May your weekend be a bright one.

It's Friday!!  Enjoy your day and the upcoming weekend.

Name:   Usman Agha

1. How long have you worked for TSA and what do you do (in a couple of short sentences)? I have started working in October 2018 as a Telecommunication coordinator. The main component of my role is about assisting with TSA Mobile requests or issues , broadband connections & Landline requirements.  I feel so proud, grateful and happy to be part of such a wonderful Organization and an awesome ISG team that truly understand the importance of caring for people, transforming lives and reforming society.
2. Tell us a little about yourself. Born and raised in PAKISTAN. Married 😉, being a father of 10 months old baby has been a delightful experience for me. I am a champion for continuous improvement both personally & professionally & strive to participate in learning opportunities which help me develop greater understanding of the business & team I work within.
   
3. What’s the last text you sent, or funniest one received in the last month? For sure! I’m so excited lol…
4. If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?  Adaptable, Adventurous & Affectionate
5. For what are you most grateful today? My family, friends and colleagues for the love, support, kindness and all the fun that they offer and I get to offer them.

It's almost the weekend.  Hope it "goes off" well for you all.  God bless you.

Name:  Joby John

1. How long have you worked for TSA and what do you do (in a couple of short sentences)? Recently joined TSA as iMIS Administrator & SQL Developer.
2. Tell us a little about yourself. I am an SQL Developer who really enjoy my work with a hunger to learn and loves to solve challenging complex tasks.
3. What’s the last text you sent, or funniest one received in the last month? I tried to sell my small car in Facebook Marketplace and one guy offered me $50. I replied, “wow this is the best offer that I have ever seen in my life, Thank you”
4. If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?  Programmer, funny guy and food lover
5. For what are you most grateful today? For the opportunity to join Salvation Army.

Name:   Abid Shaik

1. How long have you worked for TSA and what do you do (in a couple of short sentences)? I have been working with ISG, Enabling the mission for a very long time. Total 70 day's. 😁 With a couple of Sickies here and there.
2. Tell us a little about yourself. I'm from South India a city called Hyderabad. Also know as city of Nawabs. I like adventure, food and travel.
3. What’s the last text you sent, or funniest one received in the last month? The funniest msg i sent was " Scientists got bored watching the earth turn, so after 24 hours they called it a day 😂.  And the one I received A slice of apple pie is $2.50 in Jamaica and $3.00 in Bahamas. These are the pie rates of the Caribbean. 😂
4. If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?  Sweet, simple and sophisticated 😇
5. For what are you most grateful today? My parents.

Don't be down, it's almost the weekend.  Enjoy it!

Mobile phones are very personal devices and are locked to the specific user.  Generally speaking, when an employee joins TSA and receives a mobile phone, they will set it up using The Salvation Army email account, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  This locks the device to their specific account.

Steps to do when Employee is leaving TSA (the phone is being returned to the Centre)

When it comes time for an employee to leave our organisation, for whatever reason, it is very important line managers are aware of the following steps required from the employee BEFORE they leave their employment, particularly if the mobile device is to be left behind for use by the replacement employee.  

The steps mentioned below may not be the same on all smart phones but will be similar to the ones mentioned below.

This needs to be done BEFORE the employee leaves.

Huawei

1. Go to Settings
2. System
3. Reset
4. Factory Data Reset
5. Reset phone

Samsung

1. Go to Settings
2. General Management
3. Reset
4. Factory Data Reset
5. Reset phone

Once the phone has been reset using the above steps, the account has been removed and the phone can be reused.  The new user will need to set the device with their own Salvation Army email account.

**Please be advised that if the phone is locked with a passcode, the above steps cannot be performed, and account cannot be removed. **

Moving mobile number onto a personal plan (the employee is taking their number with them)

The Employee must provide the information below and log a ticket with this information:

• Date for the move
• Phone number
• Sim number (This is the 14 digit number on the sim card)
• Full name of person
• Full street address of person
• Date of birth
• Pin number (This is put on the account to make any changes to it once on prepaid)

We trust this information is useful.

ISG are making some changes to the way that our Territorial WiFi solution works.

These changes are designed to:

• better reflect our maturing environment, and
• reduce confusion about the different WiFi networks – which one is to be used when and by whom
• accommodate recent policy changes, ie latest TEL minute which will likely result in a much greater variety of device types in use throughout the Territory
• allow end-users to self-register devices onto our WiFi networks – with appropriate authentication, authorisation, accounting and protection.

 The first change being made is that the “TSA.Red” WiFi network will be renamed to be “TSA.Guest”.  Giving it a functional, obvious name will eliminate a common source of confusion. This is especially true for visitors to TSA centres (who are the most frequent users for the Guest WiFi), since the existing WiFi network names don’t have any explicit meaning. Although there are many other changes being made “under the hood”, at this stage the new TSA.Guest WiFi network will work in the same way as the existing TSA.Red WiFi network.

The password will be the same as that used (every week) for TSA.Red and as found on the Support Portal.

