Blogs

Opera 3 – Personal Data Search

Pegasus have released a brand new Opera 3 feature designed to make being GDPR compliant simple for Opera 3 users. Discover what it can do below and contact your Account Manager, call us on 08000 195101 or email sales@profile.co.uk for more information.

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@Profile ES Newsletter Spring 2018 – Software Spring Cleaning

Welcome to the March 2018 edition of @Profile, your quarterly insight into the latest IT and legislative news and updates. It’s the first day of Spring which is the perfect time for a little spring cleaning and a bit of a clear out, for some of you though this might mean clearing out your old and outdated NAV version!

Say goodbye to NAV 2013

If your business is still using NAV 2013 then it’s time to start seriously looking into an upgrade. As you’ve probably seen in our communications since last year, GDPR and Making Tax Digital legislations are finally happening, and not being compliant can have serious effects on your business. From May 2018 GDPR will be implimented and all businesses must be able to prove they are compliant, NAV 2013 lacks the functionality of later versions which

@Profile Newsletter March 2018 – Spring Starts, Year End

Welcome to the March 2018 edition of @Profile, your quarterly insight into the latest IT and legislative news and updates. It’s finally Spring and Payroll Year End is nearly upon us, we’ve prepared a simple ‘what’s new?’ guide for Payroll Year End changes, a re-cap of why it’s important for Opera II users to start thinking about Opera 3 now, and some information about what features Pegasus WebXchange add to Opera 3 and why you might be missing out. As always if you have any questions about anything you read below don’t hesistate to contact your Account Manager.

Opera II to Opera 3, act now!

In 2017 we partnered with Pegasus to announce that Pegasus Opera II would not be updated to support the Making Tax Digital legislative requirements or the 2018/2019 payroll end of year, which will make Opera II outdated and unusable by April 2019. A year ago we warned our customers who were still using Opera II that the writing was on the wall and that the time was coming where they would need to upgrade to supported software, specifically Pegasus Opera 3 which is Pegasus’ current flagship product. That time is now!

Since then we have held seminars across the country with information on GDPR, Making Tax Digital and Opera 3 and the response from those who attended was very positive, but we still have some users who have not contacted us to upgrade yet and are still using Opera II. We cannot stress the importance of upgrading from Opera II any more and it is imperative that you speak with your Account Manager about your opgrade options as Opera II will not meet legislative requirements and it will have serious implications for your business if you do not act now.

To find out more about Opera 3 and about the end of support for Opera II please call 08000 195101 or email sales@profile.co.uk to be put in touch with your Account Manager.

Payroll Year End – What’s new?

The end of the tax year is upon us and with it comes the new Payroll changes that will affect you and your business in 2018/19. If you’ve not had a chance to read up on the changes then please read our summary below.

• Personal Allowance increase – The standard personal allowance will increase this year from £11,500 to £11,850 which will be reflected in the new standard 1185L tax code for employees.
• National Minimum Wage increase – From April 2018 the National Minimum Wage for over 25s is increasing from £7.50 to £7.83, for 24-21 year olds it is increasing from £7.05 to £7.38 and for 18-20 year olds it is increasing from £5.60 to £5.90.
• Higher Income Tax Threshold increase – Currently anyone who earns £45,000 or more a year is taxed at the higher 40% rate, from April 6th the threshold will be 46,350.
• Student Loan Threshold increase – The earnings thresholds for those who are repaying student loans have increased, people with a Plan 1 loan won’t start paying back until they earn £18,330 (currently £17,775) and those with a Plan 2 loan will start at £25,000 (increased from £21,000)
• Lowered Dividend allowance – For those who work via a limited company, the divident allowance is being reduced from £5000 to £2000.
• Company Car changes – There are changes being made that will affect people who own a company car, Benefit In Kind tax rates are increasing based on Co2 emissions and the Diesel Supplement rate paid will be increased from 3% to 4%.

If you have any queries or concerns about your Payroll upgrade, please speak with our Systemcare Support team on 08450 660099

New Opera 3 GDPR feature – Personal Data Search Utility

As you will have seen in our communcations over the last year, GDPR is coming and it demands attention! GDPR regulation affects everyone who holds personal data on EU citizens and businesses must be able to prove that they are holding personal data in a secure manner, and you are also legally required to be able to provide a copy of all the personal data you hold on a person if they request it. Pegasus have released a new function available for Opera 3 that makes producing this data easy!

