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Business leaders and IT management have a responsibility to make the right technology choices to make a business run more smoothly and everyone’s lives easier. That means implementing IT strategies that save time and money and leave enough resource to look ahead and dabble with innovation to keep your IT infrastructure up to date.
What is the starting point for future-proofing your IT?
It’s important to think about the market you operate in, how it’s evolving and whether your proposition is keeping pace with industry change and the competition.
A thorough review of your IT system will help you assess how efficiently you run right now and, coupled with any ‘wish list upgrades’ in the pipeline, you’ll have a starting point for where you are and where you need to go with your IT roadmap.
If you don’t have IT experts in-house, an outsourced IT service provider or IT consultancy can help you make that assessment and talk you through the options for protecting what you have and moving things on at the rate you can afford.
Don’t worry if there’s a sizeable gap between where you are and where you want to be. Every business sits on that trajectory to some degree and the rate at which you can (and should) move up it is relative. Even small businesses can avail of affordable IT to help them grow. There’s a comfortable path for every business, and understanding what that is, is the first step.
There are a number of key questions for business owners and management teams to ask of themselves, to really get inside the nature of the business, the market and what future development might look like:
- Is the core product my customer buys changing (e.g. movies in video format to online streaming)?
- Are the core technologies of production changing (e.g. 3D printing)?
- Is the competition changing (e.g. new entrants claiming market share)?
- Is my relationship with the customer being disintermediated (e.g. search engines)?
- Is my industry undergoing regulation, deregulation, or re-regulation (e.g. have my responsibilities around data protection and information security compliance changed, as they will with GDPR)?
When you know the answers to these questions, you will be better able to decide what IT upgrades you will need to not only meet current operational demands, but those that will shape the future of your business. For instance, acknowledging that your server is in danger of becoming outdated may mean a move to the cloud is advisable, while an increase in IT demands may require considering hiring a virtual CIO or the support of an IT service desk to handle the day-to-day tasks that are getting in the way of you focusing on running the business.
In such a scenario, you may have to think about upgrading your IT architecture with enhanced project information management software so you can keep on top of all files and important emails to increase efficiency and enhance the service you provide.
By staying on top of these issues and knowing what plans to put in place, a business can help minimise the impact of change, focus their energy and IT budget where it will benefit it most and future proof in a much more complete sense.
Discover how effective project information management is just one way in which you can future-proof your business.
1. Increased organisation
Systems are designed to manage high volumes, so no matter how busy it gets, things never get messy, confused or lost.
With an efficient ticket management system, tasks can be sorted and requested any number of ways including by date, time, customer name, importance and category. Updates can be added and tracked, so it’s easy to see how the resolution is progressing and what’s still to be done.
2. Greater efficiency
The more organised you are, the more efficient you’re likely to be and that will come through in:
- Response times
- Resolve times and
- Reduced complications and errors
3. Faster turnaround of issues
Speed counts in business and for some issues, minutes rather than days, is the only acceptable turnaround time. With a managed help desk, businesses can ensure issues are prioritised and given the attention they deserve, in order.
4. Better prioritisation
The ability to rank issues is crucial. Whether it’s a serious cyber health and safety issue or a red flag because the problem concerns one of your high net worth clients, the ability to look at issues in a sensible order is key. By doing this, you can prioritise, for example, the threat of malware or even a full-scale tech disaster over less crucial issues such as fixing the copier.
5. Useful data and analytics
Individual tickets might not tell you too much about a business, but there’s a huge amount of benefit in the collective data.
By documenting information such as ticket importance, resolve time and frequency, you can gain valuable insights, and dashboards will help identify how IT resources and budget are being spent and whether your IT support is performing well.
If the system is being used to manage internal IT issues, you can see where recurring issues are happening, system upgrades are required or where additional employee training might reduce the number of tickets raised.
If it’s tracking customer-facing issues, you can see where complaints and compliments are logged against sales staff, which products or services customers are struggling to use and geographical trends or hotspots for increased sales or call volumes.
6. Clear issue allocation and ownership
Managed help desks can use that historical information and even assign specific tickets to people with particular skill sets or experience in dealing with known issues.
