Talk About IT #2

WINTER 2017 Personal Smartphone: A corporate risk Remember to cleanse corporate data

Time to feel at home with cloud We compare hosting options

Stress in the workplace Top tips for a happier, healthier workplace

OFFICE 365 • BCCC AWARDS 2016 • VOIP SOLUTIONS • MEET THE TEAM

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Latest News Inner space at the heart of the Quiss service What a difference a warehouse makes Things that go bang in the night How our break-fix service keeps the lights on A reseller IT hardware break-fix solution Use our helpdesk resources for growth Personal smartphone - a corporate risk Remember to cleanse the corporate data Think VoIP but think carefully Avoid security flaws when implementing VoIP Looking at Education IT services differently Funding alternatives with a commercial approach Benefits of Office 365 Take your office everywhere; be more productive Time to feel at home with the cloud We compare hosting options Microsoft 1-Tier Cloud Solution Provider More benefits of doing business with Quiss Avoid feeling blue with Azure Recovery Services A cloud back-up solution for everyone Stress in the workplace Top tips for a happier, healthier business Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards A great night out in Wolverhampton Service focus delivers a strong year for Quiss 2016 proved a good year for us Quiss People What has 2017 got in store for us?

We look at a few tech predictions Case Study: Wright Solicitors Office 365 and VoIP offer greater flexibility Arrivals: Rohen Farmer Meet our recently arrived head of technical services

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Quiss Technology has been delivering IT support services since we were founded in 1988; the early years of the information technology revolution.

To discuss content or to be part of our next edition, please contact the editor, Tracy Armstrong. t. 0333 222 4334 e. enquiries@quiss.co.uk w. www.quiss.co.uk

QuissTechPLC Quiss Technology plc

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Quiss adds Edwards Duthie to legal roster

Legastat asks us to Quiss IT better Our ISO 27001:2013 certification was an important factor in securing the managed IT services contract with Legastat. They provide a professional, confidential and efficient service for corporations, government agencies, law firms and sole practitioners, who rely on them for litigation support and disclosure obligations.

Edwards Duthie Solicitors is one of the largest law firms in Essex and East London. It joins the growing list of legal sector clients benefiting from our Qworks managed IT services.

The firm has 11 Partners and just under 100 staff operating out of several offices, with clients spread across the UK, including corporate, trade union and private individuals.

Replacing their existing support provider, we delivered a more resilient, reliable and comprehensive solution.

Bringing previously hosted services to an on-premise/hybrid solution, ensured we developed a more pragmatic solution, significantly reducing costs.

Attracting another law firm to our growing client base, again demonstrates our deep and genuine understanding of the increasing IT challenges all law firms face.

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Legastat recently achieved ISO27001:2013 certification and sought a service provider to help align their IT systems and infrastructure with their data security considerations.

its business goals, whilst improving the service it delivers. The more reliable and robust system has been enhanced with new equipment to deliver productivity gains for the firm’s users.

Users have the added confidence they are now supported by our 35-strong support team of helpdesk engineers, field service engineers and network specialists.

The newly structured IT platform, combines on-premise and Cloud solutions to help Legastat achieve

Hawkins agrees 8-year deal Demonstrating the strength of our relationships, long-term client Hawkins, recently signed a new support contract, but this time extending the term to eight years.

Hawkins is a well-established and respected firm of consulting engineers and forensic scientists that recognises the important role a robust, resilient IT system and infrastructure plays in the success of their business.

Quiss has supported Hawkins for six years, covering the IT issues that impact the daily activities of the 125 users, to managing major projects like office integrations, new phone systems, a disaster recovery

solution and application rollouts.

The decision to agree a longer deal, was not just based on the service received, but on our understanding of their business, how they work and their ambitions. Reflecting the needs of businesses like Hawkins, we’ve added services, from support for overseas offices to proactive network design to accommodate growth.

Mould-breaking Derby law firm chooses Quiss Quiss was recently appointed to provide a range of IT support services to Flint Bishop, a multiaward winning, top 200 law firm.

Whilst the firm operate from a local Derbyshire address, with offices in both Derby and Ashbourne - their advice spans across the UK and the firm advise on large multi-million pound turnover clients, from wellknown household brands.

Offering certainty of price and service delivery, our fixed-cost partnership includes everything needed from an operational and

strategic perspective.

Our years of experience supporting a growing number of law firms, with unrivalled knowledge of the software and third-party apps they rely on to run their business, is undoubtedly key to Quiss securing this contract.

Adding to our legal sector clients demonstrates our detailed understanding of how the appropriate technology helps increase productivity and improve efficiency, particularly for firms like Flint Bishop who often find their solicitors need to be available 24/7.

Clintons renewal confirms our legal expertise Clintons, an award-winning boutique London law firm recently renewed its IT managed services contract with us, for another four years, again demonstrating our strength in the legal sector.

assess the benefits and drawbacks.

It was decided to keep the servers on-premise, but switch back-up to Microsoft Azure, developing a bespoke solution that perfectly fits Clintons’ needs

A market leader in the entertainment and creative industries, it relies heavily on the 24/7 availability of its IT systems and network to access client data from anywhere, anytime, with any device.

Our ability to combine on-premise and cloud services, whilst providing comprehensive remote and onsite support for the retained server infrastructure, proved decisive.

The firm’s IT infrastructure was always an on-premise solution, but consideration of a total cloudbased solution required us to

Our fixed cost and large resources offer peace of mind and ensures IT becomes an enabler for the firm’s fee-earners to hit deadlines.

Turbervilles agrees hybrid Cloud solution Turbervilles Solicitors recently appointed Quiss to deliver a hybrid cloud solution, that combined existing on-premise resources with a mix of Cloud services to deliver the perfect combination of security, flexibility and agility.

Headquartered in Uxbridge West London, the firm provides legal services to businesses and individuals, having built a strong reputation for delivering friendly, efficient and specialist advice.

The firm’s 53 users benefit from our Qworks solution that incorporates everything needed from an operational and strategic perspective, in a fixed term, fixed cost partnership, delivering total peace of mind.

Our experience of the legal sector helped secure this contract, but our expertise with Microsoft Azure and experience of helping organisations migrate to Office 365 was equally important.

Adding another legal sector client again underlines our detailed understanding of the challenges faced by law firms of all sizes and how Cloud services can be successfully integrated into their future IT environment.

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Inner space at the heart of the Quiss service The question we are often asked by clients and prospects, is how can we guarantee such a quick turnaround on equipment that has broken, stopped working or needs a replacement part. The answer is simple and evident in the photos that accompany this story; a large stock of spares.

