UK data shows 43% of businesses identified a cyber breach/attack in the last 12 months (≈612k firms), with phishing dominant and an average cost of £3,550 for businesses and £8,690 for charities for the most disruptive incident. Cyber security sits with the board, per the NCSC’s 10 Steps and its Toolkit for Boards
A national boiler‑maintenance company in France had acquired 40+ independent firms. The country CEO (non‑technical) needed control over fast‑growing servers, networks, providers and services—serving ~300 concurrent users out of 1,200 employees, including field technicians. I was hired to take end‑to‑end responsibility for IT coordination and integration, excluding budget ownership and group reporting. I coordinated vendors, unified systems, migrated data, maintained operations, recruited a Level‑1 technician and supervised his monitoring project. Outcome: a unified, governable IT landscape, smooth migrations with operational continuity, and a platform ready for the parent group’s later datacentre move.
A Swiss design and architecture school — administratively attached to a French group — needed a structured migration and harmonisation into the group’s environment. This was not a crisis, nor a hardware refresh. It was competence‑led: assessment, standardisation, VPN integration, centralised apps (TSE/Citrix), and secure, accountable printing—delivered with no hardware sales. The cutover was smooth; users (faculty, students, admin) experienced a consistent workspace and management gained visibility without disruption.
A regional real‑estate network faced an unexpected Microsoft licensing audit. Daily use of Microsoft products had grown over time without full visibility of licensing models, historical purchases and rights of use. I provided end‑to‑end support: discovery across offices, reconciliation of deployments vs. entitlements, review of legacy contracts/OEM keys/renewals, a clear compliance report for management, liaison with the audit representatives, and a practical remediation plan with a simplified, cost‑effective licensing approach. Outcome: avoided unnecessary penalties, restored clarity and reduced future admin overhead.
Following the audit, the organisation chose delegated IT instead of hiring full‑time. With two on‑site visits per month, I handled user support, migration follow‑ups, backup verification, ticket triage and decision support for leadership (new site visits, supplier interviews, concise cost/benefit notes). Result: predictable operations, fewer complaints and confident decisions — coverage matched to workload, no unnecessary headcount.
A regional occupational health organisation operating several medical sites struggled with slow systems, unclear costs and minimal visibility. A newly appointed director requested an independent audit with a clear mandate: restore transparency, modernise core services and simplify the daily experience for non‑technical medical staff. The audit exposed systemic issues (heterogeneous workstations, weak processes, legacy infrastructure, under‑optimised inter‑site links, and wasteful contracts). We delivered a structured, phased modernisation plan that improved login times from 10–15 minutes to a few seconds, reduced unnecessary spend, and re‑established governance.
A France‑based design and marketing studio with several departments needed ongoing IT stability without a full‑time hire. As an external IT manager (delegated IT), I visited monthly to verify server health (including backups), check workstations and network stability, maintain file servers for large creative assets, keep software/licensing/antivirus current, resolve tickets, support users, and plan equipment moves to avoid disruption. The result: a quiet, reliable environment with very few support tickets and minimal downtime—achieved through routine, structured care.
A large public administration was delivering several high‑pressure VoIP/PBX transitions under tight cutover windows. Although I belonged to the local IP network team, I joined the voice unit as hands‑on reinforcement to accelerate execution: structured cabling, phone deployment, VLAN consistency and routing checks, interconnect validation, and precise physical moves. The outcome: faster, cleaner transitions, reduced load on voice specialists, and perfect alignment between network and telephony layers during each cutover—without additional full‑time hires.
A mid-sized printing company faced recurring network issues and slow interventions due to years of unmanaged cabling: inconsistent labelling, mixed patch standards, and cluttered server racks. Brought in as hands‑on technical reinforcement, I did not replace hardware. I restored order: reorganised racks, re‑labelled core links, standardised patching, removed unsafe/abandoned cables, and documented everything. In one day, engineers (telecoms and systems) could troubleshoot confidently, reduce accidental outage risk, and the management team regained control—without major capital spend, just method, structure, and attention to detail.
