Christmas holiday IT preparation

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

That is because everyone was off on holiday, so they didn’t need to sit in front of their laptops and computers clicking and typing away (unless they are PC gamers).

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 you with 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 hangovers from drinking too much mulled wine!).

Top Christmas Downtime IT Tips

1. 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.

To schedule your out of office in Outlook simply go to File then click Automatic Replies. Select ‘Send automatic replies and tick the ‘Only send during this time range’ box. Complete the dates and times you’re away, write your internal and external messages and hit OK. (Just like in the image below) You’re good to ho ho ho… we mean go go go !

2. Voicemail

If you have a custom voicemail set for your personal extension, then don’t forget to change that too. Record a brief message letting callers know that you are closed for the holidays, when you are back, and ask them very nicely to leave a message after the beep. You know the drill.

3. Website

If you have a website, 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.

4. Updates

One to remember more than action, 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 then the inevitable popup will appear. Just plan around it and install those updates as quickly as you can. There are plenty of cyber criminals out there who love to take advantage of a very lucrative window before patched vulnerabilities are fixed!

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!