From a company perspective, it helps get the ticket through the system quickly, and from a customer perspective, they get help from the person best placed to resolve their issue quickly.
7. Positive brand experience
Being able to get the right support when you need it is a huge part of a good brand experience. You only have to look to social media to see how little patience consumers have when things go wrong.
By having a managed system that allows customers to talk to someone about the issues they’re facing and reassuring them it’s getting the attention it deserves, a business can actually improve its brand value on the back of an issue.
By owning the problem, making it their responsibility and managing the process in a professional way, customers are much more likely to stay loyal and become advocates.
8. Process automation
Some systems provide triggered updates that keep employees and customers in the loop with progress reports and target resolution dates. By sharing that information as it’s available, you can reduce the number of follow-up calls and emails (all of which need to be resourced) and reassure customers in the process.
9. Clearer lines of communication
Knowing whether you’re dealing with a customer who’s logged ten other problems this month or a glowing review last year is vital when it comes to customer care and brand management.
Customers don’t want to have to repeat themselves or provide the same information over and over. A managed help desk allows you to record and track all communication, ensures general information is captured first time round and makes everything available to administrators each time a request or issue is logged on that person’s behalf.
10. Allow employees to perform their key function
Tech issues can leave employees unable to do their job and tie your IT up in a constant ‘break-fix’ cycle, distracting them from more important future-proofing work that can help drive the business forward.
The benefits of an efficient IT service desk are clear, and availing of one from an expert provider who can act as a virtual CIO will not just help you save money and time in the long run, it will also help your business grow.
Learn more about how IT can help your business grow by downloading.
It’s the result of numerous, unstructured meetings, many of which come with documents or presentations attendees are asked to review up-front. The same meetings can follow up with reams of minutes and if you’re totally out of luck, produce a list of actions for you to pick up.
To turn this modern office nightmare around, businesses are looking to project and meeting management software to help standardise their approach and improve meeting effectiveness and efficiency with better preparation, organisation, structure and archiving.
How does meeting management software work?
It looks at the various stages and components required to run an effective meeting, helping organisers and attendees address the right things, at the right time.
Different software packages offer different features and benefits, but as a guide, this is the kind of support a business can expect from a good quality provider.
Before the meeting
This stage builds the foundation for the meeting itself, so it’s critical for providing clarity and giving attendees everything they need to prepare properly.
Receiving the agenda ten minutes before the meeting starts or worse still, at the meeting, means a second meeting is inevitable as employees are unable to come informed or have put any pre-work in.
Benefits:
- Meeting scheduling
- Agenda setting
- Agenda distribution
- Assigning pre-meeting tasks
During the meeting
At this stage, the software helps automate as much as possible, making the meeting run faster and smoother. If a specific decision maker can’t attend, automatic rescheduling can rearrange for a more suitable time.
The right software also helps ensure structure, so the agenda is discussed in a logical order and keeps pace, meaning items can be closed off or tabled with detail, if they need more work.
Assisted note taking helps save time while adding accountability and consistency. Good software can even offers voting tools, Pro/Con tools and rating systems to help find consensus and make decisions quickly.
Benefits:
- Noting attendance
- Covering agenda topics
- Taking minutes
- Decision making
- Assigning tasks
After the meeting
If a meeting’s effectiveness is determined by the results, well-presented minutes with search and merge functionality, easy distribution, security features and clear task allocation are a must.
Benefits:
- Consolidated meeting notes
- Minute documentation
- Minute distribution
- Minute archiving
- Assigning tasks
- Task follow-up
Here are six key benefits of Meeting Management Software:
1 - Paperless meetings
In stark contrast to the volumes of paper a meeting might usually require, a digital pack can be viewed by anybody given access to them, and on any device, allowing attendees to prepare for and act on meetings on the move, if you operate a CYOD/BYOD policy.
2 - Increased security
With cyber security so important, a business may fear documents with confidential or sensitive information being misplaced, but when you use meeting software you can make everything accessible online via cloud computing and add security measures to avoid the risk of information falling into the wrong hands.
