News Archives - Page 32 of 53

MP visits local firm to discuss developing talent in the North

Posted on July 4, 2019 | by root

MP Chi Onwurah – Labour’s Industrial Strategy Minister – visited local business, Samuel Knight International, last week to discuss the firm’s growth plans and further investment in Newcastle and its people.

The energy and rail recruitment specialist has already noted extensive growth since it’s inception, increasing headcount from four to over fifty in under five years and hitting impressive turnover figures of £16 million. Earlier this year the firm secured significant investment from Gresham House Ventures and used the meeting with Chi to discuss how this will be used to support the local economy, including through its own internal hiring and improving the recruitment opportunities for energy and rail professionals across the region.

Commenting on the visit, the Minister said:

“It’s great to engage with like-minded individuals and business when it comes to developing the Northern economy. Samuel Knight’s niche as an energy and rail recruiter puts it in a great position to influence and support the career development of our highly talented local communities while also supporting firms across the region to attract the right people to help their own business growth. As an engineer myself, my ‘next job’ was always through people I knew, but recruitment agencies break that cycle to widen opportunities to individuals so new skill sets and talent pools can be tapped into. I’m looking forward to seeing how the company uses its recent investment to support a number of initiatives, including the advancement of skills in its specialist sectors and achieving gender balance.”

Steve Rawlingson, CEO of Samuel Knight, added:

“We very much believe that in order to continue to build the Northern economy up to be hub of growth and success that we know it can be, we need a collaborative approach. Securing investment through the VCT scheme is just one way to expand our firm for not only our own goals, but also the benefit of the community around us. Partnering with like-minded individuals and organisations is another crucial method of achieving this, and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with Chi to secure the investment in Newcastle and the surrounding areas that we know it deserves.”

HMS Acquires Henley Bridge Ingredients Ltd.

Posted on July 3, 2019 | by root

HMS, the independently owned parent company of ingredient distributors Kent Foods, BFP and Garrett Ingredients, has acquired Henley Bridge Ingredients Ltd. (https://www.hbingredients.co.uk) – a distributor of high-end ingredients to chocolatiers, ice cream manufacturers, bakers and the food service industry.

HB Ingredients will continue to operate as a stand-alone business from its head office in Lewes, UK where it also operates a 30,000 square foot warehouse. The business will also continue to be run by the existing management team.

Commenting on the acquisition, Iain Dalglish Chairman of HMS says: “As a customer, I’ve always been impressed with the quality, service and value that HB Ingredients offers. They have an outstanding reputation and I’m delighted to welcome them into the HMS family. This is a successful, well-run business so HMS will be taking a hands-off approach, with the existing management team given the freedom to operate the business as it always has been. I know they have exciting plans for the future – various initiatives that will build an even better customer experience and stronger platform for partner brands – and HMS is looking forward to supporting these with our considerable resources.”

Tony Mycock, founder of HB Ingredients: “For the last year or so, both Trevor and I have stepped more into the background as the Senior Management Team have been very successfully running the day to day business. After 47 years in the food ingredients industry and 21 years since I founded HB Ingredients, I have decided to finally retire. When planning this, the key consideration for us was to make sure the business passed to an owner who would further develop the business whilst preserving the facility and employees here in Lewes. So we are handing the baton over to a carefully chosen partner which shares HB Ingredients values – flexible, human and customer focussed. I’ve no doubt that HMS is a great home for HB Ingredients.”

UK Mediation Centre announces new Director of Commercial Dispute Services

Posted on July 2, 2019 | by root

Lauren McGuirl, a former Senior Associate in the Financial Institutions Dispute Group at the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, is announced as the new Commercial Dispute Services Director at CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution). Lauren will oversee the hundreds of mediations conducted by CEDR each year by its global panel of 144 mediators, with a combined quantum of claims of multiple billions in pounds sterling.

The CEDR Commercial Dispute Resolution services is Europe’s largest independent mediation service provider for major commercial disputes, operating for three decades and having helped over 100,000 disputants with civil and commercial disputes.

