SecureOffice.net

"I can turn up at a client site empty-handed yet access all our client records, software drivers and utilities I need."

Introduction

Duncan Laing started his IT consultancy, ScotsIT, in May 2005. The business provides support services to a wide range of businesses across the central belt of Scotland, ranging from sole traders to medium sized enterprises.

The Problem

The business was seeking an easy way to ensure that client documentation, software drivers, utilities and tools were available to support engineers onsite whenever and wherever they were needed. Duncan explains, "Because we have support contracts with clients, backed by response times, we cannot afford to waste time returning to the office to pick up any needed client data, software utilities or CDs. USB sticks are fine when they're encrypted but they are easy to misplace, and not always fully compatible with every client's operating systems."

The Solution

ScotsIT initially trialled SecureOffice and liked what they saw. Duncan comments, "We found it very easy to use, and quickly set up folders to organise our client data and tools. Now it doesn't matter where I go, I can turn up at a client site empty-handed yet access all our client records, software drivers and utilities I need."

The Future

ScotsIT's positive experience with SecureOffice has made them keen to introduce its benefits to clients. Duncan concludes, "A lot of our clients need to access documents securely from outside their offices; SecureOffice is perfect for this. Also, the document versioning feature means everyone knows which version of the document is the most up-to-date. That's not something that is easy to do if you circulate a document for comments by e-mail."

Small companies demand better IT-solutions

There are approximately one million small businesses with up to 9 employees in the UK only. You'll find them in all kinds of industries. Common to them all is that they use IT in their daily work as much as larger companies - or at least they would like to. Some people say small businesses have other needs but in reality they can't afford to invest in firewalls, switches, email, virus filters and collaboration tools that larger companies use within their well-protected networks. It's simply too expensive and too complicated. The argument that is often used is that small businesses are less demanding. But would a small business suffer less from an attack on its network or loss of critical files or documents? Of course not! Probably quite the opposite. The truth is that it hasn't been prof