Using the new Personal Data Search utility’s search function you can quickly search the entire Opera 3 database for personal information you hold on a person and then extract it to excel using the same tool. Being GDPR compliant is now much simpler than before.

Pegasus are hosting Personal Data Search introduction webinars on March 29th, April 6th and April 12th that will show the new module’s features in detail, hosted by Pegasus product expert Steve Power. If you are interested in attending these webinars, please get in touch.

Personal Data Search Utility is a chargeable feature of Opera 3, to discover more visit the page on our website or contact your Account Manager, call us on 08000 195101 or email sales@profile.co.uk.

Are you taking advantage of Pegasus WebXchange with Opera 3?

Opera 3 has such a wide range of functions and features that you would be forgiven if you were not using the software to its full potential, at Profile we have had a think about what key features our customers might be missing out on and decided that the Pegasus WebXchange add on for Opera 3 contains far too many useful features for you to not be aware of it!

Pegasus Web Xchange for Opera 3 adds some great online-only features to Payroll via an online portal, Payroll Self-Service gives your employees access to their payslips and P60s (current and historical) and lets them view the information that you currently hold on them including holiday allowance. Timsheet submissions means that your employees who are paid via a timesheet can submit them via the PWX portal and have them approved too.

The Pegasus Mobile Sales app for android tablets puts Opera 3 into the hands of your sales team, by using Pegasus WebXchange to connect directly to the Opera 3 database users have access to live stock data and are able to browse products, create an order (taking into account individual customers agreed discounts and credit limits) and submit it to be approved right in front of the customer. Putting more power in the hands of your sales team means that they spend less time at home after a day on the road submitting orders and lowers the chances of disapppointed customers when a product they’ve already agreed to buy is out of stock or they don’t have the credit on their account to place an order.

If you feel Pegasus WebXchange and it’s features are right for you, visit our website to learn more and speak to your Account Manager today to discuss it further.

Payroll is more than just Payroll

Payroll is integral to your business and you’ve likely been using it weekly, maybe monthly for years now, but did you know that Payroll is capable of far more than just paying your employees? Did you know that with Opera 3 Payroll you can be sure you’re equipped for any legislative changes like GDPR and utilise Pegasus WebXchange to offer payroll self service and timesheets to your employees?

Do you know what Opera 3 Payroll is capable of?

Manage your staff payroll and stay compliant with HMRC PAYE recognised software, with auto enrolment available as standard, plus integration with leading pension providers.

• Unlimited employee profiles, companies and employees
• Multiple pension scheme management
• Calculation of SSP, SMP, SPP and SAP with complex legislation built in
• Submit End-of-Year returns and In-Year forms (P45 Parts 1 & 3 and P46) via the Government Gateway
• Send payslips & P60s via email
• Opera 3 also payroll comes with its own personnel module as standard

Pegasus WebXchange

• Give employees access to payroll self service to view their payslips, pension contributions, holiday allowance and personal data through the secure WebXchange portal
• Submit timesheets through the WebXchange portal with online approvals
• Connects to Opera 3 Payroll

Are you finding Payroll end of year difficult? Feel like you need to streamline your payroll process? Interested in the features that Pegasus WebXchange offers or just want to find out how Opera 3 Payroll can benefit your business? Book in to one of our live web demos by visiting our website here, emailing us on sales@profile.co.uk or calling us on 08000195101

Christmas Opening Times

Over the Christmas period you may need our support, please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period.

Friday 22nd December 2017 – Head office & support lines open until 12:30pm

Monday 25th December 2017 – CHRISTMAS DAY – Closed

Tuesday 26th December 2017 – BOXING DAY – Closed

Wednesday 27th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Thursday 28th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Friday 29th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Monday 1st January 2018 – BANK HOLIDAY – Closed

Tuesday 2nd January 2018 – Open as normal

We will be available to call on the following numbers during 27th/28th/29th December

Pegasus Software Support: 08450660099

Dynamics NAV Support: 08455 200088

Hardware and Network Support: 08455 200099

You can also email support@profile.co.uk or navsupport@profile.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible

– Merry Christmas from the Profile team!

