e-know.net hits quality mark
Managed service provider and legal specialist e-know.net has announced that it has been awarded ISO27001 accreditation. The standard is the internationally recognised benchmark for an Information Security Management System (ISMS) where ‘Security’ is defined as anything that affects ‘Confidentiality’, ‘Integrity’ or ‘Availability’ of information within a business
The company began a dedicated compliance project in the New Year, appointing support analyst Stephen Peak to head up the initiative internally. Consultants provided a gap analysis and Stephen then developed and drove through the programme to its successful conclusion. e-know.net was assessed in mid-July, demonstrating conformance with over 100 separate controls relevant to the delivery of hosted managed services; these ranged from the physical protection of the building to network security, from document shredding to the marketing approvals process.
The certification lasts for three years during which time e-know.net will be subject to six monthly surveillance audits to ensure continued compliance.
Commenting on the award of ISO27001, Nigel Redwood, e-know.net’s managing director, said: “We are naturally delighted to have been awarded accreditation for our ISMS – it is the defining quality mark particularly for those companies entrusted with customer data. While stringent procedures as regards data protection and security have long been embedded in the organisation, it provides extra reassurance to clients that these have now been validated by a tough ISO standard.”
Intechnology encourages ‘no cost, no risk’ trials of Microsoft OCS
Data, network and telephony management specialist InTechnology is to open up its free trial offer of Hosted Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) following the successful conclusion of an initial five firm trial phase. Firms taking up the offer could save themselves £50,000 – the estimated cost of piloting the technology on an on-premise, DIY basis.
Any law firm can now sign up to road-test Microsoft OCS, which is hosted and managed by InTechnology and delivered on a pay-as-you-use utility basis. The trial allows for up to 10 users to assess the software for a month, and can easily be extended for those keen to move to wider, more formal pilot projects. Features up for evaluation include instant messaging, ‘presence’ based communication, real-time document sharing, and desktop video calling and conferencing.
Trials can be up and running in just 48 hours with no disruption to existing network services, capitalising on the hosted platform’s rapid deployment capability.
InTechnology estimates that OCS adopters could realise a 50% saving in unwanted or superfluous email and voice messages, greatly reducing communication latency and dramatically accelerating the decision-making process. Through greater utilisation of video calling, lawyers could claim back up to 11 days that would otherwise be spent travelling on business – as well as save their firms the associated travel and environmental costs.
Richard Quine, InTechnology’s divisional director, voice and unified communications, comments: “OCS may well be game-changing technology but few organisations currently have the appetite for a major software roll-out with the inevitable investment that that entails. With a comparable DIY trial in-house costing a firm a minimum of £50,000 this is the perfect alternative – a genuine no-cost, no risk way of ‘sucking and seeing’. If you don’t like it, you can just walk away but if you do, and it makes an obvious impact, then you have yourself the beginnings of a sound business case for adoption.”
For more information, please visit http://www.intechnology.co.uk/hosteduc
