Business Continuity

Both a science and an art, Business Continuity Planning is becoming almost a necessity for businesses operating in the 21st Century.

By looking at the whole business and identifying the risk to operational functions during a disaster a Consultant can develop a Business Continuity Plan that not only helps in fast recovery but also identifies day to day risks to the business. It is quite possible to deliver business improvements during the development of a Business Continuity Plan.

Our consultancy can cover the whole spectrum of Business Continuity, starting with Disaster Recovery through Business Continuity Planning all the way to a British Standards Business Continuity Management System (BS25999 Part 2).

A more detailed look at how we approach the planning for disasters can be found in our Business Continuity section.

Information Security

In the 21^st Century the data held on a Computer System, or Information System, can be an organisation's biggest asset but also its biggest threat. Making data an asset to the business is covered under our Information Management Consultancy below, reducing the risks from holding data on Computer Systems is the role of Information Security.

There are three main drivers for securing the information on your IT systems, legislation (such as the Data Protection Act), brand protection (nobody wants to be on the BBC News declaring a data theft) and ethical (how would you want your personal data storing). Some of these drivers only impact personal data, the Data Protection Act being a prime example, but others also impact how you store and secure business information, surely it's just as bad telling a client you've lost their financial details as it is telling a consumer.

Our Information Security Consultancy looks at all the threats and vulnerabilities to a business in relation to the storing and handling of data. These could be technical issues, such as firewall configuration, or human issues, such as staff training and awareness. It is unfortunate in today's world that the biggest threat to an organisation's data comes from the employees working for it, either accidentally or maliciously.

We can scale our consultancy to most sizes of business, from an in-depth risk review with a recommendations report all the way up to International Standards in Information Security (ISO27001). Please look at our Information Security section for a high level breakdown of our offerings.

Information Management

When information is used to the maximum potential it's possible to see the financial benefit from areas such as increased sales, reduced duplication and an effective workforce. Information Management is all about creating that potential from your existing data and systems.

Better Business Intelligence, or reporting, can identify bottle necks in your processes while CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems can leverage the information you hold on your clients to help you provide a better service.

Collaboration tools such as SharePoint, Groove and BaseCamp truly enable your workforce to share knowledge. Products like this move the information from the brain of one person to the hands of everyone. Collaboration tools also allow you to involve your client more by setting up areas for them to access information and documents relating to their projects.

Automating existing processes and moving to a paper reduced system can free up time for people to do their real job and also make information available to everyone when they need it. A piece of paper in a filing cabinet is only available to the person who has it, a scanned document on an IT System is available to everyone who needs it. The paperless office may still be a pipedream but a paper reduced office is possible today. Document Management, workflow and remote access are the keys to working smarter instead of harder.

Our section on Information Management has more details on each of the main areas we cover in our consultancy.

IT Consultancy

Sometimes an organisation will take on a project they are under resourced for or a resource becomes unavailable during the project. It's at times like these that a TMC Consultant can provide an experienced hand to keep the project going.

Our IT Consultants can also be used to provide an independent view of a project or a problem. If you're losing e-mails, have a slow network or need to buy a new server then an independent consultant, with no requirement to sell a product, can be just the person to advise on the issue.

As experienced IT Managers for all sizes of business our consultants can also advise on the management of IT Systems. This can cover Best Practices such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) or technology such as Microsoft System Centre or SpiceWorks. Technology, processes and procedures must be developed together to provide a well managed IT infrastructure.

If all you need to resource a project is a Project Manager then we can provide Registered Prince2 Practitioners with practical IT Project management experience. Our Project Managers work with existing IT teams to ensure they spend their time where they are most valuable, on the IT implementation, rather than on Project Management.

In the IT Consultancy section there is more information on the types of consultancy we can provide.

Training

We can deliver training packages at your offices on a number of packages but also specialise in the design and delivery of bespoke technical training.

Our bespoke training is developed based on your existing systems and packages and delivered by an experienced technical trainer.  The trainer spends time learning the system and customising the delivery to your requirements, including time and location of delivery, type of materials and intended audience. At the end of the delivery the material is handed over for your own future use. This can be an excellent method of helping an existing training department develop technical materials quickly and affectively.

A detailed list of training services can be found on our training page but packages include Microsoft Project and Microsoft CRM.