To start with, we are migrating a couple of ‘pilot’ sites in the week commencing 7^th Jan 2019 (including SDHQ), and then we will migrate both THQ and BCM.

The remainder of sites with our Territorial WiFi solution will be migrated over the weeks to follow.

There are more changes happening in the future – advice about these is to follow.

In fact there are many changes planned to ICT for 2019, why not take this opportunity to subscribe to the iSG Blog to keep up with these changes?: https://intranet.sarmy.net.nz/index.php/departments-a-services/isg-help-desk/isg-blog/latest

There has been a large spike in 2018 of reports about email scams and The Salvation Army was also targeted with a number of our users receiving a fake sextortion email in December.  The email claimed to have hacked into their device and recorded intimate recordings of people using porn websites.  The email also threatened to release video to the devices personal contacts unless the victim paid a sum of money.

In some versions of this scam, the subject line also included the victim's password for their online accounts.

If you wish to see further details on this scam, you can follow this link: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/faketortian-email-scam/ 

Again, iSG wish to notify our users that should you ever receive emails that don't appear to be "quite right", then let iSG know as soon as possible.  We are able to check this and confirm whether it is a genuine email or not.  If you can log a ticket and attach a copy of the email in the ticket, that is very helpful to us, as we can then check all the details such as links provided and relevant information given (phone numbers etc).  DO NOT click on any links shown, but if you have done so, then contact iSG immediately and notify us of this.

Our spam filters stop many thousands of spam emails but unfortunately some do get through so its important we are all aware of these scams and are careful with how we deal with them.

It is vital that we keep all TSA data secure, and this goes for personal data on personal devices at home as well.  Scammers are getting smarter and slicker and its very important we remain aware of these scams.

Thank you for your assistance in keeping us all safe.

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to work (if you have been away).

I arrived at the office today to find an email in my inbox from BNZ.  It all looked very legitimate but the information in it made me look twice to ensure it was in fact legitimate.

A couple of items caught my attention and I share these hoping that this is helpful to you:

1. I do have a BNZ account but the fact that I did not get this email in my personal email account (only my work email) made me suspicious;
2. The title of "Steven Ross" is "Operations and Outsour Manager" (I thought it should be "outsource").  Often phishing emails contain spelling errors; and
3. With a quick Google check on the Freephone number provided in the email I realised it was not the same number as advertised by BNZ.  Their number is 0800 275 269 (0800 ASK BNZ).

Needless to say I contacted BNZ, and they were not aware of this email and I assume its only starting to "do the rounds".  The lesson here is NEVER take these types of emails at face value.  ALWAYS check!!  The number two lesson is NEVER click on only link in these types of emails until you have checked.

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.  Data Security is very important, and we need to be very careful whether at work or at home about how we are sharing this information online.

Should you receive these types of emails, feel free to check with ISG straight away, and NEVER click on the link!! 

A short article I recently read, written by Daniel Stamp, had some wise words of advise.  Not a "New Year's resolution" as such, but good advice for us to consider as we begin this new year.

Putting 'Living Smart' to work for you in 2019

The very best way to make 2019 the very best year of your life is to have a plan for all 365 days!

Here are 10 items that often get overlooked as you plan a day.

However, if you can include these ideas on your calendar you'll see a big improvement in your overall well being! And a much happier and healthier New Year!

• Getting seven to nine hours sleep
• Drinking no more than two cups of coffee - and no other sources of caffeine
• Taking a 10-minute break every 90 minutes
• Eating three healthy meals, with healthy snacks in between
• Exercising 30 minutes each day
• Drinking at least 2.5 litres of water
• Meditating for 15 minutes first thing in the morning to kick off the day
• Journaling at the end of the day to process the day's challenges and acknowledge things to be grateful for
• Spending a minimum of 30 minutes with your partner to catch up on life
• Take a few minutes at the end of each day to Plan Tomorrow! This will help you get the 7-9 hours sleep!

Over the Christmas period the majority of the iSG Team will be on leave as THQ will be closed in the week between Christmas and New Year.

But for those hard working people who are still at their posts fulfilling their mission over the next week, iSG will have a skeleton staff on deck and available to assist you.  Please note that iSG are unable to provide any NEW services (mobiles, broadband connections, computers, etc) but we can help if you encounter any difficulties during this time.  Feel free to keep logging tickets in the New Supportal or call us on (04)802 6262.

Members of the OpsIT (Service Desk), InfIT (Back Office) and DAS (Data Analysis Support) teams will be on deck and ready to help.

Most of the team will be back on the week of the 7th January and we look forward to enabling the mission for you in 2019.

Thank you for all you do for the Salvation Army and to fulfil God's mission through this organisation.

We provide 3 most asked questions as further information on the use of the New Supportal.

How do I check on my tickets?

