Get your Business AI Ready

Fundamentals of IT in the Modern Workplace

What happened at our Event

Dunedin IT, a proud sponsor of Hibernian FC for the past two years, recently hosted its second event of the year at the Hibernian FC Easter Road Stadium on June 27th. Our event saw an attendance of over 20 clients and other interested businesses.

The event aimed to explore the key building blocks of IT that form the foundation to harness the power of AI, rapidly becoming a hot topic in technology. Contributions from key industry players laid out a vision of the modern business, focusing on the best ways to store, protect your data, and the tools and applications that can give your business the edge. Attendees left the event well-fed, well-informed, and well-placed to confidently take their business forward with their IT strategy.

We brought together leading vendors to share technical insights on the modern workplace and AI-related ideas. These included:

Microsoft: Discussing Copilot, Intune, Business Premium, and the current landscape of Microsoft.
Acronis: Highlighting the world of Cyber Security and the importance of backing up your Microsoft 365 environment.
Gamma: The importance of focusing on connectivity and resilience.
Egnyte: Sharing insights on securing and sharing your data with Copilot integration.

Contributors

Why we made this event

With a decade of experience as a comprehensive Managed Service Provider, Dunedin IT has gained extensive knowledge and practical insights into all facets of business technology, thanks to our collaboration with over 200 clients. And alongside this we cannot forget our esteemed vendors, who assist us in deploying a range of services from Cyber Security to Connectivity, we envisioned an event that encapsulated this and brought this knowledge to our clients. The event was designed to delve into the pivotal role of IT in sculpting a secure, efficient, and collaborative workplace environment that is primed to harness the transformative power of AI.

Our Goal

Jamie Clague

Managing Director

AI Inspiration: We aim to spark your imagination about AI’s potential to revolutionise your business operations, from automating routine tasks to uncovering valuable insights. And to also show you were AI is today, and were it is going in the near future.

David Inglis

Chairman

Data Importance: We emphasise that data is a vital business asset. It informs strategies, drives operations, and shapes customer interactions. Treating it with care can give you a competitive edge.

Rory McEwan

Director

IT Infrastructure: We’ll provide a clear understanding of the essential IT infrastructure for a successful digital workplace, including secure networks, cloud solutions, and collaborative tools.

What is the Modern Workplace?

The modern workplace is a progressive idea that recognises and adapts to the evolving work patterns, particularly noticeable in recent years. It embraces these changes, often leveraging modern digital solutions to facilitate and enhance the preferred ways of working.

Innovation: Encouraging a culture of innovation within business through IT initiatives
Collaboration Tools: Examining the tools that enhance teamwork and productivity.
Cybersecurity: Best practices for protecting company data in a digital world.
Remote Work: IT strategies for supporting a distributed workforce.

Some examples may be: State-of-the-art workspace encompass meeting rooms outfitted with video conferencing capabilities, ubiquitous high-speed internet access for all staff, and the flexibility to operate beyond standard business hours.

Microsoft

Microsoft highlighted the top benefits of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This comprehensive solution offers a range of features designed to enhance productivity and security for businesses of all sizes.

Key Benefits
Comprehensive and Easy to Use: Microsoft 365 provides a single solution for productivity and security, simplifying deployment and reducing costs.

Enterprise-Grade Technology: Trusted by enterprises, Microsoft 365 offers advanced security powered by AI threat intelligence.

Cost-Effective: By eliminating the need for multiple point solutions, Microsoft 365 reduces helpdesk costs and eases licensing complexity.

Copilot

Whatever you’re into—browsing the web, searching for answers, exploring your creative potential, or coming up with more useful content, Copilot can help you uncover new possibilities.

Commercial Data Protection: Ensures enterprise-grade security for your data, maintaining confidentiality and compliance.

AI-Powered Efficiency: Copilot uses advanced AI to automate routine tasks, helping you find information quickly and create original content with ease.

Data Analysis: Upload and analyse data from different file types, including PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, and more, to gain new insights.

Business Premium & Intune

By upgrading to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, you’ll access powerful features for remote device setup and new security features. This eliminates manual configurations and speeds up hardware deployment.

If your aim is to simplify hardware deployment while enhancing the operational capabilities of your business, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the comprehensive solution you’ve been searching for.

In today’s fast-paced business world, where work happens on the go and decisions are made from the palm of our hands, mobile devices have become the lifelines of business. Yet, this newfound mobility comes with its high-wire act; one side beckons with the promise of freedom and agility, and the other side warns of the lurking risks and vulnerabilities.

Acronis

World of Cyber Security and importance of backing up your Microsoft 365 environment

In the digital age, data protection is paramount for any business. However, when using platforms like Microsoft 365, there are potential risks and gaps that need to be addressed:

Accidental Data Deletion: Employees may accidentally or intentionally delete important data. This could be user profiles, emails, attachments, files, or content.

Retention Policy Gaps: Misaligned or changing priorities in data retention policies can lead to permanent data loss.

Insider Security Threats: Your data needs to be protected against malicious alteration or destruction by disgruntled or terminated employees, contractors, or partners.

