Plain-English advice for Yorkshire business owners
Short, practical articles from the team, written for the people who run businesses rather than the people who run servers.
CostsHow to tell if you're paying too much for IT support
Most firms have never checked their IT invoice against the market. Here is a one-hour checklist that finds the licences nobody uses, the hours that should be included, and the contract clause that locks you in.
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SecurityWhat cyber security should your IT provider include?
Most managed IT contracts say "security included" somewhere. Here is what that phrase should actually mean, mapped to the five Cyber Essentials controls, plus the extras a small business needs and the ones that are fair to charge for.
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IT supportHow to choose an IT support provider for your business
A three-year IT support contract outlasts most of the laptops it covers. Here is the selection process we would use ourselves, from working out what you need to the clauses that decide whether you can ever leave.
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CostsHow much does managed IT support cost in the UK?
UK managed IT support runs from about £40 to £150 per user per month, and the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest contract. Here are the real ranges, the extras, and what a 15-person and a 40-person office should expect to pay.
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CostsManaged IT support or an in-house IT person, which suits a small business?
An in-house IT person in Yorkshire costs a lot more than the salary on the advert. We cost the hire properly, set it against managed IT, and say where each one wins.
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IT supportQuestions to ask an IT support company before you sign
Eighteen questions to put to every IT support company on your shortlist, grouped by topic, each with a one-line guide to what a good answer and a weak answer sound like.
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IT supportRed flags when hiring an IT support company
Most IT support problems are visible in the sales meeting. Ten warning signs to look for before you sign, and in the first months after.
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IT supportEight signs your business has outgrown break-fix IT support
The same printer fault for the fourth time, one person holding every password, and a tender that asks for Cyber Essentials. Eight signs a UK business has outgrown break-fix IT, and what each one costs.
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IT supportWhat does a managed service provider actually do?
An MSP runs your IT for a fixed monthly fee, and most of the work happens where you never see it. Here is what a provider does in a normal week, what it costs you in decisions, and what it will never do for you.
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IT supportWhat should be in an IT support contract?
A clause-by-clause checklist to hold against any IT support contract before you sign it, from scope and service levels to GDPR, ownership of your admin accounts, and how you get out.
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ComplianceCyber Essentials: what it actually involves, and why customers keep asking for it
Cyber Essentials has gone from a nice-to-have to the thing that decides whether you can bid. Here's what the five controls are, what the process looks like, and where businesses usually trip up.
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Switching IT providerHow to switch IT provider without your staff noticing
Most businesses stay with an IT provider they've stopped trusting because they think switching means a fortnight of chaos. It doesn't, if it's done in the right order. Here's the order.
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IT supportWhat a slow IT response actually costs a 25-person business
Everyone knows slow IT support is annoying. Fewer people have worked out what it costs. The arithmetic is simple and the number is bigger than most support contracts.
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