Who is driving innovation in your business | Probrand Magazine

Who is

DRIVING

INNOVATION in your business?

PAGE 9

GARY FLOOD

DANNY BRADBURY

PETER SMITH

New flexible working rights for employees

Modernising the IT infrastructure

How IT product buying has changed

PAGE 14

PAGE 38

PAGE 45

OUR INNOVATION OUR COMMITMENT OUR INTEGRITY

THE VALUE IN EVERYTHING WE DO.

YOUR TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Probrand Group consists of three award-winning businesses specialising in IT Products, IT Services and Software.

Whether you’re looking to save time and money buying IT products, get more from your IT with services or transform the way you work with innovative applications, we have a specialist dedicated to meeting your needs. Let us help you thrive with relevant technology.

[4241/PBG-MAG-AD/20140813/LH]

0121 605 1000 | www.probrand.co.uk |

@Probrand Outstanding Integrator of the Year

Reg No. 16

Welcome

Peter Robbins Managing Director, Probrand Group

T

he last 20 years have been characterised by constant change, but there is one consistent, that IT, commercial and procurement teams continue to innovate and help organisations thrive. For that reason the pace of technology enabled transformation, in all its forms, is set to quicken well into the future and cement a key watchword, growth.

We can see it already. Organisations are clearly taking quick steps to maximise the upturn in the economy and rapid adoption of new hardware, services and software are clearly driving the ever-widening touch of technology in business.

Since 1992, we’ve grown a group of three award winning specialist technology businesses, covering the three pillars of IT provision – products, services, software – and listing as some of EMEA’s fastest growing businesses. Each has had to undergo its own transformation over time, so we empathise with your pains.

More importantly, at the heart of our story is investment in great people, putting value into relationships with our

1

5

2

innovation, commitment and integrity. That is, helping customers thrive with relevant and innovative technology.

Traits that have seen us roll-out our software across 150 countries in 27 languages for one of the world’s biggest tech brands.

Hard work and innovation do pay off and over the years that’s been acknowledged. For example, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent presented our Queen’s Award for Innovation for saving organisations millions of pounds buying IT. What, apart from success, does this have to do with you and an insightful Magazine?

Probrand Group fulfils many common and niche business issues with technology and we recognise that there simply isn’t enough support in the world, whatever the level of your transformation challenge – from buying the right IT products at the lowest price possible to globally unlocking efficiency and productivity with game-changing software.

That’s why we’ve launched the Probrand Group Magazine, bringing you credible articles written by leading tech journalists on current topics around driving innovation and transformation, mobility, supply chain and procurement, security, cloud and infrastructure.

Now’s a great time to be an innovator in your organisation.

4

3

6

8

7

9

1. Apprentice Shareen Shafaq and The Lord and Lady Moyoress of Birmingham, 2. Skills & Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock MP and Mercato’s Nicola Collins, 3. HRH the Duke of Kent presents Peter Robbins with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2011, 4. The Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2011, 5. Peter Robbins and Chris Griesbach meeting The Queen, 6. David Cameron speaking at Civil Service Awards 2013, 7. Mercato Solutions winning the Technology Award at Made in the Midlands 2012, 8. Birmingham City Council Leader Sir Albert Bore visits the Group, 9. Sir Albert Bore with school pupils, 10. Francis Maude MP meets leading tech SME

10

ADVERT 3 - Icomm

Contents News •

Technology in brief

Driving Innovation •

Mind the skills gap

•

Software platforms are putting

Security •

targets for cyber attack •

Firewall Survey

•

Legacy firewalls increase the risk of ransomware

•

business teams in control •

Is innovation being driven outside of the IT department?

•

Discovery, alpha, beta, live: the

•

Cloud •

prepare for growth •

protecting cloud data •

Cloud, on-premise or hybrid?

•

Server downtime: the number

•

BYOD

Supply Chain Following the IT product

one IT issue affecting firms •

Businesses still spending over

• •

cost to business

•

Just one fifth aware of price volatility

Business Transformation •

Knowing the supply chain

•

The steps to business transformation

•

Insurers need to be careful

•

Digital innovation helps Godiva compete with bigger players

•

Getting big value from big data

Short term approaches to storage can prove costly

•

The rise of mobile threatens wireless wipeout

Procurement •

Insufficient licensing leaves SMBs vulnerable to legal action

•

Counterfeit IT products creating cause for concern

•

Buying IT products - has it really changed?

how they innovate •

Freeing up resources to drive innovation

avoidable •

Modernising the IT Infrastructure

too much IT product margins: the

Are you prepared for disaster?

Infrastructure

market trends 2014

•

Films risk legal action by not

consider flexible working The rise of mobile

•

The cloud helps coffee republic

Law change forces firms to

•

•

Securing access to the cloud is imperative

Government’s new digital look

Mobility

Businesses of all sizes are

Propositions •

www.probrand.co.uk

See page 46 - 75

Contact us: 0121 605 1000 enquiries@probrand.co.uk Probrand Group Magazine provides news, views, analysis and information on pivotal subjects relevant to IT, procurement and business leaders looking to thrive with technology.

Please get in touch and share your views on any of the subjects tackled or any you would like to read about.

News

Technology research in brief Digital data to double every two years The volume of global digital data will double in size every two years and will multiply 10-fold between 2013 and 2020, according to IDC. The analyst warned that the amount of storage capacity available will not keep pace with the ‘digital universe’.

By 2020, the world will only have enough storage capacity to hold 15% of global digital data. Fortunately, most of the world’s data is transient.

Half of CIOs are struggling to grasp digital opportunities More than half (51%) of CIOs claimed they cannot respond to digital opportunities in a timely manner, according to Gartner.

The analyst’s CIO Agenda survey found that 42% lacked the skills necessary to enable digitisation and 70% believed they would need to change their IT sourcing mix over the next three years to take advantage of the digital opportunities available.

Connectivity issues costing UK business £30bn UK businesses are missing out on £30bn worth of potential growth due to connectivity issues, research has claimed.

The Smarter Working Britain study, carried out by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) and O2, claimed slow uptake of technological solutions had resulted in productivity declining since the onset of the recession. It said, despite a proliferation of smart technology in business, 80% of staff still don’t have full access to key business systems on these devices which is stifling mobile working.

Half of firms move beyond Cloud pilot stage Almost half of businesses have moved their Cloud strategies beyond the pilot phase, according to a report by 451 Research.

The study found that 45% of organisations have moved to the next stage and almost a third (32%) have included a formal cloud computing plan within their overall IT and business strategy. The research also found that spending on private clouds was happening both on and off premise. It said 32% of all spending on hosting was being dedicated to private clouds, while 26% of onpremise infrastructure spending was also being dedicated to private clouds.

Mobile traffic to grow 11-fold by 2018 As mobile device use increases the data generated by these tools, traffic is forecast to grow 11-fold, between 2013 and 2018, according to Cisco.

The networking company claims there will be 10 billion mobile devices connected to the Internet by the end of this period – a figure 40% greater than the world’s projected population.

The study said the traffic generated by mobile devices will grow three times faster than fixed connections, with the majority of this being offloaded on to WiFi networks.

Probrand Magazine

07

Driving Innovation

Mind the skills gap Neil Tonkin examines how the IT industry can work with educators to help bridge the growing IT skills gap in our economy

T

he Council of Professors and Heads of Computing predicts the UK will need 15% more IT professionals by 2022. Despite this, the number of students looking for jobs in the sector has fallen by 50% in the last decade. Demand is outstripping supply and we are facing a skills shortage.

The government has started to take steps to address this problem. It is introducing a new Computing curriculum this September which will see children learning how to code as early as Year 1 - but this still leaves a generation gap.

74%

Furthermore, a survey by MyKindaCrowd has revealed that 74% of ICT teachers do not believe they have the skills to teach computer science.

It’s essential that we provide teachers with the necessary support to deliver lessons that inspire young people – whether this is via the government, the industry itself, or a combination of the two. Moreover, we must ensure that what is being taught is applicable in the real world in order to guarantee that children are equipped with the right tools to enter the workforce.

Software platforms are putting business teams in control

D

igital technology is transforming businesses by helping people to work smarter, leaner and faster.

The case for digital innovation is clear.

Research in the insurance industry, conducted on behalf of Mercato Solutions, found companies are wasting an average of 3,000 man hours per year due to legacy processes and poorly implemented IT. If organisations want to be progressive they need systems in place that enable more flexibility, agility and efficiency.

Ideally, business teams would be able to develop their own bespoke applications to automate processes and use data better. The reality is bespoke development can often involve long lead times, considerable cost and risk. There have been some very high profile examples of large scale projects which have been retired without delivering any benefits.

One notable example was the shelving of

08

Probrand Magazine

the UK’s £12bn national Electronic Care Records system, which was described

by MPs as one of the ‘worst and most expensive contracting fiascos’ ever.

These software platforms allow for the rapid creation of intelligent business applications without a single line of code needing to be written As a result progressive, but risk averse, organisations are looking to drive greater efficiency, productivity and growth through software platforms. These software platforms allow for the rapid creation of intelligent business applications without a single line of code needing to be written.

of ICT teachers do not believe they have the skills to teach computer science

We already know that apprenticeships are a fantastic way to bridge the gap between education and the workplace. Why then can’t we form a similar business model between the IT industry and educators?

Developing such a scheme can surely benefit all involved.

Coding is an extremely skilled occupation that is constantly evolving but we must realise a long-term plan that brings multiple parties together to make it happen.

Neil Tonkin is Head of Development at Mercato Solutions

by Peter Robbins

Every organisation has processes where improvements can be made and these platform-based applications can automate complex and simple tasks alike - from surveys, claims processing and compliance applications to tech support, configurators and even artificial intelligence.

With business teams able to take control of projects away from IT in this way, many think an internal tussle could break out as a result. In fact, modern IT departments are under such pressure with day-to-day support and network optimisation that the prospect of giving the business a platform it can self-manage is seen as a welcome addition that relieves pressure.

Equally, the prospect of flexible costs and deployment are welcomed by IT and finance departments alike.

Peter Robbins is Managing Director of Probrand Group

by Danny Bradbury

Is innovation being driven outside of the IT department?

K

ing Canute would have made a great IT director. The AngloSaxon ruler, father of King Harold, is said to have set his throne on the shore and tried to turn back the incoming tide.

Legend says the whole thing was an act, planned by Canute to demonstrate a simple fact to his courtiers: some things are bigger and more powerful than kings, and can’t be stopped.

Modern IT departments have a lot in common with Canute. Until now, they have been the rulers of technology, firmly in control of the software and devices that run on their networks. They were seen as the masters of innovation.

Now, they’re facing a fast moving current that won’t be stopped. It's sweeping away the old, and ushering in new ways of working. Business users, from the postroom to the boardroom, are using IT on their own terms - and it’s creating a tide of innovation.

Take software development as an example. For over half a century, companies have been working to make software development easy for

people with no technical background in IT training. Over the decades it led to a category of software called rapid application development (RAD), designed to allow business users to create their own applications - without writing lengthy, complex lines of code.

Unfortunately, enabling business users to write their own code can make IT departments uncomfortable and a little territorial, says Peter Robbins, managing director of Probrand Group.

“It’s like turkeys at Christmas time,” he quips. “It isn’t that they’re deliberately obstructive. But we’re opening up their skills base to a lot more people, and they don’t like that,” Robbins says.

TIME FOR CHANGE Clive Longbottom, founder of IT advisory firm Quocirca, argues that it may be scary for IT departments but things are changing.

“Everything has to be presented to the business in terms of the three variables that they care about; how does the

change to technology affect the business’ overall costs, its overall risk and how does it add value to the business?” he says.

IT departments may have taken months to develop applications before, but in a new world where users can develop their own software without typing a line of code, that simply won’t fly.

To that end, the IT department must embrace faster ways of developing applications as they are not going away, Robbins says.

“It makes sense to adopt processes and platforms that give you the outcomes you need; something that can achieve the same results, but faster and cheaper.”

IT professionals can find themselves swept along by this business focus whether they like it or not, because it’s part of a broader cultural change.

In addition to developing their own applications internally, many business departments are also turning to thirdparty suppliers who deliver cloudbased applications from outside the organisation.

“It makes sense to adopt processes and platforms that give you the outcomes you need; something that can achieve the same results, but faster and cheaper.”

Probrand Magazine

09

Driving Innovation

Johnathan Mitchener describes another perceived threat: the onslaught of consumer devices. Business users want their own smartphones and tablets, on which to access these new, seductive applications.

Mitchener is the lead technologist at the Technology Strategy Board, a public body that works with businesses to develop best practices in technology innovation.

He has spent years studying technology futurism, and is highly tuned to emerging trends in this fast moving space.

The bottom line for IT departments? Don't fight it, says Mitchener.

“What you need is a realisation that very few companies could keep up with and roll out the innovation in devices, applications and software that individuals can now do as consumers in a corporate environment,” he says.

A STRATEGIC ROLE FOR IT Instead of trying to turn back the tide, IT can define a more strategic role for itself in the organisation, concentrating on finding new and innovative technologies that can contribute positively to the bottom line.

Antony Walker, managing director of techUK, says that IT’s interests must be completely aligned with those of the business. Formerly known as Intellect, techUK is a UK trade association for the technology industry.

“It’s moving from a world where the IT department is an enabler, to the point where IT is really helping to drive and shape the future of the business,” Walker says.

And yet some IT departments, inexperienced in coping with a change in company culture, may find it difficult to drive transformation when they feel as though they are losing control of key IT assets. Accepting this change as a positive thing, rather than a loss of control, is critical to the IT department’s success as companies recraft those relationships.

10

Probrand Magazine

It starts with the skills inside the IT department, points out Adam Thilthorpe, director of professionalism for BCS, the chartered institute for IT in the UK. Every technological advance creates a need for different and more diverse skills, and IT is no exception.

“Demand for IT skills today is based more on the ability to apply and exploit technology in the business than on pure technical implementation,” he says. He sees companies relying more on blended teams with different talents. “They are managing average workload/workforce levels in IT more closely, and leveraging external subject matter experts.”

“It’s moving from a world where the IT department is an enabler, to the point where IT is really helping to drive and shape the future of the business.”

Those subject matter experts can be long-standing non-technical members of staff, who understand the nuances of a business's process. To date, that information has been locked up inside their heads, and difficult to tap. But by giving them a hand in application development, the IT department can perform a valuable service to the rest of the organisation.

FACILITATORS OF INNOVATION What might that look like in practice?

Mitchener describes a scenario in which the IT department acts as a central clearing house – or even a marketplace – for innovation that springs directly from business departments. "It is not unusual now for some organisations to have their own app stores, and the business unit to contribute to that," he argues.

Developing applications is one thing but it still takes technical expertise to validate what has been written, and then distribute effectively to others around the organisation who might be able to benefit. IT could handle version control and updates, introduce standards for effective software development and enable different departments’ applications to work seamlessly with each other.

In addition to polishing and packaging technology from business units, there

Adam Thilthorpe,

Director of Professionalism for BCS

there is also an opportunity to identify internal applications that could be marketed externally to others in an industry, Mitchener says.

Developments like these can help make the relationship between IT and the business units less adversarial, and more cooperative, he adds. "I wouldn’t say it’s a support role; it's more a question of involvement, and partnership," says Mitchener. “The users develop what they want, and the IT department helps finish it off."

A WIN-WIN These more mature relationships work because instead of resenting each other and hogging their own territory, both sides get something out of the deal. It makes requirements analysis far easier. Capturing information about business processes in lengthy Word documents is a notoriously gruelling task for IT departments, who in many cases may not know which questions to ask.

Enabling non-technical staff well versed in the business process to design their own applications collapses the layers between the users and the developers.

In fact, as Robbins points out: “These products don’t need developers; they need implementers.”

It also benefits the business, by giving it more control, Robbins points out.

Traditionally, a business department may have to stand by as IT development costs spun out of control. By the time it realised that something was wrong, it may already have spent several months and significant financial resources on the project. Putting development in the hands of nontechnical users closer to the business side introduces more visibility.

"Because you're going back to people with developments swiftly, it speeds up the process, enabling you to control the costs more," he points out. "This lets you make judgement calls on projects early on, and that's crucial to businesses generally."

MEETING HALFWAY For all of this to work, IT departments must give up their own preconceptions about how technology is provided within a company. But business departments must also rethink the relationship in some cases, warns Longbottom.

“The business is still not including IT at the beginning of the business decision making process, which leads to technology being decided upon in a rush and so being suboptimal,” he says.

Over the past few years IT departments and business units have become wary of each other and it takes two to break down a wall. Involving IT early on in the discussion stage, rather than treating it as a potential barrier, could provide businesses with unique strategic insights into new projects.

Technology experts can advise on a variety of topics, from how datasets can be analysed to best determine target audiences for applications, through to how social networks could be used intelligently to drive an initial campaign and everything in between.

“The power of data is well understood among business leaders, but that doesn’t mean that other parts of the business will have that knowledge in how to make it a reality,” points out techUK’s Walker.

