Continuity Checklist

Essentials to consider in your Continuity Plan

From free tools to rescheduling deliveries, this checklist will help you consider the essentials that you may have missed in your continuity plan.

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We’ve summarised some key considerations below…

Communication

If your employees have to work from home, they’ll need to be able to communicate with each other, your customers, and your suppliers. Consider what arrangements you’ll need to make to ensure your employees can continue to collaborate from different locations.

We’re able to provide you with free access to Microsoft Teams for 6 months if you already have Office 365. If you don’t have Office 365 and would like to talk to us about how your business could benefit from the solution, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

Equipment

You’ll need to take stock of what portable equipment you already have access to, and what is crucial for your business. You should also consider what software and equipment your customer support teams will require to continue providing core services and support to your customers.

With more people working remotely during this outbreak, hackers are taking advantage of vulnerable systems. Make sure you understand the risks, and you have adequate measures in place to ensure you’re protected.

People

Work with your HR team to make sure you have all the essential policies in place, and you’ve considered all the risks to both your business, and your employees. Remember, it’s vital that you protect your employees too.

Processes

It’s difficult to cover everything, so you should utilise your key employees to help you capture fundamental points that may have slipped through the net. We’ve suggested some factors to bear in mind in our continuity checklist here which you may find helpful.

It’s important that you’re prepared for any scenario, and testing that your plan works is essential, so run a drill as soon as you can to highlight anything you may have missed.

Need advice?

We’re here to help, so if you’d like to chat with one of our experts, please give us a call on 02392 333 365.

Key Technology Trends Impacting the Energy Sector

The energy sector has been evolving rapidly in recent years thanks to new and upcoming technologies. 2018 is looking to be a milestone year for the energy industry, with the introduction of many new technology trends that are set to be revolutionary in the sector.

The rise of digital has affected many businesses over the years, and the electricity industry is no exception. With everything from artificial intelligence through to increased technological demands in the home, there are a number of technology trends set to impact the energy sector over the coming months and years.

Growing Cybercrime Threat

Cyber-attacks are increasing in every industry across the globe, and the energy sector is no different. Earlier this year the United States Department of Energy announced it was planning on setting up its own Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response to tackle the upcoming security challenges. There is also evidence that hackers have been targeting the energy and nuclear facilities for the last couple of years.

Cybersecurity concerns are one of the most pressing issues within the energy sector, and as companies introduce more complex technology systems, the risk and potential for an attack are increased. Many utilities are upgrading systems to provide a higher level of grid intelligence and better communication with customers devices, opening themselves up to more potential security threats.

The Rise in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved rapidly in recent years and provided the energy sector with a variety of new capabilities such as machine learning, cognitive analytics, deep learning and robotics process automation. These advances in technology have led to powerful systems that can automate increasingly complex workloads and develop cognitive agents that can simulate human thinking and engagement.

AI can be used in the energy sector to streamline, automate and eliminate processes within customer interactions, taking customer experience to the next level. As well as customer service benefits, AI can also be an excellent tool for customer engagement by giving companies the ability to compute a customer’s smart metre data to develop invaluable insights into their consumption habits.

Blockchain

Blockchain has been on the cards for quite some time and is slowly growing in popularity across a variety of industries. While it is currently limited within the energy sector, the potential of this technology should definitely not be ruled out, in fact, it may end up being invaluable in the industry in coming years.

Blockchain offers a permanent and transparent solution that is entirely digital making it really easy to work with. Within the energy sector, blockchain could potentially be used for easily recording transactions and contacts in a transparent and searchable form. The energy sector involves a considerable amount of customer paperwork and blockchain could provide some significant operational benefits such as easily locating records, detecting fraud and clarifying bill disputes.

3D Printing and Smart Materials

In recent years there have been significant steps forward in 3D printing, particularly with print metals becoming significantly cheaper. This will likely be used widely in the energy sector for the creation and maintaining of equipment and systems.

An increased use of smart materials would also have a significant impact on the energy market, and the use of materials that can self-heal could potentially change the industry altogether.

Digital Transformation in Homes

It is no surprise that there is an increased demand for energy in homes across the world. With technology coming on in leaps and bounds in recent years, the amount of electricity being consumed today is very different from that of a few years ago. The introduction of smart technologies such as smart lightbulbs and smart metres has transformed the way consumers use their energy within their homes, and this is only set to become more complex and readily available in the coming years.

