Technology has become indispensable for small to medium businesses (SMEs). Last year, the rapid advancements of technologies such as cloud computing have given SMEs capabilities once limited to large corporations. 2024 brings with it a spate of new IT opportunities–and challenges–to navigate. To help businesses capitalise on innovation, here are the top trends that are expected to shape the landscape for SMEs, from advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to the growing importance of cybersecurity. Generative AI Will Make Its Way Into Work The year 2023 was a banner year for generative AI ..read more

When Tim-Berners Lee modelled the structure of the World Wide Web, he visualised it as a series of connections through which data is freely shared and safely consumed. However, connecting the world has created dangers Lee failed to foresee. “If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I would have said humanity is going to do a good job with this. I was wrong,” says Lee.  Read more: The What, Why and How of VPNs (Are They Worth it?) Cybercrime and lack of data privacy has made the Internet a risky place. Hackers are constantly prowling for vulnerabilities to exploit, targeting individual users and la ..read more

Collaboration tools are deeply intertwined with the way we work. There’s an application for every function imaginable. Hop on Zoom for a conference call. Jump over to Slack, and there’s a channel for everything, from projects to casual chats. Pull up Microsoft Teams or Google Docs to work together on files in real time. All this choice makes collaboration easy – but not simple. Communication remains one of the biggest barriers at work, despite the plethora of powerful tools at our disposal. In our desire to establish connections, we may inadvertently be drowning the message under the noise of ..read more

Although nearly phased out at home, traditional phone systems still run communications at many an office. Around 70 percent still use landlines.  But these phones are on borrowed time. By 2025, telecom providers in the UK are expected to retire analogue telephone networks, starting with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The majority of businesses are unprepared for the “Big Switch Off”, putting them at risk of being left without phone service once the change kicks in.  Making the shift to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) sooner rather than later will ensure that your c ..read more

Data loss is an omnipresent risk. Cyber criminals never let up: 83 percent of organisations experienced more than one data breach in 2022. Natural disasters and accidents can level offices without warning. Even Google’s data centres can’t evade lighting strikes. Against threats both malicious and wrought by nature, preparedness will be key to resilience. Mitigating tactics are especially crucial for small to medium businesses who are hit harder by data loss. The cost of breaches for SMBs rose by 14 percent from 2022. There’s a slew of strategies available. Two of them that SMBs should include ..read more

In the last 12 months, 32% of businesses in the UK reported a cyber attack. An estimated £21 billion is lost every year in the UK to cyber crime. The ubiquity and the cost of cyber crime demands that organisations make cyber security a top priority, especially when we are only becoming ever more reliant on technology to operate. While there is no fool-proof way of preventing all cyber crime, there are steps you can take to mitigate the risks. Review our cyber security audit for businesses to make sure that you are ready for every cyber threat. Password Policy Strong cyber security starts with ..read more

In a tech-first world, IT has become the single business function that links and powers all others. Look into the inner workings of any department–whether HR or logistics–and you’ll find a network of devices and applications quietly processing the information that keeps small businesses and conglomerates alike alive. SMBs are now spending nearly half a trillion pounds to put the function in the hands of a third-party provider, with this set to grow to over a trillion pounds by 2030. IT support outsourcing is not an all-or-nothing setup. It’s common for businesses to have a hybrid structure, ou ..read more

Hardware is one of the largest expenditures you’ll have as a business and will usually account for the majority of your IT spend. The average business spends 30 percent of its IT budget on tech alone.  Budgets have been strained further with the hybridisation of work. Over the last three years, businesses have been forced to open their wallets to support employees working from home. Desktops–many of which are in perfect working order–gather dust half of the time in the office as employees take their work home on laptops and mobile devices. It’s sent businesses scrambling to find a happy m ..read more

Organisations have gone all in for cloud technology. Entire functions are being migrated onto cloud platforms and services. Even small businesses operate on an ecosystem of different cloud-based applications. But while these advances have unlocked unprecedented efficiency and computing power for businesses, it has also created an increasingly tangled web of applications, databases, and controls. And the picture is only bound to grow murkier. Businesses are expected to spend one hundred billion dollars on cloud services by the end of 2023, according to Gartner. Companies small and large will b ..read more

Cybercrime, by nature, never stops evolving. Technology creates new attack surfaces and points to exploit with every iteration. The cybersecurity industry and hackers are in a perpetual lockstep. When experts answered password theft with multi-factor authentication, hackers responded with elaborate scam messages and stealing session cookies. To stay ahead of such a threat, vigilance will not be enough. Businesses adopting a reactive approach may find themselves blindsided when attackers change tactics. To ensure your perimeter is secure against the latest threats, you’ll need to think like a h ..read more