When something interrupts or breaks with your IT systems, it is a race to get it fixed before your business experiences too much downtime or loses its productivity. As a small business you may be more inclined to try and sort any IT problems out yourself but a lot of the time, it’ll cost you more money and time to do so.
Delivering, supporting, and maintaining your IT systems require specific skill sets and adequate resources; for small businesses, sometimes it really is the best option to outsource your IT, even if it’s the occasional problem.
We have a range of affordable options to match budget, business needs and ensure you have the responsiveness you need to limit downtime.
We have a range of options to choose from; cloud solutions, cybersecurity, IT projects and consultancy, ad-hoc support or a fully managed IT service.
Cloud Solutions for Small Business
Cloud solutions make storing, securing, and accessing your data, files, and software more affordable and flexible.
There are different types of cloud computing each with different features based on access and security.
- Private Cloud - the services and infrastructure are maintained and managed by you or a third party. This option reduces the potential security and control risks and will suit you if your data and applications are a core part of your business and you need a higher degree of security or have sensitive data requirements.
- Community Cloud - where several organisations share access to a private cloud with similar security considerations. For example, a series of franchises have their own public clouds but they are hosted remotely in a private environment.
- Public Cloud - where the services are stored off-site and accessed over the internet. The storage is managed by an external organisation such as Google or Microsoft. This service offers the greatest level of flexibility and cost-saving however it is more vulnerable than private clouds.
- Hybrid Cloud - takes advantage of both public and private cloud services. By spreading your options across different cloud models, you gain the benefits of each model. For example, you could use a public cloud for your emails to save on large storage costs, while keeping your highly sensitive data safe and secure behind your firewall in a private cloud.
Get in touch to discuss which cloud solution would best suit your business.
Cyber Security for Small Businesses
Cyberthreats are becoming increasingly common and can be harmful to any business. Small businesses tend to think they are too small to be worth attacking but sometimes, that makes them an easier target. In fact, recent trends show that cyber-attacks on small businesses are increasing.
It’s time for small businesses to take the threats seriously and find out more about how you can protect your business from cyberthreats.
Our cyber security solutions are highly scalable, flexible, and affordable and ensure that your business is always protected. Our cyber security solutions:
Backup and Recovery - Cyberattacks are a common cause of data loss so it’s vital that you ensure your business has a substantial data back-up and recovery solution in place. You just need to decide the frequency of back-ups, ideally, you would assess how much data loss would impact your business. 15 minutes? An hour? A day?
Cyber Essentials - The National Cyber Security Centre states that by undertaking the Government-backed, Cyber Essentials certification process and implementing even one of the five controls required by Cyber Essentials, can protect businesses from around 80% of attacks. Cyber Essentials defines a set of security controls and clear guidance on the basics of cyber security. Once you go through the modules, you are awarded a certificate which showcases that you are proactive against cyber-attacks. You can’t get government contracts without it.
GDPR Compliance - GDPR instructs that personal data must be processed securely using appropriate technical and organisational measures. The meaning is clear; protect personal data by having sufficient security measures in place. There are four ‘top-level’ security aims specified; Manage Security Risk, Protected Personal Data against Cyber Attack, Detect Security Events and Minimise the impact of Data Breaches. We can ensure that you are in full GDPR compliance when it comes to your data security.
Internet Security Solutions - the internet opens up the ability for your network to be breached. There are a variety of tools that can help secure your internet activity such as: Antivirus and anti-malware software, Application security, Behavioural analytics, Data loss prevention, Distributed denial of service prevention, Email security, Firewalls, Mobile device security, Network segmentation, Security information and event management and Web security.
Layered Protection – the main principle is several layers of protection that prevent, detect, and respond to any cyber threats. The idea is that it offsets the weaknesses of one security layer by the strengths of two or more layers.
Managed Endpoint Security - Endpoint devices such as desktops, laptops, and mobiles are a point of access to your business network. When you have remote workers, you need to be assured that if your staff uses their device that provides that entry point, that it won’t harm your business network. Managed endpoint security puts in a process in place to authenticate and monitor access to your network through your devices.
Penetration Testing - essentially, with penetration testing, we are identifying any possible vulnerabilities in your system, network, or infrastructure by simulating a cyber-attack. When those vulnerabilities are identified, we can suggest countermeasures so as to reduce the risk.
