Surgeries and practices
Dentistry, veterinary, physiotherapy, diagnostics, psychotherapy. The common thread is records, retention periods and the fact that patient data must not leave the practice.
IT companies like to say they know your industry, because it reads well in a proposal. The truth is less impressive: most of the work looks the same at a law firm, a wholesaler and a joinery, and the differences come down to a few specific things that can be named outright. This page names them, so you can judge for yourself whether your case is unusual or ordinary.
Nine industries have their own pages here, because they came up in conversation often enough to gather material for more than a paragraph. Your industry missing from that list does not mean we do not serve it, only that we have nothing separate to say about it. We decided it was better to admit that than to write a tenth piece about how deeply we understand your specifics.
That is not a shortcoming but good news. The things that most often turn a company upside down have nothing to do with its line of business, so there is no need to wait for a specialist in your niche.
Encrypted files, a hijacked mailbox, a failed disk in the server, a lost laptop. The statistics do not ask about industry, and the scenario looks the same at a dentist and at a wholesaler. So does the answer, meaning a working backup and a tested restore.
Every company hires, dismisses and forgets to withdraw access. An account belonging to someone who left six months ago turns up in an audit everywhere, whatever the firm does. Tidying up accounts is the same work in every case.
Laptops age, licences renew, and systems lose vendor support on the same dates for everyone. This is calendar work rather than industry work, and the biggest difference is whether anyone keeps track of it at all.
In our experience these three areas are the great majority of what we do at clients and the great majority of what they call about. That is why the first month of working together looks almost identical whoever you are.
Here the industry-dependent part begins, and in practice it closes into four questions. If you can answer them, you know more about your own IT than a supplier who read about you on the internet.
Every company has one system without which work stops, and it is usually not email. Often it is a trade program nobody outside your field has heard of. It determines how we design the server, the backups and remote access, so we ask about it in the first conversation.
Every industry has its bad moment: the twentieth at an accounting office, the season in construction, a hearing date at a law firm, the third shift at a plant. It sets the maintenance windows and is the only reason the work calendar differs between clients.
Some firms have duties others do not: medical records, professional privilege, the cybersecurity act, retention periods for documents. This changes the requirements for backups and permissions, but it applies to a minority of clients.
For some everything can sit in the cloud, for others certain things must stay on site: case files, patient records, formulations, clients' accounting data. That answer settles the choice between cloud and your own server more than price does.
We do not know the answers to these questions for your industry in advance and do not pretend to. We do know the questions, and that is enough to make the first conversation concrete. We then record the starting point in an IT audit, which is the same document whatever you do.
Industries cluster around similar problems. If yours is not listed, the neighbouring description usually fits about eighty per cent and reads faster than a conversation with a salesperson.
Dentistry, veterinary, physiotherapy, diagnostics, psychotherapy. The common thread is records, retention periods and the fact that patient data must not leave the practice.
Tax advisers, payroll and personnel, settlement services. The common thread is working on other companies' data, duties towards clients and a calendar with half the month blocked.
Notaries, patent attorneys, restructuring advisers, court enforcement officers. The common thread is professional privilege, the compulsory e-delivery mailbox and separating access to matters.
Freight forwarding, couriers, hauliers, logistics operators. The common thread is terminals and scanners on the move, network coverage in the hall and a system that must run during loading hours.
Wholesalers, shops, distributors, online sales. The common thread is integrations between systems, keeping the shop available and customer data scattered across several tools.
Marketing, video production, photography, architecture, design. The common thread is heavy files, shared disk space and working with subcontractors from outside the firm.
If none of these groups fits, no matter. We then start from the four questions above and name your specifics ourselves rather than fitting them to a ready description. If you manufacture, build or write software, the right pages are in the section below.
Six areas common to every client. This is the part that does not have to be reinvented for each industry.
The first thing we check at a new client and the commonest source of unpleasant surprises. A copy nobody has ever restored from is not a copy.
A second sign-in factor, workstation protection, laptop encryption and updates. A handful of cheap measures that close most of the routes actually used to get in.
One number and one address for every problem, with a response time written into the contract rather than into a declaration of good intentions.
Selection, purchase, preparation and a replacement plan, so the computers do not all reach the end of life in the same quarter. We take old hardware away with data destruction.
Sorting out what you pay for and whether you use it. With subscriptions a gap between the number of licences and the number of people is the rule, not the exception.
Cabling, Wi-Fi without dead spots and a safe way into the company from outside. The scope varies by floor area, not by industry.
What we do not do whatever the industry: write bespoke software, give legal or tax advice, or sell certification. Nor are we the maker of your trade program, but we talk to that maker on your behalf when the problem sits on their side.
Exactly as when we do. The only difference is that we ask more questions and assume less in advance, which we consider an advantage rather than otherwise.
We go through the questions about the critical program, the bad moments in the calendar, regulations and data that must stay on site. We come back with a list of risks and an order of work. Free, and the list stays with you whatever you decide.
We try to restore data from whatever you have. It is the one test that tells the truth about the state of your defences, and we always run it first, because without it the rest of the plan hangs in the air.
An inventory of computers and licences, removal of accounts left by former staff, switching on a second sign-in factor. The least impressive stage and the most profitable.
Only now do we address the specifics, because after a month we know them from observation rather than from a brochure. That is when we fit maintenance windows and priorities to your calendar.
The remaining industries with their own description, plus pages worth starting from.
Pick your industry and see how comprehensive IT support and IT outsourcing for SMEs can help your company.
It means we have no separate piece about it, because nothing accumulated that could not be said of any company. We serve clients from industries not on the list and start with them from the same four questions. If it turns out along the way that we cannot do something, we will say so plainly rather than learn at your expense.
No. We price from the number of workstations and the scope, not from what the company does. We price separately any servers under ongoing care and out-of-hours cover if it is needed, and those two really do depend on specifics, but not on the name of the industry.
It is a normal situation and in practice applies to most clients, because trade programs are often local and niche. We do not need to know its features to provide it an environment: a server, backups, remote access and updates. Substantive matters stay with the maker, and we talk to their support on your behalf.
At a handful of people a full retainer usually makes no sense and we say so openly. Sometimes a one-off tidy-up plus help as needed is more sensible than a standing fee. The review before a quote is free precisely so this can be settled without commitment.
Yes, though the conversation then looks different. Usually it is about cover for holidays and illness, a second pair of eyes on a bigger change, or taking over some of the tasks eating their time. We do not step into the role of replacing them, because that usually ends badly for everyone.
With an attempt to restore data from a backup, because that single exercise answers the question of how bad things really are. If it works, you are in a better position than half of all companies. If it does not, it is clear what to deal with first and there is nothing to discuss.
To most small companies no, but it happens that requirements flow down from a larger customer as a security questionnaire even though the act itself does not cover you. We are not a law firm and will not settle the classification for you, but we do answer the technical questions in such a questionnaire and supply the evidence.
We close most matters remotely and come on site where hardware has to be touched. We have offices in Poznan, Kalisz and Konin, so the Greater Poland region is within travelling distance at no extra charge per kilometre. For locations further out we agree the visit terms before signing, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
The first meeting takes 30 minutes and commits you to nothing. We will tell you straight whether we can help and what we would propose.
2019 - 2024 Interactive Workspace Ltd. - All rights reserved.