Some providers even offer auto-purge features that mean you can wipe data from a device if it’s lost, stolen or several unauthorised attempts are made to access information.
3 - Improved collaboration
Efficient meetings are inclusive and encourage participants to get involved. They’re not always necessary, but where they can add value, presentations, video demonstrations, using a whiteboard to work through process issues or asking participants to ‘sticky note’ thoughts and ideas can help keep meetings interesting and achieve results faster.
4 - Synchronised information and real-time updates
By keeping everyone in the loop digitally, changes and updates can be made instantly, ensuring participants always have access to the most up-to-date information, and version control is well-managed. No more spending hours working on that set of tasks only to find out half of them have been replaced since you last opened the file.
5 - Simplified note taking
If you’ve ever run the agenda and acted as scribe for a meeting, you will be familiar with the scenario where you wrote down a shorthand note to come back to, only to later have no idea what it meant. It’s easy to miss important details or forget why you noted something as a result, because by the time you get around to writing up the notes, the context is gone. Automated meeting notes can help make sure nothing slips through the cracks and every meeting has comprehensive minutes that can be shared and archived.
6 - Improved participation at remote meetings
It won’t matter if participants are in opposite ends of the city, country or world with the right meeting software, as everyone can participate like they’re in the same room, saving time, cost and allowing progress to keep pace, despite busy schedules.
If you think your business could benefit from the many time and cost-saving opportunities meeting software creates, outsourced IT support from pebble.it can help get you up, running and managing meetings like a pro in no time.
Contact us to see how we can help you save time better spent running your business.
Effective IT isn’t about spending big, it’s about spending well, and there are a million and one things small business with limited resources can do to free up time and money, streamline operations and future-proof the enterprise.
Here are 10 great tips to help any small business optimise their IT opportunities
1 - Make yourself easy to find with a great website
Sites can be created, maintained and supported more easily and cost-effectively than ever, so there’s no need for expensive designers and in-house webmasters if you don’t need them.
A good site is one that:
- Uses SEO well, so search engines find you and position you well on results pages
- Cuts to the chase and presents the most valuable information first
- Reflects your business or brand well and exudes professionalism
- Is quick and easy to navigate
- Provides contacts and next steps
2 - Manage your social presence
There’s no substitute for social media if you’re a fast-paced brand that’s keen to connect with customers on real-time issues. Used well, it’s an excellent channel to build relationships with existing customers and demonstrate how you behave, as a brand, to prospects.
However, I’d say that if you don’t have time to manage social media accounts, don’t go there. Having a Facebook page won’t do your business any favours if it just sits bone idle.
When it comes to Twitter, tweet if you’ve something interesting to say or offer and if you don’t… don’t fill the virtual silence with things that aren’t business appropriate or take you into conversations that can get you into hot water.
Keep your accounts tight and if it means having just one and managing it well, that’s the way to go.
3 - Encourage remote working
It won’t work for everyone, but if you can afford to trial remote working for some of your employees or new hires, you might find it cheaper, more efficient and a sweetener that brings fresh talent to the honey pot.
Employees want more flexibility and they’re willing to hold out for employers that present opportunities that suit their lifestyles.
It’s a good bargaining tool for employers too, allowing you to offer remote working in lieu of other benefits you might not be able to afford, such as additional holidays, healthcare or subsidised gym memberships.
Contrary to what you might think, research shows remote workers are less distracted, take fewer breaks, work longer hours, are more productive and score higher in terms of job satisfaction, compared to their office-based colleagues, so it’s worth finding out how you can handle the increase in mobile device use.
4 - Gather and use data
If knowledge is power, data is a business’s super power. The right technology can make light work of collating, storing, sorting and reporting on customer analytics and this wealth of knowledge can be used to connect with relevance, planning marketing campaigns confident of where, when and how you can make the most impact.
5 - Use software to make life easier
Software designers have been pumping out products to help with everything from project management to invoicing and accounting, but you need to know which programmes, tools or apps are right for you by asking some IT questions up-front.
There’s no doubt the better programmes out there can save small businesses time, streamlining clunky processes and taking the stress out of everyday things such as meeting management and minutes - notorious for eating up valuable time.