“Although there is often little wrong with the equipment, technology moves on and the new machines will typically be more energy efficient, faster and more reliable; just generally a bit better all round.

“Once it’s all arrived and checked off, we get it unpacked and ready for the engineers to tailor each one by hand to ensure it is right for the client and each individual user – every item is tracked with unique codes and assigned a user.

“When the engineers have finished the buildout, we re-package everything and prepare for the roll-out, which typically with law firms will take place over a weekend to limit any disruption to their work. Not so nice for us, but good for our clients and comes with the job!

We take the security of our clients’ data very seriously and hard drives are destroyed, not wiped.

A wander round our vast warehouse in Tamworth, with supervisor Neil Smith is like a journey back through time. This is a space Neil knows well, having curated the warehouse and all its contents for almost a quarter of a century, becoming one of the first employees of Quiss, back in 1992.

Neil explained the lifecycle of one of the computers now residing in what he described as the quarantine area: “An equipment re-fresh is an integral part of a contract renewal and is the major reason we have such a large warehouse.

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“The procurement team will order the new equipment following an audit by the sales team and the engineers, who will understand what the client wants to achieve and how best we can fulfil their needs.

“We’re given plenty of warning of the largest roll-outs, so we can ensure we have room for hundreds of new computers and associated equipment, from printers and monitors to televisions and servers.

“Each roll-out requires a lot of ‘old’ equipment to be removed, which generally ends up back in the warehouse the following morning.

Although users know to save everything and check they have all their files, experience has shown us there is always something forgotten.

And that is why every computer sits in our secure quarantine area for a month. In that time, ‘lost’ files can still be retrieved, but any longer and there is no way back. We take the security of our clients’ data very seriously and hard drives are destroyed, not wiped.

“A large mobile destruction unit arrives in the car park when I request it. Every single hard drive is removed from its computer and its serial number is logged. Each one is then ground into very tiny pieces, in what can only be described as a cacophony of grinding sounds and extreme violence!

“We have a certificate of destruction available for the client to guarantee the drives and the information they contain can never divulge their secrets.

“The computers without drives and all the associated equipment is then stored safely as a repository for spare parts, to cover all the

thousands of machines we have in clients’ offices, factories, schools and homes.

“We have a duplicate piece of equipment or spare parts for every item being used by our clients.

In an emergency, we can have a replacement on site within hours, ready for our team of field engineers to fit back into the network.

“Although we take it in turns to cover the 24/7 operation of the warehouse, in rare cases, one of the team will open up in the middle of the night to prepare parts for an engineer to collect, who can be on-site when the client opens for business. It’s all about keeping disruption to the minimum.

“Older equipment is replaced by slightly newer second-hand equipment, following rollouts, which could overfill the warehouse.

Eventually when no further parts are likely to be needed, we will often refurbish the computers and

distribute to charities, to ensure little viable equipment is scrapped.

“For most computers, the journey from box-fresh to quarantine, drive destruction and parts box, will typically take 3-4 years. In recent years, this has extended as clients are signing longer support contracts, but we’ll always have room to ensure no client waits too long for a vital piece of equipment or a critical spare part.

“I like to think that the warehouse and all the parts within it, from the smallest printer feed cog to huge multi-function printers, are an essential part of the unrivalled quality of service Quiss delivers to its clients.

“We’re a hidden resource, few managed IT service providers our size can match. They rely on suppliers further up the chain to hold spares, but one more link always means there’s a little more slack in the service.”

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Things that go BA NG

in the night IT systems and hardware are the unsung heroes of the workplace, rarely receiving the attention they deserve, until something goes bang.

Your business relies on its IT system and the equipment your IT system relies upon, is almost exclusively electrical and complicated, which means sometimes, some of it will stop working.

Beyond the warranty that came with your equipment when it was new, you still want the maximum availability and performance from your hardware, systems and infrastructure.

When they try and sell extended warranty with a £30 toaster, it can be annoying, but when it’s the servers your whole business runs on or the printer your sales team need every day, then extending the life of this equipment makes sense.

And that’s where traditional maintenance services can help extend equipment life, with preventative action to limit breakdowns or a guaranteed quick response when something goes bang.

Typically, for a fixed annual fee, any item can be covered, from laptops and printers to servers and modems, whatever is vital to the day-to-day operations of an organisation. And the cover is backed by service level agreements (SLAs) that offer real peace of mind for business-critical equipment.

As you might expect, some firms will go further. If for any reason a repair cannot be completed within the time set by the SLA, the good ones like us will supply and install a temporary replacement.

Relationships with all major manufacturers are required to ensure equipment needed is readily available. But unless you’re good with a screwdriver, you’ll need a service provider with a team

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of mobile engineers ready to fit everything - the final guarantee of real peace of mind over fix times.

Old but still useful Thanks to hardware maintenance contracts, you can continue to use equipment in your business without a valid manufacturer’s warranty, safe in the knowledge you have options if it breaks.

However, it’s important that when you add new equipment to your inventory, you advise the provider of your post-warranty services, so when the warranty runs out they know and can add break-fix cover for the item in question.

The best providers will include all hardware required to fix any issues with the equipment covered by the maintenance agreement, as well as unlimited engineering support onsite during predefined hours.

When you weigh the cost of equipment downtime and disruption to your business against the comprehensive hardware maintenance services available, with predictable annual fixed costs, then it makes no sense to wait for things to break, just to see how much you will miss them.

Or worse, assume it will break and replace it, when there is plenty of life left in the equipment.

New is good, but not better Importantly, a typical break-fix service ensures your broken equipment is put back as close to its original status as possible, dependent on your back-ups and their viability. If you buy a new replacement, you will also have the additional downtime and costs associated with reloading your operating system, apps, data, etc.

Get a quote for cover and rest easy.

GROW WITH A RESELLER IT HARDWARE BREAK-FIX SOLUTION FROM QUISS

The supply and support of modern IT systems and infrastructure is not only challenging, it’s competitive.

We understand as a reseller, your customers often lack specialist skills or the resources to look after their own IT estate. They rely on you and you either do what you can or risk losing them to a competitor that offers the level of support they require as their business grows.

It’s why we developed our reseller IT hardware break-fix solution. It delivers a comprehensive service to your customers, in your name.

We can be your support team and maintain or fix your customers hardware whenever or wherever they experience problems beyond the manufacturer’s warranty.

Our IT hardware break-fix partner programme can help you keep customers and help you grow your business without you having to invest in new people, expertise or resources.

retain business but win more.

For added peace of mind we will sign non-disclosure agreements and white label our service if you prefer.

We will work closely with you to protect your brand and strengthen the relationship you have with your clients.