Lauren takes over from John Munton, Director of Dispute Resolution Services, who has been with CEDR since 2011, is now focusing on contracted ADR services for Corporates in the Business to Consumer space. John has been instrumental in growing both CEDR’s Commercial and Consumer ADR operations. CEDR’s Commercial Mediation team works with hundreds of law firms every year on the appointment of mediators and management of cases, including the successful National Health Service Mediation scheme which John developed and piloted. CEDR now also handles many thousands of consumer complaints in a wide range of sectors under certification from a number of public bodies and government agencies. The success in this area has necessitated the need for Lauren’s recruitment in CEDR’s Commercial Dispute Services.

Lauren joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2007 and is an Attorney in New York and a Solicitor Advocate in England & Wales. At the firm she represented financial institutions and multi-national corporations in a broad range of litigation and contentious regulatory matters. Educated at DeSales University in the USA and St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, Lauren’s experience at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer included extensive court experience, specialising in high value disputes in the financial institutions sector involving complex financial products and agreements. She advised a number of leading international institutions, on multi-jurisdictional disputes before the High Court and Court of Appeal and worked closely with local counsel on related proceedings outside England and Wales. Lauren also advised clients in relation to contentious regulatory matters, many of which involve multiple jurisdictions and regulators.

Commenting on the appointment James South, CEDR’s Managing Director said; “Lauren McGuirl’s successful track record of working with clients and lawyers will enable CEDR to further enhance our mediation service across the many hundreds of cases dealt with each year. Through Lauren’s insight we intend to deliver more settlements in a wide variety of disputes, providing huge savings to business and government both in the UK and overseas.”

Amazon Business Launches Business Prime in the UK

Posted on July 1, 2019 | by root

Amazon Business makes purchasing for UK businesses of all sizes easier and more convenient with the launch of Business Prime ahead of Prime Day 2019

Benefits for Business Prime members include access to unlimited fast delivery, plus tools to analyse purchasing trends and set procurement policies

Businesses can sign up to Business Prime today here

Amazon Business today announces the launch of Business Prime, a new service providing benefits for businesses of all sizes in the UK, making purchasing on Amazon.co.uk even easier and more convenient. Business Prime gives members access to Prime delivery benefits including unlimited One-Day, Same-Day and Nominated-Day delivery. The new membership also allows customers to visualise spend data and identify money-saving opportunities with Spend Visibility and set policies to improve compliance with their purchasing policies and maximize their budget with Guided Buying.

“Business Prime enables customers to get the most out of the great selection, pricing and purchasing experience on Amazon Business,” said Dave Brittain, Head of Amazon Business in the UK. “We continue to listen to feedback from our business customers and are excited to introduce these new benefits which take the most business-relevant parts of Prime membership and add additional features to make life easier for organisations of all shapes and sizes. Our goal is to help businesses drive even more transparency into their procurement process, while ultimately lowering their total cost of purchasing.”

In the UK alone, Amazon Business serves over 50% of FTSE 100 companies, 80% of the largest universities and a wide variety of businesses across various sectors. Starting today, Business Prime members in the United Kingdom can select a plan that best suits their business needs and gain access to the following benefits:

· Spend Visibility: Powered by AWS QuickSight, Spend Visibility provides advanced visualisations of company spend in ready-to-present graphics, freeing up the time it takes to download, analyse data and discover spending trends.

· Guided Buying: Guided Buying enables Amazon Business account administrators to identify preferred suppliers and products, as well as set specific product categories as restricted. It offers buyers greater insight into company policies or recommendations while shopping and helps businesses reduce rogue spend, improve compliance with their purchasing policy and consolidate suppliers.

· Upgraded Delivery Options: With Business Prime, every user gets access to unlimited One-Day Delivery for no additional fee, no minimum order required. Members also get access to Same-Day delivery in selected areas and Nominated-Day delivery to the UK, as well as unlimited Two-Day delivery to the Republic of Ireland as part of their membership.

· Access to Prime Day deals: UK Business Prime members can enjoy access to tens of thousands of epic deals on 15th and 16th July as part of Prime Day 2019.

