In an ideal world, every end-of-year wrap-up – whether personal or business – would be full of wins and triumphs. But we all know that life’s not like that.

What we have tried very hard to do, though, is to turn those ‘oh sh*t’ moments into ‘this is what we learned’ ones instead.

So, what did we get up to over the past year? Let’s start with the really good stuff!

Doing IT in Dubbo!

We were delighted to officially open our Dubbo office in April of this year. In typical Colton style, we didn’t waste any time making ourselves right at home in Dubbo and promptly got ourselves named as finalists in the Dubbo Rhino Awards for Employer of Choice (because we’re great to work for!) and Excellence in Large Business (because we’re, well… excellent).

ARN Awards

The ARN Innovation Awards 2025 are an annual biggie in the world of technology. They’re hotly contested, and it’s a blast to get recognised. So (imagine some drumrolls here), we’re proud to announce that for the second year in a row – and third time in total – we won the ARN – Channel News Regional Innovation Partner of the year award.

The learning stuff

We talked to a lot of people this year – simply because we had a lot to talk about!

When we mentioned lessons learned earlier, we weren’t kidding. After surviving a third-party data breach in August 2024, we decided that the best thing we could do was to share our experience with other IT providers.

So we (i.e. Mitch) took our story on the road, along with Levi Thurston from NLT Insurance Brokers, Reece Corbett-Wilkins, Head of First Response Australia – Atmos, and Kristal Jamieson – Founder of One Little Seed, to present “Hello from the other side (of a third-party data breach)” at SMBIT conference, IT Nation Sydney, and CyberCon 2025.

We also ran a range of cyber-education events, including six Cyber Sips & Security Tips events across Dubbo, Orange and Bathurst, a couple of executive briefing lunches, and we produced nine episodes of Between Two Techies (which you can check out here).

And for a complete change of pace, Mitch moderated a panel on “Working Better Together: Neurodiversity and Psychological Safety” at SMBIT Professionals National Conference.

The top 5 most popular IT issues of the year

We run some pretty fancy reporting on the problems we get asked to fix. If you’ve wondered what our support team get up to, here are the most common problems we deal with daily (ranked by popularity):

    1. The winner at 25% – email issues. Yes, for yet another year, the email ecosystem remains the most common source of support tickets. Common problems include spam reports, Outlook sync failures, and phishing investigations.
    2. 18% – second place is shared by user account management and software or operating system updates. An old and recurring favourite, user account management generates cries for help to resolve password resets, MFA re-enrolments, and access rights. Windows or software updates account for a large portion of Level 1 technician time.
    3. In third place at 11%, are drive (e.g., C Drive) and SharePoint issues where users have access challenges, usually stemming from permission changes or mapping disruptions after updates.
    4. Accounting for 9%, are Outlook-specific issues. Think crashes, freezing, slow performance, not sending or receiving – all the things that drive you crazy when you’re trying to get through your day.
    5. At 8% sits password resets and lockouts. Again, the sort of issues that always frustrate and annoy (not us though – we’re always happy to help!).

A couple of tips here for minimising these issues:

  • Ask us about automating those frequent fixes to reset Outlook profiles, re-map drives, or reapply permissions automatically.
  • Focus on educating your users. Minimise the number of support tickets your team submit by running a refresher guide on common password, MFA, and email hygiene procedures.
  • Expand your searchable knowledge base. Got recurring issues? With an up-to-date knowledge base, you always have step-by-step instructions on hand to fix email sync, SharePoint permissions, printer setup, or VPN login issues.

The sharing stuff

As the world becomes a more complicated place (not helped by the cybercrime fraternity), the layers of protection and processes we need to apply to our businesses only seem to grow. So, we spent a fair bit of time blogging on what not to do, as well as ways to save your bacon.

Here’s a quick roundup of the topics we blogged on this year:

Are you 2026 ready?

Next year promises to be a big one. More AI, more cybercrime, more environmental issues, more uncertainty – the works!

The one thing you can always count on, though, is that the Colton team is always here for you and your business.

Curious or concerned about your IT? Give us a call or drop us a line – we’ll see you right.