Sphere 12 provides IT support for newly launched mental health initiative.

Sphere 12 has partnered with Changing Minds to support a new online platform aimed at providing virtual wellbeing sessions for all New Zealanders. The initiative is part of a just-announced $3.5 million government funding boost to assist New Zealanders struggling through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Changing Minds is a not-for-profit organisation providing mental health and wellbeing information, advice, education, and advocacy for all New Zealanders. One of the organis

ation’s key objectives is leading collaborative social change projects aimed at reducing mental health discrimination, promoting social inclusion and improving mental health and wellbeing for communities.

Connecting with others through the Wellbeing Sessions

Changing Minds are providing free, virtual community events through a dedicated webpage — wellbeingsessions.nz. The site has just gone live and will be offering

a diverse range of sessions exploring physical heath, grief and gratitude, burnout, mindfulness and journaling, communication, supporting families and much more.

As a Managed Services Provider, we know how pivotal a well-functioning IT network is to the success of any organisation, and we believe Changing Minds deserves the same benefits from enterprise-level technology that our commercial clients receive.

Secure communication through Microsoft Teams

Due to the nature of their work, information security is paramount at Changing Minds. By partnering with Sphere12, we can provide them with the security and flexibility of a complete end-to-end Microsoft solution, including fully-encrypted communications through MS Teams.

Networking for Good

Lockdown restrictions have seen a massive increase in the use of video collaboration apps and cloud-based solutions to ensure business continuity. It's heartening to see these same technologies being used for social good, and Sphere 12 is proud to be working alongside Changing Minds to enable these essential conversations to be heard.

The Wellbeing Sessions page sums it up nicely:

Me kōrero kia ora ai tātou - Let us connect so we may all find wellbeing.

After-hours support for global MSP’s

For MSP’s providing 24/5 IT support to their clients, supplying a high-quality after-hours service can be a challenge. Typically, you have two choices—allocate staff to work the

night shift or outsource the work. We all know the downsides to night-shift work: fatigue

and health issues for staff, reduced performance and a higher risk of errors for end-clients.

Outsourcing has the potential to resolve many of the issues surrounding AH support,

as long as the service provider can meet the same high standards you provide during business hours. Providers with language differences or who work in a similar time-zone might not offer the expected benefits you seek.

After-hours support without the night shift.

Sphere12 provide up to 13 hours of full-escalation IT support to Managed Services Providers (MSP’s) around the world. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, we’re embracing

the time difference between us and our northern hemisphere global MSP clients to provide a world-class managed service support experience. We currently support medium-sized organisations of 20-500 end users across the UK, US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Routine tasks like morning backup checks and server patching or maintenance can often tie up valuable staff in the morning, just when the support call traffic is building up.

The result can be longer phone delays or employees falling behind in their scheduled work. Sphere12 can carry out this routine work for you after hours, freeing your staff to answer support calls and tickets.

Fixed price unlimited IT support

The Sphere12 advantage is unlimited IT support at a very competitive fixed price.

Our AH Global Support Plans include:

· Unlimited remote IT support

· ​Accountability for the performance of your infrastructure

· System maintenance following industry best practice

· A performance guarantee and SLA.

Sphere 12 can handle all your infrastructure needs from desktop to server and everything in between. We support the complete infrastructure needs of our clients across WINTEL environments, networking (both LAN and WAN), desktop and IP telephony. We apply both ITIL and Agile methodologies to ensure our IT support is responsive and aligns with your business processes.

Our Global MSP Standard plan gives you 13 hrs of AH phone support, including four hours of BAU tasks per day. A routine job such as installing an application on a user’s PC can be disruptive for the user’s workflow and tie up an engineer during the day. Now you can book the job in with S12, and we'll carry out this task for you overnight.

Senior Engineer Ticket Escalation

For MSP's seeking higher-level IT support, we offer the Global MSP Premium plan. The Premium plan includes all the features of our standard package, plus additional senior engineer support for server and application issues.

More complex tasks such as server reboots need to be done out of hours. As an MSP, this could mean high overtime costs or time off in lieu for the engineer. By booking in these jobs with S12, we can carry out this work without disrupting your daytime work rosters.

A Seamless 24/5 Support Experience

Our goal at Sphere12 is to provide MSP’s with a seamless AH support service that matches your daytime operation in quality, process and customer experience. Contact the team at S12 to find out more about our plans and pricing.

A Game Changer—Microsoft adds a compelling new feature to Office 365

The COVID 19 pandemic has placed extraordinary demands on business managers looking to pull together a remote collaboration system for their locked-down staff. While there are plenty of apps and services for specific workplace tasks, this piecemeal approach can create a complex system with multiple accounts and suppliers. Security concerns surrounding communication apps like Zoom have motivated organisations to find more secure solutions that can be readily implemented.

A Unified Solution

From April 22, Microsoft is lowering the cost of their Teams Direct Routing business voice service – included in their Office 365 Business product. Subscribers to this service will be able to migrate their entire phone system to MS Teams—giving them end-to-end encryption of voice and video calls, as well as full Microsoft Office integration and collaboration. Office 365 (now called Microsoft 365), is already commonplace in most businesses and the addition of voice calling makes it a compelling solution for workplace collaboration. MS Teams is completely integrated with the existing Office suite of products such as Outlook and SharePoint, providing a reassuringly familiar interface for staff.

At Sphere 12, we keep a constant lookout for new technology solutions that offer genuine benefits for our clients. Microsoft’s move to a lower price point for a complete suite of workplace collaboration tools, including voice calling through MS Teams, gives SME’s the same feature set that was previously only available with an enterprise licence. For clients who already have Office 365 Business and need to deploy solutions for secure remote collaboration, we think adding Teams with a voice calling plan is a no-brainer.

However, companies looking to switch to MS Teams for their full phone system will require a 3rd party calling service, known as a SIP Trunk provider. To meet this need, Sphere12 have partnered with NZ-based VOIP solutions provider Hero, who provide an excellent Microsoft Teams Integration service. We’re offering new and existing clients a turnkey solution: a fully functional Teams calling environment proof of concept in as little as two days.

Sphere12 were one of Hero’s first MS Teams clients. As Wintel certified professionals, we set up our own Teams phone system and use it for everyday communications amongst our team and our inbound Helpdesk. Hero was so impressed—they invited us to become resellers.

Why an MS Teams Phone System makes good business sense:

• Secure voice, video and screen sharing

• Tight integration with Office apps

• New lower-cost 365 plans for SME's

• Leverage your existing 365 Business subscription

• Secure calling from mobiles via the Teams App

• Consolidate your workplace services into one unified platform

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The Benefits of a Managed Service Provider

As an NZ-based MSP, Sphere12 have built up a comprehensive skill set, including:

• Azure/AWS Cloud implementation and support

• VOIP integration into MS Teams

• Management tool support (Autotask, ConnectWise, CRM, SharePoint, Atlassian)

• Desktop, server and storage support and implementation

• Networking (Cisco, Fortinet, Meraki)

We’re a Microsoft Azure and 365 CSP partner and can administer and maintain your 365 Business subscriptions with no added cost to the licenses. If you’re already planning a switch to MS Teams for video conferencing, you should consider implementing their complete end to end phone system solution. Our experienced team can help you through the trickier aspects of installation, backed up with training and documentation.

As a Managed Services Provider, Sphere12 acts as your trusted advisor. We support all of your IT services and wrap it all together. If you’d like advice on your current workplace IT situation, please feel free to get in touch.

info@sphere12.com

Tel: +64 9 394 7870