Alex Tupman, CEO at Mode Solutions discusses the importance of cyber hygiene and stopping the spread of Covid cybercrime: Moving an entire business online isn’t an easy task, so it’s no surprise that mistakes were made in March 2020. Many organisations are only now discovering their rapid deployment of remote working infrastructure, tools and software may have succeeded in supporting staff working from home during the pandemic, but failed to create a ‘cyber safe’ environment. The acceleration of digital transformation often resulted in gaps, weak spots and lowered cyber defences. While companies were distracted with the logistics of keeping business…

Amazon announces the launch of Small Business, Big Dreams: an interactive, virtual livestream aimed at helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The livestreamed discussion will explore the future of young entrepreneurship and how to successfully market a business in the ever-changing social media age of 2022. To tune in for free, head to Amazon UK’s Instagram channel, at 7pm on Thursday 30th June 2022 to take part and submit questions for the panel. Last year, Prime Day saw customers spend over $1.9bn globally on more than 70 million small business products during the promotional period, but with a constantly…

Today’s world is digital, data is king, and for many long-established SMEs, who have successfully operated for 20 or more years, digital transformation is no easy feat – especially given the rate of technological development and changes in customer behaviour (and society in general) due to the pandemic. It can however, mean the very difference between growth and decline, which is why we set out on a simple but crucial transformation journey of our own: building a one-stop shop solution and portal for all of our services, in house. SMEToday spoke to Steve Hoban, CEO of Suresite around the topic…

Cloud firm bridges the chasm between ecommerce platforms and accounting OVERWHELMED ecommerce web developers who are struggling to cope with a pandemic boom in demand have been offered a lifeline, by UK fintech experts who help beat integration headaches. Devs who specialise in ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce – as well as those who offer bespoke systems – are in greater demand than ever as Covid accelerates the retail exodus to online. However, they are also coping with increased pushback from demanding clients, who expect their new ecommerce sites to integrate with accounting software like Sage or Xero, or…

Louise Lawrence, an employment lawyer at Winckworth Sherwood LLP, shares her ten top tips for employees to look out for in their new contract of employment when they are changing jobs: Probationary period A probationary period can have benefits for both parties as if you end up not liking your new role you can move on quickly.  However it can also be disenchanting to see that your employment can be terminated on very short notice e.g. one week during the probationary period after it has taken a number of rounds of interviews for you to secure your new role and…

For the first time ever, it’s been reported there are more job vacancies in the UK than there are people to fill them. Thanks to the rise in home working brought about by Covid-19, the candidate pool from which employers are competing to fill them is bigger than ever too.  For SMEs operating on a regional or national basis, or within niche sectors this is good news, as the often specialist skill sets they require to continue thriving are within closer reach than ever before. On the flip side, employers of all sizes are more exposed to the possibility of…

The University of Warwick, Advanced Propulsion Centre, and Zenzic  have joined the Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme, which launches today with a kick-off event at Jaguar Land Rover’s research collaboration hub at the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). The University of Warwick becomes the programme’s founding academic partner.  Recently created by global innovation platform and prolific early-stage investor Plug and Play, alongside founding partner Jaguar Land Rover, Plug and Play UK’s Mobility programme will create an innovation hub that is the first of its kind in the UK. The programme will build an ecosystem of startups and scaleups, corporates,…

Running a restaurant is about offering the best possible dining experience for your customers – whether that be quality service, an enticing atmosphere, or even just great food. It can be a challenge regardless of size. However, it’s especially challenging if you’re a small or new business. If you’re just starting out or trying to grow, you want to spend time focusing on the parts of your restaurant that make it special to you – not getting bogged down in financial admin and managing expenses. With an Equals Money account, you can get real time visibility over spending and budgets…

PAUL DAY, expert on secure software & GDPR, who is technical director of document management specialist Filestream, will be a guest speaker at this week’s Midlands Business Expo in Birmingham.  Paul, who has worked with the UK-based company for more than 25 years, will be talking about cyber security, document management and GDPR at the show which takes place at the Aston Villa stadium on Thursday June 23. “Many companies, even smaller ones, have a mountain of documents online which are scattered and can be hard to find at a moment’s notice. This also can mean that a company’s most…

Rapidly becoming one of the most common and difficult scams to detect, invoice fraud targets businesses and their customers alike. It is estimated that, in 2020, the total value of these scams was around £82 million*, with less than half that amount being recovered and reimbursed. Business owners are advised to take as many steps and precautions as possible to protect themselves by  minimising the risk of fraud, as well as the risk of liability for negligence. Commonly, invoice (or mandate) scams target payments between an organisation and a legitimate payee. Invoices or instructions for payment sent by email, are…