The uptake of smart energy products by consumers has been relatively minimal so far, and according to recent research, 72% of people are unlikely to introduce any form of smart home technology in the next five years. However, the individuals who already make use of smart devices have noticed a significant impact on the day to day running of their homes. Many believe the uptake has been slow as consumers are still sceptical of smart energy products, but the market is expected to accelerate rapidly once the popularity of the technology increases.

The energy sector is set for a rapid transformation for the rest of 2018 and the following years, and those within the industry should be preparing themselves or the upcoming changes and opportunities that these technology trends are sure to bring. Not embracing these new technologies will leave your business at risk of being left behind the curve. At Cyan we have experience of providing transformational technology infrastructures for growing businesses the energy sector. Talk to us today to see how we can help your business.

Top Benefits of Outsourcing Your IT Requirements

Top Five Benefits of Outsourcing Your IT Requirements

When running a growing business, it can feel like you’re a bit of a one-man band trying to balance various aspects of the businesses needs. In some areas of your business, it can be beneficial to keep the workload in-house, and even employ a specific team to handle it, but it just isn’t always practical to try and manage everything yourselves.

Outsourcing, or hiring an external company to manage specific areas of your business, is a familiar and popular option for many businesses, and thousands choose to outsource their IT requirements to seasoned professionals. There are a wide range of benefits to outsourcing your IT requirements.

Experienced and Certified Professionals

Information Technology is a complicated and challenging area to tackle, and without appropriate training and experience, it is impossible to get right. When it comes to hiring an in-house IT team, if you’re not IT trained yourself then how do you assure a potential employee is qualified? Certifications are great, but previous experience of managing a business’s IT requirements is invaluable.

By choosing to outsource your IT requirements to a professional company, you are guaranteed to get knowledge that an individual IT employee doesn’t have. IT service companies have a heap of experience in managing IT requirements for a business, and they often see related problems multiple times and will already know the best solutions and prevention techniques.

Controlled Costs

By outsourcing IT requirements, you are converting fixed IT costs into a variable cost that is much better for budgeting. You will only be paying for the services you use as and when you use them, as opposed to a fixed cost to the business every single month, even if no major IT changes have been made.

As well as reducing and controlling IT running costs, outsourcing can also result in considerable savings in labour costs. Recruiting and training IT staff can be costly, and with no guarantee as to how long an employee will stay with the business, it is a cost that you may have to pay every few years. Outsourcing allows you to focus your human resources efforts in other areas of the business where you need it the most.

Stay Ahead of the Game

When a business tries to manage all of their IT requirements in-house, it often takes a lot longer to get projects and developments completed. This is because there is a higher level of research, development and implementation time required compared with using an outsourced IT provider.

All of these things also increase the cost of new developments and slow down the whole process meaning your competitors might be making game-changing developments while you are still in the researching phase. A fully managed outsourced IT service will have the resources and knowledge to begin new projects immediately, compared with in-house where you may need to hire new staff, train them and provide the necessary support.

Increase Security and Reduce Risks

IT service providers will constantly be keeping up to date with specific industry knowledge, especially when it comes to security and compliance, that an in-house team simply might not be aware of. Outsourcing provides you with a reduced risk of coming across any issues, and an IT company will often have better expertise when deciding how to avoid certain risks to your business.

With the huge rises in cybercrime to businesses recently and the added pressure of GDPR, it is essential to keep your IT systems security as tight and secure as possible. Your in-house team may struggle to know the best practices and methods to keep your company and customers safe, but an outsourced IT team will be well aware of all PCI compliance standards and the best way to keep everything up to date and safe from attackers.

Strategic Planning

IT service providers have years of experience working with different clients and industries and will focus on keeping up to date with the latest technologies, making them the perfect team to help your business grow and expand. Many outsourced IT companies will be able to advise you on your business’s future IT requirements by evaluating your growth and planning how your IT infrastructure needs to support this.

At Cyan Solutions we work in partnership with our customers to support their technology ambitions. This allows us to deliver innovative solutions that meets your business’s specific needs now and in the future. With technology constantly changing, it is difficult to know yourself what IT requirements you will need in the future. But, by choosing to outsource to professionals, you will be getting expert guidance and support to help your business grow.