@Profile Enterprise Solutions Newsletter Christmas 2017

It’s Christmas (nearly) and there’s no better time to reflect on the year 2017 than right now! If you’ve been reading the @Profile quarterly newsletters (if not you could be on Santa’s naughty list) then you’ll know we’ve shared a lot of key information and kept you informed on the latest updates & changes and even shared some insights from our Profile Engineers. In this edition of @Profile we will be recapping the most important news with links to anything you may have missed from our communication & our newsletters from 2017, and will also be informing you of our Christmas opening times, including when our Systemcare Support will be available during the festive break. Let’s dive right in!

2017 – A Year in Review

2017 has been a great year for us here at Profile and we all hope that all of our customers have had great a year too, but lets see if you can cast your minds back to our March newsletter where we challenged you all to “Go Green in 2017” with paperless solutions for your documents and payslips, updated you all about the latest in the governments plans to “Make Tax Digital”, and offered you a chance to discover what’s new in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017. The newsletter also advertised our Zetadocs “How to to become paperless and achieve a fast ROI” seminar, which can be viewed in full by clicking here.

In July we promised you all “Safe and Secure Summer Holidays”, due to a rise in high-profile hacks, server failures and ransomware attacks, Profile took the initiative to offer our customers free of charge hardware audits to ensure that you were protected and safe from anything that could go wrong with your system. We also offered loads of free security advice for protection against ransomware, and a plethora of other things that you could do in your business to make sure your defences, backups and disaster recovery were up to scratch. In July we also met one of our Profile Engineers Perry Quigg, Perry had a lot to say about the importance of a good backup in any system. Finally, any of our customers still running Exchange Server 2007 or Windows Vista were informed that those products would no longer be supported, so it’s time to upgrade!

September was all about new legislative changes and ensuring that our customers “Don’t Get Leaved Behind” (it was also a great time for bad puns!), it gave us an opportunity to share in more detail all that we know about the General Data Protection Regulation legislation with a really handy “Who, What, When and Why” guide that broke GDPR down for easy digestion. We also announced that mainstream support for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 was ending in January 2018, joining NAV 2009 R2, for which support ended in 2015. Finally, we introduced our partner Halo Corporate Finance as a way to split the cost of your orders and finance our products.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our @Profile newsletters, learned a lot from the information we have shared and have taken advantage of some of the offers we made available. If anything in this recap catches your eye, feel free to contact your Account Manager or call us on 01442 236311.

Christmas Opening Times

Over the Christmas period you may need our support, please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period.

Friday 22nd December 2017 – Head office & support lines open until 12:30pm

Monday 25th December 2017 – CHRISTMAS DAY – Closed

Tuesday 26th December 2017 – BOXING DAY – Closed

Wednesday 27th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Thursday 28th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Friday 29th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Monday 1st January 2018 – BANK HOLIDAY – Closed

Tuesday 2nd January 2018 – Open as normal

We will be available to call on the following numbers during 27th/28th/29th December

Dynamics NAV Support: 08455 200088

Hardware and Network Support: 08455 200099

You can also email support@profile.co.uk or navsupport@profile.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible

– Merry Christmas from the Profile team!

@Profile Newsletter Christmas 2017

It’s Christmas (nearly) and there’s no better time to reflect on the year 2017 than right now! If you’ve been reading the @Profile quarterly newsletters (if not you could be on Santa’s naughty list) then you’ll know we’ve shared a lot of key information and kept you informed on the latest updates & changes and even shared some insights from our Profile Engineers. In this edition of @Profile we will be recapping the most important news with links to anything you may have missed from our communication & our newsletters from 2017, and will also be informing you of our Christmas opening times, including when our Systemcare Support will be available during the festive break. Let’s dive right in!

2017 – A Year in Review

2017 has been a great year for us here at Profile and we all hope that all of our customers have had great a year too, but lets see if you can cast your minds back to our March newsletter where we covered all of the changes in the new Payroll updates for the 2017/18 financial year, updated you all about the latest in the governments plans to “Make Tax Digital”, first warned our remaining Opera II customers about the impending doom that these new legislative changes would have on Pegasus’ soon to be outdated product, and challenged you all to “Go Green in 2017” with paperless solutions for your documents and payslips.