· Access to Exclusive Discounts: Members also get exclusive access to Business Prime exclusive offers from our partners including 60% off Xero accounting software for 12 months.

Amazon Business customers can sign up for an annual Business Prime membership based on the number of users on their business account: (Basic) £80/year ex VAT for up to 3 users, (Small) £250/year ex VAT for up to 10 users, (Medium) £600/year ex VAT for up to 100 users and (Unlimited) £4,500/year ex VAT for unlimited users. Learn more about Amazon Business and start a free 30-day trial of Business Prime at www.amazon.co.uk/businessprime.

New Account Director boosts Sherpa’s Direct ABM offering

Posted on June 28, 2019 | by root

Sherpa Marketing are pleased to welcome a new Account Director to our Client Services Team. Jane Corbett joins the specialist technology focused ABM and Channel Marketing Agency from HH Global, where she was the Group Account Director, managing accounts such as PepsiCo UK, A Plan and Ford.

Jane has extensive experience in running a large portfolio of accounts and specialises in working with clients on building and developing strategy, as they are delivering on projects. She will be heading up Sherpa’s direct Account Based Marketing programmes with a focus on Enterprise accounts.

Sherpa CEO, Tom Perry, states: “Jane is a fantastic addition to the Sherpa team. We have welcomed numerous new starters over the past quarter, each bringing with them new skillsets and experience. Through Jane’s work managing accounts such as Bosch, ASDA George, Iceland, 20th Century Fox and Coca Cola, we have gained a highly skilled, multi-channel marketeer, with over 20 years’ experience at developing enterprise accounts. Jane will be leading a number of direct ABM accounts that Sherpa have won in 2019.”

Jane Corbett says, “Sherpa are really taking the tech space by storm and I am excited to join such a rapidly growing agency. With a reputation for channel marketing and ABM, I will be leading the drive on direct account based marketing programmes and am looking forward to developing our key enterprise accounts. My experience in dealing with and developing global enterprise accounts, will hopefully benefit the clients that I will be managing”.

Cyber resilience in uncertain times: 5 steps for SMEs to survive and thrive

Posted on June 27, 2019 | by root

Operating online has brought many benefits to SMEs but it has also introduced the risk of cyber attacks. With the threat landscape constantly evolving, getting started can be daunting but the task is not insurmountable. Joe Collinwood, CEO at CySure details five steps to cyber resilience

When it comes to cyber crime, small businesses are not exempt from the disruption that impacts large organizations. If anything, their size can make them more vulnerable as they are perceived as a softer target. That isn’t to say that SMEs are unaware of cyber risks – according to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019(i), 78% now see cyber security as a high priority. However, this raised awareness has not translated into action with the survey reporting that only 15% of small businesses have a formal cyber incident management process.

Cyber attacks continue to cause UK businesses problems. Two-thirds of SMBs have suffered a cyber attack in the past 12 months(ii)according to the 2018 State of Cybersecurity in Small & Medium Size Businesses report. No business is too small to be attacked, nor too small to protect itself. SMEs can pave the path to cyber resilience by following 5 simple steps:

1. Maximise your best asset – your people
Your employees are your greatest asset and the first line of defence. Training is absolutely vital. Among the SMEs that identified a breach or attack in the 2019 survey, 63% had their most disruptive breach reported by staff rather than by antivirus software. People are the only link that can bind technology, processes and policies together to ensure business goals are met. Employees need regular cyber security training to ensure their knowledge is up to date, to know what to look for and the immediate steps to follow should an attack occur. By having the right policies, processes and training in place for preventing, as well as reacting to a cyber threat, SMEs can create the best scenario to restore operations post incident.

2. Invest in cyber insurance
Becoming more resilient to cyber risks in an age of digital disruption increasingly means understanding how to restore operations quickly should the worst happen. Cyber insurance is specifically designed to cover the unique exposure of data privacy and security and can act as a backstop to protect a business from the financial and reputational harm resulting from a breach. Standard policies are often inadequate to cover the likely cost of even a more “standard” security breach, let alone cyber attack or ‘hacktivism’. Only specialist cyber insurance policies provide extensive cover. However, organisations need to research policies carefully to understand the level of cover offered and their responsibilities to stay within the conditions of the policy.

