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EBS News - Summer 2022

Table of Contents

Welcome

Our Summer 2022 newsletter covers all the latest news and information on technology that will help your business grow.
In this edition, we include articles on Sage’s new look, important updates to Microsoft licences and Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10 & 11.

Litter Picking with Erdington Litter Busters

On Saturday 11th June some members of the EBS Team joined 30 volunteers from Erdington Litter Busters at Rookery Park, just around the corner from the EBS Office, to assist in their monthly litter pick of the park and the surrounding roads! 

The Team enjoyed lending a hand and we look forward to joining Erdington Litter Busters in the future (especially the refreshments afterwards!). 

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10 & 11

Did you know Microsoft has a free add-on for Windows 10 & 11 called PowerToys?  You can find it in the Microsoft Store, it adds some powerful features to Windows which help increase productivity.

Here are some of our favourites –

Image Resizer

This tool can be very useful when sharing photos as camera phones create very large image files due to their high megapixel lenses.  In many cases the high level of detail is not required, in these situations, you can resize the image to the preset size ‘Large’ which a very respectable 1920×1080 (1080p), the file size will reduce to a more email-friendly size while maintaining a great image quality.

How To Use

Right click on the image(s) in question, select Resize pictures and select the required size.  It will then make a copy of the image in the size required.

Always On Top

This allows a window to always be on top of all the others.  We find this useful to keep applications such as calculator and notepad visible when you are busy multitasking.

How to Use

Press Ctrl+Win+T to pin or unpin the selected window so it’s always on top of all other windows.  A border will surround the application in question, the colour and thickness is configurable within PowerToys settings.

Awake

This is a convenient way to ensure your PC/Laptop remains on without having to adjust power settings.

How to use

You can enable/disable Awake within the PowerToys settings window and then set the mode as required.

PowerToys Run

Have you ever found that the Windows search sometimes doesn’t find the applications you were looking for?  PowerToys Run is a very handy little tool which will get the job done.  It also has a few tricks up its sleeve including a built-in calculator, unit converter and allows you to run Shell commands.

How to Use

Press Alt+Space and type your search or command in the bar – it’s that easy!

Microsoft PowerToys is available in the Microsoft Store.

More info can be found here.

EBS managed services clients benefit from proactive support to prevent major Microsoft Windows vulnerability

When we speak to prospects, they often say that their IT are “great” and “very responsive”, but are they proactive?

EBS clients are also often unaware of the work we do in the background to keep their systems safe.

EBS was alerted to a major Microsoft vulnerability (for which there is currently no patch/update) and within an hour of opening we had deployed a fix to all Windows clients that were online – also making sure to update any that were turned off to be updated as soon as they were used.

Microsoft announced a major remote code execution vulnerability affecting Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and even the latest Windows 11.  The vulnerability is summarised in security bulletin CVE-2022-30190.

The issue exists within the MSDT tool built into Windows which can be triggered using its URL protocol from applications such as Microsoft Word.

An attacker who exploits this vulnerability would have access to the machine including the ability to run their own scripts, install programs and view/change/delete data stored on the machine.

The EBS Hardware & Technical Services team deployed a registry fix to protect our supported customers by disabling the MSDT URL protocol on all machines that were vulnerable.

More information on the vulnerability can be found here.

If we do not support your business, please make sure your IT support partner or internal IT are aware of this risk and provide a fix ASAP.

If you have any questions regarding this or other vulnerabilities your Account Manager or our Technical Director, Dan Price, would be happy to help to you.

Sage 200 version Impact TLS

As most of you will know, there are some issues with Sage 200 versions that need to be addressed. This applies to all versions earlier than the latest version – Sage 200 2022 R1, which was released by Sage in late February 2022.

There are 2 items requiring attention dependent on the version of Sage 200 that you are using:

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

The first item revolves around Transport Layer Security (TLS). Transport Layer Security is a widely adopted security protocol designed to facilitate privacy and data security for communications over the Internet.

A primary use of TLS is the encryption of communications between web apps and servers, such as web browsers loading a website. TLS can also be used to encrypt other communications such as email, messaging, and voice over IP (VoIP). In this article, we will focus on the role of TLS in web application security.

Sage 200 uses TLS within its Licencing Service, which is used to validate your Sage 200 licence. If your licence cannot be validated, then Sage 200 will not work. The impact varies for different versions of Sage 200, as follows:

Version(s)Impact
2013 – Winter 17Upgrade to 2022 R1
Spring 18 – Spring 19Upgrade to 2022 R1 or Patch
Summer 19 – 2022 R1 (current)No action

Internet Explorer 11

The second item relates to Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft have announced they will end support for Internet Explorer 11 in June 2022. This means that there will be no further security updates issued from then, and continuing with Internet Explorer on your devices becomes a potential security threat therefore we would advise its removal.

However, Sage 200 utilises Internet Explorer in several areas, as follows:

  • Workspaces
  • Bank Feeds
  • Invoice Payments
  • Sage 200 Client installation

Removal of Internet Explorer will impact all the above, except within the latest 2022 R1 version. Many of you may have seen a message relating to this within the Sage 200 home screen recently.

There are patches available for the bank feeds and invoice payments features for some versions. There are no patches available for workspaces or client installations. See below:

Version(s)Impact
WorkspacesBank FeedsInvoice Payments
2013 – Winter 17Upgrade to 2022 R1Upgrade to 2022 R1Feature not available
Spring 18Upgrade to 2022 R1Upgrade to 2022 R1Upgrade to 2022 R1
Summer 18 – 2020 R1Upgrade to 2022 R1Patch availablePatch available
2020 R2 – 2021 R1Upgrade to 2022 R1No action requiredPatch available
2022 R1No action requiredNo action requiredNo action required

 

Our best advice is that you should consider upgrading to the latest 2022 R1 release of Sage 200, however, we understand that this will have a wider impact, and would likely mean that servers would also need to be upgraded/replaced etc.