In July we promised you all “Safe and Secure Summer Holidays”, due to a rise in high-profile hacks, server failures and ransomware attacks, Profile took the initiative to offer our customers free of charge hardware audits to ensure that you were protected and safe from anything that could go wrong with your system. We also offered loads of free security advice for protection against ransomware, and a plethora of other things that you could do in your business to make sure your defences, backups and disaster recovery were up to scratch. In July we also met one of our Profile Engineers Perry Quigg, Perry had a lot to say about the importance of a good backup in any system. Finally, any of our customers still running Exchange Server 2007 or Windows Vista were informed that those products would no longer be supported, so it’s time to upgrade!

September was all about new legislative changes and ensuring that our customers “Don’t Get Leaved Behind” (it was also a great time for bad puns!), it gave us an opportunity to share in more detail all that we know about the General Data Protection Regulation legislation with a really handy “Who, What, When and Why” guide that served as a precursor to our Pegasus Business Update Seminars that ran from the end of November to the first week in December. We re-iterated once again the importance of upgrading from the outdated Pegasus Opera II to Opera 3 with all its new functionality and support for “Making Tax Digital” and GDPR and announced that Profile’s development team were hard at work testing Opera 3 SQL Server Edition as a part of the Partner Evaluation Program. Finally, we introduced our partner Halo Corporate Finance as a way to split the cost of your orders and finance our products.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our @Profile newsletters, learned a lot from the information we have shared and have taken advantage of some of the offers we made available. If anything in this recap catches your eye, feel free to contact your Account Manager or call us on 01442 236311.

Pegasus Business Update Seminars – Photos and Recap

Thank you to all of our customers who were able to attend our Pegasus Business Update Seminars in the last few weeks! Steve Powers, Product Specialist at Pegasus Software was on hand to share a staggering amount of information regarding new legislative changes coming in 2018 and 2019, “Making Tax Digital” and GDPR, as well as the latest in the world of Opera 3. Everyone who attended that we spoke to said they found the event very informative and gave them a lot to think about, especially those who still use Opera II in their business as Steve gave the definitive announcement from Pegasus that Opera II will not be updated to reflect any new changes in legislation. One customer said: “I found it really helpful. So often seminars do not contain enough detailed information and are light on content, but this was really packed in and well worth my morning out of the office.”

The event was a fantastic opportunity for our customers to pick the brains of our Pegasus Account Management team, and Steve’s extensive knowledge of Pegasus products was inaluable in answering your most pressing questions. We would like to give a huge thanks to Steve and the team for all their hard work! For those of you who missed the events Pegasus have made the slides available for us to share, if you would like to request a copy please send an email to sales@profile.co.uk and we can organise these being sent to you. In the mean time, please see some photos taken at the events below!

Solihull

Maidstone

Christmas Opening Times

Over the Christmas period you may need our support, please see below our opening hours over the Christmas period.

Friday 22nd December 2017 – Head office & support lines open until 12:30pm

Monday 25th December 2017 – CHRISTMAS DAY – Closed

Tuesday 26th December 2017 – BOXING DAY – Closed

Wednesday 27th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Thursday 28th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Friday 29th December 2017 – Limited support available 9am – 5:30pm

Monday 1st January 2018 – BANK HOLIDAY – Closed

Tuesday 2nd January 2018 – Open as normal

We will be available to call on the following numbers during 27th/28th/29th December

Pegasus Software Support: 08450660099

Dynamics NAV Support: 08455 200088

Hardware and Network Support: 08455 200099

You can also email support@profile.co.uk or navsupport@profile.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible

– Merry Christmas from the Profile team!

Online Filing Manager v4.00 Download

Please click the link below to download Online Filing Manager v4.00. This update is of high importance and caters for online submissions to the new HMRC Multi Digital Tax (MDTP) which will replace the Government Gateway in February 2018. This update must be done before MDTP is required.

If you have any trouble with downloading the file or upgrading your OFM version, please contact Profile Systemcare Support on 08450 660099 for assistance. This may be chargeable based on your Support Contract.

