notebooklm/

Welcome to the Third edition of our HG Newsletter. For any of you who don't know me, I'm

Seneca Allen, one of the partners here at Harness Group.

The IT landscape is constantly changing for the better and for the worse. New tools are

released to make our lives easier, us more efficient, save us time and money and

communicate better with each other. Bad actors are constantly looking for and inventing

new ways to trick us and play on the trust that we have for one another.

Here in this newsletter, I will bring to the forefront an item or two in each edition that

speaks to these topics. There's so much information constantly coming at us, that we here

at Harness Group want to do our best to highlight a few things for you to pay attention to

in bite size portions.

The title of this edition of the newsletter comes from a phrase that we hear often when

we're on site at a client's office. Our company's model is remote first support, so when

we're on site, we get lots of questions about nagging items but also about tips and tricks,

and asked for recommendations about tech related topics, and we want to address some of

that here in this newsletter.

If you like what we're doing and this content, please leave us a Google Review!

Outlook is not a good Task Manager

But it is good for lots of other things. Here is a video from Johnathan Edwards, one of my

favorite Microsoft 365 experts with 12 tips for better outlook productivity including a

reference to Microsoft's built in Task Manager tool, ToDo, which I've referenced in these

newsletters before and that I and my team use daily!

https://youtu.be/JVC9ZO9OvZU?si=_5uBmIUr5ts6Pe0I

It's time to lock down your Credit Report

2.9 billion people may have had their personal information when a background check

company doing business as National Public Data, owned by Jerico Pictures Inc., failed to

properly safeguard information it scraped. This was a major headline in the security world

last week, so if you're not aware, check out this article, and I would recommend locking

down your credit report any time that you're not actively looking to obtain new credit:

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/15/billions-people-social-security-numbers-and-data-

stolen-allegedly.html

Article on HOW to lock your Credit Report:

https://www.theverge.com/24224789/data-breach-freeze-report-security-how-to

Helpful stuff in Office 365

Office 365 and other Windows apps have a LOT to offer. Unlike the urban legend about

humans only using 10% of our brains, most of us do only use a small percentage of what

we have access to in Office 365. I create this newsletter in a Microsoft product called Sway

that's a part of my Office 365 subscription. Here are a few other items that you might find

useful that you may already have access to:

https://www.howtogeek.com/microsoft-365-hacks-you-didnt-know-you-needed/

OneDrive Beginner / Refresher Video!

You Asked for it, and here it is! Another fantastic video by Jonathan Edwards at Integral IT in

the UK about OneDrive. He reviews most if not all of the basics and best practices that we

share in our initial setup and migrations to OneDrive for all of our clients, along with a few

new items that we haven't shared previously. EVERYONE using OneDrive  and/or SharePoint

who sometimes needs a refresher should review and save this video for future reference

and new employees that they come on board.

https://youtu.be/vjeTALC_7Qg?si=BtgpsVkOziDo6LP4