3. Secure and back up data
Data is the lifeblood of any organisation yet many SMEs either fail to back up their data or they are not doing so effectively. Losing the ability to restore business critical data, such as customer data and financial information after an incident can be catastrophic. Data loss can damage reputations and paralyse businesses, but these are by no means the only problems. Since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May 2018, organizations of all sizes can face hefty fines should they suffer a data breach. Restoring business data quickly and effectively after an incident is vital. SMEs must take control of their data and ensure business critical information is securely backed up and can be restored at speed.

4. Ensure good malware and virus protection
Good cyber resilience goes hand in hand with good cyber hygiene. Whilst cyber resilience is all about ensuring a business can continue to operate after or even during an event, cyber hygiene is about proactively offsetting those risks in the first place. Phishing emails and malware infections caused by attachments and links to hacked web sites have become common occurrences. To counter act these evolving threats organizations should focus on getting the basics right and developing a cyber hygiene habit. The benefit of regular maintenance is that it identifies potential issues early, before cyber security risks become a problem. SMEs should invest in effective firewalls, anti-virus and anti-malware solutions and ensure any updates and patches are applied regularly, ensuring that criminals can’t exploit old faults or systems. The National Cyber Security Centre advises updating software as soon as a new patch or update is available. Additionally, user passwords should be changed regularly and unused equipment disposed of securely.

5. Demonstrate commitment to security – get certified!
Cyber Essentials (CE) in the UK and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework in the US are government and industry backed voluntary schemes to help all organisations protect themselves against common cyber-attacks. The CE and NIST schemes aim to provide businesses with a structured framework and continuous process that implements the minimum standards to mitigate the risk from cyber attacks.

For example Cyber Essentials certification in the UK can help SMEs implement strong, cyber security hygiene practices. Being fully Cyber Essentials compliant mitigates 80%(iii)of the risks faced by businesses such as malware infections, social engineering attacks and hacking. By utilising an online information security management system (ISMS) that incorporates Cyber Essentials Plus, SMEs can undertake certification guided by a virtual online security officer (VOSO) as part of its wider cyber security measures.

Agile and resilient
According to the Business Population Estimates conducted by the UK Government, small and medium businesses make up 99.9%(iv) of all private sector businesses in the UK, and employ 16.1 million people, or 60% of the country’s private employment. However, almost half (43%) of British SMEs admit to having no business continuity, disaster recovery or crisis management plans in place, despite almost the same number of UK businesses (46%) suffering at least one cyber security breach or attack.

Smaller organisations are by nature agile and innovative, harnessing the power of technology and the internet to reach their customer base, however this also increases the attack surface. The path to becoming cyber resilient can be daunting but it is not insurmountable. Demonstrating responsible business practice means being prepared for anything. By developing a cyber resilience stance based on following a few simple steps, SMEs can not only survive but thrive in the new digital world.

(Not) Working 9-5: Bosses Say Flexible Working Key To Attracting Talent

Posted on June 26, 2019 | by root

59% already offering flexible working options – 36% considering But unlimited holiday is a ‘bridge too far’ for 70% of bosses

Businesses that fail to accommodate staff looking to set their own work schedule will struggle to attract and retain talent, claims new research from Vistage, the world’s largest CEO mentoring organisation.

The research found that nearly two-thirds (73%) of UK CEOs and business leaders believe organisations that fail to offer flexible working to employees will face a struggle to attract talent. More than half (59%) of respondents said they’ve already written flexible working options into standard employment contracts. A further 36% say it’s either something they’re looking at or would consider in the future.

Various studies have suggested flexible working options result in a more productive workforce. And according to the Vistage research, just under half (47%) of employers agree that workers who set their own hours are more productive. Just 14% of respondents believe flexible working leads to an overall dip in productivity.

That’s not to say there aren’t concerns about giving employees a freer rein in terms of their working day. Just over a quarter (28%) of bosses say they’re concerned that flexible working hours may lead staff to abuse the privilege in order to take more time off than they should.

