Our Recommended Technology Platform is a standardised set of recommended technologies that we know are robust, reputable and can be efficiently & effectively supported across most customer environments. They are typically supported by the vendors that manufacture or develop these technologies, with valid support contracts or warranties in place ensuring security and product updates are regularly available and able to be implemented. This standardised approach allows our customers to make the most of technology with reduced risk, issues, and downtime, and allows us to train and upskill our teams in providing better support & outcomes for customers. This is updated from time to time, and where possible we have supplied live links directly to vendor websites or online resources.
We do a lot of hard work & research to help customers make quicker technology decisions. Whilst we make every effort to identify a range of technologies that fit customer need, customers still need to validate their specific business requirements and confirm these choices when selecting from the recommended technologies below.
Reputable brands that are widely recognized for their reliability and performance in commercial business/organisational use. Workstation hardware should have a valid vendor or extended support warranty in place. Recommended & supported vendors:
There are a broad range of peripherals available in market. In general, it is hard to provide recommendations for all peripherals however there are a few categories that are typically important to most customer environments.
Docking Stations - supported hardware solutions from mainstream reputable vendors include
Monitors - monitors have a bearing on efficiency as well as people's wellbeing (vision impacts). At a minimum we recommend that customers invest in dual screen set-ups in office or remote work environments, and that monitors are 22" or larger in size, with a minimum of full HD (1920x1080px), 60 Hz refresh rate and 5ms or less refresh rate. Recommended & supported vendors include:
Not recommended presently include:
Headsets - covered below under Video Conferencing & Calling.
We recommend reputable printer brands for optimal compatibility and reliability. Customers are encouraged to procure printers from authorised vendors and to include valid printer support contracts or overall managed print agreements. Business printing needs can then be effectively supported by both Tribe and the printer vendor(s), as printers are under warranty support, have security firmware updates available and applied, and any printer drivers are supported on Workstation and Server Operating Systems (as covered above), or via a cloud print solution. Printer vendors include the following:
Label Printers - where customers require commercial label printers (often in warehouse, production or visitor check-ins) the recommended print vendors include:
If customer environments require a dedicated cloud printing service, the following are recommended:
It is highly recommended that customers utilise online fax services rather than traditional fax hardware devices. If hardware devices are required, we recommend reputable fax brands for optimal compatibility and reliability, purchased through authorised vendors with hardware warranties in place.
Supported devices presently include Apple iOS and Google Android current versions as defined by Microsoft supported devices list found @ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/fundamentals/supported-devices-browsers
Reputable brands that are widely recognized for their reliability and performance in business use. Server & storage hardware should have a valid vendor warranty in place. Recommended vendors:
Reputable brands that are widely recognized for their reliability, hardware should have a valid vendor warranty in place.
Managed UPS’s
Should have the ability to have SNMP enabled (ideally v3 for improved security). Recommended vendors:
Unmanaged UPS’s
Unmanaged devices can be reactively supported but cannot be actively managed or monitored at all.
Reputable brands that are widely recognized for their reliability and performance. Appliance hardware should have a valid vendor warranty in place. Recommended vendors:
Currently supported & licensed versions from the following vendors are recommended:
Currently supported & licensed versions from the following vendors are recommended:
Ideally wired networking devices (switches) should be “managed” (see Cisco’s definition here) - ensuring improved security, control, recoverability and monitoring in environments. For Tribe to be able to monitor & manage the switching infrastructure, they need to be SNMP enabled (ideally v3 for improved security). A probe is required to be installed within a customer’s local network to fully monitor the network infrastructure.
Managed Switches
Unmanaged Switches
Reputable brands that are widely recognized for their reliability, performance, and security features. Access Points should be capable of running a vendor supported firmware This includes the following.
For Tribe to be able to monitor the wireless infrastructure, the access points need to have the ability to have SNMP enabled (ideally v3 for improved security). A probe is required to be installed onsite to fully monitor the network infrastructure. If SNMP isn’t possible limited monitoring will still be available via PING.
As firewall technology is both very specialised and critical to both securing & running customer environments, we recommended a managed service in place for all firewalls. Recommended options are as follows:
This is the recommended method to ensure that your firewall remains updated and configured according to Tribe's best practices.
Online productivity suites that are recommended & supported:
Standard business software that can typically be installed & supported on workstations includes:
Standard business software that can typically be installed & supported on servers that are user facing (i.e. running Remote Desktop Services or equivalent) includes:
These are subscriptions that we can actively manage on your behalf (applies to software purchased and maintained through us or transferred to us). This includes but is not limited to the following:
Customers will utilise a wide range of line of business applications or business software that is often developed specifically for their industry, sector, size or a specific purpose within the business. Because this is broad reaching and diverse in nature, we don’t typically make standardised recommendations in this area, other than to utilise the following key recommendations:
If customers line of business applications or business software meets the above criteria, we will provide support at Level 1 for the software.
For Meeting rooms, we recommend customers use dedicated meeting room hardware, with active warranties and support contracts in place.
At a minimum, Microsoft Team Meeting room equipment should be certified:
We highly recommend the following vendors for Microsoft Teams Rooms:
Voice Calling can be an essential service for many organisations and is no longer always tied to office desks or locations, or specialist hardware (known as desk phones or handsets). Tribe recommends Cloud Based Telephony systems as recommended, as these typically are more cost effective than traditional on-premise solutions & provide greater flexibility - around remote or mobile working, or even providing your organisation with resiliency in case of disaster.
There are a multitude of options available in the market, spanning traditional on-premise options, cloud-based solutions, or even using Mobile only based services (In which case you don't need to be looking in this section). Talk to Tribe to evaluate your requirements and to compare costs & functionality. We typically recommend the following Cloud Telephony solutions from reputable nationwide providers (including Tribe):
For individual video conferencing (and calling) in open plan office settings we recommend customers use noise cancelling/suppressing bi-aural headsets from recommended vendors:
As these environments are typically unique, varied & complex, we do not presently provide general recommendations on any Operational Technology (OT), SCADA or SCADA HMI, production software or support as part of an overall Recommended Technology Platform. We can provide levels of support and advice in certain areas where we have expertise - talk to one of our team to find out more.