Why Quiss is the right partner of choice When your customer has a problem, they want action not messages logged or a call back the next day.

At your service is our UK-based, 35-strong support team of helpdesk engineers, network engineers, systems specialists and logistics experts, all ready to swing into action when your client calls; we can even supply you with a unique phone number to reach support, answered in your name.

And remember, calls come straight through to engineers in our support team, not call handlers.

With our support, you can help your clients extend the life of their equipment, whether you originally supplied it or not, with preventative action or a quick response when the lights go off.

We have a huge warehouse full of every conceivable spare part, so you don’t have to hold stock yourself. Our field engineers deliver the national coverage that allows you to extend your reach, without additional cost.

Fixed annual fees to cover any or all of your customer’s equipment, backed by service level agreements, offer you the chance not just to

For added peace of mind, we are a financially secure, independent privately-owned business, founded in 1988 that started life fixing

computers and systems supplied by others.

Our IT hardware break-fix service in short • 24/7/365 UK-based helpdesk • National coverage by experienced support engineers • Cover for all major hardware types • ISO 27001: 2013 and ISO 9001: 2008 certified • 6000m3 parts warehouse • Service level agreements • Confidentiality and NDA backed relationships • Unrivalled diagnostic and firstfix rates • Competitive prices with room for your margin A great business opportunity Building a comprehensive support service takes significant investment and time spent training; we should know. Our IT hardware break-fix programme gives you the chance to enhance the service you offer your clients, helping minimise equipment downtime and disruption if things go wrong.

You benefit from predictable annual fixed costs, unrivalled quality of service and experienced support teams ready to help you retain existing business and fight for more with renewed confidence.

Importantly, our service ensures broken equipment is put back as close to its original status as possible, dependent on back-ups and data integrity, licencing etc. New replacement equipment, will still require additional downtime and the costs associated with reloading operating system, re-building desktops, apps, data, etc.

You can trust Quiss to do it all for you and for your clients.

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WHEN PERSONAL SMARTPHONE TRADE-INS THREATEN CORPORATE SECURITY

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ust when you thought you had every aspect of security covered, along comes another to cause headaches and sleepless nights, often as an unexpected consequence of helping employees work remotely and more efficiently.

are you that every employee will recognise the risk and more importantly know how to do it. And we have witnessed the flaws with phone reset processes when in 2015 security experts retrieved sensitive data from Android phones after they underwent a reset.

But it’s not just phones. Any device that can access, download and store corporate data puts it at risk of unauthorised access once the device is no longer controlled by the organisation or its employee.

Despite the more secure encryption used on some phones, manually deleting is still a favoured method to remove data off phones, but this usually only deletes the signposts to the information and not the data itself.

The problem can be as simple as an employee who downloads work emails with attachments to their personal phone, decides to upgrade for something more exciting, faster, larger, quicker etc.

The simplest way will typically involve encrypting all the data on the phone, then at least if any is found following the factory reset process, it will be scrambled and of no use to whoever it is that finds it.

Of course, thanks to your engaging ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) policy this phone used to connect to your corporate network and handle corporate data, some of which was sensitive or worse, belonged to a client.

The most sensible and secure approach is to introduce a request into the organisation’s BYOD policy for the firm to take responsibility for removing data from the employee’s phone, before they trade-in, retire their phone or leave the organisation.

Your employee might not exchange their old phone to upgrade but sell it on the internet to all those companies happy to pay for old phones, ready to ship abroad where old phones can demand higher values – and the potential to retrieve your data goes with it.

If your conscientious employee is aware their phone, tablet or laptop contains client files, sensitive corporate data or network passwords and log-in details, they will more than likely attempt to delete everything. But it might not be as easy as they think.

Any device can undergo a factory re-set or a drive can be formatted to remove data, but how confident

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If the request is couched in terms of shared responsibility to keep the organisation safe from attack, there should be little resistance to the concept. In truth, most people would welcome the support from experts to delete all data safely, even their own ‘personal’ information and pictures!

Think VoIP but

Think carefully Separate voice and data The benefits of Hosted Voice, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as it’s perhaps more widely known are now broadly accepted, but for some, the full capabilities will be unachievable because they do not have a stable or fast-broadband connection.

In an ideal world, you really need ‘fibre to the cabinet’ (FTTC) as a minimum to give you the speed and data capacity required. Then you need to ensure your data network is capable of handling voice and data, with good network design critical to a stable and reliable VoIP implementation.

Important for getting the best from VoIP will be Quality of Service (QoS), which refers to how your network treats voice traffic.

If information is lost or delayed, by poor broadband speed, poor network design or congestion, a noticeable

which may deliver good results.

However, the best solution is to use a dedicated internet connection for your VoIP equipment and leaving data traffic on the original broadband line.

And while we’re on the subject of broadband in an ideal world, in most commercial settings, you should insist on an FTTC broadband line as a minimum, which will have the requisite speed and capacity.

Secure your network Having implemented VoIP, utilising your FTTC broadband line you sit back and enjoy reduced line rentals, lower call costs, easier remote working and simpler administration.

But ignore the threat of the latest generation of hackers at your peril.

There is nothing more fraudsters like than a badly set-up VoIP. Not only will thieves try and route very expensive calls through your system, often by the thousand, but

There is nothing more fraudsters like than a badly set-up VoIP drop in call quality is likely. The effects experienced will include distorted audio, dropped calls and even an annoying echo.

There are different ways to handle voice traffic; enabling QoS on your router and ignoring QoS, both of

by cracking your voice network, they will gain access to your system and your sensitive data.

Hackers now use programmes designed to find vulnerable VoIP networks. A strong firewall is needed as any gaps in it, like an open port

are all they need and the new breed of criminal does not have to be a coding genius, as many such programmes are for sale on the dark web, some even offer tech support!

When a weak point is discovered, the hacker will attempt to authenticate their access and take control of the system. This process is made easier if the system is still relying on the default password, or a simple generic password that can be cracked by an automated trial process.

With the password, the hackers now also control the traffic through the system, voice and data – a scary thought. If theft, ransom or blackmail are not the priority, the hackers may initiate an attack to overload the system to cause disruption and bring everything to a halt. Or worse.

Typically, the thieves will look for revenue creation before you twig someone is in your system and one common method is to direct your calls to a premium-rate phone number, where you’re charged per-minute above the cost of the call connection - like an adult chat number or a psychic hotline.

It’s important to close unnecessary ports and keep your firewall current, with all the latest updates applied.

And of course, if in doubt, talk to the experts. Quiss can help.

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Looking at Education IT services differently The Government will spend around £80 billion on education in 2017, a similar amount to previous years, despite rising pupil numbers.

