Blackstone IT

What Can You Do For Our Company?

“By deploying synergistic, IoT Beowulf clusters and leveraging AI, ML and BC to transcode the back-end TLS, we can deliver Viking grade…”

Whoa, STOP!
I spend time understanding your company’s technology requirements and plans, to then provide informed advice or solutions. The objective is to assist companies to improve production and reduce costs – in both purse and time. And hold the word salad. I like the adage that if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

What’s Your Background?
I started my voyage into IT services back in 1996, providing support and consultancy to local Ayrshire businesses. Over the years, the range of business sectors and geography has expanded. From accountants to weavers, home office to multinational pharmaceuticals, I’ve seen a wide spectrum of unusual, and challenging, technology scenarios.
Very much a case of gathering over 25 years of experience, rather than 1 year, done 25 times.

What Is The Proactive Maintenance?
To use an analogy, if the company’s IT infrastructure were a car, proactive maintenance is giving it a continuous MOT. If an alert indicates a slow puncture has been detected, the repair can be arranged before it becomes a far more inconvenient, flat tyre.
Security is a journey rather than a destination. And software patching is critical. In the car analogy it would be continuously checking for a product recall and replacing the defect rather than driving unaware that the steering may fail. Or the driver seat could unexpectedly recline – DaimlerChrysler AG recalled Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance coupes for this very issue.

For a small monthly fee Blackstone IT can manage the ‘MOT servicing’ for your business technology, taking care of the system performance alerts, patch management, asset inventory and antivirus protection. The fundamental cyber housekeeping. Monthly test restores from backup data and password management can be added on, along with a fixed cost to cover any labour charges incurred. And no lengthy tie in contracts. Just a month in advance.

But You’re a Small Company
Yes, a very small company but remote assistance is my speciality. Over 95% of the tasks, whether it’s new projects, moves and changes or resolving issues are addressed over the phone or through remote access tools.
Cutting costs in time and money for the business. Plus the added convenience of having the support at the time that suits your calendar
Being small has a number of advantages over larger organisations:

• Consistency – it’s the same person
• Knowledge – I’ve been doing this as a profession from the late 90’s
• Commitment – the buck stops with me, so I take the extra steps or effort to ensure that the job is completed correctly and within time
• Agility – I can quickly adapt to the circumstances. If a decision needs made, there’s no waiting for someone further up the line
• Empathy – customers aren’t just numbers on a list, I know each one by name
• Unbiased – I base the recommendations or solutions on the requirements, not to meet a sales objective. I have partnerships with a number of vendors but no commitment target, so the solutions are based on fullfilling the criteria rather than a quota.

What Do You Do When You Are Not Working?
I played paintball for many, years, had a little hiatus and have returned to play airsoft. It was during these paintball games back in the early 2000’s that I came across a problem that needed a solution. Photos were awkward to take during a game and a bit limited – this was before smart phones. Video would be better but this was a good decade before GoPro cams became popular. So I developed a helmet camera and recorder rig. The results are here:

http://www.bodcam.co.uk/?page_id=53
http://www.bodcam.co.uk/?page_id=55

and videos here
https://www.youtube.com/bodcam