Top 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Businesses IT in the UK

Finally, we hope you find the 10 Reasons to Outsource Your Business IT informative.
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Considerations when choosing a new IT partner in the UK

Things to consider when choosing an IT Support provider: is it time you made a change? We very much see IT support as an ongoing partnership; we are proud to keep over 95% of our customers on a rolling 30-day basis; some have been with us since 2003. When comparing potential IT support companies, make sure you’re comparing apples with apples; we also do Android, so don’t worry. Please have a look at the Considerations when choosing a new IT partner.

•  Are they asking you to commit to a lengthy contract?
• If so, ask yourself why? Would it not be better to use them because they offer a top-class service rather than you’re contractually obliged to?
• Are they available 24/7 and able to be there in person if necessary?
• Is it more than a one-person band behind the scenes?
• Do you feel comfortable enough to talk about all IT issues?
• Does your IT provider push you and your IT solution forward?
• How much time is your team spending not doing their jobs fixing or attempting to fix IT problems? What does downtime cost you?

Please look at our about us page to learn about the success since 2003 in IT support services.
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Considerations when choosing a new IT partner in London

When choosing a new IT partner, several important considerations must be remembered. Here are some key factors to consider:

1. Expertise and Experience: Evaluate the IT partner’s knowledge and experience in the specific areas that align with your organisation’s needs. Assess their track record, client references, and case studies to gauge their competence and ability to deliver results.
2. Services and Solutions: Determine if the IT partner offers the services and solutions relevant to your organisation. Consider their offerings, such as software development, infrastructure management, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, data analytics, and IT consulting.
3. Scalability and Flexibility: Consider whether the IT partner has the scalability and flexibility to accommodate your organisation’s growth and changing needs. Choosing a partner who can adapt to your evolving needs and provide solutions that align with your long-term goals is essential.
4. Technical Proficiency: Assess the IT partner’s technical proficiency and competence. Look for certifications, partnerships with leading technology providers, and a solid technical team with relevant skills and expertise. This ensures that they can effectively handle your IT requirements.
5. Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration are crucial for a successful partnership. Could you evaluate the IT partner’s communication channels, responsiveness, and willingness to understand your organisation’s unique challenges and goals? They should be able to align their services with your business objectives.
6. Security and Compliance: Given the increasing importance of data security and regulatory compliance, choosing an IT partner with a strong focus on security practices is essential. Evaluate their security measures, data protection protocols, and compliance with relevant industry standards and regulations.
7. Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Understand the IT partner’s service level agreements and performance metrics. Clear SLAs help set expectations for response times, issue resolution, uptime guarantees, and other critical factors that ensure the smooth operation of your IT systems.
8. Cultural Fit and Values: Assess the cultural fit and values of the IT partner. A good match in organisational culture and discounts can lead to a more productive and harmonious working relationship. Working with a partner who shares a similar vision and understands your corporate culture is beneficial.
9. Financial Stability: Consider the IT partner’s financial stability and long-term viability. Evaluate their financial track record, client retention rate, and overall reputation in the industry. This helps ensure that the partner will be reliable and sustainable for your engagement.
10. Cost and Value: Finally, evaluate the cost-effectiveness and value proposition offered by the IT partner. While cost is an important consideration, it should be balanced with the partner’s ability to deliver high-quality services and solutions that meet your needs and provide a good return on investment.

By carefully considering these factors, you can choose an IT partner that aligns with your organisation’s requirements, goals, and values and can effectively support your IT initiatives and digital transformation efforts.

If you’re thinking about changing IT providers, it’s worth exploring why now is the ideal time to switch, especially as we reflect on 22 years of delivering trusted IT support. And don’t forget to check our holiday closing times so you can plan your IT needs accordingly.

How to Spot Junk / Mail

We get hundreds of reports each month of spam emails and potential malicious emails being sent to company staff members. So, we though it might be a good idea to put together a guide on ways that you can spot if an email is legitimate.

How to spot spam, phishing & malicious emails

When receiving emails from potential clients and leads (users who are not regular correspondents), you will need to take further steps to determine whether the email is a legitimate enquiry.

1. Who sent the email & were you expecting it?

The first thing that everyone looks at when they get an email is who it has been sent from. More often than not this provides instant feedback on an emails legitimacy. You should have an idea of the names and email addresses of people that you work with and often correspond with, so when an email comes in from an unknown sender it is always best to verify its integrity before responding to it.

Check who has sent the email, if you press a reply button always take a look at the return path / who you will be responding to. Does this match up to the content of the email? Does this email look to be a genuine enquiry? And finally does the email address match up to any previous enquiries?

One further trick you can do is look up the users email address online to check if it has been flagged anywhere online for spam.

Another thing you can do is see if the email address matches up to a company’s website. For example, if you were to lookup: sales@cortecit.co.uk, you would find our website and verify that the domain used in the email matches that of our website.

When receiving emails from potential clients and leads (users who are not regular correspondents), you will need to take further steps to determine whether the email is a legitimate enquiry.

