Answer 4 Questions and Match to an IT Solution

Recommendation

Gain better value from my existing IT and technology

Organisations of all sizes often struggle to maximise the potential of their in-house IT teams, who can be fully occupied with high-priority tasks, and have minimal time remaining to look at longer term projects or initiatives that will add value.

Even if your team is working efficiently, the costs of employing an in-house IT team will be higher than paying an outsourced provider. Your team may not necessarily have the experience to cover all the technology systems you require that you would be able to call upon with a managed service provider (MSP). When employing your own team will also take into account sickness and holidays that would not occur with an outsourced team.

With an MSP you can choose which IT tasks are managed day to day in your business, and which ones you want to be managed externally. This can allow you to free up time from many time-consuming, complex or routine tasks.

An established managed IT support service will have the technical expertise to know whether your technology products and systems are running as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. They will be able to find any liabilities and challenges within your IT systems in terms of your business needs and work to address them. Your business still retains overall control of your IT systems, and the MSP should perform as a valuable member of your team who provides you with the knowledge and expertise to thrive.

We can take complete responsibility for your IT and systems, including resolving issues via our UK helpdesk, automated remote monitoring of your IT infrastructure, or if required carrying out on-site support. Our automation tools allow us complete monitoring and management of your servers and systems which enable us to perform automated health-checks and patching which reduce the risk of errors and mean network issues can be fixed before you’re even aware of them.

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Recommendation

Improve the financial performance of the business through technology

Organisations need faster analysis of financial data which will provide more accurate forecasting and improved insights into the pros and cons of launching new products or expanding into new markets. However, many finance departments aren’t able to deliver what their business needs, and are only able to analyse historical financial data rather than what’s happening now.

So how do organisations move from their current model to the new model? Digitalisation is the key to transforming the ability of the finance department.

Many manual functions that currently take place in the finance department are predicted by Gartner to be replaced by robotic process automation (RPA), bots and software. These can be programmed to do basic functions that will eliminate 20% of repetitive “non-value-added tasks” within the finance department. This will help cut costs for finance departments, increasing their ability to focus on tasks that can help drive the business.

Having the right systems is key to being able to use the data that exists within your business. Digitalisation is something which is happening in all industries, although sometimes at a different pace. A disruptive technology, competitor or even world event can sometimes cause huge change to an organisation and those with the right technology are the best place to thrive.

You should think of your short and long-term objectives and devise an IT strategy of how you can achieve it.

Short-term: Saving money on current IT – moving to a managed service where you pay a regular monthly cost and can rely on a third-party.

Long term – Automated processes that remove costs and enable improved analysis of data and

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Recommendation

Using the cloud to save energy costs and become more sustainable

Many organisations see the cloud as a key feature of improving their IT environmental sustainability. Cloud infrastructure addresses two critical elements of a green IT approach: energy efficiency and resource efficiency.

The cloud’s efficiency and scalability help reduce energy and offers cheaper running costs and more flexibility for businesses hoping to expand. By reducing the need for hardware, companies are able to reduce costs whilst also eliminating the requirement for both maintenance and upgrades.

With per minute consumption based billing organisations can benefit by only paying for data and services when they use them. If an organisation is busy during the daytime but doesn’t operate at night, they will be able to turn down the servers that aren’t in use to reduce their costs and energy usage.

Many organisations report cost savings as one of their primary motivators for adopting the cloud, with anticipated cost reductions as high as 40% to 50%.

Research carried out by Google suggested that businesses could save around 60%-85% percent on their energy costs simply by switching to a cloud facility. The environmental impact of these substantial reductions in energy are significant. Another survey surveying the clients of Salesforce, suggested carbon reductions of 95% percent compared to companies with servers on their premises.

For those worrying that they are just transferring their own energy consumption to another organisation, data centre energy consumption is much lower than the combined total of individual companies through using multi-tenant architecture which is significantly more efficient.

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Recommendation

Gain better value from my existing IT

Organisations of all sizes often struggle to maximise the potential of their in-house IT teams, who can be fully occupied with high-priority tasks, and have minimal time remaining to look at longer term projects or initiatives that will add value.

Even if your team is working efficiently, the costs of employing an in-house IT team will be higher than paying an outsourced provider. Your team may not necessarily have the experience to cover all the technology systems you require that you would be able to call upon with a managed service provider (MSP). When employing your own team will also take into account sickness and holidays that would not occur with an outsourced team.

With an MSP you can choose which IT tasks are managed day to day in your business, and which ones you want to be managed externally. This can allow you to free up time from many time-consuming, complex or routine tasks. An established managed IT support service will have the technical expertise to know whether your technology products and systems are running as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible.

