IT support for small businesses in Hereford

IT support sized for a small business

Large IT providers are built for large organisations: service desks, contracts, procedures. A small business usually needs something simpler. Someone who knows how your office actually works, can fix the problem in front of you, and will tell you when something does not need fixing at all.

That is how we work. We support small businesses in Hereford and across Herefordshire with the everyday equipment and services they depend on, and we explain what we are doing as we go.

What we help with

The list is practical rather than grand. These are the things that stop a small business working when they go wrong.

• Laptops and desktops: choosing, setting up, repairing and replacing them
• Internet access: finding out why a connection is slow or unreliable, and what to do about it
• Backups: whether they exist, whether they run, and whether they would actually restore
• Email, accounts and the software you pay for, and whether you still need all of it
• Security basics: updates, passwords and where your business is exposed
• Data recovery when a drive fails, if the worst has already happened

Backups come first

If we could change one thing about most small businesses, it would be their backups. Many have one that was set up once and has not been checked since, or a copy on a drive that sits next to the computer it is meant to protect. A fire, a theft or a failed disk takes both.

We will look at what you have, test whether it can really be restored, and put something sensible in its place if it cannot. It is dull work and it is the work that matters on the day something breaks.

Hardware that fits the job

We build and supply laptops and desktops for small businesses, and we are as happy to tell you that your existing machines have another few years in them as to recommend replacing them. The point is that the kit does the job you need, not that it is the newest.

If you are not sure where your IT stands, a Digital Health Check is a good place to start. It covers hardware, software, backups and security in one review, and ends with a list in priority order.

The kinds of business we support

Small businesses in Herefordshire run on very different equipment, and the right support looks different for each. A tradesperson mostly needs a phone, a laptop and somewhere safe to keep quotes and photographs. A small office needs shared files, printing and email that all work together. A shop or a café needs a till, a card machine and a connection that does not drop at the busiest hour of the day.

We work with sole traders, trades, professional offices, shops, hospitality businesses and small charities. We start by asking how your business actually runs, then look at the IT around it, not the other way round.

• Trades and site-based work: laptops, phones, cloud storage and quoting tools that work away from the office
• Small offices: shared files, printing, email, backups and a sensible setup for new starters
• Shops and hospitality: tills, card machines, wireless networks and the internet connection they depend on
• Home-based businesses: separating work from family computers and keeping the work side safe

How we work with you

The first conversation is free of jargon and does not need to be long. Tell us what you use, what annoys you about it and what has gone wrong before. We then say what we would look at first and why.

Where a problem can be fixed remotely, we say so and do it that way. Where it needs a visit, we come to you across Herefordshire and the surrounding area. Either way you get a plain explanation of what was wrong and what, if anything, we recommend changing.

Planning ahead, not just fixing faults

Most IT emergencies were visible months earlier: a laptop that has been slowing down for a year, a backup that quietly stopped, software that nobody has updated since it was installed. A short review picks these up while they are still cheap to deal with.

We can set out, in order, what is worth replacing, what is worth keeping and what can wait, so that spending on IT is planned rather than forced on you by a failure on a Monday morning.

Security basics that matter most

For a small business, most of the protection comes from a handful of dull habits: keeping software updated, using strong and separate passwords, switching on two-step sign-in for email and banking, and making sure staff know what a suspicious message looks like. We help put those in place and check they are still working.

If you need to meet a customer requirement such as Cyber Essentials, we can help you work through what is asked and get your business ready.

When something goes wrong

Tell us what has happened, what you can see on the screen and what the business cannot do as a result. That last part decides how urgent it is. A single slow laptop can wait for a sensible appointment; the machine that holds the accounts and will not start cannot, and we treat the two differently.

We will explain the likely cause in ordinary words, tell you what the options are and what each involves, and agree the next step with you before doing anything that cannot be undone. Afterwards we will say what we would change so that the same fault does not come back.