< PreviousDEALS FUNDINGEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk30Taking adifferentapproachFunding for deals in 2015 can be found, but the rightstructure and team needs to be in place before buying orselling a business - that was the message from EastMidlands Business Link’s Dealmaker’s Breakfast.SponsorsDEALS FUNDINGOver 50 dealmakers and professionalservices leaders heard from speakersNigel Baxter of RH CommercialVehicles and Malcolm Prentice ofGarrandale Derby, as well as an expertpanel of Paul Bevan from Mazars,Andrew Springhall from Blusource andAndrew Borkowski from Geldards.Baxter outlined the history of RHCommercial Vehicles and highlightedthe challenges of future growth,confirming that his company waslooking to grow in the East Midlandsthrough acquisitions backed byRenault.An ebullient Prentice called on theprofessional services sector to supportSMEs in the manufacturing sector,saying that they had as muchresponsibility as anyone to drive themarket forward during 2015.During a Q&A session with our paneland audience, Bevan noted that buy-outs had returned to the market in2014. “We’ve all had to remember howto work these transactions and dust offour memory banks,” he quipped.“We’ve been busy supporting SMEsand persuading vendors to sell. It’sabout making them look at anypotential deal from a new angle,” headded.Springhall noted that there weredifferent ways to access funding fordeals. He said: “Resources have beentight - and will remain tight. You haveto put yourself in the best position tosell your business. It’s about taking adifferent approach, and finding fundsfrom different resources such asprivate equity. Business owners needto be able to give a stake up in theirbusiness. I’d rather have half of a bigcake, than all of a small one.”For Borkowski, when it comes toselling a business, it’s all about havingthe right people in the company. Hesaid: “It’s the team that’s important.Most people selling their businessneed to have the right team in place,and not to think that whoever buys thebusiness will get rid of you as soon asthe deal is done. They’ll need someoneto keep the business going. Deals havea certain rhythm to them, and gettingthe best team in place means they’llhave more chance of success.”East Midlands Dealmakers Breakfastwas kindly sponsored by Blusource,Geldards and Mazars.www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 31BREAKFAST EVENTEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk32Cloudcomputing -your flexiblefriend Sponsored by PKF Cooper Parry, theaudience heard from Philip Newman,senior cloud consultant at Microsoft;Tony Davis, operations director atCatalyst Corporate Finance, SeanSherwin-smith, IT director at Pall-Ex andVictoria Dytrych, IT director at PKFCooper Parry, before engaging in a livelyQ&A session.The four speakers stressed theefficiency, flexibility and accessibility ofthe Cloud. Newman said: “A Cloudservice provides agility and focus - andthe cost is coming down rapidly. TheCloud is ideal for businesses starting out,which have no IT legacy, but it is alsoflexible enough to cater for establishedbusinesses too.”Davis spoke of Catalyst’s frustration withusing Citrix. As Catalyst grew, Citrixbecame outmoded and outdated, hesaid. “We were having problems; thehardware we were using was getting oldand slow, and we were constantly havingto ensure we had the latest version ofeach type of software. Working in theCloud has negated that. We’re new to theAround 70 business owners gathered at the new offices ofPKF Cooper Parry at East Midlands Airport for EastMidlands Business Link’s Demystifying the Cloud breakfastseminar.BREAKFAST EVENTwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 33Cloud, but we’relooking forward tothe efficiencies andbenefits it will bring.”Sherwin-Smithpraised the flexibilityof the Cloud. He said:“We made the leaparound four yearsago, and it’s provedinvaluable. We workin a very fluidindustry, and weneeded a facility thatwe can scale up anddown at very shortnotice. The Clouddoes all this for us.It’s a very ‘burstable’system, and so workswell for us.”Finally, Dytrychpointed out thatbefore working in theCloud, PKF CooperParry relied on 40servers in its threeoffices inNottingham, Derbyand Leicester. By thetime the companymoved into their new offices earlier thisyear, that number had come down to justtwo. “Before we entered the Cloud weweren’t focused on the business - wewere focused on fixing our own IT,” shesaid. “Now our IT team has a differentfocus, now our customers see that wecan talk the talk.”Sponsoredby:COACHINGEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk34COACHINGwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 35Achieve yourgoals in 2015The arrival of a new year inspires us all to start setting personal goals forthe 12 months ahead, says Stuart Ross of High Growth.1. Write down your aims– Writing down your goals showsa personal commitment and is a statement of your intentionto succeed. With your aims written down you are able toclarify your thoughts and visualise your achievements.2. Make your goals specific– Concentrate on settingyourself goals that are specific, measurable and positive.Make sure that your aims focus on what you want, ratherthan what you lack or want to get rid of.3. Set yourself a time limit– If your goals are specific andachievable, it’s sensible to give yourself a date by which youcan reach them. If not, it’s easy to let them slip into next yearand potentially not happen at all.4. Focus on the benefits– What will achieving your goalsbring to you? Write these positives down and think aboutwhy they are important to you. By reflecting on how it willfeel to have arrived at your target point, you will be able tomake sure that you are fully committed to working towardsit.5. Work out your options and obstacles- There will bemany different paths you can take to reach your goals sothink carefully about what they are and what the results ofeach will be. Every strategy will bring with it new problemsand difficulties, as well as the subconscious obstacles thatyou may well set in place yourself. Make sure that you