For that kind of relationship to develop, both sides need to be constructive, forward thinking - and willing to get their feet wet. Is your organisation up to the challenge?

Danny Bradbury is an award winning freelance technology journalist

“The business is still not including IT at the beginning of the business decision making process, which leads to technology being decided upon in a rush and so being suboptimal.”

Probrand Magazine

11

Driving Innovation

Discovery, alpha, beta, live: the government’s new digital look

F

rom this summer, people registering to vote or update their electoral register details have been able to do so online in just three minutes - thanks to a new national system.

The website, gov.uk/register-to-vote, now connects to every local authority’s electoral register and cross checks identities against the DWP’s national insurance database.

Greg Clark, junior Cabinet Office minister, said the introduction of this online registration will strike a blow against electoral fraud.

In its scale and ambition, however, the electoral registration project initially had all the hallmarks of a classic government IT disaster waiting to happen. It had to meet a national policy deadline (moving 46 million voters to individual registration), while cutting across tiers of government and pioneering new identity matching procedures. In the past, this would have been the cue for delays and overspending.

The system’s developers at the Government Digital Service say the success of the project is thanks to a new agile approach to development, which removed the inflexibility of previous ‘big bang’ government IT systems.

The online electoral registration is one of 25 projects pioneering a new approach for developers of ‘digital by default’ public services, as set out in the Government Service Design Manual. This approach is breaking down projects in to four phases, Discover, Alpha, Beta, Live (DABL).

Discovery involves finding out what users need, what to measure and what the constraints are.

Alpha is the stage of building a prototype and testing it with users.

by Michael Cross

Beta is scaling up and going public while retaining the ability for continuous improvement.

Live is where the system becomes available to all users.

This DABL approach is attracting a lot of attention. The big question, however, is whether it can be applied to the really large scale projects endemic to government – and especially to the UK government.

Chris Haynes, a veteran of e-government projects in local and central government, is cautiously optimistic. Although he warns of the dangers of ‘messianic zeal’, he says DABL offers a way out of a major problem with public sector IT – the lack of solid technical skills.

He said: “Over the past 15 years the government has denuded itself of IT skills and left itself vulnerable. A benefit of the DABL approach is to re-introduce expertise at a low level.

“New approaches allow for rapid application development, which compresses timeframes and risk. If you have the ability to prototype you’re 90% of the way to getting customer support.

“The prototype stage is also where to decide which tehnical platform the end system will use.”

He adds: “I’m 65% certain that the outcome will be really positive in the long run. You need to deal with the technical vacuum in government.”

Over the next year, as the remainder of the ‘digital by default’ projects work their way through the DABL stages, the new philosophy will be put to the test. With the UK still lagging in European e-government benchmarks, there is definite room for this improvement.

Michael Cross is a technology journalist, formerly with the Guardian and the Independent Probrand Magazine

13

Mobility

Law change forces firms to consider flexible working With the government extending the scope of who can ask to work from home or non 9-5 hours, Gary Flood asks how employers can best react to this change of law.

by Gary Flood

F

ollowing a change of law in July 2014, anyone who has been working for an employer for more than six months is now legally empowered to ask if they can work flexibly.

Employers might be used to this kind of request from staff who are either parents of young children or who have to care for others. But now the government has decided that everyone, even those with no dependents, can put a "flexibility request" on their manager’s desk at least once a year and employers will be expected to respond.

The extension of flexible working legislation has raised fears, in some quarters, that there will be a flood of requests that bosses will be hard-pressed to meet - especially within mid-range or smaller companies.

“When a member of staff asks for flexible working, the employer must consider the request in a reasonable manner.”

14

Probrand Magazine

Employers may be reassured to know that these changes provide no cast-iron guarantee that all requests will need to be accommodated. “Legally, employers have to consider the request but can reject it at any time on business grounds,” points out Tina Wisener, partner at London-based employment solicitors Doyle Clayton. But employers still need to tread carefully to ensure they are following the correct procedure around this, she adds.

“When a member of staff asks for flexible working, the employer must consider the request in a reasonable manner,” she warns. Employers must also consider the plea carefully - balancing the benefits for the employee and the business against any adverse impact for the business.

In reality, an employer can refuse a bid on a number of grounds, such as cost to the business or the impact on their ability to meet client demand, according to employment law expert Dan Peyton from law firm McGuireWoods.

So long as the request is turned down on reasonable grounds, employers should be OK. But if they do not, they need to be aware that they could face legal action on grounds which could include disability or indirect sex discrimination - among other possibilities. If it goes to tribunal, employers may also be liable to pay out thousands.

So while there is no gun being held to employers’ heads, they do need to tread carefully around this issue. Meanwhile, there is also the factor that in today’s interconnected world technological advances mean that, on paper at least, a staffer should be able to work wherever they want.

“Modern technology is likely to have the most impact on decisions on requests

Tina Wisener,

Dan Peyton,

Claire Blyth,

Doyle Clayton

McGuireWoods

Red Setter

to work from home, given the ease with which employees may now access work IT systems remotely,” notes Peyton. “It may be more difficult for an employer reasonably to assert that such a request contravenes one of the statutory grounds for refusal.”

Good Business Sense?

The reality is that employers need to be up to speed with what technology can do to support flexible working. After all, the whole idea of ‘telecommuting’ has been around for years, although, it’s only in the past few years - since the growth of the World Wide Web and 3 and now 4G Internet broadband - that it’s become more than a slogan.

Some mid-range companies do claim, however, that such advances mean that enabling flexible working is a doddle. One such is Red Setter, a Brighton-based business development consultancy. “To attract and retain the very best people, we offer significant flexibility,” says its director, Claire Blyth.

“We’ve never seen flexibility as something that needed to be imposed by regulation; for us, it is simple business sense if someone wants to come in 30 minutes

“We’ve never seen flexibility as something that needed to be imposed by regulation; for us, it is simple business sense.”

late so they can do the school run or work from home a couple of days a month because the trains are disrupted. In fact, our longest-serving member of staff now works from home full-time.”

To support such structures, Blyth says she and her fellow managers have had to ensure the right technology is set up to make it possible. But so positive has the experience been she says, “I would urge other SMEs to see flexible working as an opportunity to really engage and energise your workforce.”

So the bottom line seems to be that employers need to get ready for flexible working approaches, which could now come from anyone in the firm. Employers need to spend some time thinking about their response to these requests and what technology will effectively support such ways of working.

The price involved in enabling flexible working could well be worth it, however.

As Red Setter’s Blyth puts it, “Senior professionals are looking for a job which uses the skills and knowledge they have gained over many years in an industry they love - but which doesn’t require them to work 14 hour days, six days a week.

They want a job which fits around their lives.”

Gary Flood is a freelance technology journalist

Probrand Magazine

15

Mobility

rise rise The rise of mobile

A

s organisations look to enable flexible working and increased collaboration, the deployment of mobile technology has become a top priority in business. Companies have sought to gain these advantages as quickly as possible and in so doing have been allowing, and in many cases encouraging, employees to use their own mobile devices for work purposes.

Providing employees with access to corporate networks via mobile devices has not been without its challenges, however. Concerns around the increase in mobile cybercrime and the leaking of sensitive data, which can be stored on these devices, has led to security becoming a priority for businesses.

“Companies are realising that by enabling employees to work from a location of their choice using their preferred technology, they are taking one of the single most important steps in motivating business productivity” - Adriana Karaboutis, CIO of Dell

Flexible working

“Consumerisation of IT cannot be ignored.

Providing employees with a simple secure way to access the company network is a key factor which will enable employers to embrace mobile working and BYOD.” - Bob Tarzey, service director at industry analyst Quocirca

37

%

16

Probrand Magazine

of SMB employees were remote workers in 2013 - Symantec

BYOD

B

ring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an approach that allows employees and partners to utilise personally selected and purchased devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, for work purposes

of UK adults now use a personal smartphone, laptop or tablet for work purposes – YouGov

of companies are allowing, accommodating and encouraging the use of personally owned devices – Vanson Bourne

"What happens if you buy a device for an employee and they leave the job a month later? How are you going to settle up? Better to keep it simple. The employee owns the device, and the company helps to cover usage costs” - David Willis, vice president at Gartner

Mobile security

Enabling mobile “Virtualisation bridges the gap between the network and BYOD by allowing users to connect from anywhere, on any device. Furthermore, BYOD highlights the things that thin clients and virtualisation do best, like securing corporate and customer data.”

“Companies need to wake up and realise they’re facing a massive security issue and risk having their intellectual property walk out of the door with people.”

- Alastair Mitchell, CEO of Huddle

84% of tablets and smart phones connecting to company networks are insecure - Ponemon

9 in 10 38% UK office workers are storing, sharing and accessing corporate data on personal devices

of mobile users have experienced mobile cybercrime in past 12 months

- Ipsos MORI

- Norton

- Tom Flynn, HP chief technologist

70%

of firms hit with security issues implemented encryption solutions, such as virtual private networks, to protect information in transit - Ponemon

75%

of firms hit by a security breach introduced endpoint security, such as two step authentication, to provide protection when devices access networks remotely - Ponemon

80%

of large corporations have implemented VDi due to BYOD - Decisive Anlaytics Probrand Magazine

17

Let’s face it…

We’ve all got better things to do.

How about saving time and money buying IT? Introducing...

Europe’s largest specialist B2B marketplace online 150,000 products from 2,500 brands Hourly updated with best price and stock availability Save up to a day a week in time.

Save an average 10% on ICT budgets.

Start buying direct today www.theitindex.co.uk

FREE login

[4241/THEITINDEX-HOSPITAL/20140723]

Your personalised procurement experience. Efficient self-service tools match complex needs to choices exactly. Access personalised catalogues, special bids and promotions direct from manufacturers.

Buy direct, no re-direct to 3rd party websites.

Supply Chain

by Oscar Diamond

Following the IT product market trends 2014 Oscar Diamond of leading market research company GfK takes a look at the IT product market to highlight current trends and forecast where things are likely to go next.

Where IT growth will come from in 2014

T

he overall IT product market is expected to grow slowly - by around 1% each quarter during 2014 - as the tablet market levels out and growth comes from the emerging areas in desktop computing, storage and networking.

Tablets The tablet market declined in value (-5.4%) in the first quarter of 2014, even though the volume of sales increased 4% year on year. This was the first decline on record for tablets and signified that the market is now maturing.

The decline has been brought about primarily by a swing towards smaller and cheaper 7inch devices. This market’s ongoing transformation is likely to see a further drop in the average selling price.

The B2B market (10% of sales in Q1 2014) is, however, expected to remain static for the rest of the year. The joint issues of security, productivity and the fact that working on tablets is a large step change for workers will prevent B2B sales from taking off as retail sales have done.

increases. B2B desktop sales, however, remained flat in Q1.

Storage The falling price of hard drives combined with a slow uptake of higher capacity products and increased competition from cloud storage has left the storage market struggling this year. The market is down 9.3% in value, despite being up 1% in volume.

Growth can, however, be found in the SSD market (up 42.4% in value in Q1).

With the price of higher capacity SSD drives falling and the install base still far away from saturation, we can expect to see growth continue at between 30% and 40% in Q3 and Q4.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) also saw volume growth of 27.1% and value

growth of 6.5% in Q1. We would expect strong volume growth for this sector to continue but with muted value growth as prices fall.

Networking The theme of networking is now more about the widening of access rather than increasing network speed. In B2B enterprise, switches and switch modules are driving growth. In retail, growth is coming from powerlines and repeaters.

Traditional routers, however, continue to struggle due to a very slow adoption of the new WiFi standard, AC, which has not been helped by a lack of support from leading consumer devices.

The market, which has been improving steadily for the last four quarters, experienced value growth of 5.6% in Q1 2014.

Desktops The traditional desktop market is experiencing a renaissance in 2014, due to the popularity of consumer focused products. Retail sales were up 10.8% in volume and 20.9% in value in Q1.

The growth is occurring in high end tower computers and all-in-one devices. This uptick in demand is being driven by PC gaming and is expected to continue as the system requirements for new games

Probrand Magazine

19

Supply Chain

Knowledge is

POWER when buying IT

Technology journalist Michael Cross looks at how organisations are gaining competitive advantage by examining supply chain information.

I

by Michael Cross

f you read Government reports on recent public sector spending it gives the impression things are finally being brought under control. The Cabinet Office has released a barrage of figures claiming ‘unprecedented’ savings in everything from better management of commercial relationships (£1.8bn over four years) to closing unnecessary websites (£60m last year alone). But has the UK public sector really got to grips with its IT spending?

routinely paying above the best practice industry margin of 3%, as defined by the Society of IT Management (Socitm).

The evidence suggests not. Some public sector organisations have been shown to be falling short by not negotiating the best possible deals with their suppliers. Benchmarking research, carried out by KnowledgeBus, found some organisations have paid nearly seven times the recommended margin for products supplied under contracts.

Such overpayments make it harder to demonstrate returns on investment in IT projects. And with public spending under ever-growing scrutiny, these purchases have the potential to cause severe political embarrassment.

Yet many, if not all, of these overpayments are avoidable if organisations have a clear view of the stock and price levels in the market. Any organisation without visibility in these areas is negotiating deals with a clear disadvantage – especially when a fifth of products in the UK IT market can change price overnight.

It is not just the public sector struggling with the margins being paid to suppliers. The study, which included 200 procurement/ ICT managers (with annual budgets over £50,000), found most UK organisations are

20

Probrand Magazine

In fact, the public sector did on average perform better than a number of other sectors, such as banking (39% average margin). There were, however, some alarming exceptions. One NHS organisation paid an astonishing 673% margin, while a university paid 426% and a local authority 327%.

There is a whole plethora of factors impacting on those price levels, such as currency fluctuations, raw materials shortages and even natural disasters.

For example, when an earthquake and tsunami hit northern Japan in March 2011, the price of hard disk drives quadrupled. The introduction of around 300 new products into the IT market each day is also impacting the price of their predecessors on a constant basis.

Managers are beginning to overcome these complications, however, by taking advantage of a new generation of benchmarking software that is providing transparency around the price and stock levels in the market.

South Staffordshire College, a further education college spread over four sites, is one organisation which has been demonstrating the potential of this technology. With an annual turnover of £30 million, more than 20,000 students and 850 staff, it sees itself as a pacesetter in a highly competitive environment.

Jamie Smith, director for strategy and infrastructure, said: “The chief executive wants us to be in the vanguard of development across all areas - the learner experience, the campus buildings and this also includes procurement.”

In the current spending climate, this is a tall order. “If you want to be this progressive when budgets are contracting you need to be innovative as there is pressure to deliver the best possible return on every pound,” says Smith.

To achieve this return with its IT spending, South Staffordshire deployed benchmarking tool KnowledgeBus and the information delivered an immediate payback, Smith says. “With the information provided, we have been able to negotiate supplier margins down from an average of 30.9% to less than the best practice 3%.

“For example, we recently required seven laptops, which would cost about £900 each from major suppliers. We bought them for £420 each and made a saving of almost £2,000 on that purchase alone.”

He added: “This has translated into more or better IT for an improved learning environment.”

Another organisation taking advantage of benchmarking to achieve big savings is the Home Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of social housing. The social enterprise and charity has a turnover of more than £300 million and works with more than 200 local authorities nationally to house some 120,000 people a year.

Although Home Group was able to negotiate low margins on its main framework supplies contracts, it has previously had difficulty getting value for money from ad-hoc purchases. These were costing on average 21% more – and up to 350% more for individual purchases, says Laura Davidson, IS supplier relationship manager. “This had to change.”

By deploying KnowledgeBus, the procurement team has been able to get a grip of this situation. Davidson said: “We unearthed supplier sales tactics such as inflating margins for high volume, low value consumables whilst appearing to provide competitive pricing on low volume, high value equipment.

For example, we found mark-ups of approximately 60% on laptop bags but minimal mark-ups on laptops.

“On smaller items, we have seen suppliers asking for mark-ups in excess of 100%.

This was something we had not have realised previously.”

Home Group has now capped commercial agreements with suppliers limiting the mark-ups possible. This is all policed using benchmarking software.

Davidson claims this approach has paid rapid dividends. “Our cost avoidance figures show that Home Group saved £50,000 over six months as a result and we are likely to save more than £80,000 over the course of the year.”

The benefits of price visibility do not just rest with an ability to beat resellers down on price, however. The insights delivered by benchmarking also allow organisations to spot seasonal price changes.

By observing these trends South Staffordshire has developed a procurement strategy which has seen it buying products at specific times in the year to deliver cost savings.

Smith added: “Powerful big data functionality allows us to view historical stock and pricing levels to spot and analyse trends. We have set alerts to provide early warnings on any fluctuations, which can be dramatic.

These insights have led us to both delay and bring forward purchases.”

When buyers are able to identify the potential for these kinds of savings from supply chain information, it appears knowledge really is power.

