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 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 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.