This kind of software is affordable, easy to use and most providers offer free trials, so they cost nothing to try out.
6 - Make security a priority
Your business is only as strong as its network and if that goes down, your business goes down with it, so protection is key. Anti-virus, and malware and ransomware protection are a must, and regular updates and patches should be prioritised.
Getting employees on board is wise too, educating everyone on the risks and threats they’ll encounter day-to-day in their inbox and explaining the role they will play in keeping the business safe.
There’s no such thing as harmless chain mail and a quick lunch-break surf on a corrupt site could bring a world of pain for a small business.
7 - Have a back-up plan
The biggest decision around servers and back-up will be whether you go with a cloud-based or in-house solution. There are pros and cons to both and some business run with hybrid models. The most important thing is that you find what’s right for you.
If you’re not sure, you should talk to an IT service provider. This stuff is bread and butter for them and they’ll be able to make recommendations based on things such as whether you want to:
- Reduce reliance on the internet
- Allow employees to connect from anywhere
- Ensure high levels of uptime
- Increase data security
- Bolster business continuity or
- Ensure adequate disaster recovery
8 - Consider customer-facing tech and apps
Taking things online or giving customers an easier way to buy and use your services might make good business sense. A simple scheduling app or online tutorials could make all the difference in your industry, so take time out every now and then or ask an expert if there are opportunities or IT trends out there that you should be tapping into.
Technology might not be your forte, but that’s no reason to miss out on what could make your life easier and more profitable, when there is so much help available.
9 - Look at tech alternatives to reduce office overheads
Cost savings can be found in everything from office space to your telephone provider and decision makers need to look at how much they can save by making smarter tech-led choices.
For example, how much less space they would you need if your server was in the cloud and more employees worked remotely?
Could a VoIP phone system, allowing you to run calls, email, fax and video over one internet supported network, significantly reduce the cost of an underused land line service?
Legacy services and overheads have a habit of hanging around a lot longer than they should because of inertia or a lack of knowledge. It’s music to the providers ears, but an unnecessary drain on resources.
10 - Outsource and ask for help when you need it
If everyone was an IT expert, there would be no need for blogs like this, but we all come with different skill sets and smart business leaders and great IT managers understand their strengths and ask for help when they need it.
Outsourcing roles and tasks that simply can’t be supported within the business makes sense. With IT for example, it can be much cheaper to farm the work out to a virtual CIO or to an IT service desk than adding another skilled employee to the payroll and absorbing the costs of benefits, holidays, training, incentives and arming them with all the tools they need to do their job.
By putting something as important as IT in the hands of the experts, you can rest assured, you’ll always have access to the expertise you need, when you need it, and you don’t need to be a big business to afford it.
Larger organisations tend to be more reliant on legacy systems, and like all giant vessels, they need lots of time and space to brake and change course. That’s where smaller businesses have the advantage, and they’re using technology to leverage every opportunity available.
SMEs understand the importance of being agile, managing costs and finding new and inventive ways to constantly improve productivity through the effective use of IT. They know the best way to compete and grow is to test, learn and iterate – finding efficiencies and evolving at the same rate as (or better yet, ahead of) consumer demand and expectations.
How can technology support agile operating models?
Improving IT infrastructure
For businesses to embrace all that is agile, employees need the ability to communicate freely, share information quickly, mobilise resources on-demand and act on good-quality data. That requires having the right hardware in place, upgrading software where necessary, and knowing what will be needed to continue and improve on operations into the future.
IT experts can help businesses do this by reviewing their IT infrastructure, revisiting their needs and objectives and leveraging developments in technology that allow them to find more efficient and effective ways to operate.
They can advise on and implement a move from more traditional cascading of information, to an infrastructure that allows them to communicate in every direction, at the same time, across numerous devices.
Your business can be more agile if your team is not tied up in tech fixes, so outsourcing your IT to a dedicated service desk means your team can focus on the business at hand every day without having to worry about tech troubles, or the costs of having an in-house IT team on hand.
Developing stronger networks
Moving up the ranks in digital innovation means more online tools, increased use of software and a greater reliance all-round on the IT network to create and support operational efficiency.
