IT increasingly plays a big role across every part of a modern business. Brian Stokes, Managing Director of IT support business ITCS explains some of the challenges the team have faced over the past 12 months.

‘IT’ plays a huge role in business these days. Whether it’s a single electronic till or a complete, fully functioning cloud-based network with hundreds of users, few businesses can survive without IT.

Of course, as businesses increasingly rely on IT, when tech fails, it isn’t just annoying, it has a detrimental impact on your business.

Despite another year of rapid growth for the ITCS team, it’s been incredibly challenging at times. Like most providers, we saw a massive increase in hacking and cyberattack attempts on both us and our clients in 2017. The thought that individuals and organisations are out there, solely with the aim of creating chaos and destruction, often for kicks, is soul destroying when you see first hand the impact that these attacks cause.

We’ve had to respond to these threats with a robust defence, including hiring some of the best talent in the business, as well as investing in hardware and software to offer increased protection for our clients. We’ve also supported our clients with free workshops on IT security and GDPR, and we’ve been invited to work with South Wales Police to share our knowledge and best practices with them going forward. We can’t stop the attackers from trying, but we will do our utmost to prevent them from succeeding.

When all you read in the news is that cyber threats are growing, it’s easy to forget the massive benefits for business that the latest IT technology can bring – it’s definitely not all bad news. We’ve had some major client successes recently.

We were delighted to work with Meritor, a huge international automotive supplier on their server replacement project, using the latest Nutanix technology. We recently replaced 50 servers and a 250 seat telephone system without so much as a second in downtime – almost unthinkable with older technology. Their I.S. Manager was delighted, saying:

“At last, we are confident that we are finally getting the most from our IT systems. ITCS have helped us to reduce downtime, improve productivity and control costs; it’s a relief to know that we are finally in safe hands”.

We were also very proud to work with Welsh Women’s Aid, providing them with a new private cloud service. Eleri Butler, CEO, was full of praise, saying

“The private cloud service from ITCS has given us enhanced security and improved our agility while minimizing our environmental impact. It’s a win-win situation.”

It’s great to get this kind of feedback, and we’ll keep striving for 100% satisfaction no matter how large our customer base grows. Over the last few months, we’ve expanded our team of engineers, web developers and SEO talent, and as our Midlands office is expanding rapidly, we’ve also appointed a new Regional Manager to head up the Midlands team.

We’ve invested in talent elsewhere in the business too. We recently promoted Matt Muttlow, who started with ITCS as an IT engineer, to our Operations Director. We’ve been continually impressed with his management ability and talent over the years, he’s is now continuing to prove his worth at board level and is an integral part of ITCS.

Of course, we have more expansion plans for 2018, but in a continually evolving market, I’m sure we will have a few curveballs to deal with too. However, the one thing I’m certain of is that our team are more than up to the challenge. I have to thank each and every one of them for their dedication and hard work this past year, I look forward to working and growing with them as we keep IT working for our clients moving forwards.