Christmas holiday IT preparation

Handy hints and tips to help you prepare yourself and the office before you turn off the lights and head home for Christmas.

 

Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the  ,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a  ;

It’s Christmas time once again and most businesses are shutting shop for a few days (or a few weeks in some cases). We thought we’d take the opportunity to provide our top tips for making sure your Christmas downtime goes as smoothly as possible (well in IT terms at least, we can’t help with the family, the in-laws, the last-minute present problems, the lack of a screwdriver on Xmas morning, or the headache from drinking too much mulled wine!).

Here are our top tips:

1. Turn on your out-of-office
2. Update your voicemail
3. Update your contact lists
4. Update your website and check your certificate expiry dates
5. Prepare your environment
6. Plan for device updates upon your return

 

1. Turn on your out-of-office

It’s probably one of the last things you’ll do before you leave the office for your days off! To make sure you don’t forget to turn your on out-of-office, you can write it well in advance and schedule it to come on – and go off – so you don’t forget this all-important feature.

Follow our step-by-step guide to turning on your out-of-office.

If you don't set a date that it will automatically turn off again you can also follow our guide to turning off out-of-office.

2. Update your voicemail

You may need to change three different messages:

1. One for your main business telephone number 
2. One for your direct dial
3. One for your mobile phone

Record a brief message letting callers know you are closed for the holidays and when you are back before inviting them to leave a message.

It may be helpful to script this for everyone in the organisation for consistency.

If you have a 3CX VoIP system you can learn how to change your company 3CX voicemail by following our guide here.

3. Update your contact lists

There are two different angles you need to think about for this one. Who do you need to reach, and who needs to reach you?

Who do you need to reach?

Make sure you have a way of accessing contacts for important suppliers in the event of an emergency over the Christmas break. Many of them will be closed too so be sure that you have some way of contacting them in an emergency.

Just a few to think about are:

• • Your IT provider
  • Your insurance company
  • Your alarm or security management company
  • Your plumber and electrician
    
    

Who needs to reach you?

If an emergency happens, you might not be the first person to know about it. Make sure that you have provided a list of key holders and emergency contacts to important partners such as your IT partner, alarm and security provider and perhaps even neighbouring properties. 

4. Update your website and check your certificate expiry dates

If you have a website, you may want to add your Christmas opening hours to let new visitors and existing customers know when they can reach you.

It's also important to make sure that all your certificates are valid, and are not due to expire over the holidays.

The last thing you want is for your website to be down when it’s much harder to do something about it.

You can check when your domain certificates expire using the free whois service. Contact your supplier or domain registrar to ensure you have a renewal in place before you close.

5. Prepare your environment

This one is a bit of a blanket catch-all heading because there are lots of things to think about, many that don't relate to IT so we'll try to keep on topic.

Turn off non-essential tech

Firstly turn off any non-essential technology. That's your PC's, monitors, printers etc (this also applies to the microwave, kettle etc., but we said we'd try to keep it related to IT). You probably want to keep your router, firewall and network switches on to save a panic when you return if they decide that they don't want to come back on easily.

Think about your server

If you have an on-premise server don't turn this off. There is always a risk when turning servers off that they will have issues starting up. It's best to leave it ticking over to avoid a challenging return after the break. If you haven't already got an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) you should invest in one to protect your server in the event of a power failure (or surge) over the Christmas period.

Implement a clean desk policy

Be sure to lock away all laptops and documents, leaving behind clean desks. This is a basic good practice measure. Avoid leaving an enticing scene that invites criminals. It also makes it harder for them should anyone break in.

Check your heating settings

If you are reducing the temperature of your office while it isn't being occupied always set the heating to at least 5 degrees celsius to avoid the risk of freezing pipes. If a pipe freezes and bursts water damage can be catastrophic for technology and can lead to fires.

6. Plan for device updates upon your return

When you turn your computer on for the first time after the holidays there is a good chance that it will want you to restart to install updates shortly afterwards. Once you boot up, updates will automatically start downloading and the inevitable restart request popup will appear.

Plan for a delay in getting started and install those updates as quickly as you can. There are plenty of cyber criminals out there who love to take advantage.

Next Steps...

Of course, if you’d like any more bespoke advice about making sure that your business is all set for an IT Christmas closure then get in touch today!