But with educators expected to do more and raise standards to prepare children for further or higher education and work, is it time they adopted a more commercial approach when buying goods and services?

The pursuit of academy status allows schools more freedom over their budgets and offers the opportunity to take a fresh approach to their IT needs.

Lessons learned Without wishing to be controversial, the education sector is regarded as something of a special case by those looking to supply IT solutions. These ‘bespoke’ solutions are claimed to be designed specially to address a range of issues ‘unique’ to schools and academies and often attract premium pricing.

But are schools really a special case? Increasingly schools and

colleges are adopting a more commercial approach to the supply of goods and services. The supply and support of IT systems and infrastructure is no different.

Schools can benefit from the highly competitive commercial world of managed IT services, with a similar approach applied to the education sector to create a high-quality service, driven by service level agreements, with no ‘special case’ premium to pay.

Uniquely shaped Services can be tailored with options available to ensure the resulting solution best meets the unique needs of each school or academy.

Importantly any supply and support contract can reflect preferred payment options - all in one sum at the beginning or on an operating lease basis with monthly, termly or annual invoices.

It’s never simple enough to say all equipment should be acquired via an operating lease. Many items will have a lifespan significantly longer than the three-year length of a typical operating lease and outright purchase will make more sense.

No one knows the importance of every child making a good start with technology, better than those like us that see its crucial role in so many businesses across the UK. Technology will only become more important and it’s critical for every pupil to interact with new technology that works consistently to help them learn and inspire their future life choices.

Bespoke support IT support can be delivered from both an operational and strategic perspective. The range of services is expanding all the time and the choice can be tailored to ensure the best possible support for an in-house IT resource or to offer a practical alternative to managing a team.

Benefits of looking differently at education IT, include: • Flexible and adaptable contracts

• Continual improvement programme

• Scalable resources with specialists

• All major systems supported

• Remote support and monitoring

• Third-party software support

• Service level agreements

• Fast response to critical issues

• Support existing in-house IT staff

• National team of network specialists

• Full-service outsourcing available

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Managed IT service providers will also offer access to specialists with experience that few in-house teams can match or need more than a few times a year.

A fully managed solution can be designed to improve the service delivered to schools, whilst also helping reduce the overall costs.

Experienced teams can undertake the function and management of a school’s infrastructure, typically leaving the head of IT to focus on a future technology strategy, not the day-to-day problems of maintaining an effective network.

environment, with a discussion of how technology is currently used and what the school or academy’s ambition is for the future.

This meeting should lead to a plan outlining critical and optional changes to help improve the network – if it can’t be improved they should say so.

Educators need the support of knowledgeable and approachable IT staff, able to make the most technical problems easy to

understand and even simpler to solve.

Think cars The choices are simple and it really is all about what schools and academies want and how they prefer to pay for it; a bit like shopping for a new car. When you can find the car of your dreams and you have enough money to buy it outright, you can negotiate a discount - it’s the same with technology.

Outsourced service providers can also help manage and revitalise an existing in-house IT team, integrating external resources to deliver a unified IT support team for any school or academy.

This means issues can be collaborated on, with the internal team escalating to the external resources when they need specialist support or just an extra pair of hands. This level of flexibility inspires confidence and drives innovation.

Entrance exam Schools and academy’s need to look at IT differently and the first step is to find an IT service provider that understands the challenges they face, both from a technology perspective and flexibility of funding options.

They should seek a free comprehensive technology audit that will assess their network and technology

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Choice of services to create tailored support, include: • Unlimited user helpdesk support

• Disaster recovery and continuity services

• Unlimited remote and on-site support

• Video-conferencing

• Network administration and management • Strategic consultancy • Technical consultancy • Project management services

• Digital signage • Interactive projection • Hardware & software procurement • Consumables • Asset and licence management

• Training services

Of course, sometimes you want a better car than you have the money for all in one go, so you spread the cost over a typical three-year contract.

If you don’t have the funds to pay for all your technology and support outright, then at the end of the operating lease, your school or academy has the following options:

These personal contract purchase (PCP) plans can include servicing, running costs and even insurance to take the guess work out of owning your car – and it’s the same with technology and the support services on offer.

Return all the equipment – all the leased equipment will be collected and all the data will be cleansed. A certificate will be provided to prove this work has been completed.

Before that a discussion about refreshing all the technology will

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take place. Like handing your car back after 36 months and getting a new one.

Extend your lease – the lease can be extended, utilising all the existing equipment. This will help reduce the monthly cost, whilst guaranteeing the same great level of service.

It’s like re-financing your car for a further year or two.

Keep the equipment - at the end of the lease, a fair market value for all the equipment you have leased will be assessed so the school or academy can keep everything for a single final payment. Just like paying off the residual value at the end of your car lease agreement and keeping the car.

There is no easy answer for the education sector as it looks to overcome the funding challenge, but a more pragmatic commercial approach to the purchasing of IT services, will ensure technology remains an enabler to teaching, not a stumbling block to aspirations.

Take your office everywhere and be more productive Hard to believe Microsoft Office 365 has been with us for five years, yet in that time it has become the most popular enterprise cloud service and its popularity continues to grow.

But what’s all the fuss about you’re thinking, it’s just the same Microsoft Office products that we have installed at work, but now they are dressed up as Cloud apps, right? Wrong.

Microsoft Office 365 is not the future; it is the now.

And if you’ve not already made the switch, then we’ve picked a few compelling reasons why this flexible cloud offering will change your business and quite possibly your life for the better, quickly.

Whatever the size of your organisation, there is a plan designed to suit your needs.

For small businesses, there is Business Premium with Office, along with email and video conferencing. Larger concerns can call on Office 365 Enterprise, which comes with all the familiar Office apps, Skype, advanced analytics with Power BI Pro and Microsoft MyAnalytics and Advanced eDiscovery.

For true any device, anywhere, anytime access, these plans allow the installation of all the familiar apps like, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher and OneNote, on up to 5 PCs or Macs.

Anything. Anywhere. All the time Office 365 ensures your files are always accessible and always up to date. Whether you are working in the office, at home or out and about, you have access to all the information you need, whenever you need it.

Available on annual or monthly subscription, the comprehensive Office 365 platform will undoubtedly revolutionize the way you create, access, use and share information.

The real difference however comes with new tools designed to help you collaborate, communicate and connect more easily, including: Exchange: business class email, calendar and contacts with a 50 GB mailbox for every user, allowing attachments up to 150 MB to be sent, which means less need to use file exchange sites.

SharePoint: a content hub that allows everyone you work with, inside and outside your business, to collaborate in real time and be more productive, creating and share content using familiar Microsoft Office tools.