Probrand Magazine

21

Supply Chain

IT product margins: the avoidable cost to business

W

ith prices so volatile, IT managers and procurement professionals face a huge challenge trying to achieve best value when purchasing IT equipment.

If prices never altered it would be easy to keep track of what a fair price should be and negotiate with resellers accordingly.

In reality, a whole host of factors affect the supply and demand for products which impacts the price on a daily basis.

Without knowing the current trade price, however, it is difficult for IT buyers to know the mark-ups being achieved by resellers – and they can be substantial.

Mercato’s recent IT Product Margins study found that UK organisations were routinely paying above the best practice industry margin of 3%, as defined by the Society of IT Managers. In one incident an organisation within the NHS was found to have paid an astounding margin of 673% on a single purchase.

While the results showed that some sectors have reduced the average margins paid over the previous 12 months - councils saw an average of 29% drop to 11% last year – other sectors are

22

Probrand Magazine

getting worse. Banks were shown to have paid average margins of 39% in 2013, compared to 19% in 2012.

Al Nagar, Mercato head of benchmarking, said: “Organisations are overspending on their IT and this is hitting bottom lines at a time when many are fighting to become more efficient. Negotiating the best price on every purchase is a necessity but a volatile market makes this difficult. At the core of this issue is that buyers rarely manage to find and use validated trade prices as a ‘bartering’ tool with suppliers.

“IT suppliers capitalise on the fact that most organisations can’t keep track of supply chain stock levels, new product launches or seasonal trends that contribute to changing prices. For genuine best value, buyers need to police and benchmark purchases.”

Just one fifth aware of price volatility

L

ess than a fifth of UK buyers are aware of the level of price volatility in the IT market, a study has found.

The research, based on over 150,000 items, found as much as a fifth of products can change price within a 24 hour period – some by as much as 67%.

The study also revealed that over the course of a quarter just 16% of products maintained their value.

If buyers have agreements stipulating the margins suppliers can charge on top of the channel price, then understanding this price volatility is crucial. A study with 1,000 IT purchasing managers by Mercato Solutions has revealed, however, that 81% were unaware of the scale and frequency of these price changes.

In total there were nearly one million individual price changes throughout the quarter under review. Analysis of one single model of Voice over IP phone showed it changed price 50 times in this three month period.

Price changes were also discovered to be going both up and down. The study identified one entry level storage solution which experienced a drop at the start of month one and an increase of £3,000 at the end of the second month.

The highest variance saw a product price increase by 66.7% and the greatest price drop was 28.6%. On larger items these changes can have a significant impact on cost. When a Quantum storage product’s price went down by 5%, the cost dropped by over £20,000.

Knowing the supply chain

U

nderstanding the supply chain and knowing what vendors are likely to do next can be a big advantage when buying new IT products.

before they can get to work. This all takes time and once built it can still take 8-10 weeks to ship to Europe if transported by boat.

When you take a look at the current computing device market, with Microsoft’s new operating system and touch screens, it is hugely unstable – there is a huge variety of notebooks, tablets and ultrabooks to consider. In these circumstances it can be helpful to know that vendors plan their product line-up about a year ahead of its arrival with resellers. With the right insight, therefore, it’s possible to predict what is coming next.

By having knowledge of where vendors are going, you’ll know what stock is likely to be about months ahead. It may also be that certain products may only be around for 3 to 6 months. At times suppliers will build one batch at a low price to affect the market and when that stock is gone it’s gone. If buyers want consistency of image or continuity of specification they need to look at established products, normally the business or corporate ranges.

Al Nagar, Mercato Head of Benchmarking

There were nearly one million individual price changes throughout the quarter Al Nagar, head of benchmarking at Mercato Solutions, said: “Benchmarking applications can help buyers beat the system by tracking thousands of products every day as well as monitoring historical trends and alerting IT buyers of exactly the right time to buy.”

by Gary Price, Product and Category Manager with Probrand Group

Many people these days will use Google to do their own research but talking to someone who can explain where the vendor is going with its products, and its proposition, can be a big advantage.

Impartial advice can also be crucial in ensuring you get the right product, which is fit for purpose, and that you are not press ganged into buying products which companies are simply trying to shift because they have a load of stock filing up the warehouse.

If you consider the development of a notebook, there are many things a vendor needs to consider before manufacture.

They will need to do their research into what customers require and what level of demand there is likely to be for each product. They will also have to take on board what Microsoft and Intel are doing and negotiate with component suppliers Probrand Magazine

23

Business Transformation

By Rob Bamforth,

the steps to business

S

External specialists might be engaged, but the appetite for change must come from within. To be credible, real business transformation must enable a tangible, non-incremental jump in business capabilities, so that an entire operation is working smarter - stretching imaginations, not resources.

THE STEPS TO DELIVERING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION:

Leadership Nothing will reach a successful conclusion without focus, clarity and the conviction that change is not only necessary, but worth doing right.

There must be authority, but this alone is not sufficient, nor is the cloak of management. Successfully transforming part of a business requires management commitment, dedication and drive.

Business process Existing ones need to be well understood and those post transformation must be properly codified and structured to match the identified business needs and not depend on historical legacy. Silos

Probrand Magazine

at Quocirca

Transformation

ome might think business transformation involves handing a seemingly unending flow of budget resources to a burgeoning team of external consultants for nebulous results, and past experience of business process engineering specialists might justify this thinking, but it isn’t necessarily right.

24

Principal Analyst

based on departmental fiefdoms or past IT solutions should not determine the direction or the outcome.

Business alignment It is critical that all resources committed to business transformation are aligned with business needs. Change for its own sake is not the intention. Requirements should be based on business strategy and goals, with an iterative path towards completion.

Resources need to be committed to initiate and implement each stage, then repeated until the desired final outcome is achieved.

Strategic IT Many short term ‘quick fix’ IT investments that will cause greater headaches and expense over time. The effective time window of short term fixes rapidly closes as most companies find their legacy IT riddled with complexity and interdependencies. Business transformation requires architecting for flexibility with an efficient and virtualised core that is capable of handling an increasingly diverse and mobile range of devices at the edge.

Vision, not hype Innovative technologies can support business transformation, but they must be evaluated on impact to the business and not market ‘buzz’. A pertinent example is ‘big data’. It might seem a great idea to capture anything and everything, but strategies are better set on business

goals not storage capacities - good, relevant and rapidly applicable data will be more useful than accumulating terabytes of junk.

Demonstrable success Clear assessment of worthwhile return at the end of a transformation cycle is vital, but should always be in meaningful and measurable terms. For some this will be explicitly financial, but consequential impact can create broader and synergistic values to the organisation. These must still be measured and evaluated, but against a template of business impact, which can then be traced back to IT decisions, so as to demonstrate the business value of action taken.

Finally it is important to remember that not all aspects of business transformation will occur at the same rate. While strategies can be readily defined and systems rapidly implemented, other aspects of change can be much slower. People, organisational culture and working practices take time, support and effort to adapt to radically different processes.

The commitment to initiate change needs to be matched with a commitment to follow through, and to recognise that it will be required again. It might seem trite to say that ‘the only constant is change’, but it is true. However, it is always better to be initiating, rather than reacting to, change.

Quocirca carries out research and analysis on behalf of IT decision makers across Europe

Business processes still holding you back?

Insanity.

Do something different today!

KnowledgeKube.

Automate business processes fast.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

Drive efficiency. Transform productivity.

The Business Perspective “It couldn’t be simpler, unprecedented ROI, low TCO and results in days.

We created line of business applications that automated processes quicker and at less cost. We’ve connected and extended existing systems and data too.”

The IT Perspective

Learn More 0121 605 2050 www.knowledgekube.co.uk

“Our resources are scarce. We’ve been able to let the business innovate and deliver whilst retaining control and governance.

It’s relieved the pressure on our development teams and when needed, we simply design, build and deploy applications rapidly, freeing time to focus on the things we really need to.”

follow us

@KnowledgeKube 4264/11072014/NH

Business Transformation

Insurers need to be careful how they innovate

T

he insurance sector is often portrayed as a somewhat conservative and traditional industry - operating with long established business practices and processes.

However, as time moves on, new business models emerge and legacy processes become inefficient.

Research released by analyst firm Quocirca, in conjunction with insurance trading platform KnowledgeKube, revealed that insurance firms are on average wasting up to 3,000 man hours per annum due to inflexible systems and processes.

The inflexibility of these processes is also preventing insurers from taking full advantage of new digital sales channels, stifling revenue growth. Software that

enables users to quickly and easily perform the tasks they require without the need for abundant technical support will undoubtedly unlock substantial returns in this sector.

Without decent IT guidance, however, different lines of business will often opt for IT software that fits the needs of the moment. As a result, different departments can become locked into disparate systems that continue to reinforce poor processes.

It is important to involve the internal IT departments in order that resources can be pooled for the benefit of the organisations as a whole. New technology should sit among and be connected to legacy systems, to help move business processes forward. This is protecting

by Steve Vallis

those relevant legacy investments and complementing them with new efficient processes.

Organisations should seek to progress with updated business processes and flexible IT systems aligned. This requires good communication and understanding between IT and internal departments, or external suppliers. A pooled and considered approach to the legacy issue can optimise aging but solid processes and drive new processes that lead to an overall competitive advantage.

The key is to establish ways of empowering the business to take control and ownership of transformation.

Steve Vallis is a Business Systems Consultant with Mercato Solutions

Digital innovation helps Godiva compete with bigger players Case study

D

eploying new digital solutions has enabled insurance broker Godiva to grow in a market dominated by larger competitors.

The Coventry-based firm had been looking to grow its landlord business but, with margins tight, it recognised its business processes had to become far more efficient in order to expand. The manual nature of its existing systems were slow and restricting scalability.

“Looking at the costs from cradle to grave against the margins available, we realised we were not able to do the volume required to make it pay. We had to fundamentally change our model to

26

Probrand Magazine

stay in the market,” said Barrie Roberts, Godiva’s commercial operations manager.

business with a more customer-centric approach,” said Roberts.

To enact those changes, Godiva decided it needed to automate processes where possible and use a software platform to develop an online insurance product which the customer could self-manage.

“The new online system has also allowed us to unlock new business channels and work with a large affinity partner to offer our products online to almost 6,000 developers and lettings agents.

Its new automated online system has allowed the firm to compete at the smaller, high volume, end of the market - previously it had only targeted larger commercial clients. Being online also allowed Godiva to pursue new digital sales channels.

“The business has been able to diversify thanks to the ability to quickly test new markets and products. It has also removed the risk previously associated with this process and we recently began automatically cross-selling additional and more complex products online like buildings insurance. Put simply, this low cost operational model has stepped our business up a level. This is proving fruitful.”

“Landlords often prefer self-service out of normal business hours and, with our own branded trading website, we are driving

Getting big value from

BIG data

by Peter Robbins

Big Data holds huge potential for innovative businesses but extracting value requires business transformation to go alongside technology.

Peter Robbins explains how organisations can realise this potential.

G

aining value from Big Data rests on how organisations extract meaningful insights from an ever-increasing amount of information.

Although businesses are amassing huge data sets, it is often unstructured and underutilised. It is not unusual to see databases managed by separate departments in unconnected silos, offering little value to other areas of the enterprise. A well planned Big Data project will, however, complete the data jigsaw. It will enable the organisation to drive improvements and efficiency across the business.

Getting your data in order is a key project priority but working out how employees are going to access, interpret and use this information in their daily processes should also be a major consideration.

This requires businesses to enact business transformation alongside technological solutions.

Fail to plan, plan to fail With any Big Data project, it’s critical to have clear and defined objectives at the outset. As many industry reports show projects often fail to deliver as the outcomes aren’t properly debated, agreed upon, or even properly written down before commencing work. The targeted outcomes must pass the SMART test - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-based and with a Timeframe. We have to go further than to simply hope for more effective data use.

Bridging the gap It’s not simply about how an organisation gets more from the information that resides within existing systems. It’s about how best to locate, integrate and push that data to where people need to use it. Only when you’ve got a complete picture can you truly extract measurable value that can improve processes and productivity.

The approach should aim to overcome the huge disconnect between isolated data islands and create a model that can join up, normalise and share data between all enterprise systems - ERP, CRM, SRM, HR and the spreadsheets generated and shared within various teams. This is the bridge between storing and handling data and actually extracting actionable value from within it.

Simplify, simplify, simplify We are all aware of organisations looking to source a “Big Data Solution”, implying it’s a quick win and out of a box. That’s simplistic. Big Data challenges often span multiple locations, departments and roles. In order to maintain high levels of productivity, organisations require large scale data management and simple online tools to guide colleagues to the value.

A successful approach will provide a well contained, structured, data-friendly eco-system and new ways of working.

For example, automating how data is captured, used and shared within an organisation will reduce unnecessary or repetitive human intervention and, with that, the potential for errors and omissions.

Employee engagement A Big Data strategy isn’t just about utilising a bigger volume of data more effectively - it’s about the impact on daily tasks, routines and workflow. With this in mind, change management is a top priority for any organisation to consider within their project planning.

Keeping people informed about the project and its likely impact is an important element of delivering success.

If the project is correctly planned from the outset, colleagues can feel empowered to contribute their own insights. A truly successful Big Data project is one that transforms an organisation positively and, through more effective data management at the back end, helps employees to do a better job.

Peter Robbins is Managing Director of Probrand Group

What tangible value will these new insights actually bring? Will it automate previously laborious procedures and release resources? Can we provide better services by unifying data and then using it to drive automated business processes?

Probrand Magazine

27

Security

Businesses of all sizes are targets for cyber attack

T

he modern world is now heavily reliant on the Internet.

Websites and social media have become vital channels of communication allowing companies to interact and sell to customers. Online business now contributes 6% of UK GDP.

As the significance of the Internet has grown, however, so has the incentives for cyber criminals. The scale of the threat is now enormous and at the highest level organised gangs, and even nation states, are targeting some of the world’s biggest firms.

Businesses are also providing employees and partners with online access to their systems, and facilitating flexible working through cloud computing.

However, with sophisticated cybercriminal tool kits now available for just a few thousand pounds, businesses of all sizes are vulnerable to attack.

1

Sophisticated malware and exploit kits are widely available to cyber criminals for as little as £3,000

5

– UK Government

of the FTSE 100 have been compromised by cyber attacks - UK Government

“The extent of what is going on is astonishing – with industrial-scale processes involving many thousands of people lying behind both state sponsored cyber espionage and organised cybercrime.”

- Jonathan Evans, Director-General of MI5

“Organisations must have a plan for dealing with infections and data breaches; they can’t just say this is an issue that doesn’t affect me. Any company that stores data is a potential target.”

“For too long the public's perception of cybercrime has been a lone bedroom hacker stealing money from a bank account.

But the reality is that cyber criminals are organised and global, with a new breed of criminals selling 'offthe-shelf' software to aid gangs in exploiting the public.”

- Idan Aharoni, Head of Cyber Intelligence at RSA

- James Brokenshire, Minster for Crime and Security

Intellectual property theft and industrial espionage costs UK businesses

£16.8 billion a year

– Home Office

“It is becoming easier to participate in cybercrime. The challenge is immense, and it is growing rapidly. For any company the impact of being targeted in a cyber attack could be catastrophic, whether for your intellectual property, reputation or future.”

- William Hague, Foreign Secretary

More than a third of global attacks are aimed at small businesses - Symantec

Probrand Magazine

29

Security

Firewall Survey

by Paul Maher

I

t is a depressing fact that cyber criminality continues to become more sophisticated, and no one is safe from attack.

Big or small we are all vulnerable. Even the biggest technology firms such as Microsoft, Apple and Facebook, who you would think could adequately defend themselves, have admitted to breaches.

From a financial and reputational perspective, the consequences of these attacks can be huge. In one of the largest global incidents to date, US retail giant Target saw the personal and financial details of up to 110 million customers compromised.

As more and more high profile incidents like this have hit the headlines, there has been a dawning realisation within organisations, of all sizes, that they need to take cyber security seriously. And the evidence shows that businesses are starting to do that.

The Icomm Technologies Survey, conducted with more than 400 IT executives in small to medium businesses (SMBs) in the UK, has revealed that more than a third (37%) of firms have updated their firewall protection within the last 18 months and more than half (56%) within the last 30 months.

Companies have been advised to update their firewalls as the increasing complexity of cyber attacks has meant solutions are now required to do much more than

30

Probrand Magazine

simply check where traffic is coming from and going to. Over the past five years security firms have been rolling out ‘next generation’ firewalls which can provide a more thorough level of protection.

to con and trick their way around these traditional solutions. They will also attempt to smuggle malware through firewalls by burying it within encrypted traffic which appears on the surface to be safe.

“What is needed is a deep package inspection and that is what a next generation firewall provides - it digs further down to check for a virus or an intrusion,” said Mark Lomas, IT consultant at Icomm Technologies.

