Having been around since the 1970s, there are quite a few software escrow solutions on the market today. They all provide slightly different services in their own slightly different ways. Each is priced individually and independently.

When looking for software escrow, it’s important to choose a provider that meets your needs and complexities at a price that suits you, while providing the level of security that you need.

Firstly, what is software escrow?

Software escrow is a service that helps protect all parties involved in a software license from a loss of service. These parties are usually a software vendor or developer and the software user. Standard software escrow involves a neutral third-party escrow agent, such as us here at LEA&S, having a contractual obligation to hold the source code and documentation for the software in question. We can also hold the data stored on the software but this is complex due to GDPR. We usually encourage end-users to take regular data back-ups and keep control of data themselves.

SaaS escrow works in a very similar way but is in use where there are three parties involved in the SaaS service; a software vendor, a software user and a third-party hosting provider. It protects all parties against the many issues that can arise with SaaS being off-premise.

With both standard software escrow and SaaS escrow, if something unexpected was to happen to the software vendor or the third-party hosting provider, the software user would still be able to access and maintain the software. These unexpected instances cover a number of eventualities, including if the software vendor or third-party hosting provider:

• Ceases to trade
• Becomes insolvent
• Enters into receivership or liquidation
• Fails to support the software as per their support and maintenance agreement

Ultimately, software escrow protects against a loss of service. In these cases, we as the escrow agent would release the source code for the software to the software user so that they may continue to use the software, keeping their business going with little to no disruption.

How much does an escrow agreement cost with LEA&S?

At LEA&S, we pride ourselves on offering affordable escrow services. We believe that protecting your business shouldn’t break the bank.

The pricing for our standard escrow agreement is as follows:
Set up fee
£750*
IP owner/licensor – 100%
Licensee – 0%

Annual fee
£560
IP owner/licensor – 0%
Licensee – 100%

Release fee
£100
IP owner/licensor – 0%
Licensee – 100%
*this may be reduced where there are 2 or more licenses

Our pricing for our SaaS Escrow Agreement with AccessAssure is as follows:
Set up fee
£1250
IP owner/licensor – 100%
Licensee – 0%

Annual fee (REU)
£950
IP owner/licensor – 0%
Licensee – 100%

Release fee
£250
IP owner/licensor – 0%
Licensee – 100%

Is software escrow worth it?

In today’s digital and technological world, having a backup plan in case something happens to your software provider is vital. Cybercrime is at an all-time high and the COVID-19 pandemic has left many businesses feeling unsafe and unprepared. Now is the time to think twice about protecting your business-critical data.

Software escrow agreements are a way for businesses to protect their software provision and are part of any good disaster recovery strategy. By investing in software escrow, you are not only protecting your business but also demonstrating your commitment and investment in the future of your business to investors.

Convinced? We hope so. If you have any more questions about software escrow and our pricing structure, simply get in touch. You can either fill out our online enquiry form or call us on 0800 456 1115.

The post How Much Does Software Escrow Cost? appeared first on LE&AS.

Cybersecurity may be the kind of thing that many businesses brush under the rug and choose to ignore. It doesn’t bring in money or contribute to the business strategy, so there’s no time in the day to focus on it. That could be a huge mistake though, as cyberattacks can cost a business a lot of money if they are unlucky enough to be targeted.

Despite this, many small businesses still believe that it won’t happen to them. Unfortunately, multiple past studies have shown that at least 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses – and it’s arguably these businesses that it can affect the worst financially. Small businesses are often targeted because they commonly lack the support needed to protect against these attacks.

The average cost of a cyberattack on a small/micro business is £919, increasing to £3,070 for medium/large businesses. But where do these costs come from? Let’s take a look at some of the financial impacts a cyberattack can have on your business.

Revenue due to downtime

The cost of a cyberattack is not only financial. Your business is likely to need some time out to recover. If part of your IT infrastructure is down as a result, chances are it’s going to affect other parts of your business. This may disrupt your services and deliverables, hindering your business for a period of time.

Costs associated with managing exposed customer data

Data protection breaches and fines for non-compliance have become somewhat of a hot topic over the last few years, with the introduction of GDPR. The fines that come with exposing customer data are pretty substantial and can be an enormous blow to a company’s reputation. Companies have a responsibility to ensure that customer data is stored correctly and well protected. Measures such as multi-factor authentication are a good way to try and combat data breaches.

Loss of customer confidence in your company

Trust is a huge part of a customer relationship, and cyberattacks have the potential to wipe this trust out in the blink of an eye. A cyberattack can result in a loss of customers, a loss of sales and a reduction in your profits. It can have a ripple effect throughout the rest of your business, even affecting the relationship you have with your suppliers, partners, investors and other third parties.

Share price or market value drop

Perhaps you are worried about the impact on the share price of your company. This will almost certainly be affected by a cyberattack. In fact, share prices of breached companies hit a low point approximately 14 market days following a breach. Cyberattacks and data breaches can be a PR nightmare, sinking share and stock prices. This can take a while to build back up.

Business security is always worth your investment – whether that’s ensuring you have all the latest malware, training your team or implementing a range of cybersecurity protocols. You should also add investing in SaaS Escrow to your list. Whilst you can tighten up on your own security, if you rely on a third-party software provider to keep your business going, you can’t control how secure their operations are.

With SaaS Escrow, AccessAssure independently monitors your software provider’s financial position, triggering a cascade of events should anomalies rise, leaving your cloud-based software accessible for at least three months of business continuity. It offers you that peace of mind and an extra layer of security against any nasty surprises.

Got more questions? Just give us a call today on 0800 456 1115 to discuss further.

