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C5 Alliance in Guernsey recently hosted a breakfast briefing to highlight how managed services can transfer risk, add to the bottom line and bring organisational efficiencies for local businesses.
Mark Cooke, C5’s head of operations and IT services in Guernsey said that the managed services division was able to suit the needs of any organisation, no matter its size or challenges, noting that the company is currently monitoring over 10,000 individual services each day.
‘There are untold benefits for companies who choose to take advantage of managed services. We have a great pool of talent at our disposal and are very aware of the challenges that modern businesses face.
‘It can be extremely productive, for example, to remove the need for on-premise infrastructure by hosting in a managed data centre. Not only does this save on space, it also means that other aspects of a business’ IT environment, such as security patch management, incident management and business continuity are centralised.
‘The traditional model of managed services, as simply “break-fix”, is really not applicable anymore. From networking support to security, there are so many ways that outsourcing IT requirements can streamline a business’ operations,’ he said.
The event took place at the Duke of Richmond Hotel and Marc Lainé, managing director of C5 Alliance in Guernsey also provided an update on the evolution of C5 Alliance since the acquisition of Itex last year. He highlighted how the union of the two companies had allowed for a greater scope of services to local businesses as well as an expansion of the companies capabilities for training and development.
‘The Itex deal brought with it the resources we needed to expand on our managed services offering. By combining this with existing knowledge from our business solutions division we have a huge scope of services but can also do our part to help local business thrive through our tech incubator offering and by training graduates to ensure the island is furnished with top talent,’ he said.
Also speaking at the event was Chris Oliver, chief executive of Armstrong Continuity, a partner of C5 Alliance Group.
Mr Oliver explored the need for effective business continuity plans, explaining the importance of understanding likely challenges to a business and effectively testing disaster recovery infrastructure.
‘It’s vital to pay attention to the evidence of how your business operates. It you understand exactly how it works, you can challenge those moments in your business when you need support and channel the effort and cost directly into business continuity. It’s less about long, drawn out continuity plans and more about empowering people,’ he said.
C5 Alliance Group is the only Channel Island business to offer full service, 24x7x365 managed services, employing more than 150 skilled IT specialists.