Phishing Simulation – mimicking the role of the attacker, we send realistic phishing emails to test your staff’s reactions. It allows you to gauge how susceptible your business is to a cyber-attack and whether you need to educate your team accordingly.
Ransomware Protection - Ransomware obtains access to your computer and network, locks and encrypts your files. To restore access to your files, the attacker demands a payment. They send instructions on how to pay and once payment is sent, you get a decryption key to unlock the files. We can offer ransomware protection.
User Awareness Training - A lack of awareness is the biggest cause of successful cyberattacks. Malicious software is designed to trick us into giving the attacker an opening. We can deliver bespoke, user awareness training that has been designed to educate your team in learning the risks, identifying suspicious activity, and best cybersecurity practices in highlighting the activity and protecting the business.
IT Support
You can choose to have ad-hoc IT Support or a Managed Service. Ad-hoc IT support is exactly as it sounds, call when you get a problem and you pay for what time is used.
A Managed service is where you have a third party, like ourselves who take complete management of your IT needs and provide day-to-day support to all of your users. Essentially, you have a dedicated phone number for your own IT department where you can have a technical team ready to support you in any day-to-day issues whilst in the background, they are ensuring your core systems are maintained and secure.
Our Managed IT service is completely bespoke so we can’t give you an idea of pricing without meeting you to discuss what systems you have in place and number of users etc. We also need to gain an understanding of what you need as a Service Level Agreement so that all fixes can be measured against this. We offer different tiers of support such as whether it will be remote only, on-site only or a mixture of both. The price you will be quoted will be a fixed monthly cost for unlimited access to our technical team.
Once you choose us as your Managed Service Provider (MSP) we will sit down with you to firm your goals for the year ahead and what systems you have in place.
Reasons to outsource your IT
- Save Staff Costs by not having to recruit an internal IT team
- Single Point of Contact for any issues
- Experienced IT Talent for a fraction of the cost
- Technical Support On Demand
- Reduce your Downtime
- Enhanced Network Security
- 24/7 Support
IT Projects & Consultancy
Our IT Projects and Consultancy team consist of senior technical engineers and IT Directors with many years of experience across multiple industries. Our IT Consultants can help provide solutions, advice, and help plan any improvements to your IT systems, infrastructure, network, and security.
All businesses have unique requirements and challenges but here are some of the ways our IT Consultants can help your business:
Network Assessment – We can assess your network and identify any vulnerabilities to ensure your business systems are at optimal efficiency.
Security Audit – Data breaches are a common occurrence across businesses but even if you haven’t had a data breach yet, this doesn’t mean your network is properly secured. Our IT Consultants can identify any possible threats to your IT systems and help you implement any processes or solutions to avoid data breaches
Cost Reduction - We can help identify if any of your IT systems/ processes may be costing your business time and money and offer you alternative solutions.
IT Project Planning – There are so many technology solutions out there that may be viable solutions for your business and choosing the right solution can be difficult. Our IT Consultants have knowledge of a wide variety of different technology options and can help you identify the viability of the best solution so that your IT Project starts with the best option for your business’s needs rather than finding out later that it’s not fit-for-purpose.
We can be involved at the infancy of a project by helping you to decide on the viability of an IT Project before it even starts and then help you plan and support it accordingly.
IT Projects we can help with:
- Cloud Migration
- Comms Cabinet Upgrades and Relocations
- Office 365 Migration
- Office Moves
- Networking and Cabling
- Network Upgrades
- Remote Access Solutions
- Server Installation, Migrations and Upgrades
- Software Installation and Upgrades
- UPS Installations and Upgrades
- Wi-Fi
- Workstation Installation and Upgrades
Our project with Stressline was to migrate them to Office 365, install a new phone system, UC tool, and upgrade their connectivity.
“The new infrastructure is still in its infancy. Already it's a quantum leap, enabling everyone to collaborate more easily. It will pay for itself when we use it more fully and it allows people to work remotely."
Learn more about our Stressline projectWhether it’s a cloud-migration project, network or server upgrade or an office move, our IT team can help your business deliver your IT projects on time, on budget, and with minimal business disruption.