As the state of the UK economy improves, many organisations will begin to look to their IT in the quest for a competitive edge. Over the past decade, and prior to the global recession, the investment banking sector looked to “more, faster, better” IT as a way to gain an advantage over the competition. Not any more. We look at how the playing field has changed for large organisations and some of the technologies being used to make the most of what you’ve got. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Financial Services’ Category
Jan
08
2010
Business continuity: 7 tips to plan for disaster recovery
by Amanda Dahl, Director at AWIC
Quite often, business continuity planning is thought to be the domain of very large enterprises, like large financial institutions, who need to continue trading even in the event of major global disaster. But as we mentioned in our article on the impact of snow-related transport issues on businesses, “Small companies, especially ones without dedicated IT staff are the most vulnerable to loss of productivity due to weather-related staff shortages. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, this could translate to an estimated 1.2 billion pounds lost in a day because of the disruption, with one-fifth of the UK workforce unable to make it into work.”
Dec
07
2009
IT that grows with you
Small businesses and startups know that capital is hard to come buy, which is why many companies just get by with IT that doesn’t really meet their needs. Traditionally, to get all the big company functionality you’d like (such as Microsoft Exchange with Blackberry, high availability or regular backups), companies have had to invest a significant amount of working capital into server hardware. The AWIC Desktop service changes all that. With no hardware costs and no expensive software licenses to purchase, small businesses can use the service from Day 1, and have a fully-functioning Enterprise IT infrastructure. And because it’s so easy to add new users, the service can grow with your company, for when you move into that 1,000-employee Central London HQ that we all know you’ll be in soon.
Download the AWIC Desktop factsheet
About AWIC Desktop
AWIC Desktop is a reliable, accessible subscription-based computing service that saves you money. It is one of a suite of products offered by Tunbridge Wells-based AWIC Technical Advisory — dedicated to clear, practical advice on IT for small and medium businesses.
Dec
04
2009
Introducing AWIC Desktop
AWIC is pleased to announce the launch of our new product, AWIC Desktop.
Download the AWIC Desktop factsheet
It’s a subscription-based IT service that brings the following benefits to companies:
- Reduce costly on-site computer hardware
- Lower your electricity bill
- Plan your annual IT budget
- Protect your data from fire, flood or theft
- Simplify your IT
- Work from anywhere
Dec
03
2009
Introducing the IT Infrastructure Review from AWIC Technical Advisory
AWIC Technical Advisory is pleased to announce our latest service offering.
from AWIC Technical Advisory
Nov
20
2009
How to reduce your IT budget by 67% in 2010
A patchwork quilt
Recently, a client came to us with a simple brief. They were consolidating their offices around the UK, and wanted an IT solution which would tie all their sites together, allow them to access their IT remotely, and keep all their company data backed up, safely, off-site.
Nov
10
2009
The 3 key roles for effective capacity management
by Amanda Dahl, Director at AWIC
Good capacity planning is worth the effort
The benefits of an effective capacity management programme are well known to most IT departments. Proper capacity management allows you to:
- Reduce infrastructure costs by sweating your assets
- Meet agreed service levels by avoiding capacity-related outages
- Accurately budget for infrastructure growth by projecting future requirements
- Avoid project delays by having appropriate resources on-hand
And, by now, most IT departments have some form of capacity planning tool implemented which can give them fairly accurate reports on current and past usage.
But what are you doing with those reports? Who attends your capacity planning meetings? And do you have a dedicated capacity planning manager?
(more…)
Oct
26
2009
What if your business lost connection to the internet tonight?
It happens more than you’d think.
Picture this: you’re about to login to your company’s online banking software to make sure those cheques got paid in, and the page won’t load. A few clicks, and then a reboot of your computer….and before long, you’re on the phone to your ISP. Ten days – and several heated phone calls – later, the ISP finally admits that one of their engineers clipped a cable up near the Tesco Express and they’re ever so sorry that you’ve been without internet service all this time.
It may sound far-fetched, but that’s a true story. What would you do if your business was without the internet for 10 days? How could you cope?
Oct
09
2009
4 reasons why thin clients make sense
by Amanda Dahl, Director at AWIC
Over the past 18 months, IT budgets have shrunk dramatically, meaning that most companies have shelved the idea of replacing old kit. But as the economy starts to pick up, many companies are opening up to the idea that now is a good time for a hardware refresh.
The average lifetime of a pc is 3 years. How old are your company’s computers? Are they ready for the scrap heap?
If so, do you really need to replace your traditional desktops with more of the same? What about the alternatives?
Have you considered the switch to thin client technology?
Oct
05
2009
The PPT Rule for Follow-the-Sun Support
by Amanda Dahl, Director at AWIC
Many enterprise infrastructure groups consider follow-the-sun support to be the holy grail of the IT operations service. The aim is to provide customers with a seamless, and truly global, support service. Simply dial a single number or create a single support ticket, and the request will be handled in a timely manner, no matter where in the world the user is located.
But how is this implemented when you currently have silo’d regional support teams?