Switching over to Cyan is a simple, easy, seamless transition. It can seem overwhelming to make such a significant change to the way your business operates, but the benefits are clear, and successful growth often requires change. Call us today to see how we can help transform your business.

Managing Volunteer Teams Through Good Technology

Coordination and communication are key to running a successful charity campaign. Organisations often want to bring together large, transient teams of volunteers to raise money. Making sure everyone works from the same playbook to the same ends can be difficult and time consuming.  

Getting the management of volunteer teams right, of course, ensures more money is raised while overheads are reduced, and efficiency and engagement improved.  

The good news is that today’s digital options are helping many charities achieve their campaign goals in more flexible and beneficial ways. 

The Challenge of Organising Remote Volunteers 

There’s no doubt that volunteers are the life blood of all charities. They give their time and effort to raise money and promote important causes across the UK and around the world on a daily basis. Many small charities have very few full-time or paid staff on board, so volunteers are vital factors for any campaign and ongoing fund raising.  

Charities, particularly smaller ones, operate on a tight budget and building effective relationships with volunteers is necessary. Even the simple act of thanking someone for all their work can prove challenging if you don’t have the proper resources at hand.  

Better engagement requires charities to find new and innovative ways to reach out to volunteers as well as organise remote teams when campaigns are running to achieve maximum results. Focused and flexible solutions such as cloud technology are attractive options, certainly for charities that are seeking to improve performance and lower costs at the same time.  

The Benefits of Cloud Technology  

  • Cloud technology meets the challenges of working with large remote teams, especially volunteers. 
  • It allows charities to access better communication management, collaboration tools and benefit from online date, whether staff are working at the head office or in a remote team. 
  • Cloud services can quickly be scaled up and down to meet needs of any campaign. 

In its simplest sense, cloud technology is a way of storing and accessing files and programs on a range of different devices and locations independent of where you are and what time it is. Someone can sign onto a cloud service and access all they need on their tablet, laptop or smartphone, wherever they are in the world. All they need is an internet connection.  

What is more important for charities is how scalable cloud technology is. This delivers high degrees of flexibility for organisations who can expand or contract their services depending on their current needs. For example, if a charity is running a campaign, it can roll out services to volunteers and improve communication and coordination. Once the campaign is finished they can then scale back that provision.  

Cloud technology brings a high-value solution that can be tailored to each charity’s specific needs. It greatly reduces the cost of administration and can certainly help charities spend more of their time raising money rather than administrating. Neither is there the need to worry about licences and permissions which can all be handled by the cloud provider.  

Most charitable organisations are worried about security because they hold sensitive data on everyone from donors to volunteers. This is another area that cloud services generally cover more effectively than inhouse IT providers nowadays – security is updated automatically to help keep users safe online, wherever they are in the world.  

The Apps Helping Charities 

Better connectivity and the fact that so many of us have smartphones and tablets nowadays has also begun to change the way organisations such as charities view the use of apps. Developing an app is becoming increasingly common but there are also many off-the-shelf solutions available now that are aimed at volunteers and improving communication and engagement in the third sector.  

Charities often have large numbers of volunteers working across different departments and areas, sometimes all around the world. Checking what they are up to, producing reports and maximising performance has often depended on an old-fashioned form-filling exercise. An app like Track It Forward allows volunteers to log their activity and for charities to quickly access information that, in the past, would have taken weeks or even months to collate. Another similar app is Sign Up which helps get volunteers onboard and track their progress.  

Attracting volunteers has always been challenging for smaller organisations that don’t have the visibility or advertising power of some of their third sector peers. An app like VolunteerMatch is designed to put people in touch with their perfect charity – they sign on and browse for organisations in a particular area and which meet their criteria. Charities can post their details for free and reach new volunteers within a matter of minutes.  

The Challenge of Embracing Tech for Charities 

A survey carried out by Blackbaud in 2016 found that just over 7% of all charitable giving is carried out online. It’s a potential that smaller organisations have been slow to grasp but which presents a huge opportunity for not only encouraging donations but engaging with volunteers more effectively. Larger organisations like Oxfam have been moving forward in this area for a few years now, for instance, introducing opportunities for people to donate using contactless payment systems at points around the UK.  

While for smaller charities, who make up the vast majority in the third sector, it can be difficult to develop a dedicated app, there are plenty of low cost solutions out there than can improve efficiency and engagement, particularly when it comes to organising volunteers.  