Yammer: a social network for your business to improve employee engagement and communication, with users sharing knowledge and information in a safe, secure environment.

OneDrive: manage and share documents from anywhere, using familiar Office apps in real time, on any device, with automatic syncing ensuring the latest document is always used.

Skype for Business: connect to colleagues and contacts, with the security, compliance and control you need. See the online status of your contacts, schedule meetings and start conversations using Office apps.

Switching to Office 365 starts with an assessment of your particular needs and knowing how many users you have.

Then we’ll discuss how we achieve a pain-free migration of your business-critical information to the cloud.

Everything else is just about budgets.

Moving your organisation to Microsoft Office 365 will help increase productivity and efficiency, whilst helping you cut costs and spend more time on what matters most as you drive growth and success.

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TIME TO FEEL AT HOME WITH THE CLOUD Switch on any of your devices and there are all your applications and data. You’re ready to work and without a thought to where everything is stored. It used to be on your local machine and local servers, but now thanks to the increase in Cloud services, it could be anywhere.

the same app are used by different users there can be compatibility issues.

flexibility around what apps are shared, with each user only seeing those they need.

There is also a risk some user files will be visible to other users from outside the organisation. Even if they are not accessible, just a file name could reveal sensitive information.

Whether you call it hosted desktop, desktop as a service (DaaS) or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), the potential benefits are the same regardless of the set-up you choose.

Potential risks to your organisation vary depending on the delivery model you choose.

This Cloud model, also poses a greater risk with security permissions potentially exposing an organisation to security problems that their clients may question when assessing their suppliers.

The actions of users from one organisation cannot impact the performance of any other organisation using the shared infrastructure. The files and data used by an organisation’s employees are isolated from other organisations using the shared infrastructure, which increases security considerably.

Shared Desktop + Shared Infrastructure (SDSI) This ‘everybody shares everything’ model, keeps costs low. Favoured by start-ups and small businesses, initially attracted by the lack of up-front investment, this model is inflexible and presents an increased security risk.

Users from different organisations share virtual machines and the activities of one user can impact the server, effecting other users, even from outside the organisation. With the same apps available across all desktops, when different versions of

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Although very cost-effective, with the infrastructure costs spread across all the organisations using the shared resources, from the perspectives of best practice and security there are better options.

Dedicated Desktop + Shared Infrastructure (DDSI) The most popular hosted desktop model shares the back-end infrastructure and log-on process across all organisations, but critically provides dedicated virtual machines for each organisation.

Only users from within the same organisation are sharing virtual machines, which provides greater

Greater flexibility also allows an organisation to be less reliant on the service provider and administrate more themselves, like viewing which users are logged onto which servers, shadowing a session and resetting a session when necessary.

This approach suits many modern, agile organisations, with more mobile workforces wanting access to everything, anytime, anywhere, with any device. It balances isolation, performance, flexibility, self-service administration and cost, making this the ideal solution for organisations with up to 70 users.

Dedicated Desktop + Dedicated Infrastructure (DDDI) Larger organisations or those with

complex, multi-site operations, might share nothing but the Cloud.

No infrastructure components are shared and the client owns all domain controllers and file servers.

This model suits organisations operating in highly regulated environments or those requiring the very highest levels of data security.

Avoiding a total on-premise solution, this model delivers an isolated

TIVE A N R E T L A AN

operation unaffected by other users sharing the same hosting location. It can be tailored fully to an organisation’s needs, with the level of customisation like the DDSI model above.

Organisations can administrate their applications and desktop offerings, whilst managing user subscription offerings. The organisation can also take responsibility for helpdesk support, managing session hosts,

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managing applications etc.

Accelerated service delivery is a major benefit and the flexibility ensures organisations do not reach too far, too early and specify unused capacity that will impact return on investment.

The only compromise is cost, which can be considerably higher because none of the infrastructure components are shared. Typically, this model suits organisations with more than 70 users.

Shared Desktop + Shared Infrastructure It’s like a house of multiple occupancy. The landlord owns the property, covers all repairs, all bills and owns all the furniture.

You rent a single room, but share the bathroom, kitchen, lounge etc. Although your door has a lock, it’s not that secure and you must trust the other tenants.

You have no real control over how your room looks and another tenant might block the hall with their bike, which you can’t use.

Dedicated Desktop + Shared Infrastructure You still rent a room in a house of multiple occupancy, but now have your own front door, kitchen, lounge etc.

Your bedroom is en-suite and you have another to expand into or to turn into a study, office or playroom. The landlord is still responsible for the property and the bills, but it’s your furniture and you choose the decor.

The house is well sound-proofed though and you are not aware of your neighbours.

Dedicated Desktop + Dedicated Infrastructure Now you are the only tenant of the house.

Your landlord remains responsible for the upkeep and utility bills, but you have pretty much free reign to do what you want in the property.

You own all the furniture and if you want to fit custom-made items to suit your lifestyle, like a bar or home cinema, having done it before, the landlord will offer advice on how best to do it.

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Microsoft 1-Tier Cloud Solution Provider

Q

uiss has been included in the Microsoft 1-Tier Cloud Solution Provider programme, designed to help clients adopt cloud-based technology solutions like Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365.

Direct 1-Tier providers like Quiss buy from Microsoft, bill clients directly, sell combined offers and services, together with providing, managing and supporting products and services.

their subscriptions and manage support with our own helpdesk, which can also support existing apps, infrastructure, systems and networks.

“CSP partners like Quiss build solutions based on Microsoft cloud products and services, on a pay-asyou-go model, which delivers the flexibility and certainty of cost many organisations are seeking.

To a become 1-Tier partner, we had to demonstrate our broad market reach and robust 24/7 technical support relationship with customers.

“Benefiting from our experience of migrating organisations to the cloud and our range of fully managed services, we deliver what our clients need, not what’s easiest to sell.

Paul Tozer, Head of Cloud Services here at Quiss, commented: “This is not just good news for us, but for our clients and those organisations considering a move to the cloud.

“Interest in the cloud continues to grow, but we recognise that the ideal solution for most clients is not entirely on-premise or entirely cloud, but a hybrid mix of the two.”

“We can not only sell Office 365 and Azure to clients, but handle

James Chadwick, Director of Hosting & Managed Services Providers,

Microsoft UK said: “The Cloud Solution Provider programme puts partners like Quiss at the centre of the customer relationship.

Joining our programme presents partners with massive opportunities to package their solutions with Microsoft cloud offerings and provide customers with a custom route to the cloud.

“As a managed IT services provider with a thorough understanding of Microsoft’s products and services, Quiss demonstrates its dedication to helping our customers migrate successfully to the cloud when appropriate.”