They will be able to find any liabilities and challenges within your IT systems in terms of your business needs and work to address them. Your business still retains overall control of your IT systems, and the MSP should perform as a valuable member of your team who provides you with the knowledge and expertise to thrive.

We can take complete responsibility for your IT and systems, including resolving issues via our UK helpdesk, automated remote monitoring of your IT infrastructure, or if required carrying out on-site support. Our automation tools allow us complete monitoring and management of your servers and systems which enable us to perform automated health-checks and patching which reduce the risk of errors and mean network issues can be fixed before you’re even aware of them.

Our fully managed, IT Support service is delivered at a fixed monthly fee, ensuring you will never receive an unexpected or inflated bill. Regular meetings with your dedicated Account Manager, including a review of detailed system reports are included in our managed IT support packages.

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Recommendation

Improve the security of my IT infrastructure

Security is a top priority of most organisations and IT departments. How to keep your infrastructure secure and data safe from harm. It can be a minefield trying to keep on top of everything within your network

Staying up-to-date with technology with the latest patches and plugins provided by software and hardware providers are there to keep you protected. Cyber Security is a full-time job and is almost impossible for an individual, or internal team, to constantly monitor and respond to alerts. IT Managers should see how cyber security vendors or managed service provides can assist you with this process

Regular analysis of your network to is key, running penetration tests will help you understand where the vulnerabilities may be. However too many organisations are then not able to act on these finding because of time or resource so it’s vital that if you’re unable to internally you find a managed service provider that can do it for you.

Cloud can provide your organisation with an improved way to monitor and protect your network, there are a range of cloud services available to suit your needs.

Obviously, it goes without saying that technology is only half of the battle with cyber security – keeping both your IT team and the wider organisation trained and informed is also vital.

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Recommendation

Looking to move to the cloud

IT infrastructure is rapidly moving from a function that is run, managed and maintained in-house to an outsourced service hosted in a secure environment and managed by a specialist provider. Cloud services are attractive because they enable businesses to transfer the responsibility of running on-premises hardware and software to a specialist provider, who manage the hassles and costs that can otherwise burden IT departments, such as software upgrades and hardware maintenance.

What are the benefits and what does this mean for your organisation:

Scalability – making it far easier to scale-up and down as required by the organisation

Flexible – ability to turn off services when not required, either at times of the week or when periods of downtime

Cost efficient – no requirement to purchase and maintain your own servers and hardware

Once you understand the benefits of cloud to your business, you then need to understand what type of cloud services are available and which of those services is right for your business.

With a wide range of options available deciding what its right for your business can be complicated and choosing the wrong option expensive.

EBC Group offer a wide range of cloud solutions including Private, Hybrid, Managed and Enterprise; to help businesses of all sizes. We will help you explore all the available options to work out what is right for your business and whether it will benefit from having all or just a few systems hosted.

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Recommendation

Improve our processes to grow our business

A key element to achieving digital transformation is to use technology as a way of removing manual processes and replacing them with automated ones. A workflow is a repeatable pattern of activities, sequence or steps that take place to complete a specific task on a regular basis. Depending on the exact nature of the task there are numerous data solutions that will help you to achieve this but the end objective should be that by automating these processes the organisation will save time, reduce admin and cost and improve productivity.

Through automating their processes organisations we work with have been able to complete digital tasks in a fraction of the time in which it would normally take a member of staff to complete the task manually. It is possible to add greater levels of automation by leveraging Robotic Process Automation (RPA) which can automate mundane rule-based business processes, enabling business users to devote more time to higher-value work.

This provide your organisation with a route to intelligent automation (IA) via machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which can be programmed and trained to make judgments about future outputs.

Through Enterprise Information Management you can create tailored workflows and automate processes that are designed with each individual department and team in mind. All of our technologies and software are completely customisable from one department to the next. This doesn’t just build a more streamlined department, it can improve communication and collaboration between departments too.

We can provide flexible and highly configurable RPA systems that interpret and mimic human interaction with existing applications for processing transactions, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems. Our experts can build robots on your behalf, or train your teams to create, test, deploy and manage robots in our code-free design environment, empowering your organisation to build and deploy robots whenever a candidate process is identified, at your own pace and minimal expense.

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Recommendation

Explore digital transformation

Digital transformation is a major topic for many businesses right now, at the top of C-suite and IT department agenda. It provides a strategy to modernise old processes, to link up data silos and provide business leaders with a joined-up view of the company, helping highlight ways to boost business performance, and enabling it to take advantage of future digital initiatives.