Today’s cutting-edge cloud services not only provide a range of on demand IT support services that many can benefit from, they are highly scalable. That means charities can keep a tight control on where their IT is used and how budgets are spent. It also means that smaller organisations now have the capacity to explore new and exciting ways of bringing volunteers together and coordinating them during important campaigns.  

 

Cyan Solutions are the perfect fit for charities that want to be empowered using technology. Highly scalable cloud solutions mean that you can tailor your IT support to meet your immediate needs, including organising and communicating with networks of volunteers during campaigns. If you want to find out how the cloud can revolutionise your organisation, contact our friendly team today.    

Cyan delivers sustainable solutions and increases confidence in IT at Sands

About Sands

The Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society provides bereavement support services to anyone affected by the death of a baby, as well as working closely with health care professionals to improve the quality of bereavement care and promoting research to reduce infant deaths.

Sands’ operations are multi-layered, and the charity’s strategic objectives are delivered by a team of full-time and part-time employees who are based across multiple locations, as well as a large network of volunteers.

Transforming perceptions of Sands’ IT

On joining the charity in 2015, Danyanne Quemper, Director of Finance and Resources at Sands, was challenged with improving the IT infrastructure

“60% of our staff work outside of London, many of whom work directly with our Group network of 106 local groups across the country” she says. “There was absolutely no confidence in our ability to drive IT centrally and frustrations had led to a lot of people losing faith in the technology. It was considered average to have downtime of at least 30 minutes a day.”

Danyanne contacted the Charity IT Association (CITA), a network of volunteers to help not-for-profit organisations improve their IT.

“They helped us run our procurement process and the approach from Cyan stood out in terms of value for money, coupled with a perfect fit for the careful, understanding approach we needed.”

Plan

Expert IT guidance with charity-specific knowledge

After reviewing the plethora of existing vendors and uptime issues, we began planning a more efficient, centralised solution that would increase control and resilience of the charity’s IT estate. We also secured software licensing discounts available for the charity sector which Sands had not previously been aware of.

“There were immediate cost-savings in the model that Cyan proposed,” says Danyanne. “It was clear that the team understood the industry and how charities work. By replacing our IT as an integrated piece of work, Cyan delivered real synergy.”

A series of meetings and observations with Sands’ staff ensured the team felt listened to – an important first step in rebuilding damaged confidence in technology.

“From the start Cyan took a measured approach to delivering an integrated IT solution for Sands; they instilled confidence in the process and the team was great at communicating with us to find the very best solution to every problem.” adds Danyanne

Create

Bringing disjointed IT into a centralised platform

We developed a bespoke cloud desktop solution for Sands, centralising all the information and applications needed – accessible from anywhere at any time. Using this cloud platform, the team at Sands could consistently access up-to-date information and tools.

“The solution does exactly what we need it to and the feedback from our staff has been fantastic,” says Danyanne. “We were also impressed by how effectively everything was implemented. Within 4 months of starting to look for ways to improve our IT we were up-and-running with a more flexible, secure and resilient system.”

We also helped Sands transform its telephony infrastructure – an area where technology was also fragmented and inefficient.

“We had a designated helpline, but it wasn’t connected to any other phones,” says Danyanne. “This sometimes resulted in staff having to redirect bereaved callers which undermined the wonderful work of our staff team. Cyan provided a new hosted infrastructure for our telephony, as well as the training and support our people needed to use it.”

Maintain

Knowledgeable support at every level

We have continued to support Sands with day-to-day helpdesk services as well as more complex projects, including an office relocation and migration to a new datacentre.

“What makes Cyan unique is how kind, patient and knowledgeable people are at every level of the business. I’ve had experiences where the further you walk into an organisation, the less you see of the quality and skill that is evident at CEO level. Every member of the team at Cyan talks and walks the same consistent customer values.”

Our role in technical support provides a diverse network of employees and volunteers with a single point of contact.

A partnership built on trust

Sands continues to work to achieve its aims with its former myriad of complex IT structures now streamlined through a bespoke cloud platform supported by our expert team.

“I would absolutely recommend Cyan. At Sands, we have this thing about ‘feeling like you’re being held within a process’ – that level of safety and reassurance. That’s how Cyan has made us feel.  It gives us added confidence when we face new challenges, like GDPR compliance, to know that we’re with a truly supportive team who understand our organisation.”

 

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