Please contact your Account Manager at EBS to discuss your options.

If you have Microsoft licenses – you must read this!

From 11th July all legacy Microsoft CSP subscriptions need to be moved over to Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE), on or before their renewal date. This is not an automatic process and any CSP licenses will expire on the renewal date, after 11th July. This will potentially lead to a loss of service and a loss of data.

This affects Microsoft 365 licenses which most of you will be using. EBS advised of this a few months ago and most of our subscribers are up to date. However, if you are unsure, please contact your Account Manager.

Sage 200 Additional User Permissions User hints and tips

Do you want to control what users entering invoices and sales orders can see and change, such as the selling price or discounts?

As well as the User permissions granted to users in Sage 200 System Administration, for the SOP and Invoicing Modules there are some additional User Permissions within the Sage 200 program itself.

Within Sales Order Processing > SOP Utilities > System Set Up > User Permissions

and within Invoicing > Invoicing Utilities > System Set Up > User Permissions you will see:

From here you can “Edit” a user who has Existing SOP Permissions or “Add” a user who doesn’t currently have any User Permissions specified.

In the next window that appears you can set the user’s permissions:

  • View the profit on Invoices and Orders

This enables the “Invoice Profit” and “Line Profit” buttons when amending Sales Orders, Proformas and Quotes and when Viewing Invoices.

  • View Discounts

The user can select the View Discounts button on the order/order line to see which discounts have been applied.

  • Override Credit Hold

Users can remove the “On Hold” status if the customer’s account balance is above their credit limit.

  • Override Prices and Discounts

Users can amend the selling price or line discounts.

  • Override default Stock Fulfilment Method

This allows the user to choose how stock is allocated to a sales order: From Warehouse, From Supplier via Stock or Direct to Customer

  • Override default Confirmation Method

When entering Sales Orders, this allows the user to change whether Free Text Lines and Service/Labour Stock Items need to go through the “Confirm Despatch” process.

  • Override Stock Item Unit Cost Price

This allows the user to change the cost price of stock items which use FIFO or Actual costing methods on the invoice and order lines. It does not change the cost price on the stock item.

  • Generate Purchase Orders from Sales Orders

This enables the “Generate PO” button on the order allowing users to create a purchase order for certain stock items. (With Back to Back ordering there are certain other conditions which must also be met.)

  • Set a default warehouse

Set a default warehouse if you want the warehouse to be automatically selected for that user, so they choose stock items from a particular warehouse first. Just leave this blank if you don’t want to set a default, so that the user must select the warehouse.

If you have any queries surrounding these additional User Permissions please contact our Sage Support team.

Cloud Data Exchange

Overview

Cloud Data Exchange is a data integration tool which enables both cloud and on-premises systems to communicate in real-time. The Cloud Data Exchange tool acts as a bridge between platforms, allowing for the sharing of key data where manual intervention would otherwise be necessary.

What does Cloud Data Exchange Integrate with?

Cloud Data Exchange provides “out of the box” connectors for:

  • Ecommerce systems including:
    • Magento
    • WooCommerce
    • Shopify
    • Linnworks
    • Plus more
  • Sage BMS including:
    • Sage 200 Professional
    • Sage 200 Standard
    • Sage 50
  • SalesForce CRM

Connections are also available for file transfers such as FTP, sFTP and FTPSE.

Focusing on Ecommerce, Cloud Data Exchange makes it easy to connect to your website shop. As an example, Sage 200 can be integrated with a WooCommerce site allowing the import and export of stock and customers. Customer orders can be received automatically into Sage 200.

See a video from our recent webinar.

For more information or a personal demonstration, please contact your Account Manager at EBS.

New v22 release of Sicon modules

Sicon are imminently due to release a new update to their portfolio of modules. As we write, details of the new features and enhancements have not been fully released.

You can see updated information here.

Following the release of v22:

  • v20 & v20.1 will move to extended support.
  • v21, v21.1 and v22 are the only fully supported Sicon software versions.

The Sicon v22.1 release is scheduled for the end of October 2022.

Your Account Manager will be happy to hear from you with any queries you may have.

New look for Sage

You may have spotted that Sage has changed its branding. If not, here’s the brand new business partner logo.

Steve Hare, CEO at Sage said, “The refreshed Sage brand reflects the simplicity, flow, and confidence that Sage can give to customers through greater control and better insights so they’re ready to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world.”

Team Member Profile

Name: Nicola Tomlinson

Position: HR Officer & Sales Support

Worked at EBS: 7 Years

What do you love about EBS and its’ customers?

The atmosphere and I love how nice our customers are to work with.

What are you most proud of during your time at EBS?

Organising one of our Christmas parties!

What is your favourite product or service that EBS sells?

There are so many, I think every product we sell helps each of our customers in different ways

What is your hidden talent?

Dance instructor.

Who is your favourite movie character and why?

Mulan – She is a strong woman, someone to aspire to.

Contact us

For more information about any of your IT or Software needs the please get in touch with our experienced and friendly team who will be able to assist you in your next steps.

  • IT Solutions
  • BMS / ERP Solutions
  • Software Development
  • IT Support
  • Cloud Hosting & Infrastructure
  • Cyber Security

A tailored and personal approach to IT.

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