“Hello, tech support...”

What seems to be the problem?

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’ I m re-booting it, but it’s still not working.

Avoid feeling blue with Azure Recovery Services Every organisation should have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan. It should be part of normal daily activities and the simpler it is the more use it will prove.

Azure Site Recovery Services enables organisations to switch disaster recovery and business continuity responsibilities to the cloud, coordinating failover and replication of both physical and virtual machines.

Protect it all with clouds Azure Recovery Services allows organisations with on-premise, hybrid or cloud-based solutions to use recovery services in the Microsoft Cloud, with disaster recovery planning configured to work with a backup site or data centre.

cloud environments to the onpremise resources. An encryption option offers even greater security in the process.

Recovery plans can be tested without disturbing the live network and if an outage occurs, the recovery services can prioritize which services and servers are restored first.

To replicate with Azure, the Site Recovery vault must be configured to allow failover to provision the VMs, which once replicated can be tailored to the appropriate size for the workload.

Understanding whether an organisation has an on-premise, full cloud environment or hybrid

periods based on an organisations operational requirements, which can then be compared closely to the published Microsoft recovery services SLA. Pass the geography test Reliable recovery and continuity solutions are guaranteed with Azure’s isolation and availability policies for regional pairing of data centres, with system updates implemented at different times, across the pair - when an upgrade or patch fails it impacts only one centre.

Azure Recovery Services are an important part of Azure’s tool-set, making it safe, easy and secure for any organisation to develop a robust

Likely configurations include: • On-premises VMware virtual servers replicated to Azure or a backup site • Hyper-V machines in VMM clouds replicated to Azure or a backup site. (Hyper-V VMs not managed by VMM also replicated through Azure Recovery Services.)

• Physical servers running Windows or Linux replicated to Azure or a backup site • Azure Site Recovery can migrate Azure Infrastructure as a Service to different regions Monitor everything lose nothing Azure Recovery Services automatically and remotely monitors servers in a data centre continually, with a security key connecting the

combination of the two will help configure recovery services. It’s important the plan details critical dependencies and how long the environment can be down without affecting them.

It’s also crucial to the speed and quality of any recovery, to establish recovery point and required time

disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Without a plan that’s tested regularly any organisation is at risk of a complete meltdown if things go wrong, which will leave any user feeling blue, knowing a solution is so readily available.

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STRESS IN THE WORKPLACE How to tackle the taboo topic and ensure a happier, healthier and more profitable business.

By Kevin Rogers, CEO of Paycare

With one in five people in the UK taking at least one day off a year due to stress, and even more worryingly 93% of these lying about the reason for their absence[1], it’s clear that mental illness is both increasingly prevalent and yet still a taboo subject.

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“Workplace stress was one of the big talking points for employers last year, and the spotlight is set to shine on it even more so across 2017,” explained Kevin. “Stress is a serious employment issue which can insidiously eat away at profits, productivity, and efficiency, and ultimately be the reason why businesses lose valued staff.

Unlike physical ailments, illnesses, or injuries, mental health can’t be seen, which can lead to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach.

However, for an individual, stress can have a significant impact on their confidence, self-esteem, concentration, and motivation, and for an employer, the result can be lower productivity levels and diminished morale.

Despite the negative impact of poor mental health, what’s clear is that there are often two major barriers to managing stress and mental health – a lack of understanding, and a lack of eagerness to dig deeper

to solve the issues. And there are huge opportunities for an employer to break them down, and it can simply be done with an openness to approaching the subject head-on.

• Because of its innovative approach, stress and anxiety sick leave has fallen significantly, including by 24% in just one area.

Managers in particular can monitor their team’s workloads more closely, increase communication efforts, and make small changes to their behaviour to appear more approachable to others – who otherwise might see them as being too busy to interrupt.

Another way in which businesses can support their teams is by putting an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in place, which offers staff the opportunity to seek help from independent professionals on a private and confidential basis.

In the Spotlight • BT’s three-tiered strategy to tackling stress and mental health issues in the workplace has already paid huge dividends • Includes offering advice, guidance and tips on the internet, skills sessions, and training for managers to spot signs

It’s not about managers training to become therapists and psychiatrists, but so much more about encouraging them to get their head out of the sand, realising it’s a very real problem that’s having a major effect on their business, and seeking readily-available training, advice, and guidance to help them support their teams in becoming happier, mentally healthier, and more productive.”

One in five people take a day off work due to stress, of which 93% lie about the real reason for their absence (Mind mental health charity) [1]

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Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards 2016 In November, the great and good from across the West Midlands descended on Wolverhampton Racecourse for the annual BCCC Awards Dinner, to celebrate the best in business from across the region.

As patrons of the Chamber, our Commercial Sales Manager Matt Rhodes joined representatives from other patrons on table 2, to enjoy the event hosted by BBC Midlands’ Phil Upton.

Guests were treated to an entertaining warm-up act involving a man being eaten by a large rubber green pea, before emerging as Elvis – you had to be there!

Adrian Wright, the recently appointed President of

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the BCCC ran through the highlights of 2016, which reminded all those present, just what a momentous year it had been.

Despite concerns surrounding Brexit, he was confident 2017 would be another strong year for the country and in particular the Midlands, which has always shown resilience in the face of adversity.

On the Quiss table, Managing Director Andy Michael agreed, confirming 2017 already looks bright, with businesses across the Black Country forming a major part of our growth strategy.

We have made good connections with other members of the BCCC and have developed specific

offerings for them, from cyber security to Cloud solutions.

There was a lot of chatter on Social Media, with champagne on offer for the best tweet of the night and to be honest we thought we were in with a chance with: ‘@QuissTechPLC Great to see so many successful businesses being recognised but seriously, when are the gee gees getting gooin’? #BlackCountry #BCCCAwards’.

We are looking forward to next year’s event already and have our eyes firmly fixed on the ‘Excellence in Customer Service’, as we believe it would best describe what Quiss has to offer.

Service focus delivers a strong year for Quiss

“Our strategic plan required us to re-visit the client service experience and the benefits of this re-focussing on service delivery are evident in our recent growth.

Despite all the noise about new technology, we are primarily a service business and our focus on delivering high quality managed IT services helped us deliver another strong performance, with turnover increasing by 12%, hitting £8 million for 2015-16.

A number of law firms signed support contracts during the year, ensuring the legal sector remains important to us, with Hextalls, Darlington’s, Universa Law, Verisona Law, and Phillip Ross Solicitors amongst those to recognise the benefits of our genuine sector knowledge and experience.

