IT Consultancy

Our IT Consultancy service can provide you advice on any aspect of strategy, policy, process or procedure and on hardware, software, infrastructure, information systems, project management, security, fault tolerance, failover, backup, disaster recovery and business continuity.

You are experts in your business so you shouldn't need to be experts in IT as well.  Cnik are experts in what we do so whatever your IT need, give us a call or email us at enquiries@cnik.co.uk and if we can't help we'll put you in touch with someone who can.

Consultancy specialisations

• Information Technology (IT)
• Information Systems (IS)
• Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery
• Information Security Management
• Knowledge Management
• IT Project Management
• IT Support
• IT Services
• Web site development

Information Technology (IT)

Cnik can provide consultancy on a wide range of IT or ICT issues whether it be general advice on how best to utilise technology for your company, specific advice on how to achieve an IT goal, or help with a particular IT issue you are experiencing.  It may be that you wish to gain a second qualified opinion on a particular investment, you need temporary assistance with a particular project, or you need the opinion of an experienced IT Manager or Director for a short time.  Cnik can assist you with most IT needs so please contact us if you need help.

Cnik are specialists in assisting Small and Medium sized businesses with infrastructure, network, desktop and server advice and support.

Information Systems (IS)

Our Information Systems (IS) service can provide a solution to your information, knowledge, or business intelligence needs.  A business needs information on how it is performing in order to make the best decisions on how to grow and develop.  Imagine an organisation that doesn't know where its customers are coming from, how much the average customer spends, what percentage of customers return to buy additional services, when its contracts or warrantees expire, or how much it costs to deliver a product or service.  Cnik can help at many stages of the information process whether it is the initial stages of analysing what the business needs, the investigation of what products/services would best fit the business, or in the delivery, implementation or maintenance of the information system chosen.  Cnik has strategic alliances with a number of partners that deliver Information Systems such as Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SQL Reporting Services and Crystal Reports.

Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery can be a complex subject that many Small and Medium sized businesses think is relevant just for large organisations but it can often be quite easy and relatively inexpensive to achieve; it really depends on the individual situation of a particular organisation.  What is important is that the risks of something going wrong are properly considered and the basic precautions are taken so far as an organisation can afford.  All businesses should conduct daily backups of essential data and keep that data off-site as a minimum. 

There is often discussion on the difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery and some people use the terms interchangeably.  Business Continuity is the higher level discipline and is about planning, documenting and testing what actions would be taken if a considered risk to the company as a whole was to occur (such as a fire at the companies premises) that affected the operational ability of the business to continue.  Disaster Recovery is more particularly to do with an IT failure such as a hardware fault or database corruption that removes access to data or information needed to run a business and the specific requirements needed to restore access to that information.  It is usual for a Business Continuity Plan to contain a section (or lower level plan) on Disaster Recovery for the IT function.  Cnik can assist in consulting or implementing solutions for both Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.

There is an British Standard for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BS25999) that supports chapter 14 of ISO 27002, which is the standard for Information Security Management.  Certification to these standards can be essential to some businesses but they are also worth reading and aligning to for any business that needs to consider how to secure their business information and ensure they can survive in the event of a major incident.

Please see our Business Continuity page for more details or contact Cnik.

Information Security Management

Information Security is becoming an issue for more and more companies as the regulations regarding what information we can keep on individuals or organisations and how we can use it become more detailed, restrictive and enforceable.  The information that helps a business be competitive is also increasingly important and an organisation needs to ensure that it is not lost, compromised, or falls into the hands of a competitor. 

The only sensible way to manage Information Security is to conduct a review of what information you hold, its' importance to the business, the risks to that information, your legal and moral obligations regarding that information, and then to implement a system of processes to secure the information as much as is needed.  A common way to do this is to implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS).  An ISMS records the information you hold, the applicable risks, and the controls that you have put in place to ensure its' confidentiality, integrity and availability.  An ISMS is not just about making sure your Information is secure it is also about making sure it is available to the right people, at the right time within your organisation.  ISO 27002 is the international standard for Information Security Management (it was previously called ISO 17799 and BS 7799) and provides a good framework to ensure that you have an ISMS in place and that it can stand up to an audit.  If your business holds data that needs to be secure then certification to ISO 27002 will give your customers and industry auditors the assurance that you employ best practice and have been independently audited to a good standard.  Certification is not always needed or desired by an organisation but you can still use the principles of ISO 27002 for your ISMS to ensure you are using best practice to keep your information secure. 

A key component of an ISMS is the Security Policy which defines the companies statement on the Acceptable Use of the IT systems including access to the system, use of email, use of the Internet or use of the systems for personal use.  All organisations that have an IT System should have an IT Security Policy so that employees know what is, and isn't acceptable on their systems.

Cnik can act as consultant and project manager in creating a Security Policy, implementing an ISMS or progressing towards certification to ISO 27002.

End Point Security - End Point Security is a term used to ensure security at the end points to networks such as the users desktops.  With easy attachments of all kinds of personal electronic devices such as USB hard drives, iPods, MP3 players and portable hard drives it is difficult for an organisation to know what data is coming on to a network or leaving it.  There are many systems for achieving End Point Security and the best fit for one company may not suit all companies so please contact Cnik to discuss your options further if you believe you are vulnerable.

IT Project Management

Our IT Project Management service can help you achieve the IT or IS project you need to be delivered.  Project Management is a skill that needs to be incorporated into any major implementation, upgrade or development of IT services so that the project is delivered to cost, time, and to the expectations of the shareholders.  Cnik can also act as your independent project manager for an IT/IS project delivered by another supplier.  Cnik uses the standard methodologies of Prince 2 and BS 6079 (the British Standard for Project Management) for managing larger projects.

IT Support

Our IT Support service can provide all the functions needed to support the day to day running of your IT system.  When you experience an issue with a piece of computer equipment, simply call or email our help desk and the problem will be solved; either remotely (if at all possibly) or with a visit to the premises.  Please see our dedicated IT Support page.

IT Services

First of all we listen to your requirements, and then we can propose to you a good way to achieve them.  Our staff are experienced in finding the right solution to an IT need and making sure it fits the business rather than trying to make you change to fit a service or product.  Whether it is an email system, a database system, a storage system, a backup system, web monitoring system or any other type of IT system we will ensure that it fits your business.  For more information please see our dedicated IT Services page.

Web Site Development

How do you like this site?  It is a fairly simple web site produced simply and available quickly.  If you are looking for a site like this to get you up and running with a presence on the web then our service it ideal.  We can also set-up the domain name and web hosting site for you, and it is a lot cheaper than you would think!

If you need something a lot more complicated with interactive media or e-commerce then we leave that to specialist companies but we can recommend someone to you, handle the requirements specification or the project management process if you need that help. 

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a term you'll hear a lot with regards to websites and it is basically the methods used in order to get your website found and placed high up in the rankings within the main search engines.  In the UK, Google is the search engine to concentrate on because it is used by over 75% of people; Yahoo has about 19% of searches, Microsoft Live/MSN about 5% and the others just aren't worth bothering with.  Cnik can help you with the basics of SEO and significantly improve your ranking (if you haven't done any SEO) or put you in touch with a specialist if further work is needed.