“Today, up to 35% of enterprise traffic is secured using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. Cybercriminals know this, and they have begun to use SSL to hide their attacks. Organisations which are still relying on legacy firewall with no or limited SSL Inspection capabilities can be compromised” said Florian Malecki, International Product Marketing Director at Dell.

“If you have not refreshed your firewall

1/8

companies have never tested their firewall

within the last three to five years the chances are that you are using a legacy firewall which is no longer fit for purpose.”

The Study revealed, however, that almost one in six (17%) organisations have not, or were unsure whether they have, updated their firewall in the last five years – which is leaving them vulnerable to modern attack methods.

The danger lies in the fact that cybercriminals have now found ways

“These Icomm Technologies Survey results suggests that message is finally starting to get through. The problem is there are still many businesses, especially SMBs, which think they are not being targeted and don’t believe they need to update, when that is not true.”

Research, by Symantec, has shown that 30% of all global cyber attacks are actually aimed at small businesses, where defences are perceived to be weaker.

Cybercriminals will also target SMBs in ‘stepping stone’ attacks as they seek to target larger organisations.“Large companies can work with many SMBs, and they may be given some admin rights. Criminals will look to exploit those rights and attack the smaller businesses where defences might not be as tight,” explains Malecki.

32% have no plans to, or claim they will never, update their firewall TESTING It is one thing having a next generation firewall but it is another thing checking the solution that has been deployed is actually doing its job. It is recommended that companies check their firewall with penetration testing at least once a year on average. For companies with sensitive information or customer’s personal or financial details, this might take place quarterly.

The Icomm Technologies Survey found, however, nearly one in every eight companies (12%) have never tested their firewall to check that it is working properly.

“I’m actually pleasantly pleased that that figure is not higher,” said Malecki. “A lot of people seem to think because they have a firewall they are fully protected when they might not have the right policies in place. Penetration testing is important to ensure everything is working as it should.”

He also adds: “As Verizon’s recent Data Breach survey has shown, when a business is compromised it can be a long time before that is discovered and quite often it is the third parties doing these penetration tests that are the ones who are finding these breaches.”

REFRESH When it comes to refreshing a firewall solution, companies are also advised to do so every three to five years, as they would their servers. This is not just about evolving threats but also about performance. If a company grows in size, organisations need to be sure their

solution can handle the increase in traffic, and a bottleneck is not created.

The Icomm Technologies Survey revealed almost half of firms (48%) have plans to carry out this refresh within the next five years. Although, almost a third (32%) admitted they either don’t have any plans or claim they will never update their firewall.

One respondent also said they will only update once their current solution has broken. “It would be interesting to know when someone thinks their firewall is broken, as it’s not a case of checking whether the lights are on,” said Lomas.

“If you have a traditional firewall it will not be protecting you in the same way it was when you bought it, so in my eyes it is already broken.”

By not deploying the latest technology, companies will also forego additional benefits, such as the granular controls provided by next generation firewalls.

In an era of cloud computing, next generation firewalls are now ensuring that productivity is not impacted by overwhelming demands on Internet bandwidth.

These granular controls will, for example, allow the marketing department to promote the business on websites such as Facebook and YouTube but can at the same time prevent online gaming or excessive video streaming on these platforms.

Malecki explains: “If an England football game is on, some companies will be happy to let their staff stream this but it

One sixth

of organisations have not, or are unsure if they have, updated their firewall over the last five years

could affect bandwidth and prevent access to essential cloud applications such as Salesforce.com or other CRM systems.

Next generation firewall will, however, allow you to reserve a percentage of the bandwidth for certain applications to ensure the business remains productive.”

Paul Maher is a freelance technology journalist

Probrand Magazine

31

Outstanding Integrator of the Year

Security

Legacy firewalls increase the risk of ransomware Case Study

B

usinesses with legacy firewalls are leaving themselves vulnerable to ‘ransomware’ attacks by not refreshing their solutions.

Security experts, such as McAfee, have highlighted a big uptick in this type of cyber-attack, which sees criminals hack organisations, encrypt sensitive data and hold it to ransom.

Successful attacks often result in the perpetrator attempting to extort money for the money. Icomm Technologies was privy to one such attack in which the hacker pledged to expose sensitive information to a company’s entire email

contact book unless £500 was paid into their bank account.

A word document file left on the business owner’s computer read ‘You have been hacked’. Inside were details of the criminal’s demands and the consequences of what would happen if payment was not made.

for payment,” said Icomm Technologies Technical Manager, Mark Allbutt.

The menacing message read: “I do not require to do much more work on my part to ruin you.” The hacker even left a reference number to be quoted for payment purposes.

“The client was vulnerable as they had been using a legacy firewall that does not interrogate traffic and application use. We had made them aware of the risks, but from their perspective it had been a case of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’.

“I have heard of hackers doing this before but I’ve never seen anything so brazen or cheeky as to quote a reference number

“Unfortunately the older a firewall gets the more vulnerable it becomes and the hackers are getting cleverer.”

Securing access to the cloud an imperative

by Ian Callens

As demand for cloud services continues to surge, Ian Callens looks at how firms can enable these solutions without exposing the business to risk.

W

ith organisations able to access new technology and flexible working solutions easily through the Cloud, interest in this delivery model continues to grow. This appeal will see demand for cloud services increase by 25% this year, according to research by IDC. Given the online nature of the Cloud, however, companies need to take steps to ensure they always have easy access to their applications and solutions, and that their access is secure.

Modern firewalls As applications are being accessed over the Internet, there is a need to deploy firewalls which go beyond simple security and also monitor traffic and bandwidth.

The modern firewall, therefore, needs to allow traffic controls to be set at a granular level.

For example, policies can be put in place to give additional bandwidth to one type of application over another when necessary. If enough user sessions of a preferred type, such as remote desktop services, come on-stream your firewall policy can throttle other applications, such as video, to ensure business-centric applications have enough throughput.

web enabled device. The two factor authentication provides more secure access via the end user device by making use of two separate channels, for example a desktop computer and a mobile phone.

Data encryption and fail-over

When accessing applications remotely over the Internet, another effective security solution is to deploy a secure sockets layer virtual private network (SSL VPN), especially when coupled with ‘token-less’ two factor authentication.

Best practice would also include encryption from source. IT administrators should be issued with a personally defined encryption key before data is sent to the cloud. Business continuity best practices would also require cloud data to be backed up to a co-location for added fail-over and protection from any form of disaster.

SSL VPN gives remote users secure access to client server applications and internal network connections using any

Ian Callens is Sales Manager at Icomm Technologies

Strong authenticated access

Probrand Magazine

33

Cloud

The cloud helps coffee republic prepare for growth Case study

B

everage chain Coffee Republic has prepared for future growth by embracing cloud solutions.

During a recent refresh to its ICT infrastructure, the London-based coffee company decided to consolidate its physical estate in order to reduce costs.

It also took the decision, however, to increase IT security and improve business continuity capabilities by deploying cloud backup.

Mark Roughton, IS manager at Coffee Republic, said: “We had an aging infrastructure that offered little resilience or fail-over. This was coupled with unreliable access to our core data centre. It was not a platform for growth.”

After virtualising 60% of its server estate, within its London data centre,

the organisation was able to provide fail-over for its Exchange, SQL database and EPOS System data via replication at hosted data centres in Manchester and Birmingham, using the cloud service approach.

Roughton added: “An integrated cloud and on-premise solution offers an environment primed for performance, agility and high availability. It is a cost effective way of protecting the business and improving the quality of service our IT system delivers.

“Long term this approach will save us money in both operational overheads and capital expenditure. The secure and robust cloud backup solution itself means we now have a backup and recovery procedure without the added cost.

“This development breaks the traditional mould for us and furnishes the business with the most efficient and future-proofed IT platform for us to go forward.”

Coffee Republic also improved availability and secure access to its data centre by deploying next generation Sonicwall firewall.

An integrated cloud and on-premise solution offers an environment primed for performance, agility and high availability

Firms risk legal action by not protecting cloud data

U

K businesses are being urged to carry out due diligence on their cloud storage and backup providers to avoid falling foul of data protection regulations.

With the threat of cybercrime and cyber espionage escalating it is important customers question potential providers and know exactly where customer or employee data is being physically kept.

Not doing so could put an organisation at risk of breaching the Data Protection Act 1998. The law specifically states that companies need to keep information secure and ensure data is not transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area unless it is adequately protected.

34

Probrand Magazine

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has shown it is also prepared to fine any organisation not taking data security seriously. It issued fines totalling £2.6m for data security breaches last year, this included a £250,000 against Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Cloud service providers provide viable and economical solutions to the challenge posed by huge data growth and can provide a second data storage site to enable disaster recovery. However, few cloud providers openly state the country, general locality and legal jurisdiction which cover the data being stored.

It may suit them to store data in countries where costs are lower but a report by the

Business Software Alliance (BSA) claims regulatory governance is not consistent and many countries compare poorly to the UK. For example, the BSA’s Global Cloud Computing scorecard ranks the major growth economy of Brazil particularly badly. It places the UK sixth in the world on 76.6% for protection against cybercrime, while Brazil scored just 35.1%.

Research firm IDC has also urged businesses to carry out thorough background checks when choosing a cloud provider, after it claimed that 30% of suppliers active in the cloud market are likely to be out of business by 2015.

Cloud, on-premise or hybrid?

With cloud service usage expected to grow rapidly during 2014, Mark Lomas examines the pros and cons of going off premise.

W

hen businesses weigh up the Cloud they will consider two main factors - cost and management.

Some will want complete control over their data and to own their infrastructure.

If this is the case they will face an upfront expense for the cost of the equipment, the software licensing and the resources required to house all of the servers running their applications.

They will also need to look at refreshing their technology every three to five years.

On top of this, they will need to bring in an IT team or have a support service in place to maintain the servers.

The Cloud approach is more of a rental model, without the big upfront cost for equipment or software licenses. If applications and servers are hosted in the Cloud, it will be the service provider who also has the responsibility for monitoring, maintaining and refreshing the technology.

Businesses just take out an agreement and start paying for a certain number of services on a monthly basis.

Which model is the most cost effective will vary from business to business - it is important to look at the return on investment in each scenario. Before any decision in regards to cloud services, however, there are a number of other factors which need to be taken into account.

Factors to consider Firstly, where is your data going to be stored and how will it be protected?

Secondly, what sort of financially backed guarantee are they offering you in the

by Mark Lomas

event of any down time? Some providers will simply give you free credit in the event that they have a problem, whereas other providers will put their money where their mouth is and give a refund if they have a problem. In this respect, it is important to examine the service level agreement and look at the guaranteed up time.

Finally it’s a good idea to double check what back up and disaster recovery arrangements are in place and whether data is likely to be moved. Some providers might store data in the UK on day one but six months down the line you might find hosting has moved to a different location - in some cases without your knowledge.

Hybrid approach In certain circumstances an organisation may decide cloud services are unsuitable.

Legalities may require their data is held within the United Kingdom or the European Union, and companies may shy away from cloud providers completely in this situation.

Organisations may also have bespoke applications that simply need to be run in-house. However, there might be other more generic software, for example Microsoft Exchange, Outlook or Office services that can be provided under a software as a service model. In this situation organisations may look to adopt a more hybrid approach and use cloud services in some areas but look to keep other elements in-house.

Mark Lomas, IT Consultant with Icomm Technologies

Which model is the most cost effective will vary from business to business - it is important to look at the return on investment in each scenario.

Probrand Magazine

35

Cloud

Server downtime: the number one IT issue affecting firms

W

ith server downtime proving to be the number one technical issue impacting UK businesses, it is essential that organisations have an effective disaster recovery solution in place.

A survey of almost 2,000 SMBs, conducted by Icomm Technologies, revealed that server downtime was affecting organisations more than any

86%

of businesses experienced at least one episode of server downtime last year

other IT problem (22%). This is due to factors which include power problems and outright server failure.

Further research has shown that 86% of businesses experienced at least one episode of server downtime last year – leading to an average loss of 2.2 working days. On average organisations experienced 16 outages a year.

“Company profits are hampered by poor business continuity from unscheduled IT downtime. Without proactive management of IT, businesses are inadvertently costing themselves tens of thousands of pounds in lost working hours,” said Ian Callens, business leader at Icomm Technologies.

“In this digital era, businesses need to have access to data and software applications at all times. Ensuring quality business continuity demands

by Ian Callens

constant and timely network and server maintenance.”

The Icomm survey also found businesses were suffering major IT issues as a result of data growth, with 15% of IT issues related to low disk space and 16.5% caused by backup failures.

Callens added: “If data storage and backup services are not working properly and a company encounters a disaster, such as burst pipes flooding their data centre, this ultimately could be devastating for the business. Research has shown that most organisations which experience a disaster without effective backup go out of business within two years.”

Ian Callens is Sales Manager at Icomm Technologies

Are you prepared for a disaster ?

Mark Lomas, IT consultant with Icomm Technologies, explains how the Cloud is helping organisations get back online with minimal disruption.

A

n IT disaster can take many forms. Some can be caused by extreme events, such as an earthquake or hurricane, while others simply come down to the failure of an individual piece of equipment.

Many businesses would find it disastrous if this failure knocked out their email and communications infrastructure. If things were not back up and running quickly, and the necessary preparations had not been put in place, there is a genuine risk that organisations could face the end of their business.

A full business continuity plan will ensure there are processes in place to ensure

that the IT system can withstand any failure and can continue functioning normally with little or no disruption.

A completely fault tolerant solution may be beyond some companies but everyone can, at least, have a documented set of procedures to implement in the event that something goes seriously wrong.

Some organisations may think they are safe because they have got some sort of tape backup but many are simply putting the tape in the server every day without carrying out the necessary testing. Also, many backup solutions only target key data for protection rather than the full

by Mark Lomas

server - when for most IT environments the key foundation element is the server.

Companies need to be thinking about more sophisticated technologies such as virtualisation and full server imaging, which takes a complete image of the entire server hard drive. If we think about the nature of virtualisation, we’re turning each individual server into an image.

This allows third party cloud providers to replicate all your data and virtual machines, in a secondary location, and get everything back online quickly in the event that you have a problem.

Probrand Magazine

37

Infrastructure

Modernising the IT

Infrastructure

by Danny Bradbury

I

T today is about doing more with less. Corporate demands on the infrastructure are increasing but budgets are often frozen, if not shrinking.

So how can companies modernise their IT infrastructures to make the most of their resources?

Consolidating equipment using virtualisation is still one of the best ways to drive those efficiencies into the IT department. Traditionally, companies bought a separate dedicated physical server for every application that they wanted to run. This avoided applications clashing with each other, and stopped vendors dodging responsibility by blaming each other’s software for a problem during support calls.

It also meant that most of the servers used little more than 10% of CPU power, which was uneconomical. By recreating those physical servers as software containers, virtualisation consolidates multiple operating systems onto one physical box - enabling them to run their own applications while maximising resource usage.

“If you can put in something that saves money, then it’s far more likely to happen,” says Tony Lock, programme director and analyst at IT advisory firm Freeform Dynamics. “It’s a case of ‘let’s do this with an eye of what can we use it for later’.”

What’s next?

Beyond simple cost savings, just what can virtualisation be used for later, and what comes next in the journey to modernise the IT infrastructure?

In many cases businesses will want more flexibility over their virtualised operating systems, perhaps enabling them to be provisioned and deprovisioned dynamically, as workloads request it. Those virtual machines may need to be moved between different physical servers for performance and backup purposes. IT departments may even want to give users the chance to provision their own virtual machines for testing and development. This is where private cloud computing comes in.

True cloud computing includes the ability to automatically allocate workloads across virtualised infrastructures to make best use of the available resources. It can also include a self-service layer, enabling business users to specify their own

38

Probrand Magazine

computing resources where necessary and that can include storage resources too.

This flexibility enables cloud deployments to extend beyond the confines of the enterprise and Alex Hilton, CEO of the Cloud Industry Forum, argues that public cloud environments are becoming a significant factor in many IT strategies.

Surveys have shown that 69% of organisations are adopting public cloud, he says.

But not all data is destined for the cloud, he admits, suggesting that hybrid cloud deployments that stretch between public and private infrastructure will become more significant in the future. “We’re showing a slight drop in organisations saying ‘I will put everything into the cloud’, more and more they’re saying that it’s going to be a mixed environment,” he says.

Storage and networking CPU time isn’t the only IT resource that can be dynamically allocated. Storage is another area where companies can modernise their infrastructures by making provisioning more flexible.

Historically, companies have also tied local storage to individual physical servers, connecting them via direct SCSI links, for example. But that dedicated the capacity on that storage device just to that server, creating pockets of unused storage around the organisation and forcing up capital expenditure.

These storage infrastructures can then be placed onto highspeed networks known as storage area networks (SANs), again separating the logical resource from the physical hardware. It’s effectively a cloud for storage.

In many cases, networks must also be upgraded to cope with the demands from virtualised storage and servers, and consolidated core networking has become a key development trend in the data centre. Using high-speed connections for all traffic can help to reduce cabling and I/O port overhead, while also making core network management far easier.