A stronger, safer network can only be a good thing for a business and lays the foundations for building on success.
Going digital
Paper is the past. It fills office space unnecessarily and increases costs and waste. It can even jeopardise a business’s security if it happens to include sensitive or confidential information and finds itself in the wrong hands.
By digitising document management, a business can transform its overall operation, streamline processes, simplify procedures and improve efficiency on every level.
At its most basic, it means everyone can be on the same page, all the time. Information can be shared or retrieved in seconds, whether that’s from a traditional server or the cloud. Edits and approvals can be made on the go and the paper mountain fire hazard can be extinguished once and for all.
Developing social and working networks
Creating virtual destinations for like-minded employees and business associates to hang out can be hugely beneficial to an agile work environment. Socially, they allow bonds to be built based on personal interests, and from a professional perspective, it lets agencies, vendors and project teams get together to share their expertise, regardless of geographical location.
Leveraging data and collective intelligence
Businesses that lean heavily on social engagement and real-time analytics know the value of customer intelligence. It can inform everything from brand management and marketing strategy, to product development and operational improvement, allowing the business to grow and adapt based on what the market is doing, without the risk of guess work.
Having the software in place that allows your team to gather data, analyse and act on it, is therefore becoming more and more important.
Today, an agile approach to business requires having the right IT infrastructure and tech support in place, and an IT consulting service can show you the potential in the system you have, what you need, how to implement it, and what it can do to help you innovate and grow.
Find out how we can help you on the path to success by booking an IT audit with us:
Keeping up to date with the condition of your IT support, software and network enables you to:
- Make smart decisions when it comes to technology
- Use best practice to support your goals and
- Optimise the IT budget to build out a comprehensive IT roadmap
Having shared his cyber security tips in a previous blog, our MD David Osen here gives us an IT Health Check Shortlist: a 7-Point Plan to help businesses prioritise their thinking and stay on track when it comes to the challenge of maintaining a healthy IT operation.
IT Health Check – The Big 7
1- Stay on top of technical needs
As obvious as it sounds, many businesses run expensive IT operations without ever truly meeting the tech needs of their employees or customers. Legacy systems, shortcuts and hacks, as well as a fear of change, are just some of the issues we see clients struggle with every day.
The reality is, the workarounds generally take more IT resources to manage, often leaving businesses dragging their heels technically and falling behind the competition.
Different departments, roles and responsibilities rely on different technology and devices to do their job well. The nine-to-five, one-size-fits-all doesn’t exist anymore. Employees expect to be equipped with the tools they need, or be allowed to bring their own device to work (BYOD).
That’s new ground for some employers, but it’s the kind of flexibility businesses need to embrace to keep pace.
The benefits of a technically-smart business are too long to list here, but by reviewing their hardware and software choices and investing in processes and tools that make the business run smoothly and allow employees to do their job better, a business can save time and money, and improve their customer experience.
How could a professional IT Health Check help?
An IT service provider can quickly assess the business’s unique needs, identify where improvements could create long-term benefits and help them take the customer offering to the next level.
2 - Enable remote workers
Office space at a decent address, nice desks, swivel chairs, desktops and those fancy little Nespresso pods are expensive, and in many cases, completely unnecessary.
Remote working won’t be appropriate for every employee, but businesses that can enable staff to work from home, abroad or on the road, really should.
Remote working opens a lot of doors to a business and according to global recruiter Monster Worldwide, it benefits employers as much (if not more) than employees.
From a resource perspective:
- It increases the talent pool
- Helps businesses to compete better for specific skill sets
- Allows employers to recruit from anywhere in the country (or globe)
- Closes timezone gaps for businesses that operate 24/7
- Improves employee satisfaction
- Reduces stress
- Increases employee retention and
- Improves productivity
Contrary to what some employers might think, remote workers experience less distraction, take fewer breaks, work longer hours and are more focused than their office-based counterparts.
And, if that lot doesn’t float your boat, massive savings on operational costs and overheads might do the trick.
How could an IT Health Check help?