Where transformation can help is allowing the business to improve how it interacts with customers, to make data security easier to manage and reduce risk. And, on the bottom line, it can reduce costs, improve efficiency and save time.

Done properly, it can be applied to any type of company, with a custom recipe based on a range of technologies and services that help the business understand what it is, how it competes and what it needs to do to compete better using IT and data for a positive future.

All industries will be affected digital transformation within their market, this can be caused by a competitive disruption or other macro factors. The affect can sometimes happen in slowly over years but often much faster and if an organisation isn’t prepared it can have devastating effect.

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Recommendation

Ensure we are able to work effectively remotely

Following the COVID-19 pandemic the use of technology in the workplace has changed the way businesses operate. There are significantly more staff working from home and more meetings taking place online instead of face-to-face.

As expected, working from home measures were met with a variation of success, with some businesses experiencing ‘business as usual’, switching seamlessly to their new setup, whilst for others, the sudden and unexpected switch to remote working proved a struggle as they scrambled to address technology issues.

EBC Group understand that businesses have a lot to think about when it comes to the digital workplace and their remote workforce, which is why our experienced team is on hand to offer helpful and friendly advice to aid your business through its transition. Our award-winning services cover all of the key technology needed for home working, including cloud, communications, cyber security and IT support.

Businesses wanting to operate effectively in this new digital environment will need to consider various ways of using technology – some to consider are shown below.

Collaboration and communication tools such as Microsoft Teams are seen significant increases in usage.
Information Management solutions, provide a secure cloud based environment where employees can store, manage, edit and share data across the business, and can be easily accessed at anytime, from any location.
Within this digital environment the need for security is still paramount and remote workers are often seen as a soft target.
Being able to access IT Support that is able to respond and assist your workforce wherever they are is vital to having your team working effectively.
With so many people working virtually there has shift to cloud deployments has accelerated. Businesses are seeing cloud infrastructurea s a more flexible, secure and cost-effective way to operate their business.

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Recommendation

Improve my ability to work remotely

With a significant shift in how and where employees carry out their tasks, and how meetings are conducted, having the right technology in place has never been more important.

EBC Group understand that businesses have a lot to think about when it comes to the digital workplace and their remote workforce, which is why their experienced team is on hand to offer helpful and friendly advice.

Mobile Hardware Tools:

Businesses should consider the hardware typically used and accessed in the office, and look to transfer this to a remote setting. This could be anything from headsets, speakers, webcams, desk phones, conference phones, and Microsoft Teams Room Systems, and should come with fast and reliable connections.

Print & Data:

Businesses that deal heavily with printed documents can look to integrate cloud ready mobile printers that allow users to download, share, print, scan, distribute and even translate documents on the go from anywhere, via laptop, tablet or smart phone.

Collaboration and communication tools:

When It comes to communication, employees demand more than just simple telephone handset. Thanks to Un ified Communication capabilities, features such as email, text, voice, audio, video conferencing and web collaboration can all be accessed and integrated into one easy to use interface.

Security:

When it comes to remote working, security should not be a compromise. Ensuring employees have access to business infrastructure is essential, and should be met with the same level of security and control as they would see in the office. To overcome this businesses should look to implement a number of measures, including Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

IT Support:

As with the office, remote employees may still be met with the same IT issues which are much harder for in-house IT teams to fix. Remote monitoring and management solutions ensure any IT issues can fixed remotely, whilst providing complete visibility of all networked devices, often identifying and fixing issues before employees are even aware.

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Recommendation

Collaborate better with my colleagues and clients

With a significant increase in remote working and digital meetings having the right technology in place to be able to properly communicate with your colleagues, prospects and clients

Remote doesn’t have to be disruptive, cloud-based technology provides the freedom and flexibility to access essential work systems and data from anywhere. There are hundreds of easily downloadable apps available, designed to make your home working a breeze.

Remote employees often work from different places and heavily rely on their mobile devices and laptops. By making mobile a key part of your workflow strategy, you offer more flexibility and create better efficiency.

Online video and phone meetings occurring so having the right technology and hardware in place to conduct them in a professional manner is vital.

Microsoft Teams, offers a user-friendly space that facilitates work between remote users or within a large organisation, and most importantly is available for free as part of Office 365.

Unified Communication brings together your email, text and voice seamlessly with live voice, audio, video conferencing, and web collaboration, in one easy to use interface. This makes it simple to integrate different interconnected communication channels into one simple channel. Easily accessible even when out of the office: With a mobile app as part of your telephony your remote workers can be reached under one single phone number.

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