As your SME grows and your IT systems become more sophisticated, the chances are you will want to boost your technical support capacity. That could mean adding extra employees to your payroll or looking for more robust external help.
Whichever option is best for your business, the right qualifications and experience are crucial to new people's ability to hit the ground running. Installing, testing and maintaining computers, networks and software systems all take specific knowledge and expertise.
Bitcoin and blockchain tech have been dominating headlines recently, but to many business owners not in the know, they remain something of a mystery. Yet with a growing belief that blockchain is – in fact – changing the world at a significant pace, it's probably a good idea to at least try and get your head around what it is.
I enjoy remote locations, especially in Scotland away from technology.
I enjoy a vast range of music and have never had a favourite band.
I can listen to a short piece of music once and play it back.
As Development Manager I am responsible for the development of SQL databases and reports for our clients and for internal use. This often includes automating repetitive procedures and tasks to provide more accurate and efficient workflows. I am also heavily involved in reporting, providing quick, accurate data feeds, macros and reports for our users via Excel and Word.
For our E-commerce customers, for example, transferring data to and from SQL for sales processing and stock control and product updates. I also get involved in data integration projects.
Simply put, I optimise processes to ensure our clients are maximising efficiencies and making the most of the technology available to them.
I played trumpet from the age of 5 with the aim of being professional. After 1 year at Uni I got headaches within seconds of starting to play and no one could find the answer. I therefore needed to find a job and started work in an office using spreadsheets to report data for customers, in those days mainly typed up. This led to my current job at Q2Q and after getting the job set off on a steep self-teaching curve, I found I could work with computers and do what needed to be done.
My greatest achievement is my 3 kids who have all flown the nest and I am proud of them all.
My hobbies are music either performing, listening or composing. I play Double Bass and Piano. I also enjoy going for long walks.
Following a year of record growth, North West IT specialist Q2Q is setting its sights on further expansion in 2018.
The Government says that almost half of all businesses reported a data beach or cyber-attack in the past year – a sobering statistic for any SME.
And what makes this even more worrying is the impact such an incident can have. If you suffer a breach, that means a hacker has access to your business data, which is a huge problem in itself. But the time spent fixing your systems, the damage to your reputation and potential loss of customers, will all create further issues.
So, if you suspect a breach has occurred, what should you do?
By now, if you haven't heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it's likely you've either been asleep or living under a rock for the past year.
However, when it comes to the legislation's electronic comms counterpart – the ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) – there's less chance you'll have given it much thought, or even recall it being mentioned at all.
Is your printer a GDPR danger zone?
For many SMEs, dealing with sensitive information is just another part of everyday operations. Whether you work within retail, healthcare, security, professional services, law or finance – or pretty much any industry, to be honest! – the chances are you'll handle some form of personal data in your day-to-day work activities.
You may have heard of a little thing called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is a new legislation devised to uphold the rights of individuals when it comes to how this information is obtained, stored and processed. Set to come into effect on 25 May this year, businesses across the EU – and the rest of the world – are now scrabbling around trying to prepare themselves for the changes as we speak.