Francis Brophy Case Study

“Peace of mind with the added benefit of Cyber threats reduced”

Director

“When we were looking for an IT provider, we wanted experts who we could trust as our IT and cyber security specialist. We did not want an off the shelf solution, so when Sync IT provided us with a bespoke strategy designed and tailored to our business and the legal sector, we knew that they were aligned with our vision, and a partner we could trust implicitly. Not only have Sync IT exceeded our expectations in service, support and delivery, their training and technology has allowed us to modernize our services.”

Francis Brophy & Co, Chartered Accountants are committed to providing a personal service to their clients. By making themselves available all year round and offering proactive advice to allow their clients improve their business.

Fran Brophy & Co promote an accountancy service to our clients that is agile with a quick turnaround guaranteed.  Reliability and scalability coupled with the added requirement of enhanced security was needed.

Protection of our client data in line with GDPR regulations was a key business objective.  The risk of exposure in this area and any type of cyber threat would lead to massive reputational damage which was something we did not want to chance.  We needed a system that was more reliable, robust, and highly available all the time to increase productivity.  Like any accountancy practice, billable time is one of the core elements of our business.

Like any business, we engage initially to understand the business, the current pain points, and the technology currently being used.  We carried out our in-depth Tech & Cyber Security Assessment to understand exactly this.

This assessment baselined against the Cyber Essentials framework consisted of checking their IT setup overall security and health.  The findings gave us an insight into what key components of the business needed to be addressed with a follow-up plan on how best to remediate and fix.

After a set budget was put in place, we addressed the challenges facing Francis Brophy. We architected and deployed an ICT platform which would deliver on the noted business outcomes such as high availability, scalabilty and security in mind.  We also took control of 3^rd parties, joining the dots between Fran Brophy and the external software vendors taking away that pain which in this case was a concern.  This gave Fran Brophy the freedom to focus on their business making them more efficient at the same time.

Quarterly Business Reviews are carried out to report on where they are in line with their ICT plan but also if there are any risks or vulnerabilities coming down the track so we can budget, prepare and address accordingly.

Our solution allowed Fran Brophy to become more stable, secure, and smarter.

• Microsoft Server 2016 deployed using Hyper V to create virtual File, Line of Business Application servers running on a highly available Dell PowerEdge server platform.
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium – All up to date applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote, SharePoint, Teams & more. This allows staff to collaborate using real time co-authoring so multiple users can work on the same document, simultaneously.
• Sentential One with SOC (Security Operations Centre)
• SonicWall Security Appliance deployed to safe guard the local network and remote home working.

• Francis Brophy have seen significant increases in productivity levels due to the implementation of modern day technologies within the business.
• Francis Brophy now works with the confidence of knowing that his personal, clients data and files are safe and secure in a safe environment with a trusted recovery plan in place.
• Francis Brophy have seen immense value for their investment in IT, and we continue to review any trends/updates in technology at our QBR’s, moving forward.