Instructions:

1. Download the below file to your desktop or a downloads folder
2. Browse to the file on your system
3. Right click and select ‘extract all’
4. Browse to the newly created ‘Pegasus Online Filing Manager v4.00.00’ folder
5. right click setup.exe, click ‘run as administrator’ and follow the instructions on screen to complete the update

Download Online Filing Manager v4.00

Opera 3 & Opera II updates

Pegasus have also announced new versions of Opera 3 and Opera II, these contain the following updates:

• Auto enrolment ‘Staging Date’/’Duties Start Date’ New employers are no longer given a staging date by the Pensions Regulator; they instead have what is referred to as a “Duties Start Date” which is the date that their first member of staff starts to work for them. The Staging Date field in Opera 3 and Opera II Payroll is now a dual purpose field which can be used for either a Staging Date or a Duties Start Date.
• Serious Ill Health Payments and Scottish Tax Changes to FPS Opera 3 and Opera II now accommodates seriously ill health lump sum benefits to be reported in the full payment submission (FPS). Such payments are made where ill health and life expentancy is estimated to be less than one year. Opera 3 and Opera II also cater for FPS submissions for Scottish taxpaters who have a tax code operating on a non-cumulative basis.
• D8 Tax Codes Opera 3 and Opera II now cater for new codes ranging from ‘D2’ up to and including ‘D8’, which HMRC introduced in order to cater for further powers given to the Scottish Parliament, which allow them to set their own income tax rates and thresholds for Scottish taxpayers. Currently D0 means ‘All pay is taxed at 40%’ and D1 means ‘All pay is taxed at 45%’. Codes D2 to D8 have been added in order to offer flexibility in accommodating future additions of new tax bands.
• Removal of redundant fields from WNAME in order to optimise future development.

If this affects you and you want to update your Opera 3 or Opera II to the latest versions please contact your Account Manager or call 01442 236311 to organise this.

Pegasus Business Update Seminars – Register for an event

In 2018 there are multiple new legislative changes coming that will affect your business. As a Pegasus Opera 3 or Opera II customer, you will need to be aware of how GDPR, Making Tax Digital and Gender Pay Gap & Late Payment Reporting will be enforced, and it is imperative that your business is compliant. Profile and Pegasus are hosting three live seminars to update you on everything Opera 3 and Opera II, detailing the implications of the new legislation for remaining Opera II customers and ensuring that you are fully aware of what Pegasus are planning for Opera 3 to make sure you aren’t caught out.

If you are an Opera 3 or Opera II customer these seminars will contain critical information and will also provide a great opportunity to meet the Pegasus and Profile teams and have your questions answered.

These seminars will also cover:

• Opera 3 SQL Server Edition Overview & Product Demo
• Pegasus Business Cloud
• Pegasus Web Xchange, Payroll Self Service and the Mobile Sales App

Seminars will be held at the following locations and on the following dates:

[FULLY BOOKED] Tuesday 28th November – Hemel Hempstead (9:30am registration)
Wednesday 6th December – Solihull (9:30am registration
Thursday 7th December – Maidstone (9:30am registration)

All Seminars are expected to finish at 1pm, with a tea / coffee break. Free parking will also be offered.

Please fill out the form below* to register to attend an event. More information regarding venues will be sent out prior to the events. If you have any questions please contact your Account Manager or call us in the office on 01442 236311.

*Please note that clicking submit will send the information and the page will refresh without confirmation.

@Profile Autumn 2017 – Don’t get leaved behind

Welcome to the Autumn edition of our @Profile newsletter. Sadly the Summer’s end is upon us, Autumn is fast approaching, and like Summer sun, longer days and green leaves on trees, nothing lasts forever – not even software is evergreen! In this edition of @Profile we’ll be announcing the end of life for one piece of Pegasus software, giving a long awaited update on another, getting you up to date on GDPR, reiterating the importance of a good firewall for your business security, and finally letting you all know about how you can spread the cost of your new software and hardware with Profile’s finance options.

Pegasus Opera II – The End is Nigh

Pegasus released their latest flagship product Opera 3 in 2010, and since then they have continued to support Opera II with updates and compatiblity patches for those who were still using the software. As of 2017, the number of people still using Opera II is in the vast minority as Opera II is now in maintenance mode, so Pegasus have announced the official end of support for Opera II Payroll and they will not be releasing Payroll upgrades moving forwards.