Mark Lomas, IT consultant at Icomm Technologies, says that different high-speed networking protocols have developed quickly in the datacentre. Fibre channel, which has traditionally been a go-to architecture for high-speed SANs, has been consolidated onto high-speed Ethernet networks in recent years, using the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol.

“Converged network adaptors are starting to become a thing, thanks to increased demand for bandwidth and protocol efficiency,” he says.

Appliances: modernisation in a box All of these developments are being encapsulated in new generations of hardware appliances that marry various features together. For example, it is possible to buy a 'cloud in a box' appliance that orchestrates all of your virtualisation and cloud management for you. Similarly, appliances can take many of the headaches out of virtualising storage.

client side. The virtualisation movement has extended to the desktop in many cases - with virtual desktop integration pulling client-side operating systems back into the server. Thin client devices are being used to access desktops that can be more easily configured, managed, and where necessary, rebuilt and reprovisioned.

“The idea is to move out of the server and inside an appliance,” Lomas explains. “We can then flexibly configure the amount of storage so that we can go into an admin console and type in how much storage we allocate to a specific server. That lets us keep on flexibly changing the amount of storage that is allocated to different workloads in the environment.”

And the devices themselves are changing, as tablets and smartphones revolutionise the work environment, thanks to the emergence of 'bring your own device' policies that allow users to bring different device formats into the workplace.

The key here is that the appliance automates a lot of the management, packaging configuration into a single easy to administer interface. This brings these modernisation steps within the reach of smaller businesses that may not have had the expertise to configure different components of a cloud server or networking solution to work together.

While these developments continue in the server room, there is also a modernisation movement happening on the

With IT infrastructures evolving so quickly both at the back end and on the client side, today’s IT department has an unprecedented opportunity to cut capital expenditure and operating costs in the server room. The modernisation process can also create a stronger relationship with the user base by offering them more flexible ways of working both inside and outside the office.

But effective modernisation takes a mature approach to planning architectural change, testing and deploying different components over time. Few companies forklift a modern IT infrastructure into place all at once but instead will opt for an iterative approach. After all, if Rome wasn’t built in a day, it probably won’t be renovated in 24 hours either.

Danny Bradbury is an award winning freelance technology journalist

Probrand Magazine

39

e n t e rp ri se

PARTNER Gold Partner

Infrastructure

Freeing up resources to drive innovation

by Mark Allbutt

With the job of maintaining data centres overwhelming the IT team in many small to medium sized businesses, Mark Allbutt looks at how freeing up resources can help organisations drive innovation.

I

t is estimated that just keeping the lights on in the data centre is, on average, eating up between 72% and 85% of IT budgets. The time it takes to attend to hardware, software and infrastructure is also curtailing the IT team’s ability to focus on progressive projects.

Organisations can free up resources, however, if they bring components together and introduce more automation.

This will deliver the efficiencies necessary to reduce costs and the pressure on time.

IT executives can then concentrate on the initiatives which are capable of providing businesses with a competitive advantage.

There are three ways businesses can do this:

Pool resources Organisations can reduce the amount of hardware needed in the data centre by bringing components together. By consolidating data in a storage area network (SAN), efficiency technologies, such as deduplication and thin provision, can be deployed which reduces the amount of physical equipment requiring maintenance. This also means less power and cooling - freeing up extra finance for new projects.

The deployment of automation for systems such as backup would also reduce the amount of manual checks currently carried out by IT staff.

Increase agility Organisations can also free up resources by creating a more agile data centre which utilises the Cloud. Cloud providers are allowing businesses to scale their infrastructure up and down as and when required. By taking advantage of cloud

services, firms can reduce the amount of kit they need to maintain on-premise.

If organisations are experiencing seasonal peaks in demand on the data centre this may well be a cost effective option. An e-commerce business may experience heavy demand for just a few weeks of the year and then be able to operate with a reduce infrastructure for the remaining months.

Be more responsive If IT teams find themselves unable to respond quickly to the demands of the business, they could be creating headaches for themselves when end users seek their own solutions. The increased usage of cloud services has created a scenario where individual departments are prepared to source their own solutions - rather than wait for the IT department to get around to solving the issue.

However, as employees use cloud services, such as sync and share tools, IT has been left to deal with consequences.

Many are having to deal with the potential security issues this has created to ensure sensitive information doesn’t leave the business.

IT teams need to get ahead of the end user and be more proactive in this regard, if they are going to alleviate the tendency for employees to look elsewhere.

It may be the only way the IT Team can get ahead, and become more responsive, is to free up resources in the first place.

Reducing hardware, introducing efficiency technologies and automation, and utilising the cloud where possible could all be essential in achieving that goal.

Mark Allbutt is Technical Manager at Icomm Technologies Probrand Magazine

41

Infrastructure

Short term approaches to storage can prove costly

T

he seemingly endless demand for data storage is creating headaches for all organisations.

IDC estimates that the amount of digital data held globally will double every two years until the end of this decade.

The growing use of Big Data, analytics and business intelligence tools is only likely to exacerbate problems further.

With this in mind, it is important that organisations take a long term approach when it comes to data storage, and look to take advantage of efficiency technologies.

Organisations that don’t plan ahead, and simply buy extra storage units when existing capacity is overloaded, are likely to end up paying much more in the long run.

Those that plan, however, will realise big savings through technologies such as thin provisioning and deduplication.

These solutions are already available with some vendors but the benefits are

often overlooked as many buyers only consider the price of the disk. They are not comparing like-for-like, however.

By not procuring this technology at the start, demand for storage may well mean that organisations end up acquiring these solutions at a later date when they will come as add-ons, at a much higher price.

Deploying premium solutions may cost more upfront but organisations will gain an extra 30-50% in storage capacity straight out of the box. Thin provisioning can identify spare disk capacity available

Deploying premium solutions may cost more upfront but organisations will gain an extra 30-50% in storage capacity straight out of the box

The rise of mobile threatens wireless wipeout

W

ith traditional wireless networks struggling to cope with the demands placed upon them by modern mobile devices, strategic infrastructure planning has become crucial.

Connectivity becomes a big issue for organisations when slow download speeds and frequent disconnections frustrate end users and disrupt work. At the root of the problem are aging wireless local area networks (WLAN), designed to cope with just one mobile device to every three users.

The Bring your own device (BYOD) trend has, however, turned those figures around and Gartner estimates organisations now need to handle three devices per user.

42

Probrand Magazine

by Ian Callens

Nowhere is this issue felt more than in the education sector where tablets have become a key learning tool. The British Education Suppliers Association (BESA) claims almost a quarter (22%) of ‘pupil facing computers’ will be tablet computers by the end of 2015.

Any organisation planning a strategy to cope with this problem needs to look at future usage, guest usage and usage policies.

Future Usage Organisations need to think about mobile devices use, not just today but tomorrow, and develop a three year plan. Future proofing against the ongoing mobile explosion is critical if you are to reduce costly mistakes.

across a storage area network (SAN) and make it available when required.

Deduplication will also free up disk space by removing multiple versions of the same content.

Sometimes the budget is the budget and companies can only afford the cheapest SAN in the short term. However, we are in an environment where businesses are looking to sweat their assets for longer and it doesn’t make sense to buy a SAN which will in time require a greater outlay of investment.

Ian Callens is Sales Manager at Icomm Technologies

by Steve Buett, IT consultant with Icomm Technologies

Guest Usage Before expanding the mobile device estate, organisations need to check the WLAN can cope with higher demand. It is also important to remember the impact of visitors and partners here, and don’t only think of internal users.

Usage policies As wireless devices are slower than desktop devices connected to a physical network, it is also important to manage expectations and set usage policies. This will reduce any frustrations and ensure the faster policy speeds are available to all end users.

Procurement

Insufficient licensing leaves SMBs vulnerable to legal action

S

mall to medium sized businesses (SMBs) are unwittingly leaving themselves vulnerable to legal action by not managing software licenses, a recent study has revealed.

The survey of 250 IT buyers and end users, carried out by Probrand, found that 87% of SMBs were either over or under licensed. As a consequence, organisations are either wasting money or operating illegally.

87%

of SMBs are either over or under licensed

Managing software licenses can put a strain on the resources of time strapped SMBs but without an appropriate level of coverage companies can face legal challenges from vendors or the Business Software Alliance. Furthermore, as larger organisations are more likely to have the resources in place to ensure compliance with software licensing, enforcement officials are increasingly targeting the SMB market.

George Hesketh Probrand software specialist, said: “SMBs in particular have the biggest under license issue and are most at risk of legal challenge.

“Many businesses are either confused by the complexity or so time and cash strapped that they are allowing software licenses to lapse without renewal.

Alternatively, businesses are renewing without re-counting the number of licenses they actually need. This leaves them under or oversubscribed using the same license for multiple machines or renewing licenses for PCs or users no longer with the business.

“The renewal of software or Software Asset Management is a big problem for private and public sectors alike. From an asset management perspective, the intangible license often gets forgotten.

But compliance is critical.”

Counterfeit IT products creating cause for concern

A

n increase in the number of counterfeit IT products creeping into the supply chain is creating a cause for concern for businesses.

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) annual crime report has revealed that IT equipment is among just a handful of goods which have prompted a higher number of investigations this year.

Computer parts, electronic components and electrical goods were all among the top ten goods investigated by the IPO. With high street retailers and online auctions being among the top locations investigated, the report has provided a stark warning to businesses looking to source low cost products. Price conscious buyers have been warned to do due their diligence and only buy

44

Probrand Magazine

Original Equipment (OE) from trusted suppliers.

The danger counterfeit IT products pose was recently highlighted by the death of air stewardess Ma Aillun, after she was electrocuted using a non-Apple USB charger. When employee safety and business continuity is taken into consideration, ensuring products are genuine becomes an imperative.

Product checks The growing complexity of the OE global supply network, and manufacturing in low cost regions across Asia and Eastern Europe, has made it harder to prevent counterfeit parts and products entering the supply chain. Business can, however, carry out a number of checks to ensure their parts and products are the real deal.

Buyers are advised to ensure products have a warranty and confirm if the supplier offers any guarantees or after-sales service. Businesses should also register the warranty with the manufacturer - this will quickly determine whether the product is genuine or not.

The product’s designated serial number can also be used to track the product’s authenticity with the manufacturer.

Although the IPO report claimed that IT hardware was under the spotlight, it added that there had been a reduction in the number of investigations involving software and computer games this year.

This was attributed to a switch in buying behavior, towards internet downloads, and the increased awareness of the counterfeit issue as a result of campaigns led by the gaming industry.

Buying IT products – has it really changed?

by Peter Smith, Lead Editor of Spend Matters UK/ Europe

I

t’s around 25 years since I first got involved in purchasing IT products and services, although I should emphasise that I don’t consider myself a deep IT specialist. However, my first Procurement Director role included personally putting in place major contracts across the Dun & Bradstreet Group Europe, where IT was our most significant spend category. And actually, at that time, my openness (some might call it naivety) probably helped.

Whilst many colleagues were suspicious of how Dell could sell PCs at half IBM’s price, I just asked if they worked, and then suggested we really should be buying them.

In subsequent procurement director roles, at the Department of Social Security and NatWest, IT was similarly critical, and I’ve maintained an interest in the spend area over the years. So with that historical perspective, let’s look at how recent developments have changed the world of IT procurement - hardware in particular - compared to those days when Michael Dell was a fresh-faced disruptive force in the industry.

been the domain of large manufacturers.

So whilst markets are often highly competitive, even buyers who feel they have substantial volume actually hold limited market power.

The pace of change is something else that hasn’t changed. Buyers need to keep up with the market, what is available and what will be available.

But there has also been real change.

The most significant recent trend in IT overall has been the Cloud but that has had more effect perhaps on software buyers. The Cloud has had less effect on hardware buying when compared to the “informed buyer”.

IT and procurement managers now have to contend with colleagues who are major users of IT in their non-work lives.

Whilst they won’t all be real experts, the days of the user who couldn’t switch on their PC are gone. As technology-savvy youngsters come into our organisations, they have strong views on what they want and how it should work. The need for effective stakeholder management

by procurement is therefore greater than ever.

Linked to the change in the user capability, we’ve also seen a big move to online procurement. This has had a knock-on effect in terms of the role of the IT re-seller, the traditional middleman in the hardware market. No longer is it enough for them to simply provide an attractive catalogue of products. To demonstrate their worth, they need to add value for the buyer, through provision of benchmarking services or market data.

In terms of the external dimensions, supply chains have tended to become more complex as products have become more advanced. Insight into those supply chains is vital to stay ahead of the game.

How should buyers respond to these and other changes? The increased challenge suggests that good market intelligence, and deep understanding of key supply chains, providers and products will all be essential if our IT buyer wants to deliver real value to their organisation, and indeed prove their own worth.

The summary might be, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. Whilst much has apparently changed, some fundamentals remain. For instance, in general terms, IT hardware has always

Probrand Magazine

45

Probrand Group

What we offer The IT Index 48

The IT Index for business

Icomm Technologies Managed IT services 50

Cloud Backup

51

Cloud Disaster Recovery

52

Cloud Anti-Virus

53

Managed Firewall

54

Managed remote access

Proactive IT support 55

Software and hardware support

55

Fully managed support

IT solutions 56

Server & desktop virtualisation

57

Storage Area Networks

58

Network infrastructure and Wireless

59

Firewalls

60

Remote access and security

Mercato Solutions 61

Private Marketplaces – Global marketplace processes made easy

63

KnowledgeKube - Platform to automate business processes fast

66

KnowledgeKube presales processes

68

KnowledgeKube trading portals

70

KnowledgeKube common processes

72

KnowledgeKube specialist processes

74

KnowledgeBus – Automated IT price and stock benchmarking

Contact us: 0121 605 1000 enquiries@probrand.co.uk Over the next few pages Probrand Group showcases the depth and breadth of products and services it offers. If you would like to explore anything further, please get in touch.

46

Probrand Group Magazine www.probrand.co.uk

Company Overviews Probrand Group – Your technology partner.

Probrand Group is a leading end-to-end provider of technology through three multi-award winning businesses specialising in IT products, IT services and software. Established professional brands dedicated to helping customers thrive with relevant and innovative technology.

With over 20 years of heritage, Probrand Group has a global outlook and now serves an extensive customer base of over 3,500 private and public sector organisations as a Crown Commercial Service framework supplier. The business prides itself on investing in great people, putting value into relationships with its own innovation, commitment and integrity.

Since 1992, Probrand has grown from a small Value Added Reseller to a multi-award winning group. Three years of growth spawned specialist IT services business, Icomm Technologies, in 2000, the launch of online marketplace The IT Index in 2002 and innovative software business, Mercato Solutions in 2006. All three have sustained growth and been acknowledged with numerous awards and listings. The pinnacle of which includes a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Innovation.

The IT Index – IT Products. Save time and money buying IT. The IT Index is Europe’s largest specialist B2B marketplace online, offering an awardwinning personalised experience and a best practice approach that quickly gets IT buyers to the best priced top branded products from almost every category. It helps buyers save time and money through CIPS accredited procurement excellence.

The IT Index also offers managed services to support customer aspirations for more strategic procurement, including IT purchase benchmarking for transparent buying and trusted advisory support for large scale solutions and technology refresh projects.

Icomm Technologies – IT Services. Get more from your IT. Icomm Technologies provides managed IT services, proactive IT support and IT solutions, offering decades of award-winning technical service excellence to large organisations and SMEs alike.

The business retains a technical edge and is proud to employ a workforce of over 60% technical professionals, operating out of Birmingham and Manchester.

A ‘best-of-breed’ mindset helps customers get more from their IT.

Mercato Solutions – Software. Transform the way you work.

Mercato Solutions is one of EMEAs fastest growing and most innovative enterprise application providers. The business helps a global client base transform business processes with bespoke and branded software platforms and applications that drive smarter working.

An award-winning portfolio consists of delivering Private Marketplaces world-wide, KnowledgeKube for automating business processes fast and KnowledgeBus for automated IT benchmarking.

Save time and money buying ICT. www.theitindex.co.uk Europe’s largest specialist B2B marketplace online Over 150,000 products and services from more than 2,500 brands Hourly updated and ranked by best price and stock availability

A personalised buying experience.

Best practice procurement. Better Value.

“It has saved over 15% of our consumables budget, enabling the organisation to stretch its IT budget. Savings made on individual products range from 3 – 6% and as an example we reduced our £120,000 bill for inkjet, toner and fax cartridges by 20%.”

Save up to a day a week buying time previously spent manually managing purchase information

Cheltenham Borough Council.

Proven on average to save 10% on ICT budgets

“We are now saving 5 days a month which we used to spend managing procurement admin”

Drive value in and cost out of your procurement processes

Coffee Republic.

Easy and accurate purchasing.