Growth of almost 30% over the last 3 years has been helped by diversification into new markets, with clients as diverse as National Windscreens, Arriva Trains, CET Infrastructure and EZE Group helping us spread our reputation beyond the legal sector.

“We recognise developing the skills our people have allows them to deal more effectively with client issues and problems, so we have introduced personal development plans for every employee, from warehouse to helpdesk and sales to reception.

“We have now re-set our business, with incentives linked to customer satisfaction, not speed of response or the number of calls handled by the helpdesk team.

“I want Quiss to be known for its service excellence, not just its technical ability.”

Our Managing Director Andy Michael said: “It is gratifying to report yet another good year, which keeps growth in line with our strategic plans.

“The legal sector has been a happy hunting ground for us throughout our 28-year history and remains so. But welcoming more clients from other sectors and the public sector demonstrates our managed IT service model works for any organisation seeking greater efficiency, increased productivity and more flexibility.

“And our ability to constantly improve our service, allows each of our clients to improve the service they deliver to their clients.

Profile: Andy Michael Managing Director This is the man behind the business, our Managing Director Andy Michael. He is a qualified electronics engineer, his first true love and jointly founded Quiss Technology way back in 1988.

Andy is responsible for the strategic growth of the business and leads the executive and senior teams, helping create and maintain the firm’s innovative and supportive culture.

“We understand we need to engage more closely with our clients and our people to find any gaps in our service; it’s the best way to improve what we do and how we do it.

Very much a hands-on MD, Andy is recognised for his extensive knowledge of the IT sector and the issues our clients face. He loves a challenge and is always ready to suggest effective solutions that help improve business efficiencies, whilst providing time and costsavings.

“I am confident our people, our plans and our service now have the flexibility to evolve – we recognise the only thing that is constant is change.

Andy enjoys listening to rock and country music and is the proud owner of eight guitars, which he handles pretty well, if he says so himself.

“We are building an extremely strong team of talented individuals here at Quiss. With the right support and our continued investment in the business, we will not only maintain our current performance, but exceed expectations and deliver further growth next year.”

When not working, he enjoys watching West Ham, indulging his passion for classic cars, growing vegetables on his allotment, building valve amplifiers and reading books – paper, not electronic.

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QUISS PEOPLE This is a regular feature that highlights appointments, promotions and qualifications across the teams here at Quiss.

Helpdesk – Karolis Vitkus has joined Quiss as a 1st line helpdesk engineer. Kam Randhawa and Steven Porter are our latest helpdesk analysts. We welcome Claire Buckle aboard in the new role of Helpdesk Supervisor [nontechnical], the first point of contact for managing all our helpdesk escalations.

Technical – In December, Rohen Farmer became our first Head of Technical Services, responsible for mentoring and developing our technical teams so they are empowered to achieve great things. We also welcome aboard Mark Sexton, who is a Site Support Analyst and is working on location at one of our client’s offices.

Brian Fox, based in our Philadelphia office, has become our latest desktop support technician, in the right time zone to support our growing US client base.

HR – Shelley Vaisey is our new Head of Talent Management.

With her team, she will find the talented individuals we need to help us grow, whilst ensuring team members are happy and remain motivated.

What has 2017 Although 2016 had its moments, with Brexit, Trump and numerous celebrity deaths creating miles of newspaper copy, 2017 will undoubtedly be more restful; or will it?

Few can predict what stories will hit the headlines, but we’ve canvassed opinion around our business and having dispensed with plot twists in the soaps and certain relegation for specific football teams, we have come up with a few stories to look out for this year.

The changing face of security threats The growth of mobility and cloud computing, will ensure keeping data safe from theft and safe from being held to ransom will become of increasing importance. It remains the number one issue with IT teams across the country.

Doxing, one of the newer forms of criminal activity is likely to spread from personal to commercial targets, as cyber threats continue to develop.

Sales - Claire Palgrave has joined our busy and growing sales team.

Claire is our Warranty Care and Hardware Break fix specialist bringing with her a wealth of experience in this area

The aim of doxing is to copy sensitive data that would cause embarrassment if it were released.

The thieves blackmail the target into paying to prevent release, presumably on the basis that a viable business can afford more, than one in crisis through data being stolen or encrypted.

Qualifications – Dalbir Wilkhu has become our most accredited Network Consultant following success in his CCDA 200-310 exam – it demonstrates his ability to design networks for performance, availability and scalability, whilst retaining the flexibility needed to meet rapidly evolving demands.

Many predict problems will extend beyond the workplace. Cybercriminals are expected to target remote workers through Internet of Things (IoT) enabled attacks, using internetworked devices that collect and exchange data, as a route into secure systems.

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Apps for everything this year The new mantra finding traction among the new generation of employees is, ‘work is something we do, not somewhere we go’. It’s not just that everyone is going mobile, but they now expect it to have no effect on the work they can do and the data they can access.

Technology research firm Gartner has predicted there will be as many as 268 billion downloads of apps this year, generating more than £60 billion in revenue.

Whilst some of the apps will cover activities we are familiar with like gaming, social networking, banking, traveling, etc., we can expect to see more location-based services which will allow businesses to attract local clients with real-time deals.

For some, the focus has now shifted to offer access to data everywhere and make the working day easier, with virtual personal assistants to undertake the more mundane repetitive work tasks, like prioritising emails.

The new breed of intelligent apps will cover everything from security to enterprise applications, with artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities at their core. App production will concentrate on advanced data analytics, autonomous business processes and more engaging interfaces, all of which will heavily feature artificial intelligence.

got in store for us?

Head in the Cloud There is no doubt cloud technology is causing significant change to almost all organisations, with increasing migration as the benefits of service elasticity become more apparent.

There is now no need to ensure your IT infrastructure is scaled to meet maximum demand, which you rarely reach. Migration to cloud services like Microsoft Azure allow organisations to use what they need and only pay for what they use – saving resources and money.

The introduction of Microsoft data centres here in the UK will help allay the fears of those who worry about where data is stored. Keeping data within the jurisdiction of England and Wales, will undoubtedly give cloud services a boost in the legal sector in 2017.

Again, the working environment continues to change, with more people operating outside normal office hours and indeed the office, as they work from home, out on the road, or just remotely from anywhere. It is this approach that will ensure even greater acceptance of cloud services in 2017.

The reality may be virtual To many it might have seemed frivolous, but more than 100 million downloads of the augmented reality game PokĂŠmon Go shows the potential for virtual and augmented reality technology.

We expect more from Microsoft and their impressive Hololens and the Oculus Rift will encourage a raft of new apps designed around its excellent capabilities, with talk of

a 4k ultra high-definition version in development.