Remote working is simply considered part and parcel of today’s work environment. An IT service provider can talk you through the host of smart technology solutions for better communication available and work with you to make the transition (or create a business readiness) that will allow you to embrace the trend and capitalise on the many business gains its proven to deliver.
3 - Review your software
Software is one of the fastest moving areas of the IT industry, presenting businesses with opportunities to simplify and improve the way they do pretty much everything.
Programmes have been developed around accounting, time management, project management, account management, meeting management, employee collaboration and everything in between.
And, when it’s not helping you do your job better, sophisticated malware can help secure your network, protect data and shield your business from all manner of debilitating viruses and cyber attacks.
Software is more competitively priced now too and free trials are the norm, so you can try before you buy and work out what feels right for you and your employees.
Software licensing is another area that’s worth revisiting regularly, as providers increasingly move away from fixed costs to subscription-based pricing that mean annual fees and paying extra for upgrades and patches – all of which would have been included before.
How could an IT Health Check help?
Better use of software and finding efficiencies in licensing costs are no brainers for any business. Time-consuming jobs and painful processes can be simplified (even enjoyed, if some reviews are to be believed) and bulk purchasing and volume licensing can often reduce business expenses.
Optimity is an authorised reseller, so we can sell software licenses on behalf of big players like Adobe, Cisco and Google. We’ve a wealth of knowledge on the subject too, and worked with clients nationwide to help them realise savings they never knew existed.
4 - Employ helpdesk support
It’s not possible (or necessary) for every business to have in-house IT support. Recruiting, rewarding and retaining full-time employees in IT is expensive and even if you pay top dollar, there’s no guarantee that:
- You’ll provide a challenging enough environment to keep them interested and engaged, or
- They’ll be able to resolve every IT issue that comes up
Technology moves fast and IT experts need to keep on top of trends and training to stay fresh. So, if you’re not prepared to support that kind of on-going career development, an outsourced service that offers helpdesk support and an expert response to any issue that arises, when it arises, might be a better investment.
There are different levels of service too, making it affordable and scalable for businesses of all sizes. Operational excellence is key for businesses that rely on technology to support employees, serve customers and challenge competitors. A serviced helpdesk will allow you to stay on top of all of this, smoothing out recurring issues that hamper daily productivity and letting you choose between:
- Operating a ‘Break-Fix’ service that guarantees expert assistance the minute anything goes wrong, or
- Developing a strategic partnership with an outsourced team that will drive business success with a tailored IT roadmap
How could an IT Health Check help?
Helpdesk support can be dialled up or down or trialled to see how it could work for you. An IT service provider can talk you through all available options, highlight typical problem areas that benefit most and explain the difference between remote support and on-site trouble shooters, for example.
5 - Be smart about your physical infrastructure
Think circuits, routers, servers, machine management – anything that enables your business to stay connected to the network, employees and customers.
Managing all the component parts, agreements, contracts, vendor relationships and everything in between, can be a complicated and time-consuming job. It’s also essential to operational efficiency and budget management, because left unchecked, it could cost the business dearly in terms of connectivity, performance and bottom line results.
How could an IT Health Check help?
This is an area where knowledge, expertise and supplier contacts really matter.
By putting this is the hands of an expert, they can assess your infrastructure’s strength and allow you to make informed decisions about where you may need to adapt or make essential changes to secure your business from the foundations up.
6 - Tighten your security
2017 is fast on its way to becoming one of the worst years in history for global cyberattacks. Tech news channels are awash with ‘Wannacry’ horror stories and other aptly-named viruses that have brought everything from airlines to hospitals to a standstill. And the only thing that stands between your business and the next attack is better cyber security.
Hackers, viruses and online fraud generally are getting smarter, faster and more ambitious, making the need for robust security and regular updates a prerequisite for IT infrastructure.
Indeed, some of the worst attacks we’ve seen this year happened simply because patches weren’t run as they were made available (Tut Tut NHS), leaving the door wide open and presenting opportunistic hackers with entire networks on a silver platter.
Compliance of data protection regulations is a hot topic right now, with the GDPR Review (General Data Protection Regulation) - the most extensive revision of European privacy and data protection legislation ever - set to take effect from May 2018.