You may be wondering ‘What does this mean for the future?’ Well, if you’re still using Opera II Payroll then it’s time to speak to your Account Manager now to ensure you aren’t caught out at the end of the payroll year. Opera II’s days are numbered – it won’t be long before Pegasus announce an official end of life date and Pegasus will not support the software anymore, and you don’t want to be caught out using outdated, unsupported software to run crucial components of your business.

If you are running Opera II – even without payroll – we still recommend you speak to your account manager about what Opera 3 can do for your business, and to discuss a migration plan to ensure you don’t get left behind.

Pegasus Opera 3 SQL Server Edition – Latest News

We are aware there are some of our Opera 3 customers that are waiting for news about Opera 3 SQL SE, and today we have some news to share! Profile have been heavily involved in the partner evaluation program for Opera 3 SQL SE and are assessing it in terms of deployment, implementation, data migration and load and performance testing. Once the evaluation has been completed we will hopefully have more news to share soon regarding the commercial release.

GDPR – What, Who, When and Why?

General Data Protection Regulation will be enforceable from 25th May 2018, but what does it mean for you?

What? – GDPR is a new regulation that involves personal data that a company holds about an individual, and the handling of that data within an organisation. If your business is found to be non-compliant, you could be fined up to €20,000,000 or 4% of your annual turnover, whichever is greater. Data can include anything from a name and address, to a phone number or set of bank details, and your handling of that data is key.

Who? – GDPR applies to any organisation who collects data from EU residents or any company who processes data for an organisation in the EU. If you’re based in the EU and you have employees, this will affect you, no matter what your company size.

When? – GDPR is enforceable from 25th May 2018. If you deal with any EU residents data there is no avoiding it.

Why? – GDPR aims to protect the data of EU citizens and ensure companies are handling the data in the correct way to avoid breaches and leaks.

The right to be forgotten – with GDPR in place, a person has the right to request their personal data be removed from a database, and the controller of that data is then obliged to erase it. As a controller, you will have the right to erase data that is no longer necessary or relevant, as long as it is compliant with GDPR.

Pegasus have not yet released their plans for GDPR however, as soon as we know we will be updating all of our customers. You should already be thinking about your network security and what your business can do to protect your data to ensure that you are not caught out. Up to date antivirus (Profile recommends ESET or Symantec antivirus solutions) and two-factor password authentication from ESET can drastically decrease the chances of a data breach, and tighten security across your entire business. If you want any advice or assistance in making sure your business is ready for GDPR, please contact your Account Manager.

Still hot for firewalls

Our last edition of @Profile covered the importance of good security and protection from malware and ransomware and we think it’s so important we’re going to touch on it again! Unlike us humans, your business’s IT system doesn’t come with its own immune system and, unless properly protected, you are leaving your business open to viruses, malware, ransomware and hacks. The best place to start with protecting your business is a physical firewall, by the time software firewalls that already exist on your server/PC detect a threat, it’s already on your system, whereas hardware firewalls turn threats away at the door. Profile recommends WatchGuard Firebox T series, one of the highest performing UTM (unified threat management) solutions on the market. Speak to your Account Manager if you are at all concerned about your business security.

Read our top 5 tips for ransomware protection here, and be sure to check out our last edition of @Profile for more important information regarding business security.

Split the cost

Did you know that Profile offers finance options on all of our products and services? Our trusted partners at Halo Corporate Finance offer great rates and personal service. Financing is one of the most efficient and rational options for funding computer equipment and software. It’s a method that gives the User a flexible and cost-effective means of keeping pace with technology, while enhancing our product offering.

Financing provides budgetary control, predictability and enhanced cash flow at a time when developments in IT are continually shortening equipment life cycles and speeding up obsolescence. Flexibility of financing is becoming a company’s number one concern, and Profile is able to offer flexible and tax efficient solutions to encompass all aspects of our proposal. A package which includes the total system, software, support and services.

Speak to your Account Manager to discuss your finance options with any order, or to find out more about the benefits of buying through finance.