The world is ready for AR and VR entertainment, training scenarios and immersive experiences that will allow virtual schematics to be overlaid on real world machines or the path of pipes overlaid on real floors.

It may be a while before the abundance of this technology brings prices within reach of the education sector, but the potential impact on young minds of VR and AR technology in a learning environment should not be underestimated.

The benefit of the technology is that as an open and secure, cloud-based encrypted spreadsheet, it maintains an immutable record of information and transactions that cannot be edited like other record-keeping systems.

This technology is set to affect every aspect of life, but you can expect the government, banking, legal and healthcare sectors will either use it or feel its effects significantly.

Blockchain to make its mark Blockchain the distributed-ledger technology that underpins Bitcoin and wider distributed-ledger initiatives will gain more traction with the promise of transforming traditional operating models from legal contracts and identity verification to title registry and financial services.

The public ledger that is blockchain, can be applied to almost anything that could be saved in a database or spreadsheet. The blockchain (ledger) for Bitcoin records every transaction and although it does not list the owners, it shows the amount in circulation, which at the start of 2017 was already more than $16 billion.

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Case Study: Office 365 Wright for law firm Since its foundation in 1919, Wright Solicitors has always been a progressive law firm, dedicated to delivering high quality legal advice to their clients and always seeking ways to improve the service they provide.

With offices in Dudley and Bewdley, it is a firm rooted in the local community, with local staff that believe there is still a place for a solicitor in the high street, ready to meet face-to-face with clients.

jump to Office 2013, so the firm has happily used Office 2010 for the last two years.

The private cloud solution we developed for Wright’s, offered a scalable environment, built on infrastructure dedicated only to their business. This ensured they could exploit all the advantages of cloud services, without the data location issues that deter some firms from making the move.

collaboration between the respective teams and share reception duties.

Hosted Telephony Solution When discussing the necessary upgrade to the internet connection, we also suggested VoIP would help improve productivity and efficiency.

Calling one number rings phones in both offices, with external calls easily transferred between the offices and calls between colleagues in different offices being cost free, regardless of length.

To ensure the internet Wright Solicitors offer a Quiss completed all the necessary work connection was suitable, wide range of traditional by the deadline and handled all the issues we arranged new fibre legal services for with their usual pragmatic approach that connections, which individuals, families and demonstrates nothing is too much trouble. delivered not only an family businesses, but Clare Mackinnon, Business Manager impressive download recognise technology speed, but the fast upload offers smaller law speeds and quality needed for a Always thinking of customer service, firms a significant advantage in an high-quality VoIP solution.

Wright’s engaged our services on the increasingly competitive commercial understanding we would implement environment.

Hosted telephony is a smart the entire system rollout, server move for many reasons, but the uplift and new equipment install over Adopting Cloud Services business continuity aspect should a weekend to keep disruption to a In 2014, Quiss Technology helped not be overlooked. In the event minimum. the firm adopt cloud services in of being unable to access their a drive to improve efficiency and offices, Wright’s can work from any Integrating two new offices in productivity throughout. A deciding location, make and receive calls Bewdley proved relatively simple, factor in choosing us, was our strong with the same number and minimise thanks to the hosted solution, reputation in the legal sector and disruption to their customers. requiring nothing more than experience of the wide variety of new equipment and an internet applications used by law firms.

Proactive Advice connection.

Wright’s concentrated on legal work, Wright’s switched to a fully with everything working as it should The internet connection managed, hosted IT solution, with and our helpdesk engineers handling unfortunately delivered neither the their servers moved off-premise and any issues. However, an important speed nor capacity needed. The into our data centre in Tamworth. aspect of our role as a managed IT two offices, although only a few The case management system in services provider, is to understand hundred yards apart, require close use at the time would not support a

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Arrivals:

ROHEN FARMER the impact new technology might have on our clients.

Unfortunately, the arrival of new technologies rarely coincides with contract renewal dates. We recognised one such improvement for Wright’s would be to switch from Office 2010, to the latest version of Microsoft Office 365, adopting more cloud-based services.

There are similarities between a hosted Office 2010 solution and Office 365, but the additional features included, like Azure, Skype for Business and SharePoint would offer Wright’s even greater flexibility for its users. There are also cost savings that make the move a good option.

But perhaps more importantly, the greater collaboration possible with SharePoint, better communication with Skype and greater resilience thanks to Azure is helping Wright’s improve their customer service. And all without buying any additional services to bolt onto Office 2010 or 2013.

The switch to Office 365 was made mid-contract, with both Wright Solicitors and their clients benefiting from the efficiency and productivity gains delivered – getting more for less makes sense for every business whatever the stage of the contract.

Hello. I’m Rohen and I joined Quiss in November 2016 as Head of Technical Services, a new post created as the business experiences a sustained period of growth.

I bring to Quiss over 10 years’ skill and experience, specifically within the disciplines of Hosting, Cloud and Managed Services.

Recognising the importance of delivering excellence in customer service, I am responsible for the effective delivery of project, engineering and pre-sales work for our clients.

Coming from a technical background, I am continually intrigued at the way in which new technology can be deployed to propel a business forward or improve the customer/end-user experience.

Although the customer is always right, I believe it is important for service-centric businesses like ours to challenge the sentiment of the ‘we have always done it like that’ approach and collaborate closely to deliver effective outcomes.

In relation to service uptime, it’s important to cut through jargon, contracts and processes to get right to the point, even in the most challenging situations - the niceties can wait. What our clients typically need is restoration of service, an explanation of issues and solid, service improvement initiatives targeted at improving their satisfaction with our service.

For many organisations, outsourcing IT resources makes sense from both an efficiency and productivity perspective. But this often requires an ability to communicate technical issues to non-IT management at board level, which is a strength I feel I bring to the Quiss team.

Building, mentoring and developing technical teams so they are empowered to achieve great things, especially through collaboration, is important to me.

I understand the power of having a clear set of common goals that are communicated and shared business-wide.

Not only do I lead on strategic planning of hosting technologies and services, I support a diverse number of technologies, within a multi-vendor environment maintaining a strong balance between large scale projects and operational (SLA) delivery.

Outside of the office, there’s nothing I like more than spending time with friends and family, mountain biking, swimming and more recently, learning to ski. Although I love all things technical, I still enjoy a good offline read or time in front of the TV, watching sports channels for the NFL, Rugby and UFC coverage.

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Quiss Technology plc.

Claymore Tame Valley Industrial Estate Tamworth B77 5DQ Tel: 0333 222 4334 Fax: 01827 265 001 Email: enquiries@quiss.co.uk

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Cert No. 1330 ISO 9001:2008 ISO 27001:2013