Unique self-service tools narrow choice to complex needs exactly and efficiently Free login for personalised catalogues, special bids and promotions direct from manufacturers Direct purchasing. No re-direct to 3rd party websites Greater management visibility to help stamp out off-policy rogue purchasing

48

Probrand Magazine

“The IT Index has saved us in the region of 30% on our IT budget. We can now get more from our budget.”

Bradford Grammar School.

“Efficient ‘one-stop-shop’ procurement process coupled with customer service excellence, both cashable and non-cashable savings have been yielded.”

Ashfield District Council.

Best priced products.

Shortest possible time.

For Business

Powerful guided experiences

Management tools

Value added advisors and tools to present relevant products at the right price fast, supporting your decision making. Better match needs to relevant choice more accurately and efficiently.

Control a role-driven environment offering ethical purchasing of products at validated best value. Track, analyse, plan & forecast budgets. Improve spend visibility and reduce rogue purchasing.

Personal order pad

Drive collaboration

Save time by maintaining a list of regular purchase items updated hourly with price and stock.

Multiple logins per account. Share product catalogues across organisations. Reduce duplication of effort.

Dynamic personalised cataloguing

Rapid integration

Gets you closer to suppliers who communicate only relevant, lowest priced personalised deals direct in real-time. Get the best deals most relevant to your sector and segment.

End-to-end P2P operational excellence. Simple connection to ERP and line-of-business systems.

Streamline order processing, catalogue management and payment.

Rapid advanced search

Added value services

Quick predictive search by product parameters; brand, category, type, code, specification.

Strategic procurement service A managed service providing the advice and guidance you need to make better buying decisions

Automated comparison Prices compared across the market hourly. Products ranked by best price and availability. Eliminates time consuming supplier ring rounds and manual comparison. Drives mini-competition.

Single procurement dashboard Purchasing done direct. View, manage, investigate and plan with tailored information.

Dedicated account management with back office support from product and category specialists Direct introduction to leading manufacturer partnerships for large projects and maximum value Field team and end user engagement for large and complex projects

Benchmarking service Automatically see special bids. Order online at preagreed discounted pricing. Get the best deals most relevant to your segment. Digital by default.

Smart basket A new standard. Minimise cost of delivery. Securely specify different services for different products and multiple sites or departments. System generates lowest possible basket price including delivery.

Price transparency Sustained fixed margin agreed up front across all products.

Want to understand the margins of all your suppliers?

Talk to us about a full in-depth spend analysis. Drive more informed procurement decisions with access to over a terabyte of ICT market data. Analyse historic purchases against an archive of over 600,000 products.

Supply chain management and bespoke cataloguing Service to build and manage unique product catalogues within or outside of the ICT market. Talk to us about improving your supply chain communication.

Talk to us 0800 26 26 29

www.theitindex.co.uk

0800 26 26 29 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

Probrand Magazine

4241/THEITINDEX-BUSINESS-DPS-NONFACING-PAGES-MAGAZINE/20140811/QS

Framework approved

49

Managed IT services

Cloud Backup Protect your organisation for less with fully automated data backups.

Scaleable and fit for your needs

Cloud based managed service • • • •

Fully automated protection for your business from 75p per GB Consultancy, backup and restore support included 24x7 access to your data Unlimited and scalable data storage facility

Strong data security measures • • • • • • •

Highest level of information governance ISO:27001 Strong authentication at every log-in point All files 256-bit encrypted from source.

Customer defined encryption key.

All data transmitted via 256-bit AES encryption Storage in our own secure hosting facilities on high end dedicated servers Data integrity maintained via autonomic healing and validation Email reports sent to verify every backup

•

• •

State-of-the-art enterprise level software from Asigra Monthly payment terms

Single users to multiple sites and remote locations Store data, operating systems, exchange databases, mailboxes, SQL data, applications Local, national or international data access from one simple internet interface Flexible scheduling to match your organisation

Quick and easy recovery • •

Simply retrieve last data snap-shot via secure internet connection Data recovery in the same format as you stored it

Total compliance and assurance • •

Data stored in two data centres on UK soil and jurisdiction As used by global organisations

Compressed data. Compressed Cost. 75p per GB •

Enterprise level quality without the cost •

• •

• •

Data encrypted and compressed to reduce actual storage space used Cost saving passed on to the customer Only pay for the exact storage you need, not an empty vault

Tape/Disk Backup

Icomm Cloud Backup

Costly to install & maintain

Easy to install, fully automated

Complicated to operate

Intuitive, easy to use interface

Vulnerable & unsecure

Data stored off site, replicated & encrypted

Error prone & unreliable (Gartner estimates 15% fail)

100% reliable automated process.

Errors flagged and resolved.

All data, every day

Backup only new or changed data

Difficult and time consuming to restore

Data instantly available via web client

Expensive limited capacity tapes

Totally scalable. Only pay for the storage you need

Cloud based backup and recovery from 75p per GB. Talk to us about protecting your server structure as well.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/CLOUDBACKUP/20140804/LH]

Tape/Disk Backup vs Cloud Backup

Managed IT services

Cloud Disaster Recovery Too many businesses are not prepared to deal with disasters • • • •

8 out of 10 have no disaster recovery plan 1 in 5 businesses suffer disruption each year Most suffer the consequence 93% go bankrupt within a year of disaster

The quicker you are back to business, the greater the chances of survival.

Get proactive with a cloud based Icomm managed service • Snapshot of your server structure and operating systems taken • Files stored in the cloud • Cost-effective and quick-to-deploy • In the event of disaster, business continuesto have access to its core systems as employee’s remote access into your replica server environment in the cloud

One cost effective solution • • • •

High end DR solution without the high end cost A managed Icomm service for peace of mind Cloud flexibility offers scalable service and monthly cost Annual DR Recovery test procedure, demonstrating to you it works

Protecting your server structure • Complete ‘imaging’ allows for rapid recovery • An environment to recover to – giving you virtual ‘spare’ hardware • Remote access to enable users to work from home, office or any internet enabled device • Back to business in hours not weeks (24x7 for additional cost) • A “Lite” version offers minimum protection at lower cost • Full cloud provision offers total protection

Full service

Be safe and secure in the cloud

Lite service

• Backup to storage vault in Birmingham • ISO 27001 information governance excellence to protect your data

New Infrastructure

snapshot taken

hosted on VM platform

RESTORED

How it works Included in Lite service 1.

2.

Snapshot of live server structure and OS taken Image stored on NAS box on-premise for Business Continuity in the event of hardware failure

3.

4.

5.

6.

Image stored on Icomm’s virtual servers Disaster occurs Latest image restored to secure cloud based private environment Customer provides latest data backup to Icomm which is then loaded onto Icomm servers Business users access systems via remote internet access to Icomm for duration of disaster Icomm provides data backup from live system to customer to enable system to revert back to local live operation

7.

8.

User at home

Disaster Recovery should not be an option, it should be a necessity!

... from only £99 per month – cost can no longer be an excuse.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/CLOUDDR/20140804/LH]

Ask us about Cloud Backup to protect your data as well.

Managed IT services

Cloud Antivirus Eradicate security threats automatically Cloud based managed service • • •

24/7 remote monitoring to ensure security risks and threats are quickly eradicated Automatic alerting and job booking means engineers fix issues rapidly Security and patch reports emailed to you weekly

Installation Included

Full Support Included

Protection

Product Upgrades Included

Increase Return On Investment • • • • •

Be up to date and stay ahead of threats Better manage and monitor remote user antivirus Gain automated protection from viruses, trojans and spyware with sophisticated scan engine Central management system delivers best practice implementation Enjoy full reporting of risks and threats resolved

Quicken computer processes • • • • •

Lightweight scanning engine optimises computer speed Daily out-of-hours virus scans remove traditional slow down, improving user productivity Free up to 21% of server resource by removing antivirus management burden Drive automatic computer shutdowns after scans Unlock employee productivity with greater machine and server availability

CD

Up to Date

Remote Users

Implementation

Reporting

Saves time and money • • •

Fixed predictable cost so no more financial surprises Flexible payment terms enable switch to manageable operational expenditure Reduce management costs

All Inclusive Pricing

Machines Covered

Price per Machine p.a.

1-9

£79.99

10 - 19

£64.99

20 - 29

£49.99

30 - 39

£44.99

40 - 49

£39.99

50 - 100

£35.99

100+

POA

Automated Antivirus protection from £35.99 per year.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/CLOUDANTIVIRUS/20140804/LH]

Includes installation, support and upgrade costs.

Managed IT services

Managed Firewall

A market leading way of securing your network. Govern web traffic and application usage.

• • • •

Gateway Security

Fully managed approach Standard solution installed by Icomm and tailored to your needs Centralised, secure environment for end users to focus on business Protection at the perimeter of your infrastructure

Let Icomm improve web service delivery • • • •

Manage internal abuse of internet access Protect against security threats Prevent employees accessing inappropriate sites and social networks Improve service to users with a market leading solution

Drive out cost • • •

Drive down capex and manage operational costs Release time for your IT staff to focus on bigger issues Reduce down time associated with viruses, spam and malware

Managed Firewall at a glance A solution that gives application visibility and control; bandwidth management; and the highest throughput of any firewall with all services enabled.

An approach that makes sense on the bottom line: •

•

•

•

Application control and visibility – Identify the applications that are utilising your bandwidth: Skype, Facebook and BitTorrent for example – see what was previously secret Web filtering – Log and control unwanted applications and setup filtering policies against specific user profiles. Prioritise role-based access to systems or environments Wireless access management – Control, maintain and optimise wireless access in your environment. Automatically manage share of bandwidth fairly amongst users and improve user WiFi experience SSL VPN and remote access (optional) – improve security with two stage ‘tokenless’ authentication and a secure tunnel for remote access if you require it

Ask us about Wireless LANs and remote access to unlock more connected business.

256bit SSL

Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Intrusion Prevention, and Application Intelligence and Control Service delivers intelligent, realtime network security protection against sophisticated application layer and contentbased attacks, including viruses, spyware, worms, and more. Configurable tools prevent data leakage and enable visualisation of network traffic.

Bandwidth management and control Bandwidth resources prioritised to critical inbound and outbound network traffic and application usage to improve network performance. Guaranteed minimum bandwidth for priority traffic based on access rules created in the Firewall.

Granular Control Application Intelligence and Control provides granular control and real-time visualisation of applications to guarantee bandwidth prioritisation, prevent data leakage, and deliver more precise control over network traffic.

Optional 24/7 support Onsite hardware repair and replacement and 8+5 support included Minor change requests taking less than one hour included Optional 247 service or round-the-clock telephone and web based support Content Filtering Content Filtering Service blocks multiple categories of objectionable Web content and provides the ideal combination of control and flexibility to ensure the highest levels of productivity and protection.

Reporting Access highly customisable, easy-to-read reports. Graphical illustration of network activity like bandwidth utilisation and observed threats.

Automatic configuration backups Configuration updates and backup managed Icomm automatically

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/MANAGEDFIREWALL/20140804/LH]

Protect your business without thinking about it!

Managed IT services

Managed Remote Access Unlock remote working without the capital expenditure.

A managed service with monthly payments One centrally-managed client site installed gateway that controls remote network access • •

Improve productivity for a low monthly cost • •

Best of breed remote access technology SSL VPN delivers user-friendly, secure remote access tunnel Service includes install, support, monitoring and reporting portal access All for a monthly fee with no capital expenditure

• •

• •

Fast ROI by increasing user productivity Sustainable long term budget savings from remote access reduced cost of ownership Validation of users with increased security Improve business continuity options by enabling remote working

Users gain remote access quickly and securely Enable your business with minimal effort and cost!

Standard solution tailored to your individual needs Centralised, secure environment to help end users focus on business Stop hackers and secure your data High availability and easy-to-use

• • •

2.

3.

Simply click an ‘Aventail’ icon and log-in to your SSL VPN web page.

Users input everyday network password and log-in details for remote access.

(Optional) Secure token based authentication to enhance security.

2.

1.

Login

SSL VPN

****

Your everyday login details Your PC

3.

Fully Managed SSL VPN – your secure tunnel

Monitoring

Dell SonicWall Aventail SSL VPN. A dedicated and hardened security appliance that supports access from most end point devices, including PCs, windows devices and smart phones. A simple, cost effective way to give mobile workers a complete ‘in-office’ desktop experience.

• •

Linked Resources

Future proof – The most future-proofed remote access controller on the market Secure – ‘Traffic’ fully encrypted between end user’s web browser and the SSL VPN appliance

Ongoing assessment of performance Includes backup of configuration Support Ongoing telephone and web based support, during office hours Option to extend to 24x7 Automatic upgrades to firmware when needed as new threats arise Reporting portal

Managed deployment

Enables customers to view staff usage and traffic

Hardware quickly installed amongst your existing network infrastructure Timed for least business disruption

Switch capex to opex No capital costs, only monthly opex costs, with minimum 36 month commitment

Ask us about improving your wireless network and next generation firewalls to protect you and your bandwidth?

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/MANAGEDREMOTEACCESS/20140804/LH]

•

1.

Proactive IT support

The right proactive IT support for you Get expert help from Icomm to support your IT estate.

Choose the right service for you.

Software and Hardware support

Comparison Matrix

You have a list of IT equipment you want supported Annual or monthly payment

Each approach provides varying levels of proactive support price matched to your needs based on Service Level Agreements and objectives.

Benefits

•

Software and Hardware Support

Fixed overhead for the year If you have an issue just book a call Make as many calls as you want Multiple service level agreements to fit different budgets Annual or monthly payment plans

Features • • • • • •

Cost covers support for all software and hardware Also known as a break-fix contract Can include parts and labour for repair under agreement Can cover peripheral hardware i.e. switches, firewalls etc.

Has SLAs – 2, 4, 8 hour next day and 24 hour Upgradeable to Managed Service at any time

Fully managed support Outsource your IT support or go a step further and outsource all IT management to Icomm.

Benefits • • • • • • • • • •

Total proactivity; spots and fixes issues without you even noticing Less Hassle Less Downtime Increased Staff Productivity Fixes, cuts and controls costs Automates security and compliance Reduces Total Cost of Ownership Extends IT lifecycle by up to 50% Transparency and flexibility of contract On going contract review to match support to your changing business needs

Features • • • • • • •

Goes way beyond Hardware and Software support.

Proprietary Software installed for 24/7 365 monitoring. Enables prediction and fix before fail Backup monitoring Power, patch, asset management AntiVirus checks Seamless Remote Management Management reports

Fully Managed Support

Low initial cost Fixed & Predictable Cost Guaranteed Response 8 hour Guaranteed Response 4 hour Guaranteed Response 2 hour Flexible On & Off-Site Support Technical Advisory Service Dedicated Account Management Value for Money Unlimited Support Optional 24/7 Cover Loan Equipment Favourable Payment Terms Asset Tagging & Management 24/7 365 Monitoring Back-up Monitoring Preventive Maintenance 6 Weekly Optimisation SMART Defrag Automated Patch Management Reduced Total Cost of Ownership Improved Return on Investment Exchange Monitoring Monthly Management Reports Bandwidth Usage Tracking Licence Compliance Tracking System Audits Seamless Remote Management Audited Remote Control Power Management Optimisation Application Deployment Back-up & Disaster Recovery Upgrade for Life Membership Program Over 100 Years best Practices Experience User Screen Monitoring

What People Say About Icomm “The fully managed support service has paid for itself many times over.”

Andrew Jones, S Jones Containers

“We decide how and where our money is spent and have seen real savings already on previous contracts.”

Paul Pearce, Sea Products International Ltd

Talk to us about a range of IT services, including Cloud backup, network and wireless LAN services.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/ITSUPPORT/20140804/LH]

• • • •

IT solutions

Virtualisation – servers and desktops Do more with less. Save time and money with a more agile IT infrastructure.

Optimise and future proof IT infrastructure • • • •

Turn one physical machine into many virtual machines Host multiple Operating Systems and applications on one machine Develop and test systems and applications without impacting production environment Flexible and scaleable to your needs

Reduce operational and capital expenditure • • • • •

Consolidate physical server, storage or desktop estate Eliminate need to purchase more physical machines in future Better utilise existing computer resources Cut demands on power, cooling and space Release management time to focus on key tasks

Unlock improvements to back-up and Disaster Recovery • • •

Dynamically distribute work load across several virtual servers to improve performance Multiple virtual machines equal high redundancy and multiple fail-over points Virtualisation of servers is ideally supported by a centralised Storage Area Network to further improve resilience whilst reducing ongoing costs and administration

Improve experience and delivery of end user services • • •

Better utilise resources to be more robust and deliver applications and files faster Maximise throughput, quicken response times More efficient provision of services, more efficient work force

Get expert help from Icomm to virtualise your server and desktop estate Server virtualisation – turn one into many

End-to-end projects tailored to your needs • • • • • • •

Consultancy Detailed capacity and performance review to assess where improvements can be made to your technology estate Procurement Installation Migration of data and applications Training and hand-over of management to in-house teams Fully pro-active support to ensure smooth operation ongoing

Desktop virtualisation Empower your staff through desktop virtualisation.

