IT
Advice – AbacusBean founder Bev Goodall( centre) and HR2day’ s Nicky Jolley chat with Circle Cloud sales director Andrew Ballantyne.
We’ re quickly becoming the region’ s‘ go-to’ IT provider for SMEs.” the Seychelles. But thanks to Circle Cloud, we rejigged our IT to make sure it’ s super secure, wherever she is, and we’ ve not had one problem.”
Bev added:“ We’ ve got three IT remote servers with lots of important information on them.
“ If we can’ t get in, we’ ve got major problems and it would stop the full team working. So Circle Cloud ensures all of that is tip-top for us, our team can get on from wherever they are in the world.
“ From a security perspective, they are constantly monitoring our environment for suspicious activity. We recently got a call to let us know that somebody had logged into our systems from Switzerland and they wanted to verify it was legitimate.
“ It was one of our team, Steve, but if it hadn’ t been, if there was something not quite right and somebody had logged in who shouldn’ t have, we would have been able to nip that in the bud and shut it down.”
That emphasis on cybersecurity is also highlighted by Nicky Jolley, founder and MD of Darlington-based HR2day.
At the time of writing, thanks to Circle Cloud, her firm was on the verge of achieving Cyber Essentials Plus status – a more rigorous, independently audited version of the Cyber Essentials certification scheme in the UK.
Circle Cloud sales director Andrew Ballantyne explained:“ We’ re currently putting HR2day through Cyber Essentials Plus, which is effectively an audited rubber stamp that means they meet that very high standard.
“ It effectively means you have all the fundamental cybersecurity pillars in place. You’ re carrying out all the really important cybersecurity activities that you need to do to be secure, which is really important for companies dealing with personal information.”
Nicky – whose company looks after Circle Cloud’ s HR – said it’ s been reassuring to have the firm on board ever since she met founder Tom at a networking event around 10 years ago.
Circle Cloud now looks after HR2day’ s IT needs and those of Nicky’ s husband Mark’ s firm, independent financial advisor MN Consultancy.
Nicky said:“ They’ re always available and nothing’ s ever a stupid question.
“ I can get really frustrated with IT – I’ m like,‘ It doesn’ t work first time, why not?’ But they are always professional, responsive and available.
“ In the nicest possible way, they’ re just always there. And we’ ve never had a problem that we haven’ t been able to resolve in all that time.”
Andrew says having the trust of SME clients such as AbacusBean and HR2day is a welcome endorsement of Circle Cloud’ s unrelenting emphasis on cybersecurity in an increasingly uncertain world.
He said:“ We’ re quickly becoming the region’ s‘ go-to’ IT provider for SMEs, because we’ ve got a purpose-built IT and cybersecurity operation for companies with one to 150 seats.
“ Our managed service package is built effectively for the modern workplace, because the modern challenge is the balance between productivity and security.
“ People want to be able to work remotely and securely. Our service package is built with that in mind so that you still get optimum security while also being able to behave like a modern worker and work remotely.
“ And we don’ t venture away from SMEs because it would compromise our service levels. So, our plans are to keep growing in the region and continue to take the IT and cybersecurity headaches away from owner-led businesses.”
Visit circlecloud. co. uk
The voice of business in the Tees region | 43