areaware of all possible issues which could be holding you backby completing the following sentence several times, “I wantto achieve (name your goal) but…”6. Create a detailedplan– Once you know how you wouldlike to reach your goals you will need to know exactly how toget there. This will also help to make a seeminglymountainous task feel achievable by breaking it down intosmaller, more manageable jobs. Planning each stage willhelp you make that difficult first step and keep on track.7. Identify your resources– What skills, knowledge andability do you already have and what do you need? Will youneed to make any changes? Realistically assess yourresources and ask for extra support as and when you need it.8. Don’t forget to balance out your life – Your goals maywell be dependent on your personal life being stable enoughfor you to commit to them. Will the goals you make for 2015fit in with your long-term plans and ambitions? Do theyreflect your own values? It’s important to remember to alsotake care of your health, relationships, wealth, social life andpersonal development while you are working hard to achievegreat things in your career and business.9. Take action!– Don’t put your goals off. Once you havea plan and a clear idea, there’s nothing holding you backexcept yourself. 10. Review and reward– Set smaller goals along the wayto reaching your final destination to check that you aremoving in the right direction. When you achieve each ofthese, acknowledge your success and give yourself rewardsfor everything you accomplish. Don’t forget to celebrate!Encouraging yourself to improve and achieve targets is what will keep you motivated, focused and on track during the toughertimes of the year. As well as personal goals, it’s equally important for high growth businesses to push themselves to reach newheights by setting challenging targets to reach. These high growth companies often ask me for advice on how to set ambitiousbut manageable goals at this time of year, so here are my key tips to help you and your business succeed.Your guide to the pharmaceutical world The completePharma packageGet one step ahead of your competitors withPharma Business International – your completeguide to this fast-moving, innovative andhighly specialised industry!From the publishers ofFood & Drink International,Pharma Business International is basedaround incisive and authoritative information and opinion from the major players in the industry – you'll wonder how you coped without it!Available to subscribers as a printed magazinePublished online at www.pbiforum.net Distributed at numerous industry exhibitionsFind out more! Call +44 (0)1472 310302 or visitwww.pbiforum.netPharmaBUSINESS INTERNATIONALIT managers’ toolkit:Guide to ManagedNetwork SecurityIT is a revolving door of change. While most industries have had to get on board with the digitalrevolution, few have actually had to be the ones to underpin it all. The best and most expensiveapplications in the world are next to useless if the networks supporting them all aren’t resilient,reliable and configured for change. Here we take a look at the importance of securing yournetwork, as well as the key to making the most of the relationship with your service provider. Sowhat do you need to know and where is this rapidly evolving area of IT heading in the future?ITwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 3738 ÁÁPHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ALPHASPIRITITEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk38Fighting fires As with most valuable assets,protecting your network is just asimportant as installing it in the first place.As the complexities of networks haveevolved, so too have the malicious waysto infiltrate them. Luckily, the expandingchoice of security solutions now goesbeyond traditional firewalls and UnifiedThreat Management (UTM) appliances,with the introduction of next generationfirewalls (NGFs). Traditional firewalls used to blockeverything out based on portconfigurations, but NGFs operate on amore sophisticated level because both theapplications running over networks andthe security required to manage themhave evolved exponentially. New firewallsare smart, granular and manage securitybased on the characteristics of theapplications, rather than the set-up of theports – ensuring greater protection. Chatthrough your specific needs with yourprovider though; after all, there’s no needto use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.Sometimes a UTM solution is moreapplicable, or even a basic firewall forspecific areas of the business. First and foremost, understand whatservices are most critical to yourbusiness. Is it an e-Commerce websitethat accounts for 90% of revenue or is it aVoIP network? Is it the CRM in a callcentre, so would have an instantlynoticeable effect on the customerexperience and the productivity of thebusiness if it failed? Whatever it is,understand the level of criticality andimpact if you had to go without it, so thatthe risk associated can be quantified. After the most critical, outline a slidingscale of other ‘services’ within yourbusiness to prioritise and apply anappropriate level of security. For example,a single internal web server that hosts asystem for booking staff holidays has arelatively low criticality to the businesswhen compared to the examples above,but would you want it to still be without afirewall? Certainly not. However, it alsodoesn’t need a DDoS solution or a NGF.A one-dimensional approach to securitywill always fail, whether it be a NGF orotherwise. Success requires defence indepth and focus on the important areas.As well as setting policies by application,effective security needs to understandwhat typical behaviour for your networkis.Know your networkBefore you can acknowledge that thereis an issue, you first have to know what is‘normal’ for your particular network. Forexample - what are the typical trafficflows across the network? What externalIP address ranges do you normallycommunicate with? What are the typicalpeaks and troughs of traffic over a certainperiod? It is essential to then haveintegrated technology