Alert Electrical place trust in Reformed IT to provide IT Support, Business Telephones and Cyber Security services.
Having utilised the services of Reformed IT for an initial 12 month agreement, Alert Electrical have recently signed a 3 year extension on their services to lock in the current pricing whilst gaining continual value added solutions.
Alert Electrical Wholesalers provide a range of products such as Burglar Alarms, CCTV, Lighting, Heating and Electrical Products to trade and end customers.
They have 6 branches across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and most recently, Leicestershire as well as a popular website which serves customers from all over Europe.
For more information, or to purchase from their wide range of products, visit https://alertelectrical.com.
The Challenge
With multiple branches throughout the East Midlands and a website and back-end systems which serves thousands of customers per month, Alert Electrical had a couple of challenges which they needed to overcome to continue their growth efficiently:
Cyber Security
Having been targeted by hackers previously, it seemed their previous IT company didn’t have the relevant skills and experience to proactively support and protect Alert Electrical’s critical assets. They didn’t feel confident that their IT partner would be competent in dealing with the modern threats posed by cyber criminals and basic questions about IT security were not being adequately answered.
Telephones & Communication
Although many customers use the alertelectrical.com website to place orders, because of the specialist skills within the team at the head office in Ilkeston and the various branches, it is common for customers to call in for specialist advice on which products to choose. The phone system in use was supplied by BT on a long term lease but lacked the functionality of a modern VOIP system. Each branch had a separate system, so calling between branches meant calling an external number rather than an internal call. This increases call costs and causes friction with customers who would like to be transferred internally to the right person.
Choosing Reformed IT
The main thing which attracted Alert Electrical to Reformed IT was the depth and strength of the Cyber Security skills within the team. Knowing that CEO, Joe Burns is a recognised expert in Cyber Security and Certified Ethical Hacker added confidence that Reformed IT are a business who genuinely put Cyber Security at the forefront of their service.
It was also a bonus that Reformed IT could provide IT Support, Cyber Security & Business Telephone solutions, meaning that there was one number to call and one team to deal with these critical business services.
The Solution
After being instructed to take over the IT Support and services from the previous provider, Reformed IT set about improving all standards across the business. Cyber Essentials certification is included as standard for all clients on an IT Support agreement, however Alert Electrical wanted to take this a step further and with the help of Reformed IT, they achieved Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation within the first 2 months of being onboarded.
Key security measures such as multi-factor authentication were implemented across all services and applications as well as advanced security monitoring which triggers alerts to the team at Reformed if anything looks suspicious.
Cyber Security Awareness training was mandated across the entire business with social engineering testing such as simulated phishing emails to ensure the training is effective.
A new VoIP telephone system was also implemented allowing for advanced features which were not possible with the legacy system and which also brings together all branches within the same system for easier communication.
The Outcome
Alert Electrical now feel much more confident in their IT & Cyber Security resilience with the knowledge that a specialist and expert local team are on hand, pro-actively monitoring and able to react quickly if necessary.
They are also in a much stronger position to grow and add branches following the centralisation of IT & Communications with Reformed IT. A Leicester branch was recently added and the IT implementation was much smoother than previous occasions due to everything which has been implemented. New phones and computers were easily added to the new location which just worked with the wider systems.
We were confident that Reformed IT would be the right company we needed to partner with as our current provider was struggling to clear the IT issues we were experiencing. Once Reformed IT were on board their team got our IT systems back up and running in no time along with extra security to help us going forward. We would highly recommend Reformed IT who are highly skilled in their field, very professional and deliver a high standard of service.