Migration Risks: During the migration from a traditional premises-based Microsoft application suite to cloud-based Microsoft 365 services, data loss issues can occur.

Legal and Compliance Issues: Unrecoverable data loss can expose businesses to regulatory fines, legal penalties, and damage to the company brand.

While Microsoft ensures infrastructure resilience, data protection is ultimately the user’s responsibility. Therefore, it’s recommended to complement Microsoft’s rudimentary data protection with third-party backup solutions. This can help prevent downtime and unrecoverable data loss, ensuring smooth business operations. This is where Dunedin IT can assist you, guiding you on this journey towards robust data protection.

Gamma

Connectivity and Resilience

Rob Kittler, Head of Connectivity Practice at Gamma, emphasised the critical role of high bandwidth, flexible, and reliable connectivity in today’s digital workplace. He discusses the transformation of networks due to the impending copper shutdown and underscores the importance of network resilience.

Here are some key insights:

Bandwidth: High bandwidth is crucial for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), and Microsoft Voice.

Fibre & Mobile: The growth and significance of fibre and mobile connectivity, including the role of IoT, are highlighted.

Copper Shutdown: The implications of the copper shutdown scheduled for January 2027 and its impact on various services are discussed.

Network Resilience: The importance of network resilience is emphasised, discussing the cost of downtime for UK businesses and the need for backup solutions.

Gamma Elements: Gamma Elements Groups, which include Gamma Enable, Gamma Connect, Gamma Experience, Gamma Secure, Gamma Solutions, and Gamma ToolBox, are introduced.

The discussion concluded by stressing the pivotal role of connectivity in the modern workplace and how Gamma, in collaboration with Dunedin, can support businesses in making informed decisions.

Egnyte

Securing and Sharing your data with Copilot integration

Charles Bieler and Mayur Mistry from Egnyte provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of AI and its potential for businesses. Here are the key takeaways:

AI Popularity: AI’s popularity has surged, even surpassing global searches for pop stars at times.

AI Adoption: While 77% of IT leaders cite AI adoption as a priority, nearly 60% report struggling with the complexity of AI systems.

AI Obstacles: Obstacles to AI adoption include data quality, security, trust, integration with existing systems, skill gap, and cost.

Data Security: Studies show that 77% of businesses have faced AI security breaches, emphasising the importance of robust security measures.

Egnyte Platform: The Egnyte Platform offers seamless collaboration, threat detection, lifecycle management, content intelligence, and more.

Egnyte Copilot: Egnyte Copilot is an AI virtual assistant that can speed up information retrieval, summarise dense files, and brainstorm ideas.

The presentation emphasised the importance of understanding and harnessing the power of AI in a responsible and secure manner. With tools like Egnyte Copilot, businesses can effectively navigate their AI journey and unlock new levels of productivity and efficiency.

Dunedin IT

Jamie spearheaded the discussion, drawing from his hands-on experience with AI implementation within Dunedin IT, an achievement that even earned Dunedin IT an AI award last year.
He shared both his professional insights and personal perspectives, providing us with a contextual understanding of our current standing with AI and what the future might hold.

Jamie delved into various topics, including:

Industry Insights: He engaged us with discussions about industry pioneers like Eric Schmidt, breaking down the fundamentals of how AI will develop in the near future.

Innovation: He introduced innovative concepts such as context windows, agents, and text-to-action, which are revolutionising our interaction with AI.

Responsible Advancement: He posed an important question: It’s not about whether we should progress with AI, but how we can responsibly harness its potential.

Playful Projection: He offered a playful example of AI techniques, envisioning a future where Scotland are the winning team of the Euros 2024. Using Text to, Text, Video, Audio and Images.

After the Event

It was a great pleasure to host our second event of the year and to share our insights on how to get your business AI ready for the modern workplace. We hope you enjoyed the presentations, the demos, and the networking opportunities. We’d like to express our gratitude to Hibernian FC for their warm hospitality and assistance, and to all our vendors for making the event a success.

Once we’d wrapped up the event with a closing speech, we welcomed our attendees to stay longer and enjoy the Denmark vs England match on the big screen. It was a fun and relaxing way to end the day and to bond with our clients and guests over some friendly banter and cheering. We were delighted to see so many of you join us for this extra treat and to share your thoughts and impressions of the event too.

Workspaces

We’ve already had follow-up meetings and demos of the services discussed with some of you who attended our event, utilising our client dedicated Workspaces we created.
Our workspaces, designed with our clients needs in mind, serve as a centralised hub for all necessary information.

Roadmap of our collaboration

Communication channel for feedback

Library of downloadable resources

Comprehensive guide to our products and services

More importantly, we’ve tailored these workspaces to prepare their business for the AI revolution, making them not just a platform, but a dynamic companion on their journey towards AI readiness.
If you weren’t able to attend or would like us to discuss getting your business AI ready for the modern workplace, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at Dunedin IT. We would love to hear from you and explore how we can help you achieve your organisations goals.