And despite a wave of recent publicity around companies that have begun offering staff ‘unlimited holiday,’ most employers draw the line when it comes to allowing staff to manage their own holiday allowance. Just 3% say they allow staff to take as much time off as they want, while 70% say it doesn’t figure in their long-term plans.

Respondents to the Vistage survey were far more open to the idea of a shorter working week. Nearly one in ten (9%) say they’ve implemented a four-day working week for employees, and a further 45% say it’s something they’re either looking at currently or considering as something they might roll out in the future.

Geoff Lawrence, Managing Director, Vistage UK, said: “Leadership is about far more than ensuring everyone clocks in and clocks out on time. Great leaders set expectations and boundaries from the outset, and then trust their employees to get on with the job in hand.

“Modern life is less and less suited to the rigidity of a fixed working day, while broader macro-trends are continuing to drive forward a more flexible approach to work. Business owners that recognise these trends and are willing to evolve will be able to attract, retain and motivate staff far more easily than those who remain stuck in the nine-to-five.”

Sherpa invests in Creative Director

Posted on June 25, 2019 | by root

Sherpa Marketing have today welcomed a new Creative Director to their growing team. The specialist technology focused ABM and channel Marketing agency have seen their team grow rapidly over the past year as they continue to invest in and expand their service provision for clients.
Martyn Lewis joined the team on the 17th June and will be heading up the Agency’s creative division, working for both the client services team and Sherpa’s own brand marketing team.

Sherpa CEO, Tom Perry, states: “All of our investments this year have been around delivering global ABM programmes and we have made significant investments in ISR, account direction, ABM strategists and have now decided to enhance our creative capabilities. Martyn will be building out the Sherpa Studio proposition, which will deliver high end creative services for all of Sherpa’s ABM programmes. This initiative will provide an unparalleled level of Creative expertise to our channel customers, addressing a long term problem of poor access to higher end creative in tech channels”.

A dynamic designer with twenty years of experience across a broad range of disciplines, Martyn has spent the past 12 years running his own graphic design business and has operated as a freelancer for Sherpa. “Having worked closely with Sherpa for the past few years, I am excited to formally become part of the team. Sherpa is undergoing a rapid evolution and it is great to become part of that and to lead the way on their Creative Capabilities. With ABM becoming a requirement for many companies, I am pleased that Sherpa have recognised the requirement for high-end design across their programmes. I am looking forward to bridging the gap between channel customers and top level creative design”.

Waitrose & Partners selects IRI to provide suppliers with detailed customer insights

Posted on June 24, 2019 | by root

Waitrose & Partners, one of the UK’s leading retailers with 348 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, has recently expanded its partnership with IRI as its insight partner. IRI, a leading customer loyalty specialist, has been selected because of its proven ability to manage complex sales information.

IRI will help Waitrose & Partners improve its decision making by introducing the new Waitrose Customer Behaviour Portal. This allows suppliers access to a comprehensive view of their performance in Waitrose, and, as a result, both Waitrose and its suppliers will be able to use previously unavailable customer insights.

Jaime Silvester, Head of Loyalty & Gateway Solution at IRI, comments: “The power of IRI’s technology platform combined with our insights capability and our people will give Waitrose & Partners the ability to make quicker and better decisions that drive value for customers, Waitrose and its suppliers. IRI’s solution really is the next generation of sales insights, and we’re excited to partner with Waitrose.”

Clare Gough, Partner & Head of Insight from Waitrose & Partners, adds: “We are delighted to cement our strategic relationship further with IRI, who have demonstrated that they are our partner of choice in the data analytics and insight market. By bringing this added depth and breadth of insight to Waitrose and Partners, and our suppliers, we are able to differentiate our range for the long-term benefit of customers.”

The Waitrose Customer Behaviour Portal is a state-of-the-art technology platform, which offers easy-to-use self-service reporting on top of its high performance, in-memory IRI Liquid Data® technology platform. Retailers can use the platform to get insight on the latest trends, promotional effectiveness and pricing changes and strategies, delivering growth for the retailer and its suppliers.