– The Profile Team

@Profile Autumn 2017 – Don’t get ‘leaved’ behind

Welcome to the Autumn edition of our @Profile newsletter. Sadly the Summer’s end is upon us, Autumn is fast approaching, and like Summer sun, longer days and green leaves on trees, nothing lasts forever – not even software is evergreen! In this edition of @Profile we’ll be discussing the future of some Microsoft Dynamics NAV versions, getting you up to date on GDPR, reiterating the importance of a good firewall for your business security, and finally letting you all know about how you can spread the cost of your new software and hardware with Profile’s finance options.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 and 2013 R2 – Moving On

If you currently run Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, or 2013 R2 then this first section of @Profile is very important to you and we highly recommend reading it carefully. As you know, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 launched last year and Microsoft ended mainstream support for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 in January of 2015, well now Microsoft has also recently announced that mainstream support for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 is ending in Jan 2018 too. This means that there will be no more updates for compatability or functionality for this, or any other product not currently supported by Microsoft. What this also means, is that any new legislation that the government enforces will not be supported, and anyone still using these outdated softwares will be caught out and could face huge fines if they aren’t compliant.

If you are using either of the above versions of NAV it is extremely important that you get in touch with your Account Manager and discuss your options for upgrading to NAV 2017, with GDPR coming into play in May 2018, you don’t want to be left behind, as you will not be able to be GDPR compliant with software that doesn’t support it.

GDPR – What, Who, When and Why?

General Data Protection Regulation will be enforceable from 25th May 2018, but what does it mean for you?

What? – GDPR is a new regulation that involves personal data that a company holds about an individual, and the handling of that data within an organisation. If your business is found to be non-compliant, you could be fined up to €20,000,000 or 4% of your annual turnover, whichever is greater. Data can include anything from a name and address, to a phone number or set of bank details, and your handling of that data is key.

Who? – GDPR applies to any organisation who collects data from EU residents or any company who processes data for an organisation in the EU. If you’re based in the EU and you have employees, this will affect you, no matter what your company size.

When? – GDPR is enforceable from 25th May 2018. If you deal with any EU residents data there is no avoiding it.

Why? – GDPR aims to protect the data of EU citizens and ensure companies are handling the data in the correct way to avoid breaches and leaks.

The right to be forgotten – with GDPR in place, a person has the right to request their personal data be removed from a database, and the controller of that data is then obliged to erase it. As a controller, you will have the right to erase data that is no longer necessary or relevant, as long as it is compliant with GDPR.

Microsoft have not yet released their plans for GDPR however as soon as we know we will be updating all of our customers. You should already be thinking about your network security and what your business can do to protect your data to ensure that you are not caught out. Up to date antivirus (Profile recommends ESET or Symantec antivirus solutions) and two-factor password authentication from ESET can drastically decrease the chances of a data breach, and tighten security across your entire business. If you want any advice or assistance in making sure your business is ready for GDPR, please contact your Account Manager.

Still hot for firewalls

Our last edition of @Profile covered the importance of good security and protection from malware and ransomware and we think it’s so important we’re going to touch on it again! Unlike us humans, your business’s IT system doesn’t come with its own immune system and, unless properly protected, you are leaving your business open to viruses, malware, ransomware and hacks. The best place to start with protecting your business is a physical firewall, by the time software firewalls that already exist on your server/PC detect a threat, it’s already on your system, whereas hardware firewalls turn threats away at the door. Profile recommends WatchGuard Firebox T series, one of the highest performing UTM (unified threat management) solutions on the market. Speak to your Account Manager if you are at all concerned about your business security.

Read our top 5 tips for ransomware protection here, and be sure to check out our last edition of @Profile for more important information regarding business security.

Split the cost

Did you know that Profile offers finance options on all of our products and services? Our trusted partners at Halo Corporate Finance offer great rates and personal service. Financing is one of the most efficient and rational options for funding computer equipment and software. It’s a method that gives the User a flexible and cost-effective means of keeping pace with technology, while enhancing our product offering.

Financing provides budgetary control, predictability and enhanced cash flow at a time when developments in IT are continually shortening equipment life cycles and speeding up obsolescence. Flexibility of financing is becoming a company’s number one concern, and Profile is able to offer flexible and tax efficient solutions to encompass all aspects of our proposal. A package which includes the total system, software, support and services.

Speak to your Account Manager to discuss your finance options with any order, or to find out more about the benefits of buying through finance.

– The Profile Team