2. What is the subject line?

The second thing that we all do when examining an email is check the subject line. Spammers & online fraudsters will try their very best to make their emails look legitimate but at the same time want to draw your attention.

A lot of the time they will use eye-catching headings like “Limited Time”, “Important”, “Urgent” and other such hyperbolic titles. You will also see multiple prompting headings such as “Immediate Action”, “Required”, “Take Steps Now” or “Verify Now”.

Also be wary of any emails that do not contain any headings, since it may either be spam or a genuinely important letter that was sent in haste.

3. Grammar and tone of the email.

Examine its content. Firstly, if an email addresses you as “Sir/Madam”, “Colleague”, “Company Name”, “Department” or anything that is vague and seems abnormal, you can instantly question if it was sent from a legitimate source.

Secondly, check for consistent bad spelling, poor/incorrect grammar and blatant red flags in regard to tone and sentence structure. We are all prone this here and there, but if this is consistent across an entire email chain it can be a sign of spam mail. This point is situational, depending on target audience of your business, reach of your company and many other factors, however, if this is flagged along with other points raised it could be used as evidence of illegitimacy.

4. Purpose of the email.

Why has this individual sent you the email? As mentioned previously are you being prompted to “Take Action”, send funds or complete a task that is not normal?

When requested to send funds or make a payment, it sounds obvious, but you should always take extreme care to ensure you are not being targeted:

• Verify that the payment is legitimate with any relevant staff members.
• Implement verbal confirmations when transferring money internally between accounts.
• Verify that the location of the payment is correct and legitimate.
• Make sure you do not give out any billing information to con-artists.

When prompted to “Take Action”, “Urgent” and other such prompts:

• Is this a service that you use?
• Search online to verify that the task they are asking you to complete is real.
• Has this been sent to other users, and has it been flagged online as a phishing email?
• Is the email trying to get you to click a dodgy link?

5. Links and attachments.

Within the email that you are analysing have you been asked at any point to click on a link or button to complete a certain action? If so the first thing before clicking on a link is to check the destination that you are being taken to.

There are a few ways to check this:

• If you are using a laptop/pc/mac, you are able to hover over the link with you cursor and in the bottom left of most browsers and mail systems you will see where the link is taking you. Depending on what device/system you may even get a preview box popup over the link with the address.
• The second option is to right click and “copy hyperlink” / “copy link address”. You can then paste the link into a text area, such as notepad, Microsoft word or any other text areas without having to click/open the link.

Does the link look suspicious? If the link for any reason feels malicious then it is best to do further research before clicking on it. The only definitive way to ensure that a link is legitimate is to ask the user that has sent and verify that it’s a genuine enquiry. If it has been sent from an unknown sender, then the best course of action is to simply not click it.

The same advice all applies to files and attachments within an email, if you are not expecting an attachment from the sender, then its best to verify its legitimacy before attempting to open it.

6. Check the email chain for any dates.

Dates and timestamps contained within an email can often provide a clue to an email’s legitimacy and takes seconds to check. If you receive an email containing dates that are abnormal (distant past or forward dated), it is likely that the email is not genuine.

7. If it looks dodgy it probably is.

It is always best practice to be cautious when opening any email regardless of who it is sent from. If an email even looks slightly illegitimate, it is best to follow the previous 6 steps before opening any links or attachments.

You should never open an attachment unless you know who sent it to you, why they have sent it to you and what its purpose is.

It is possible to receive an email from a colleague that is illegitimate, to find out more on this please read our 2 previous post on email spoofing, director fraud/online security and Phishing.

Are you ready for GDPR?

General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, will overhaul how businesses process data. This regulation is the biggest change in two decades and will come into force on May 25th 2018. It will change how businesses and public sector organisations can handle the information of customers. The GDPR is Europe’s new framework for data protection laws – it replaces the 1995 data protection directive, which current UK law is based upon.

How does GDPR affect?

If your company either controls or processes personal data you will be affected by the new regulations. If you are subject to the Data Protection Act, you will also be subject to the GDPR. Personal data broadly means a piece of information that can be used to identify a person, name, address, IP address, the list is endless. In the full details of GDPR there are 99 articles that set out the rights of individuals and the obligations companies have. These include allowing people to have easier access to data that companies hold about them, new fines and a clear responsibility for organisations to obtain consent from people they collect information about.

From a company perspective you will be more accountable for the handling of people’s information. This includes having data protection policies, impact assessments and relevant documents on how you process data. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has to be told about any data breach 72 hours after you find out about it, as do all people it has affected.

What do I need to do?

GDPR will vary from business to business, To help prepare for the start of GDPR, the ICO has produced a 12-step guide which we recommend you read. The guide, covers steps from making senior business leaders aware of the regulations, working out which information is held, updating your procedures and what happens in the case of a data breach. If you are unsure about your obligations under the new regulations, our advice is to seek out professional legal advice to safe guard your company. It is your responsibility to ensure your company is ready for GDPR, For existing clients Cortec can implement technical solutions and advice that will help you reach compliance. If you would like to book a consultation slot with us please email: gdpr@cortecit.co.uk.

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