Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

So it’s happened. You can’t switch on your computer, or you can’t get onto the internet, or you can’t find that file that you told yourself you couldn’t afford to lose, or you can’t get your printer to work when you need to get that all important letter into the last post.

What do you do?

All too often it can be something really simple that in your frustration you simply forgot.

What if it isn’t?

Who do you call?

Podium have the experience to know what to do, we understand the simple things such as making sure the computer’s plugged in, that the router is connected and the printer is working. We understand what needs to be done when these simple checks don’t resolve the problem. We have the experience to be able to fix hardware problems, disk problems, network problems and can even help you when your printer runs out of ink.

Project Management (PMI)

With Project management being the process and activity of planning, organising, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business as usual or operations, which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies. Familiar with a number of approaches to project manage the following 6 processes undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value.

Initiating

Planning and design

Executing

Monitoring and controlling

Closing

Project controlling and project control systems

Tender Writing and Response (ITT)

Procurement regulations

With the EU procurement regulations around tender responses, starting out on the process of bidding for public sector can seem rather daunting, but it is the most important stage and can be made more straightforward by following a few simple guidelines. Whether it is help to gather the necessary information to undertake a procurement route to market, or to evaluate the submissions.

Procurement process

With both Public and Private Sector organisations now wholly committed to the multi-stage procurement process, and market competition tougher than ever, the requirement for a high impact Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and subsequent Invitation to Tender (ITT) submission, is vital to ensure the customer’s business needs are 100% met, for the contractual purchase of goods and services.

Tender process

Expression of interest

Pre Qualification Questionnaire

PQQ evaluation, Invitation to

Tender (ITT)

Tender submission

Tender evaluation

Contract award

Outsourcing and Managed Services

All businesses want to save money, and many find that whilst IT might be essential, it is a constant drain on their budgets. Outsourcing IT helps achieve big cost savings, it can be tailored to provide support and the equipment and software that you use. Not only that, but often you only need to pay what you use, whereas in the past you would always need to invest in all the equipment and capacity that you might need up-front. This will be especially beneficial if your business is seasonal, with very high demands on IT and bandwidth only during some months of the year. Outsourcing allows the capacity and bandwidth of your IT grow as and when it is needed, and you only ever need to pay for what your use. Podium IDC are able to help you run your IT wherever it is located. We are able to provide 24x7x365 monitoring and support, which means that often we will identify potential issues and resolve them before you even know you had a problem. We can help you identify weak spots in your existing IT systems, and help you get the most from it. Business continuity and disaster recovery are important aspects of a modern business, but they are often overlooked. Pro-actively dealing with day-to-day housekeeping, maintenance and backups can all help reduce any negative impact on your business. Speak to us today and we can describe how we would be able to help your business.

Big Data, Hadoop and Business Analytics (BI)

What is it?

You may have seen or heard these buzz words being used, but do you know what they actually mean? Big data refers to not only the data that you actively use in your business on a day to day basis, but also to all the data that you keep but would never give a second thought to. It’s not just databases we’re considering, spreadsheets and other office documentation can all be included. This data could be put to use to benefit your business. After all, you’ll be paying to store that data so why not make use of it to generate new business?

BIG Data?

Hadoop has been designed to be able to deal with extremely large quantities of data efficiently. An IDC estimate¹ put the size of the “digital universe” in 2013 at 4.4 zettabytes (trillion gigabytes), and that it will grow tenfold by 2020 to 44 zettabytes. Don’t panic, your own IT will only store a fraction of this data, but you can be certain that Hadoop will be able to handle it.

How does this affect my business?

You might think that these numbers are only relevant to large web sites such as Google, or financial institutions such as banks. But consider a person’s digital footprint. Whenever they use a cash machine, or buy or sell anything, whether online or in person, they will be leaving a trail of data. If they’re using a smartphone, they will almost certainly be leaving a trail of Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS data as they move around.

How can I use this data?

There are many ways of using all of this data to generate new business. Retail companies are already making use of people’s mobile phones. Retail companies will often already have data that tells them the type of products and individual might be interested in. They can detect where they are in a town, shopping centre or retail park, and send the targeted marketing through text messaging. This marketing might inform the individual of special offers or sales events at a store close to them. Many companies are constantly looking for trends in the market, in particular to anticipate where new products could be developed. Business analytics is used to look at the data held in Hadoop to look for these trends, for example the type of people that are located in a particular location, their purchasing habits, and at particular times of the year. This information can be used to target sales opportunities. Indeed, Hadoop may even find trends in the market place that you had never considered before. ¹These statistics were reported in an IDC study “The Digital Universe of Opportunities: Rich Data and the Increasing Value of the Internet of Things”. (http://bit.ly/digital_universe)

Relational Databases – DB2, Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server

Many businesses today use databases to store their customer details, product details, purchase orders, sales orders, stock control, accounts, payroll and many other types of data. These databases are often maintained using relational database software such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Informix, Sybase etc. Podium IDC are able to offer relational database solutions tailored to your business needs. This includes designing new databases, migrating existing databases, and supporting you all the way. We can provide support and training for any existing relational databases that your business already use. We can help you make better use of your databases, ensuring that the information is available to you at the touch of a button, rather than having endless delays waiting for them to respond. Call us today for a free consultation to discuss how we could help your business.

Operating Systems – Microsoft Windows, Windows Server, Linux and UNIX operating systems (Red Hat, SuSE, AIX, HP-UX)

These operating systems are commonly used by business to run their IT. These operating systems can be extremely complex and can be an area that doesn’t receive the attention that it needs. Application performance issues can often be traced back to problems with the operating system. We have the expertise your business needs to help you get the most from all of these systems, consistently, day in, day out.