The GDPR isn’t limited to the EU either. In fact, the legal reach isn’t defined by geography at all, instead looking at how personal data of European residents is used. And, just in case you’re wondering, there’s no green card via Brexit, as the UK Government is fully supportive of the legislation.
How could an IT Health Check help?
IT security is big, but it doesn’t have to be scary. Managed well, it shouldn’t be an issue at all. An IT service provider can perform a full cyber security sweep, identify any weaknesses in your network or ways of working and make recommendations on how to protect your business and reduce the risk of network downtime as a result of a cyberattack.
7 - Review backup and disaster recovery planning
I advise every business to plan for disaster. It might sound a bit dramatic, but anything from a simple power outage to a sophisticated virus can bring a business to its knees and the longer you’re out, the more brand damage is incurred.
Having systems in place to ensure regular backup, appropriate storage, unlimited access to data and a robust disaster recovery plan – should the worst happen – are essential failsafe tools for all businesses and there are tech options to help end-to-end.
How could an IT Health Check help?
Testing your defences regularly to make sure back-up and disaster recovery plans are fit for purpose is a hygiene factor that’s often overlooked as day-to-day issues take precedence.
The saying: ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ springs to mind here. This stuff won’t sort itself and businesses that put it on the longer finger tend to find out sooner or later that it’s too late to act once something goes wrong.
Businesses with good IT resources will be able to make lots of these checks and changes themselves, but where there’s any doubt, it’s always worth asking for an expert opinion.
Discover how outsourcing your IT can help meet all of your tech needs and bring the innovation required to see your business or agency grow.
Latest from the press room


The experience driving our growth
David has been central to our success as our Chief Financial Officer. Drawing on his experience at Zayo Group and RBC Capital Markets, he brings strong insight across large-scale infrastructure, investment banking and managed services. As our CFO, he’s been instrumental in shaping a commercial model that supports businesses as they grow, giving our customers the certainty and simplicity they expect.
Rhod has played a pivotal role in operations at Vorboss since 2020. He led the build of our network, now spanning over 900 km, and has raised industry standards across quality and efficiency, making sure our customers have a flawless experience. With previous roles at companies like Arup and WeWork, Rhod understands the complexity of London commercial real estate and knows exactly what it takes to deliver world-class technology in a fast-paced city.
The next chapter
Under David and Rhod’s leadership, we are doubling down on our commitment to keep things simple for our customers and remain the transparent, accountable provider ambitious businesses rely on as they grow.
“Vorboss is on path to becoming one of the UK’s leading B2B connectivity and managed service providers,”
says Adam Dunlop, Operating Partner at Octopus Capital and Chair of the Vorboss Board.
“With David and Rhod’s leadership, and the strength and commitment of the team across the business, I am genuinely excited about what lies ahead.”
Vorboss is part of the Fern Trading Group, managed and advised by Octopus Investments. This partnership, backed by £250million in funding, enabled us to build an independent, 100Gbps London fibre network and connect thousands of businesses across the capital. Having expanded our offering with a range of cybersecurity and managed technology solutions last year, we continue to do things differently by delivering everything end-to-end through our in-house teams.


As companies grow, so does the technology behind them. Connectivity, IT and cybersecurity often end up spread across multiple suppliers, contracts and support models. Simply Connected brings it all together under one provider, making it easier to manage, easier to support, and clearer to understand costs.
At the heart of it is Vorboss’ own fibre network spanning over 750km across London, built, owned and operated in-house, with the same team designing, installing and managing the full setup end-to-end.
“Office technology has become overcomplicated,”
said Rhod Morgan, Chief Operations Officer at Vorboss.
“Many businesses have the right services on paper, but the experience feels disjointed. We wanted to remove the grey areas. Customers manage one relationship, have access to local support and receive one predictable monthly bill. The same team that builds the solution runs and supports it day-to-day.”
Simply Connected includes modular services that flex around each business and scale as it grows:
- Dedicated internet connectivity from Vorboss
- Fully managed office networks
- Managed IT and hardware provisioning
- Cybersecurity
- Ongoing support delivered by local London experts




