TechWise Group

10/15/2026

Your notification badge climbs into the hundreds, every channel pings constantly, and within a few weeks, you stop looking at Teams altogether. Muting everything out of frustration doesn't solve the problem either, because it’s entirely too easy to miss critical messages that way.

The fix is learning how to tune notifications at three different levels. You can keep busy channels quiet, follow only the specific conversations you care about, and turn down background noise like reaction pings so you’re only interrupted when it truly counts.

Read the guide on setting up your Microsoft 365 Teams channel notifications:

Customizing Teams channel notifications helps you quiet the busy spaces without missing critical updates. Tune your alerts in three steps.

10/14/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to Bridgestone Arena on Monday night for the Community Summit charity hockey game.

Our own Robb Delprado organized the game to benefit Oasis Center, which serves more than 3,000 young people in Nashville each year. Thank you to the players, to everyone who donated, and to the jersey sponsors: 2-Controlware, Continia, Greenshades, Innovia Consulting, MCA Connect, Paystand, Salespad by Cavallo, Sylogist, and USTPay.

It's not too late to give: https://hubs.ly/Q04B4xyd0



Photos credit: Seaside Topsail Photography by Amy Fowler Shores.

10/12/2026

A ransom note appears, and suddenly every minute counts. Without a plan, teams lose the first hour to panic, blind shutdowns that destroy crucial evidence, and unstructured conversations over compromised email channels. That is how a single infected machine turns into a company-wide crisis.

The fix is a minute-by-minute playbook where containment happens fast, evidence stays protected, and your insurer is brought in before critical decisions are made. A response plan with named owners instead of job titles ensures your team executes cleanly when pressure peaks.

Read the first-hour ransomware response plan:

The first 60 minutes of a ransomware attack matter most. Get our expert ransomware response plan and printable playbook for small teams.

10/09/2026

"If they're only talking to you about the things in your server room, or only about the technology and not about your business, they're not serving you."

That was our CEO, Lauren Schwartz, in conversation with Chuck Kiessling of Partner Development Group at Microsoft MSP Mastery Day on October 1.

Her advice for business leaders:

• Technology is a strategic conversation. Budget, security, and what's next all belong in it.
• It works both ways. The more you share about where the business is going, the more your IT partner can do.
• Use everything you've paid for before you buy more.
• Start with the problem. AI isn't always the answer.

Read the recap: https://techwisegroup.com/blog/what-to-expect-from-your-it-provider/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mspmd26&utm_content=recap

10/09/2026

Running a mix of cloud infrastructure and local servers offers real efficiency, but it introduces a subtle compliance trap. Your regulatory obligations attach to your data, and data crosses boundaries constantly. That means each environment can look fine on its own while the combination fails a review due to gaps at the seams.

Instead of maintaining two parallel compliance efforts, growing companies need a single-plane approach. By applying one identity system, one set of security controls, and a centralized audit trail across both environments, you make one governed environment out of two.

Learn how to map your data and streamline your next audit:

Hybrid environments fail audits at the seams. Discover 5 essential disciplines to ensure hybrid cloud compliance across your business.

10/08/2026

TechWise Group's Business Central team will be in Nashville for Community Summit North America, October 11 to 15. Here's where to find Steve Chinsky and Robb Delprado:

Fri to Sun, Oct 9 to 11
• Basic and Advanced Manufacturing Boot Camp in BC/NAV (Steve, with David Wiser)

Sun, Oct 11
• 5:00 PM: BC/NAV 1st Timer Meeting (Steve)

Mon, Oct 12
• 9:45 AM: Ask the Experts - Manufacturing (Steve)
• 10:45 AM: BC/NAV Medic Desk, Delta Mezzanine Foyer (Steve)
• 3:00 PM: What's New and Changed in Financial Reporting for BC (Steve)
• 4:45 PM: Holy Smokes Batman! There's a Service Module in BC (Steve)
• 9:15 PM: Charity hockey game at Bridgestone Arena, benefiting Oasis Center. Free for Summit attendees (Robb)

Tue, Oct 13
• 9:45 AM: BC3 Amigos Explain the 1, 2, 3 of Financial Reporting (Steve and Robb)
• 3:30 PM: BC/NAV Tech Medic Desk (Robb)

Thu, Oct 15
• 10:45 AM: Taking the Mystery out of WIP (Robb)

Running Business Central, Great Plains, or Dynamics NAV?

Book a free ERP Health Check while you're there: https://techwisegroup.com/erp-status-check/

Find us at Booth 1041!

10/07/2026

A consultant was given administrator rights for a migration weekend, and a year later the account still has them, because the project closed and no one owned the step of taking access back. The same thing happens every time someone changes roles or a project wraps up: the new access is added on day one and the old access is nobody's job to remove, so the gap between what people can reach and what their job requires grows a little every month. Cleaning that up once a year leaves the gap open for most of the year.

Least privilege works as a default rather than a project: access tied to the role someone holds today, elevated rights granted for a set period and removed automatically when it ends, and a regular review that leaves a record behind. That is what limits how far one compromised account can reach, and it keeps your evidence ready when an auditor or insurer asks.

Read the risk officer's guide to least privilege access:

If answering auditor questions takes days, you have a finding. Make least privilege access a permanent control instead of a scramble.

10/06/2026

Your broker forwards the cyber insurance renewal and asks you to confirm that multi-factor authentication is turned on everywhere, that every laptop and server is monitored, and that your backups have been tested recently.

The honest answer takes some checking, and it carries more weight than it looks. The carrier prices your policy on those answers, writes exclusions around any gaps, and when you file a claim, it checks what you said against what was in place. A yes that turns out to be wrong gives the carrier grounds to deny the claim. Sorting out the controls and gathering the evidence before the renewal goes in protects both the premium you pay and the claim you may one day need to file.

Read what cyber insurance covers and how to qualify:

Improve policy eligibility and prevent denied claims. Discover twelve 2026 cyber insurance requirements for small business and key controls.

10/02/2026

Someone leaves the company on a Friday, payroll closes them out that day, and their login, mailbox, and licenses are still active weeks later because no one owned that step.

Multiply that by every departed employee, every contractor whose project ended, and every service account set up for a tool you no longer use, and you are paying for seats nobody sits in while leaving working credentials scattered across your Microsoft 365 environment.

An annual cleanup resets the count, but the drift comes back because the process that creates the accounts has not changed. What holds is access that is granted, changed, and removed automatically as people join, move, and leave, so the license bill tracks your headcount and the next audit starts from a list you already have.

Read about the three places identity costs show up in your business:

Orphaned accounts and manual reviews drain your budget. See how identity and access governance changes licensing, insurance, and labor costs.

10/02/2026

Granting an outside IT partner access to your business is a major step, but traditional security reviews often drag on for weeks through endless questionnaires and evidence requests. When you are evaluating a provider that will hold elevated permissions across your critical systems, a SOC 2 Type II report provides the independent proof you need without the administrative drag. Using an audited report as your baseline lets you verify operational discipline and security controls in days instead of months.

Read how to vet your next IT partner faster:

SOC 2 Type II MSP vetting made simple. Evaluate your IT partner in days, streamline vendor security questionnaires, and reduce risk.