platforms thatunderstand this baseline and can alsohighlight when there is an anomaly to therule. Once there is an understanding ofthe ‘normal’ state of your business, it ismuch easier to understand the most costeffective and efficient way to manageeach area of the network. The involvement of a trusted managedservice provider with dedicated skills insecurity and networking is key if you arelooking to outsource some of the morecritical areas of network management.Develop a trusted relationship with yourprovider to fully understand where eachother’s responsibilities start and finish.Clearly-defined admin responsibilitiesoften result in reduced workloadsinternally, allowing your in-house IT staffto pass on the time-consuming niggly ITjobs and free up time to look at ways toinnovate IT processes and gain acompetitive edge.Get an app for thatThere’s no denying that the emergenceof the internet has revolutionisedbusiness, with multiple corporateapplications used within a business nowrun over the web. All web-basedapplications use the same port on afirewall, with encryption embeddedwithin the application. Each app willcontain different potential threats andtraditional firewalls are not sophisticatedenough to define these differences, soare unable to run web-basedapplications safely. Only a NGF iscapable of detecting and neutralisingeach of these potentially damagingthreats efficiently and effectively. Every day is school dayBeing part of a rapidly evolvingprofession means that resting on yourlaurels when it comes to industryknowledge really isn’t an option. ISO,PCI, Data Leak Prevention – they are allabsolute ‘must knows’ for today’s ITmanager. Data is now a company’s mostvaluable currency – and it needs to beprotected both inside and outside of theorganisation. If staff are sendingsensitive data externally (which they willbe), how do you track and manage thatinformation trail? These considerationsneed to be front of mind in an agewhere transferring data from device todevice is as simple as it is dangerous. If it seems daunting to take on thislevel of responsibility, there’s always theoption of outsourcing it to a third party.Choose a managed service providerwell-versed in PCI compliance and MPLSexpertise. This is vital if you are in retailor financial services to avoid the adverseimpact of a loss of credit card data orbeing on the wrong end of a heftycompliance fine. Networking with your peers is alsoimportant – keeping ideas fresh and ahaving a current understanding ofthreats and security updates is essential.Years of experience mean little thesedays if you’re not abreast of the latestindustry trends and potential futuredevelopments. Guest WiFi access (aswell as how to segregate the threats itbrings for the main company network)also falls under the umbrella of the ITmanager. Opting for access points thatcan be managed directly from yourwww.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link 39central security interface allows for true‘Single Pane of Glass’ managementacross your entire wired and wirelessLAN.At the point of control Traditionally, implementing andrunning some kind of anti-virus on staffPCs was protection enough, but withusers now working on smartphones,tablets and a number of other devices,it’s vital that everything is controlled andprotected. It’s no longer adequate to justprotect a business from data coming in tothe network; the data moving within ithas to be considered too. A solution suchas Good Technology’s MDM software canmanage email, web browsing, andcalendars on multiple mobile devicetypes, thus providing company-wideBYOD controls.Protection of data within a network isespecially important with home or remoteworkers, particularly when you considerhow often they are likely to work onpublic WiFi; resulting in all sorts of risksfor the network. This makes secureremote access for staff very important.Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP)- a method used for implementing VPNs -isn’t secure enough for that purpose.Devices need to be protected from thepoint at which the user logs in, whichoften requires an IPSEC or SSL VPN forremote staff access to the network.Patching is also important for ITmanagers, allowing any bugs on serversto be rectified before they become majorissues. A mobile issueThere are not many intrusion appsavailable from leading vendorsspecifically for mobile devices, althoughthere is no denying the importance ofmobile devices when assessing securitystrategies. Network Access Control(NAC) – is a relatively recent buzzwordwithin the industry - a way of enablingbusinesses to identify and authenticateany device on their network byidentifying the NAC address. In thecurrent climate, IT managers need tounderstand every device connected tothe network – not just the traditional PC.NAC forces any device to authenticateits source, so non-registered devices areforbidden from connecting. It’s earlydays in this field, but it’s certainly anarea worthy of research andconsideration.DDoS and Don’ts There have been a number of high-profile DDoS attacks making theheadlines recently – with maliciousthreats wreaking havoc on organisationsof all sizes, including giant corporationslike Amazon. Having effective intrusionprevention is business critical for ITmanagers, and deserves standaloneattention. DDoS attacks are very easy forthe right people to carry out these daysand, as a result, the number and type ofthreats continues to multiply. Hackersand fraudsters used just to be interestedin credit cards, but now that so muchmore information is in the cloud, personaldata has become the currency ofpreference – meaning much more is atstake for both individuals and companies.The mass move to the cloud also meansthat not everything is now sitting behindthe corporate firewall – a risky strategy ifthe right protection isn’t in place. Thethree principal threats to protect againstare DDoS, malware and ransomware – allof which can have devastating effects,especially in an age where downtime isnothing short of disastrous. An NGF withadditional protection such as FortiDDoSor FortiGuard offers extra, specificprotection.Next >