Run multiple desktop operating systems on a single server and improve operational efficiency of flexible computing resources, manpower and capabilities.

Talk to us about improving your storage as well.

We also offer a fully managed IT support service.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/VIRTUALISATION/20140804/LH]

Save money and space by investing in one server that replicates multiple platforms. Today’s computing environments are becoming increasingly complex, demanding greater resources to operate and maintain. Moving resources to virtual platforms allows IT departments to consolidate and better utilise existing flexible computer resources and delivery better end user services whilst optimising staff time.

IT solutions

Storage Area Networks

Centralise storage for quick pay back and long term savings Let Icomm implement a NetApp SAN to enhance your enterprise storage.

Your growing pains • • • • • • • • • •

Spiralling operational overheads Lack of resource to manage IT estate and data growth Increased demand on limited data centre space Organisational risk due to poor fail-over or backup processes Little available time to keep up with technology change Limits on data accessibility Protect capacity and investment with efficiency tools Reduce size of all types of data; primary, secondary, file and block Maximise storage capacity with unified tools; I/O caching, volume cloning, deduplication, compression etc Protected capacity equals better performance and protected investment

Quick and smart backup

• •

Take high-speed, low impact snapshot images of your data Effortlessly manage frequent snapshots, replication policies and movement to tape in one console Reduce backups by up to 98%

Implement a more efficient solution From a traditional approach DAS/NAS/SAN Silos Servers

Protect business with improved recovery and continuity • • • •

Apps

•

Storage

To a best practice virtualised approach

End-to-end projects tailored to your needs • • • • •

Network

Easily configure multi site-to-site data replication for added fail-over Boot virtual machines from the SAN for quick and easy replacement of faulty host servers Facilitate quicker recovery time objectives and improved business continuity Reduce down-time by up to 50%

Consultancy Procurement Installation Migration of data and applications Training and hand-over of management to in-house teams Pro-active support for smooth operation ongoing

Virtualisation Servers Apps Network Storage

Talk to us for guidance on and delivery of an integrated virtualised server and storage environment.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/STORAGEAREANETWORKS/20140804/LH]

•

IT solutions

Network infrastructure and Wireless LAN Wireless that works!

Unlock business agility, reduce cost and complexity

Market leading technology. More reliable and better coverage.

Get rid of standard WLAN issues Unstable connections Dropped packets Pixelated video Choppy voice Poor coverage and capacity Erratic performance

Dynamic Beamforming Adapts Access Point signal steering for the most reliable Wi-Fi.

More reliable and connected business • • • • •

Smart Mesh networking

A high-end solution without the cost and complexity Release management to focus on more value add activities Robust, secure, scalable Fits within any existing network architecture Quick to deploy

Smarter wireless Site survey, installation and configuration by Icomm of a Ruckus WLAN provides a smarter solution with better range and reliability.

Wide coverage Enable 400+ clients per Access Points, so fewer Access Points cover a wider area, reducing capital and operational costs.

Cost effective Robust wireless LAN at a fraction of the cost of conventional alternatives. All the functionality of a highend system with fewer access points for lower CAPEX and easier management for lower OPEX. Fast install Configuration and deployment in half the time of conventional solutions. Easy to install, configure and expand. Automatic client-side administration and advanced security.

Secure, scalable, and simple-to-use platform A smarter wireless LAN that self-optimises and is super simple to manage. Provision guests in a snap, deliver up to four times coverage and throughput. Dual band functionality enables multiple device types.

No costly cabling Simply plug access points into a power source and connect without any requirement for Ethernet cabling.

Eliminate costly task of pulling Ethernet cable wherever you want access points.

Dynamic user security The latest link layer encryption and authentication mechanisms but delivered simply. From 802.1x support to Dynamic Pre-Shared Keys.

Adaptive RF signal routing and interference avoidance WLAN-wide optimum signal path selection and automatic interference avoidance. Automatic Radio Frequency coordination adapts to the constantlychanging Wi-Fi environment.

Cutting Edge Access Points High-performance dual-band (meshed or wired) that deliver high-performance at range to new 802.11n and legacy 802.11a/b/g clients.

Network infrastructure high performance and resilient Icomm has decades of expertise in planning, building and upgrading every aspect of wired and wireless network infrastructure from industry standard cabling – the backbone of your connectivity, to configuration of network hardware & software and high availability switching that delivers services to end users. Enterprise level partnerships with high performance providers ensures the very best advice and solutions.

Ask us about remote access and firewalls to leverage and protect your wireless network.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

4[241/NETWORKINFRASTRUCTUREWIRELESS/20140804/LH]

• • • • • •

IT solutions

Firewalls Protect against the most sophisticated web threats Adopt a next generation Firewall • • • •

Cybercriminals are using the web to access corporate networks Sophos has identified that 85% of malware comes from the web Over 30,000 websites are infected every single day Cybercriminals leverage soft security targets; social networks, smartphones, tablets and BYOD environments

Features Gateway Security Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Intrusion Prevention, and Application Intelligence and Control Service delivers intelligent, realtime network security protection against sophisticated application layer and contentbased attacks, including viruses, spyware, worms, and more. Configurable tools prevent data leakage and enable visualisation of network traffic.

256bit SSL

A firewall older than two years offers limited protection • •

Lacks interrogation of application usage and traffic payload Cannot identify and manage good traffic from bad

Comprehensive Anti-Spam Comprehensive Anti-Spam Service blocks spam phishing and virus-laden emails at the gateway. With one click, the service immediately starts blocking junk email and saving valuable network bandwidth.

Reduce costs and risk of down time from security threats • • • •

Protect at the perimeter, not within your infrastructure Manage internal abuse of internet access Prevent employees accessing inappropriate sites and social networks Improve web service delivery and user productivity

Granular Control Application Intelligence provides granular control and real-time visualisation of applications to guarantee bandwidth prioritisation, prevent data leakage, and deliver more precise control over network traffic.

Welcome to next generation firewalls A solution that gives application visibility and control; bandwidth management; and the highest throughput of any firewall with all services enabled.

•

Content Filtering Content Filtering Service blocks multiple categories of objectionable Web content and provides the ideal combination of control and flexibility to ensure the highest levels of productivity and protection.

Advanced threat protection – Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) of the entire packet payload for intrusion prevention, malware detection, gateway antivirus, traffic analytics, application control and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) decryption. Deliver granular traffic inspection to allow intelligent enforcement of security policies.

•

Performance without sacrifice – Network traffic inspected with little impact on throughput and application performance.

Enable DPI without buffering or packet reassembly.

•

Productivity through application visibility and web filtering – Analyse, control and prioritise real-time bandwidth and application usage.

Identify applications consuming bandwidth: Skype, Facebook and BitTorrent for example.

Log and control unwanted applications. Setup filtering policies against specific user profiles.

Prioritise role-based access to systems or environments.

Reporting Access highly customisable, easy-to-read reports. Graphical illustration of network activity like bandwidth utilisation and observed threats.

Looking for a managed firewall approach instead?

Talk to us.

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/FIREWALL/20140804/LH]

Web services expose businesses to greater attack

IT solutions

Remote Access and Security Work anywhere, anytime, efficiently and securely.

• • • •

Combining best of breed remote access and a choice of authentication technology SSL VPN delivers user-friendly secure remote access tunnel Physical token and web-based two factor authentication for everyone Tokenless two factor authentication for larger organisations

• • • •

Fast ROI by unlocking and increasing remote access productivity Sustainable long term budget savings from reduced cost of ownership High availability and easy-to-use Total validation of users with increased security Improved business continuity by enabling workforce to operate remotely

Users gain remote access quickly and securely 1.

2.

Dell SonicWall Aventail SSL VPN. A dedicated and hardened security appliance that covers the most end point devices, including windows and smart phones. A simple, cost effective way to give mobile workers a complete ‘in-office’ experience.

• • •

Improve productivity and reduce overheads •

SSL VPN – your secure tunnel

Simply click a remote access icon and log-in to the SSL VPN web page, supplying everyday standard network log-in details.

Users then input their authenticated user code generated through two different channels for truly strong authentication and security.

User authentication tailored to you – two options 1. Token-less authentication for larger organisations Swivel Secure token-less multi-factor authentication offers the reassurance of strong security without the cost and management of physical tokens. As approved by UK Government’s national technical authority for Information Assurance, CESG. • • •

Why not ask us about wireless networking and next generation firewalls to protect you and your bandwidth?

Future proof – The most future-proofed remote access controller on the market Easy deployment – No need for pre-installation of specialist client side software Secure – ‘Traffic’ fully encrypted between end user’s web browser and the SSL VPN appliance

Less cost – On average 73% cheaper than the cost of buying, implementing, managing and maintaining a token based system Easy management – save time with instant add and remove of end users across any web enabled devices Scalability – Single Swivel server can provide authentication for all remote services, VPNs, Websites, cloud and web applications

2. Tokens and web based authentication for every organisation Cost effective, flexible and scaleable hardware tokens and web-based two factor authentication from the world’s biggest provider, Vasco. As used to meet tight tolerances of financial institutions and online banking.

• • •

Scalability – Physical tokens to fit all shapes, sizes, environments and budgets One Time Passwords – generated at, not before, point of user request for absolute security Flexibility – Option of cloud-based managed service for single sign-in to multiple web-based applications using dynamic passwords – webmail, salesforce, Office 365, Google Apps

0121 248 7931 www.icomm.co.uk

Icomm Technologies Limited, 45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP.

[4241/REMOTEACCESSANDSECURITY/20140804/LH]

One centrally-managed gateway to control remote access to network resources

Global marketplace processes made easy for manufacturers and distributors Implement compelling experiences via an online private marketplace Combine the award-winning and innovative bespoke technical skills of Mercato Solutions with its ground-breaking development platform, KnowledgeKube. Automate complex supply chain and pre-sales processes and make them available on the internet to your customers, internally and to your suppliers.

Transformation through agile development Mercato Solutions specialises in data management, Business Intelligence and the development of high performance productivity, line-ofbusiness and collaborative applications. A winning approach that helps organisations work smarter.

Capture – automate – transform online IT development capability and understanding of large-scale supply chain challenges, create game-changing private market place solutions.

Use our digital platform, KnowledgeKube, to form part of your private market place solution. It enables rapid creation of business applications through its streamlined modular system. Bring system development closer to, and more under the control of, the business.

Leverage our specialist knowledge of the rapidly changing IT supply chain from manufacturers, vendors and resellers to after sales service.

Transferrable knowledge, proven to solve customer trading challenges.

The business case Achieve cost savings greater than implementation costs comfortably within the first year by reducing headcount in customer facing roles and enabling staff to be moved into more value adding customer activities.

•

Shorten and strengthen supply chain interaction and communication to capture and drive emerging markets and expand growth capabilities for up-selling into local markets

•

Unlock deep Business Intelligence with a 360 degree view of business inside and outside of the supply chain

•

Strengthen brand experience across your supply chain

•

Reduce operational costs and generate valuable business data that can be distributed back into your eco-system

•

Radically shorten sales cycles and enable users throughout the supply chain to work smarter and with higher satisfaction

Probrand Magazine

61

Private Marketplaces

Deep experience of the challenges you face International solutions - Enabling a standard solution that can be localised by customers to meet specific language, country and/or regional requirements.

Global roll-outs - Managing and on-boarding customers, making solutions attractive to continuously drive usage, eclipsing manual support services previously provided to customers.

Dynamic web content - Presenting user, customer, role and context specific web content for products, pricing and promotions.

Advanced search - Built to facilitate smart searching across multiple data sources.

Productivity solutions - Configuring and delivering dynamic smart questionnaires, complex rule-based configurators and guided experiences that only offer selections that are compatible, will work well together and, if appropriate, are available.

System integration - Real-time connection with ERP and CRM systems, by enabling dynamic updating with your Oracle and SAP product catalogues.

Deal registration and pricing solutions - Encompassing automation of highly complex business and rule-driven authorisation processes.

Total flexibility - Open and alive to change, often with no IT interventions.

A Mercato solution provides more functionality, less risk, time savings of 80% and cost reductions of 75% over traditional methods.

Deployment and support options •

Customer hosted, outsourced provider hosted, Mercato hosted solutions

•

Customer or Mercato maintained and supported

•

Highly experienced catalogue management capability, providing round-the-clock services and lower cost options for more manual tasks

Why Mercato?

World-wide credentials.

•

Implemented global solutions for some of the world’s largest vendors

•

One of EMEA’s fastest growing and award-winning software businesses

•

UK Government nominated ‘Made By Britain’ World-beating manufacturer

•

Technology accreditations; The Institute of Chartered Accountants, CIPS

•

ISO 27001 Information Governance

•

20 years of IT supply chain domain experience on hand as a Probrand Group Company

•

Best-in-class competencies in; agile development of high performance software applications; large scale data management across a spectrum of differing formats, quality and sources; supply chain knowledge and process skills to boost real-life end user productivity

0121 605 2050

www.mercatosolutions.uk

62

Probrand Magazine

Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

4277/04082014/MRKTPLACES-AD-DPS/MAG/NH

Seamless integration - Multiple data feeds, from multiple sources, in multiple formats with a variety of update frequencies. We manage over 50 concurrent data feeds for customers. Helping everyone work from more accurate and reliable data, directly delivering faster, more accurate, higher net margin sales. Connecting many touch points of your indirect worldwide supply chain.

BUSINESS PROCESSES HOLDING YOU BACK? KnowledgeKube Automate business processes fast.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

Drive efficiency. Transform productivity.

Create business applications and portals fast.

KnowledgeKube is the go-to platform for rapid creation of applications and portals that automate business processes. Drive efficiency and transform productivity on a global scale.

Without the time, cost and inherent risk of writing code, take control and rapidly innovate.

A flexible platform environment and user friendly tools enable extensive configuration of data, forms, expressions, workflow and documents. Automate intelligence. Integrate data to and from anywhere. Connect and extend systems like SAP, Oracle and Salesforce as part of any process.

Better processes deliver lower costs, increased revenues, inspired employees and ecstatic customers.

Do difficult things quickly for unprecedented ROI.

Probrand Magazine

63

Automate processes fast and transform the way you work.

Implement a solution that benefits business and IT management, IT developers and project managers alike.

Tackle business pains with new applications and portals, covering almost every business process area you can imagine, including:

Pre-sales Get closer to customers and qualify needs better.

From simple customer surveys and product configurators to fully interactive advisory experiences.

Trading Trade more profitably with stakeholders. Sell more, faster.

Transactional vertical market portals that unlock growth.

Common Processes Unlock daily productivity and efficiency.

Expenses claims, holiday requests, administration processes, procurement authorisation and more...

Specialist processes Complex tasks made simple.

Business or role specific processes transformed.

Unprecedented ROI.

Low TCO. Results in days.

• Create advanced applications quicker and at less cost • Introduce business efficiency and improve productivity fast • Unlock global scale with options for elastic Cloud deployment that meets demand instantly • Support scarce IT resources. Let the business innovate and deliver • Maximise existing systems and data. Connect and extend more efficiently

Go create. Have it your way!

KnowledgeKube is as customer centric as you want it to be.

That’s the beauty of a flexible platform.

Deployment options to suit your needs.

1

Software and Services model Access a dedicated services team that works alongside your business and IT teams to own the applications you create. Actively participate in an iterative process to further improve accuracy, reduce timeframes and lower inherent risk.

2

Enterprise platform license Alternatively, if you have the internal skills, resources and want to have a more hands-on approach to rapid application development, we’ll provide the platform and the training and you can do the rest. We have a pricing model to suit whatever your chosen deployment strategy.

Expressions Accurate decisions, faster.

Automate behaviour Build and add advanced mathematical rules that automate decision making and intelligence directly into your applications.

Deliver personalisation, accuracy and consistency into business processes for better business outcomes.

Data Extract value and join the intelligent economy Collate, rationalise, add and extract value from your existing data repositories. Easily connect, extend and add value to existing systems and data sources. Integrate data in and out, to and from anywhere via an intuitive user interface.

Workflow Agile for faster outcomes Make relevant things happen faster.

Configure multi-channel outputs with absolute flexibility - emails, calendar updates, data processing and more.

Design first class workflows to collaborate and manage complex enterprise interactions.

Forms Simple. Flexible. Controlled Where life begins. A sophisticated and flexible builder enables advanced forms to be created and continuously improved.

Introduce data capture fields for free text, drop downs, multiple selections and even machine learning. Easily introduce mandatory and optional decision making, field validation, look up lists and help text narrative.

Documentation Raise expectations Branded and personalised role driven documents rendered in multiple formats, a given. Whatever the requirements, generate high quality documents that support entire data gathering and output needs, however complex. Incorporate form and expression data plus external information. Render out through standard office applications. Distribute anywhere.

Global scale and results.

“In less than a week we had built an application and secured £90,000 of cloud services quotes in minutes not hours of manual technical pre-sales effort.”