1. Login into Service Desk Plus with your sXXXX ID and standard password.
2. My Requests Summary should be on the main screen
   
   
3. There will be a count of Pending tickets. Click on the number.
   This will take you to a list of your pending requests
   
   
4. Click on the ticket you want to view.
5. If you want to see your closed tickets, click Requests on the top menu bar.
   
6. From the “All Requests” drop down, select “My Closed Requests”
   

How do I add a comment to a ticket?

1. Find the ticket
2. Open the ticket
3. Scroll down and click on “Reply”
   
4. In the pop up box type your text to the end of what is already there.
5. Click Add to save
   
6. This will add the comment under Requester Conversations
   
7. Click on your name to expand the section out and see the comment.

How do I add an attachment/picture to a ticket?

1. Find the ticket
2. Open the ticket
3. Select the Actions drop down and click on “Add Attachment”
   
4. In the small popup box click Choose File. This will open your computer File Explorer. Navigate to and select the file you wish to attach. Click Open.
5. Click Attach File.

A further update on the New Supportal and how to use this.

Getting to the new website on Monday will be the same as you always have done, either via the link on the QuickLinks Menu on the intranet Home screen or via support.sarmy.net.nz.  The credentials used to log in here are the same used for all TSA systems, ie. YOUR s-id (S###) and current password.

Once you log in, this will take you to the Home screen of Service Desk Plus (the new Supportal).

There are two ways to log a ticket.  The first is to select "Create a new Service Request" which will take you to the main ticket logging page.

Or the better way is to select Request Catalog...

then select from the relevant choices provided to either Log a ticket

or request something

Please note that "stage 2" on moving to Service Desk Plus is to create e-forms with appropriate automated workflows that will facilitate the logging of requests such as new mobile phones, broadband connections, new hardware, etc.  At this stage however, the current forms used can still be found on the intranet under Departments & Services > iSG Help Desk > iSG Forms.  Each request will show which form needs to be completed until we have the e-forms ready to go.

We look forward to providing better service with the use of this latest updated tool.

Dear friends

We wish to notify of an upcoming change to Supportal. Next Monday, 17 December, you will see a significant change to how the Supportal home screen looks.

This change is happening to assist users in getting better service from Team iSG.

Some of the changes that you will see are:

• the ability to receive email notifications and reply to these directly into your ticket from the email;
• the ability for technicians to fix issues on your computer without you needing to connect via the Remote assistance tool which will save users time and frustration with the current process;
• this system will also allow us to create e-forms which will streamline the process of the various requests sent to us. This will not necessarily be available straight away but is in the future planning project;
• functionality such as the Links Page and Ask Sally will still be available

On Thursday this week, we will update the iSG Blog with information on how to log tickets within the new system.  

Why not take this opportunity to subscribe to the iSG Blog. With regular entries that provide you with tips and tricks, plus other useful information, its a great way to be in the know of what iSG are working on and how we are moving forward to "enable the mission". 

At the top of screen just click on the envelope  and then you will be asked to provide your name and email as per image below:

Complete that and hit Subscribe.  You will then receive email notifications whenever we update the Blog (maximum 3 times a week).

Check the Blog on Thursday for further information on how to use the new Supportal.

The silly season is upon us and as per usual, our suppliers will provide any BAU (business as usual) support to us throughout this time.  However, a stop is being placed on any new requests. As a matter of keeping you informed here is what you need to know:-

• Vodafone: "Brown-out" period starts 7 December 2018 - 13 January 2019.  No new broadband requests and only limited new mobile connections will happen.  However, SIM swaps, assistance with current connections (both mobile and internet) will be provided as per usual.
• Cyclone:  Our computer supplier will be closed from 21 December 2018 - 7 January 2019.  They will endeavour to provide new machines as needed but will be restricted by their suppliers.  iSG will endeavour to assist as best we can, but there may be limited supply of machines.
• Sitehost: Change freeze period from 12 December - 7 January 2019.  This is an infrastructure change freeze which will assist in the systems remaining as stable as possible throughout this period.

For all other matters, we will continue to keep you posted through our communications as you log your tickets.

Thank you for your assistance over the past year, and we look forward to continuing to "enable the mission" over the coming days and months.

Just a quick note to let you know that Team iSG are all in Wellington this week working on getting the team back on the same page, and improving the many services and methods of support we provide.

During this time we will have periods for "BAU" (business as usual) but particularly from Tuesday through to Thursday this time will be limited as we go into sessions to update the team on various items of interest for them.

Feel free to continue logging tickets through Supportal and we will attend to them during our BAU times.  We will be prioritising these as per our usual process.

If you have an urgent matter that needs attention immediately, then feel free to call Michael Cabatbat, our Ops IT Team Leader, who will be able to ascertain the urgency of your request and then assign the required task to one of our team.  As you can understand, we are keen to provide minimal disruption to the team during our sessions to ensure they get the most benefit of our time together.  His mobile number is 021 829 871.

Thank you for all you do for The Salvation Army and the part you play in fulfilling the mission to care for people, transform lives and reform society through the Holy's Spirit's power.

Credit: Oldtimers Facebook page

Have a great weekend everyone!