IRI Growth Summit 2019
The Waitrose solution will be part of the Innovation Showcase at IRI’s International Growth Summit on 8-10th July 2019 in London, featuring cutting-edge solutions and proven technology. It will offer Summit delegates a chance to meet IRI’s product experts and partners and to see live action demos of each solution. For more information, visit: https://www.iriworldwide.com/en-GB/growth-summit/agenda

Other global retailers using IRI’s Retail Private Cloud include Boots, Marks & Spencer, Costco, Albertsons, Speedway, Kroger, Walgreens, Sobeys, Ahold Delhaize and 7-Eleven.

Customers spend more money on apps that they believe can change their lives

Posted on June 21, 2019 | by root

Giving customers hope in apps and helping them achieve their life goals is more important than compulsion, according to new research from University of Cologne and Imperial College Business School.

Dr. Martin P. Fritze, Assistant Professor of Trade Fair Management and Marketing, and his co-authors identified six key features which motivate customers to engage with gamified apps including social interaction, sense of control, goals, progress tracking, rewards, and prompts. They found people were more likely to engage with these apps in the long term if it helped them reach certain goals rather than just a compulsion to use it.

According to Dr. Fritze,
“Hope means the customers give more value to the app, therefore engaging more, which motivates them to change their behaviours and achieve their long-term goals. The fact the app is helping them change and reach their goals leads to even greater engagement and in-app purchases.”

They also analysed how each of the game-like features affected customer engagement, hope, compulsion, and purchases. For health apps, the most important feature was rewards. For the dating service, the most important were sense of control, goals, and especially social interactions.

The research suggests that app designers should focus on the gamification principles when it comes to increasing customer engagement. Using these game features in apps will not only increase customer engagement, but also increase the in-app purchases customers make. However, managers should shift focus away from principles that lead to compulsion, such as progress tracking, rewards, and prompts, and focus more on enhancing customer hope.

The researchers conducted three different studies using over 2000 participants, specifically focussed on health/fitness apps and dating apps and what aspects made these apps so successful. The study was published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Cybercrime & the bottom line: 5 Reasons why SMEs can’t ignore cyber security

Posted on June 20, 2019 | by root

The digital world offers many opportunities for business growth however it exposes organisations to new cyber risks. Weak cyber security can leave organisations exposed and the revenue repercussions can be severe. Joe Collinwood, CEO at CySure identifies the risks and how to mitigate them.

The benefits of operating in the digital world presents many opportunities to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) however it opens organisations to a host of cyber risks. Although cybercrime is the biggest challenge for many organisations, and often leads to financial loss. Changes in business practice in addition to technological changes are opening up threats which need to be managed to avoid negatively impacting revenue. Here we explore 5 ways cyber security issues can impact the bottom line.

1. Business disruption
Too many SMEs hold the belief that they are too small to be attacked and that their sector would be of no interest to a cyber-criminal. Unfortunately, SMEs are as much at risk from cyber security risks as large organisations. According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018(i), 42% of small businesses identified at least one breach or attack in the last 12 months. Depending on the severity of the attack, SMEs can suffer severe disruption, including impacting business operations and preventing staff from carrying out their day to day work. The U.S National Cybersecurity Alliance(ii) found that 60 percent of small companies are unable to sustain their businesses over six months after a cyber-attack. Being prepared for when, not if, the inevitable happens is key to recovery. SMEs that view cyber security as an essential foundation, with documented policies and processes, will be better positioned to withstand the after effects of a cyber security incident.

2. Data loss and regulatory fines
Data breaches are costly, not only in regulatory fines but in lost business confidence from customers, suppliers and partners. According to the Ponemon Institute’s 2018 Cost of Data Breach Study(iii), the average cost of a stolen or lost record is $148, while the average annual overall cost of a data breach is nearly $4 million. This is irrespective of the fines and sanctions under the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Protection Act which comes into effect on 1st January 2020 which will surely add to those costs. EU GDPR is the most significant change to data protection legislation in Europe for over two decades and puts individuals back in the driving seat of how their data is used. There’s no exemption for small businesses or sole traders. By taking a proactive stance towards data protection, SMEs can take control of their data and engage with customers and prospects on a deeper and more personalised level, maximising on the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the pack.