“Very quickly we automated a custom learning experience and Skills Award Scheme. We have 80% more students now doing the skills award as a direct result.”

Gareth Carr. Icomm Technologies

Richard Riley. Small Heath School

“Remarkable. A KnowledgeKube team of two built a working pre-sales portal from scratch within 2 working days. Bespoke development would have taken months.”

Global Insurer

“We are able to market, manage and offer well-articulated insurance cover quicker, more accurately and with minimal cost.”

“KnowledgeKube is set to help Capita Insurance services and Cobalt become a market-changer by driving risk out of workflow processes around complex products.”

John Holm. Capita

“KnowledgeKube enabled us to deliver guided pre-sales experiences to over 150 countries in 27 languages to a user base of over 25,000 companies.”

Reports and Business Intelligence Actionable insight delivered fast Drive real-time reporting on your process performance and status. Customise a drag and drop dashboard out-of-the-box for BI reporting on any element of your process and outcomes. Continuously improve processes and applications based on insights you glean.

Globalisation Deliver outside home markets Support multiple cultures and markets in different languages. Models, expressions and document generation come fully globalised with built in localisation tools.

Extensibility The freedom to innovate further Maximise existing investment in systems, libraries and custom code vital to on-going operations. Create question plugins, expression functions and custom workflow actions using Microsoft C#, VB.NET or even managed C++ with a high performance extensibility model.

“We have released thousands of sales man hours globally with KnowledgeKube pre-sales applications. These are more feature rich and were created 77% quicker and 87% cheaper than the alternative development resource. More consistent outputs and better processes have transformed customer experience.”

Blue chip tech giant

“KnowledgeKube has delivered a veterinary trading portal targeting 6,000 vets, faster and cheaper than bespoke development.”

Global Pharma Corp

Global hardware vendor

Trevor Roberts. Godiva

KnowledgeKube is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

@knowledgekube

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgekube.co.uk

4275/KKPLATFORM3PP/MAG/20140801/NH

How?

Get closer to customers.

Qualify and respond to needs better.

From simple surveys and configurators to fully guided interactive buying experiences.

Transform pre-sales and advisory services.

KnowledgeKube.

Automate business processes fast.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

Drive efficiency.

Transform productivity.

Pre-sales and qualification of needs are difficult, expensive and often manual processes, particularly where detailed sales or product knowledge are required or highly configurable products and services are being offered.

Transform your manual processes into interactive digital applications that enhance customer experience and reduce reliance on specialist sales expertise.

Unprecedented ROI. Low TCO. Instant results.

• Deliver control, accuracy and efficiency into pre-sales estimates and processes, improving sales conversions with more consistent customer centric approaches • Remove manual intervention and lower the cost of winning new business.

Improve net profitability by infusing efficiency into your processes • Maximise sales and marketing ROI by improving long and complex sales processes. Better qualify leads and increase conversions • Respond to market needs quickly to gain competitive advantage • Unlock your business’ potential by sharing pre-sales knowledge through on-line experiences and generate more revenue at lower cost

KnowledgeKube is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

Pre-sales

KnowledgeKube is the go-to platform for rapid creation of applications that automate business processes. It has been deployed by many leading businesses to deliver an unmatched pre-sales solution.

Product and service configurators Implement simple to use configurators for ‘off the shelf’ products, or more complex ‘configure to order’ products and services, such as build, order and manufacture of custom HGV’s or bespoke IT hardware systems.

Administer complex rules-based guided experiences, offering only customer relevant selections, compatibility and stock availability.

Calculators ROI and TCO calculations in customer proposals are a powerful sales tool, but they are often difficult and time consuming to deliver. Create simple to highly complex calculators. Provide customers with value added information. Trigger workflow to automatically generate custom outputs along with fully personalised and branded documentation.

Telemarketing and sales decision support Script a sales team to cross-sell a relevant service or product with conviction.

Empower them with deep levels of knowledge. More accurately qualify and match stakeholder needs and configure workflow to automatically generate outputs to nurture ongoing contact. Capture opportunities and better qualify leads. Adjust ‘live’ questions and configure intuitive guidance to sharpen yield.

Customer service Better manage and accurately script contact centre advice provision with powerful and intelligent decision support tools. Prompt users to capture information quickly and respond appropriately. Unlock efficiency and scale. Empower consistent diagnosis, troubleshooting and resolution such as clinical decision support or new starter training.

Surveys and market research Whether fact finding globally, profiling contacts locally or conducting needs analysis, improve contact engagement quality. Auto-collate responses, process and publish research quicker. Reduce survey build, publish and distribution times. Create powerful smart questionnaires that provide instant feedback to users and deliver rich outputs – PDFs, standard Microsoft Office or SharePoint formats.

“KnowledgeKube enabled us to deliver guided presales experiences to over 150 countries in 27 languages to a user base of over 25,000 companies.”

Global Hardware Vendor

“We have built an on-line IT support contract configurator to enable inexperienced sales resources to deliver highly complex quotes more quickly, and sometimes more accurately, than experienced sales people. We’ve increased new business and reduced cost of sale dramatically.”

Ian Callens. Icomm

“We have released thousands of sales man hours globally with KnowledgeKube presales applications. These are more feature rich and were created 77% quicker and 87% cheaper than the alternative development resource. More consistent outputs and better processes have transformed customer experience.”

Blue chip tech giant.

“We’re able to respond rapidly to keep premiums attractive, driving automatic renewals. “

@knowledgekube

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgekube.co.uk

4271/21072014/2PPMAGAD-PRESALES/NH

Barrie Roberts. Godiva Insurance.

Trade more profitably with stakeholders.

Sell more, faster.

Transactional vertical market portals that unlock growth.

Transform the way you trade KnowledgeKube.

Automate business processes fast.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

Drive efficiency.

Transform productivity.

Many businesses share the modern day problem of scaling marketing and business development without having huge investment budgets, a large salesforce or with the capability to train and up-skill staff.

Whether you operate in a large scale, frequently changing market like IT or insurance, or are looking to unlock new sales fast in niche verticals like dentistry or veterinary practice, we can quickly build a bespoke trading portal. Self-manage ongoing changes and configuration, unlock new sales, maximise business flexibility and increase your profit margins.

Transform profits • Rapid ROI. Reduce time and cost of taking products and services to market.

Shorten the sales cycle. Sell more, faster and without the costs of scale.

• Gain competitive advantage. Quickly test new products and adjust attributes ‘live’. From insurance ratings to broker, intermediary and /or customer discounts.

Accurately meet customer needs and beat the competition by responding to market dynamics fast.

• Improve customer experience and loyalty. Needs more accurately met through a highly efficient own-branded experience from portal to personalised documentation. A superior end user and customer journey.

• Broaden sales reach and grow revenues. Empower non-technical employees to up-sell complex products and services. Enable a receptionist to quickly build and transact an accurate customer dental plan or enable a vet to configure a complex well-being pet plan and amend an exclusive discount in a ‘live’ face to face consultation.

• Sales with scale. Internet based portals enable access for multiple internal or external users across sales and franchise networks or direct to customers. Elastic cloud deployment instantly scales to meet demand globally if needed.

KnowledgeKube is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

Trading

KnowledgeKube is the go-to platform for rapid creation of applications that automate business processes. We build trading portals quickly, all supported by a rich set of back office features, before handing control back over to your business users to modify, test and implement key trading processes online.

Real-time product and service configuration by the business Effortlessly build and manage a catalogue of offers. Introduce keywords, expression results, rich text and images, hide and show single questions or question groups. Add validation, look-ups, help text and endorsements or dynamically calculate discounts, commissions, renewals and more.

Powerful question and rating engine Questions refine customer needs, calculations and analytics validate and streamline the process and journey. Only offer what is relevant to the user or customer.

Give your users options Give users and customers multiple, side-by-side product or service options such as comparative insurance quotes or highlight gold, silver and bronze alternatives based on a service plan.

Branded experience Advanced content management tools enable full customisation of all branding, look and feel.

Personalised documentation and communications Automate content rich, branded and personalised outputs for emails and documents.

Author and render certificates, contracts, reports and more into multiple formats including PDF and Word for distribution, print and download.

Role based access and functionality Control user access to relevant actions and content from admin to sales, to enable items such as differential pricing calculated by role.

Preview everything Easily test and pilot fully featured user and customer experiences prior to promoting into live environments.

“KnowledgeKube is set to help Capita Insurance Services and Cobalt become a marketchanger by driving risk out of workflow processes of complex products.”

John Holm. Capita

“Finally, vets are able to build their own plans and pricing structures ‘live’ to be more competitive and efficient in meeting complex customer needs, so increasing direct debit recurring business.

Added value for veterinary practices and added value for us.”

US pet well-being plan provider

“Patients have different care needs and allowances to cater for variable price services. Users now select the social care they need within their prescribed per head budget. We’ve connected multiple providers to multiple buyers based on budget authorisation. It is delivering a better service and saving money.”

Social Care provider

@knowledgekube

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgekube.co.uk

4271/21072014/2PPMAGAD-TRADPOR/NH

Seamless integration Connect, extend and optionally write back to data sources, services and systems.

Close the sales loop, connect with CRM, finance and payment systems.

Unlock daily productivity and efficiency gains.

From expenses claims to holiday requests to more complex processes.

Streamline and automate your common business processes Automate business processes fast.

Common or everyday business processes are often the least efficient element of any working day. These are often repetitive manual processes or disjointed legacy applications. Automating and improving them unlocks time and cost savings, allowing businesses to focus resource elsewhere.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

However, prototyping and delivering solutions to these problems has traditionally cost more than continuing to complete the process manually, until now…

KnowledgeKube.

Drive efficiency.

Transform productivity.

KnowledgeKube has broken the mould as a platform that enables business users to develop their own business applications that simplify common tasks at radically reduced cost. Simple, flexible, efficient.

Transform daily • Ever increasing ROI. The more you automate and improve, the greater the ROI. • Tailored to you. Automate processes how you work. KnowledgeKube is flexible, so applications can be tailored by you, by your own people or by our implementation team.

• Quick delivery quick ROI. Deployed from the cloud for instant use. Streamlined configuration, changes made easily and in a controlled environment, so timeline and costs are compressed.

• Absolute scalability. KnowledgeKube has already proven its scalability with applications that are in use world-wide in over 150 countries in 27 languages handling over $1bn of transactions per month.

• Rapid and simple integration. Easily integrate with your existing data, services and systems to leverage your investments.

KnowledgeKube is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

Common Processes

KnowledgeKube is the go-to platform for rapid creation of applications that automate business processes.

The KnowledgeKube application portfolio is growing daily as more business uses are identified and more business applications are created.

Every business area can benefit from automation of common and daily business processes, including Management, Health & Safety, IT, HR, Finance, Compliance and Sales & Marketing.

Example common areas that can be transformed with KnowledgeKube Management processes

Flexible work tracking

Employee induction

Document management

Absence monitoring

Expense tracking

Performance management

Health & Safety management

Probationary reviews

Compliance procedures

Overtime reporting

Recruitment process management

Awards schemes and training programmes

Fraud detection

“By automating some of our common manual business processes we delivered considerable time savings for our advisors within a short development time frame and within days of implementation.”

Central Government service provider

“We developed a working prototype with two Implementation consultants on site for two days, with no other work involved – a process that would previously have taken months.

Remarkable.

IT Director Global Insurer

@knowledgekube

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgekube.co.uk

4271/21072014/2PPMAGAD-COMMON/NH

Need more? Develop your own business applications with the KnowledgeKube platform or get our implementation team to modify existing or create new applications for you.

Specialist tasks made simple.

Organisation or role specific processes transformed.

Transform and differentiate with new ways of working KnowledgeKube.

Automate business processes fast.

Create applications at reduced cost and risk.

Drive efficiency.

Transform productivity.

Business leaders often look to do things differently from their peers; identifying weakness in processes and implementing new ways of working whilst continuously improving and refining.

Are you looking to differentiate your organisation or perhaps innovate processes specific to you, your sector or role?

KnowledgeKube’s flexibility enables rapid configuration of customised line-ofbusiness applications to your exacting needs, automating manual yet specialised processes. Connect and extend existing systems, services and data sources too.

If you are looking to automate and better control your procurement process, implement a high performance in-store advisory service, or improve a variety of other specialist processes, KnowledgeKube delivers quickly.

Streamline your business processes and increase productivity.

• Unprecedented ROI. Low TCO. Instant results • Streamline and improve processes for better business outcomes, save time, save money • Be more productive and release time to focus on more strategic tasks • Maximise existing systems, services and data. Connect and extend with minimum risk and expense • Let the business innovate and deliver. Empower your IT department with a streamlined development platform; enable control and governance to be retained whilst relieving everyday development pressures.

KnowledgeKube is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

Specialist Processes

KnowledgeKube is the go-to platform for rapid creation of applications that automate business processes. It enables even the most complex and specialised processes to be automated and extended.

Empower your users - Quickly and consistently deliver an interactive process that equips and guides users based on their role in the enterprise and the information they provide.

Automate intelligence and decision making - Be more process focussed. Remove manual intervention by adding logic to your end user journeys. Progressively present only those elements that are relevant to the role or task at hand.

Any business or role can feel the benefit - From niche single role-based processes through to the most complex global organisations, understanding and intelligence can be delivered faster and with better quality assurance.

Integrate everywhere - Connect, extend or supplement enterprise level ERP and CRM systems such as SAP, Oracle and Salesforce. Integrate with systems and infrastructure provisioned in the cloud including BizTalk Services or custom applications within Microsoft Azure data centres.

@knowledgekube

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgekube.co.uk

4271/21072014/2PPMAGAD-SPECPROC/NH

Enterprise procurement requisitioning and auction application.

Single system joining disparate data, locations, processes, suppliers, customers and approvers. Product catalogue updated daily to enable online ordering from only approved supplier base.

Integration with customers Active Directory and ERP systems.

Purchasing and IT improved internal SLA’s by 20% and reduced admin costs of purchase orders by 70%.

@KnowledgeBus

www.knowledgebus-it.co.uk

0121 605 2050

81% of organisations could save money buying IT* Many still pay up to 673% margin

Compare. Negotiate. Save.

CIPS accredited KnowledgeBus enables IT buyers to quickly benchmark purchases against daily trade guide price and stock levels on over 150,000 products from more than 2,500 manufacturers.

Measurable benefits from day one: Save up to 24% on ICT budgets and an hour per order Identify fair price and spot overcharging Plot key market trends for more strategic procurement

*Download the full report at: www.knowledgebus-it.co.uk

KnowledgeBus is a product of Mercato Solutions Limited.

45-55 Camden Street, Birmingham, B1 3BP

We managed to reduce our IT spend by approximately 10%.

Sage UK Dave Banks, Senior IT Procurement Coordinator

www.knowledgebus-it.co.uk

0121 605 2050

Rapid Benchmarking KnowledgeBus IT Edition facilitates rapid benchmarking activity so you can negotiate and validate better deals with suppliers fast. It advises you of daily updated specification, trade guide price and stock levels on products held within the UK IT supply chain. It will help you save time and money.

Import lists Upload one-off checks or catalogues for automated population with buy-price, margin and stock.

Framework pricing Cross check buy-prices with your subscribed frameworks and channel pricing to validate point of best value.

Auto alerts Set automatic notification of price/stock/End Of Line movements for your products to stay ahead of suppliers.

Spend Analysis Set periodic automated spend analyses on existing lists or interrogate new lists to police overcharging.

Request For Quotations Automated RFQs to shorten the purchase process.

Exchange rates & raw materials Access and chart stats to assess market patterns for more strategic purchasing.

Management single view Quickly unlock more from your budget with an intuitive tile based dashboard that delivers deep levels of information in a ‘single view’.

Total Integration Join-up your benchmarking workflow with third party solutions from ERP to cloud apps and Microsoft Office.

Procurement Hub Optional facility. Add a buy button. Validate prices then purchase at guaranteed fixed margins.

Big Data Drive informed procurement decisions with access to a terabyte of daily updated ICT market Business Intelligence, covering 150,000+ ‘live’ products from 2,500+ manufacturers across every category. Analyse an archive of data on over 600,000 products.

Collaboration Reduce duplication of effort by sharing outputs, alerts, product lists and related benchmark information across departments or a network of offices.

Benchmark on the go Conduct mobile procurement activity on tablets, iPads and smartphones.

Benchmarking Services Optional service. Let us deliver your spend analysis. Then use our deep IT supply chain insight to coach purchasers on best practice and how to achieve best value.

0121 605 2050

www.knowledgebus-it.co.uk

4279/20140812/KB-MAG-DPS/NH

*KnowledgeBus IT Edition survey evaluated over 1,000 organisations with perceived supplier relationships of between cost +3-5%.

Your technology partner www.probrand.co.uk 0121 605 1000

IT Products www.theITindex.co.uk 0800 262 629

IT Services www.icomm.co.uk 0121 248 7931

Software www.mercatosolutions.co.uk 0121 605 2050

Outstanding Integrator of the Year 2010