3. Intellectual property
The current cyber landscape is chaotic, from state-sponsored hackers to financially motivated cybercrime gangs. In a rapidly evolving landscape of increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks, there is a very real risk of a hacker gaining access to intellectual property or other sensitive commercial information and using it to their advantage. Whilst no security strategy can stop 100% of attacks, the aim is to mitigate the risk as much as possible. The majority of attacks exploit basic weaknesses in IT systems and software, which can be straightforward to defend against. It’s time for SMEs to redefine their approach to information security and view it as a way of life aligning security concerns with business goals. By having a top-down, consistent approach to data governance, backed up with the necessary resources and employee training, SMEs can ensure compliance becomes an integral part of the operation.

4. Reputational damage
The repercussions of a breach extend far beyond the costs that are easiest to calculate, such as incident response, external technical services and communications. The indirect financial cost can be far harder to calculate and remediate such as lost business stemming from the erosion of customer and supplier trust. However, the real expense of an attack against an organisation is the damage to brand reputation. Suffering a cyber-attack can cause customers to lose trust and spend their money elsewhere. Additionally, having a reputation for poor security can also lead to a failure to win new business or government contracts.

5. Third party relationships
Many organisations often rely on a vast network of agile SME suppliers and partners. However, with so many prolific data breaches occurring due to flaws in third-party partners, SMEs are coming under increasing pressure to prove their security credentials – or risk missing out on lucrative business opportunities. The cyber threat landscape is more real and harmful than many businesses want to accept. However, cyber security need not be complex or prohibitively expensive. SMEs need to seek solutions matching their size and needs which may not necessarily be the same solutions used by a big organisation.

SMEs have an inherent advantage over larger companies, their agility enables them to be flexible and adjust to changes quickly. The lack of red tape and corporate complexity means they can act and adapt fast. By giving cyber security the same priority as other business goals, SMEs can maintain their advantage and thrive in the new digital world.

Joe Collinwood is CEO of CySure Limited

NEW CUSTOMER RELATIONS LEADER TO JOIN TEAM ENERGY’S BUREAU SERVICE

Posted on June 18, 2019 | by root

A newly appointed Service Delivery Manager for TEAM’s outsourced bill validation and cost recovery service customers.

Caroline Richards is the latest addition to TEAM’s ongoing evolution of the Energy Bureau service. She has been employed to manage a number of customer relationships in line with TEAM’s customer service plan.

With 30 years of industry experience, Caroline has a strong background in customer service and has led teams of up to 80 people. She joins TEAM from Green Star Energy and has built up her knowledge from organisations like E.ON and Eastern Electricity.

She has proven experience in building credible customer experience and management processes, driving operational change and she supports a transparent working approach.

Rob Webb, Bureau Operations Manager at TEAM, says:

“Caroline will be a great addition to the Bureau having developed first class customer relationship and management experience throughout her career. Her commitment to working in customer relations in the energy sector sets her well to manage TEAM’s customers portfolios and databases, deliver efficient on and off-boarding, and manage customer communications with authority.”

Once familiar with her allocation of Bureau customers and their energy estates, Caroline will be providing them with insights about energy consumption, cost, trends and potential savings on a regular basis.

Caroline Richards said:

“I’m really pleased to be joining TEAM’s Energy Bureau. Over the years I’ve developed an exceptional understanding of the energy industry’s customer management and operational processes. I have a passion for customer service and am driven by delivering outstanding results through building open and respectful
relationships with people. TEAM has a variety of organisations using the bureau service and I am looking forward to getting to know them all.”

TEAM’s product and service roadmap continues to deliver improved efficiency and maximised cost assurances for their customers. Caroline’s experience in motivating, supporting and driving customer service will reinforce a high-quality service as set out in the organisation’s mission “to help customers build a successful and optimised energy management service”.