The post What’s the cost of a cyberattack on your business? appeared first on LE&AS.

Even if your employees are predominantly back in the office, you can expect that there will be a desire amongst future workers that remote working is offered as an option.

Why is remote working a security risk?

Remote working presents a challenge for business security because remote work environments don’t often have the same safeguards that an office environment would. Your employees will not be protected by those layers of preventative security controls that you may have put in place previously. When computers are taken away from the office, new risks arise; data encryption, unsecured wireless connections and the potential loss or theft of devices and data.

The good news is that evidence shows that many businesses are aware of this. In fact, UK Google searches for ‘cyber defense’ went up by 126% between January and March 2020. That’s up 116% from March 2019. Additionally, searches for other cybersecurity-related terms such as ‘cybersecurity services’ also increased by 44%.

So, what can business owners enforce to ensure that remote working is as safe as possible – now and in the future?

Avoid public wifi

This is perhaps one to flag with your workforce when the cafes reopen, but this also applies to those who may do a little work on the train whilst commuting, for example. Public wifi introduces a significant security risk and should be avoided where possible. Public wifi is just that – public. Other people can access it and therefore, the risk increases of them being able to also access your computer.

If you or your employees are out and about and need an internet connection, then encourage them to use personal hotspots from their phones instead. Although web traffic will be unencrypted between the hotspot and its destination, using a hotspot does eliminate the risk of getting hacked by those using public wifi.

Stick to using work computers

Where possible, encourage your team to stick to using work computers to complete their work. Accessing work data on personal laptops is a risk unless these personal laptops have a secure wifi connection, a VPN, encrypted drives and anti-virus software. If not, a personal laptop may not be safe for work information, as it could be compromised by a third party much easier.

Even just checking and answering a few work emails on your personal laptop one evening once you’ve returned from work can be a risk – let alone if your team began working on a personal laptop 9-5 once they made the work-from-home switch.

Make use of encryption

When minimising the risk of remote working, encryption will be your business’s best friend. Think about all those emails you send that may contain sensitive data. What happens if that is intercepted by a third party? By encrypting the data attached to an email, it prevents anyone unintended from viewing the information.

You could also ask that your employees encrypt their home wifi network. For example, their wifi router may not have a very strong password to protect the settings and configuration. The default passwords tend to be weak. Could they change this to something stronger?

Password management

And speaking of passwords, if you and your team use simple or identical passwords across different accounts, this also puts your business at risk. Although it makes passwords easier to remember, it also makes passwords easier to guess. Perhaps now is the time to run a password audit?

Alphanumeric codes and the use of two-factor authentication should become mandatory to make passwords as complex as possible and to add an extra layer of protection. It’s also a good idea to use a password manager platform, such as LastPass. LastPass stores your passwords securely and also generates complex and strong new passwords for you. If team members need to share passwords with each other, LastPass allows a way to do this safely as opposed to through an email or instant messaging platform.

Educate your team to be security savvy

It’s no use one or two people on your team being passionate about keeping the business secure – it only takes one person to make a mistake or two and security can become compromised. Your team may have no idea of the risks they face when working outside of the office, so it is up to you as a business owner to educate them.

This should include simple policies around keeping personal use and work use as separate as possible, avoiding letting their friends, family and children use their work system, and educating them on security risks such as phishing scams.

Unfortunately, online scams have dramatically increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Action Fraud reveals that there have been over 200 reports of coronavirus-related phishing scams. Perhaps you could create a quiz for your team and present them with real and scam emails, and see if they can correctly spot the difference. It’s vital that they understand what legitimate communication looks like, and false communication.

Use secure cloud-based services

Instead of storing confidential and sensitive data locally, use secure cloud-based services where possible. Not only do cloud-based services allow you to run your business more efficiently (particularly when your team is working remotely), but they also offer much better security. A cloud host’s full-time job is to carefully monitor security, making it much safer to keep critical business data offsite.

A staggering 94% of businesses saw an improvement in security after switching to cloud-based services, and 91% said that the cloud makes it easier to meet government compliance requirements. Cloud-based services are hot on encryption, making it as difficult as possible for hackers or anyone unauthorised to view your data.

However, it’s important not to wholeheartedly rely on your cloud-based services. What happens if they become compromised? They are not immune from cyberattacks or going into administration. You rely on their consistent connection and if that is lost, how would you continue to operate? Your data will still exist, but you may not have a contractual right to access it.

That’s where SaaS Escrow comes into play. SaaS Escrow protects your critical cloud-based and off-premise software in the event of your hosting provider going out of business. It allows you to access your data for at least three months of business continuity, so you can continue with business as usual.

Don’t be without this extra layer of protection for your business. Contact us to learn more about SaaS Escrow by calling 0800 456 1115.

The post Business security whilst remote working appeared first on LE&AS.

Phishing explained

Phishing has earned its namesake by ‘luring’ people in with legitimate-looking emails, websites or advertisements and hoping that they will bite by providing the information that the criminals have requested. This is usually credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, usernames or other valuable information.

This is often done via an email or text message. Commonly, they include a link that will appear to take you to a company’s website to fill in your information, however, it is a very clever fake. That information that you then provide goes straight into the hands of the scammer. From there, they may be able to access your email or bank accounts.

Thousands of these phishing scams are launched day in day out across the globe – but that doesn’t make them any easier to spot. Here are a few scary phishing statistics to put their success into perspective:

• 97% of users cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email
• 85% of organisations have suffered from phishing attacks
• Nearly 1.5 million new phishing websites are created each month
• 78% of people claim to be aware of the risks of unknown links in emails, yet click anyway
• SaaS and webmail services accounted for 34.7% of phishing attacks internationally

How do I spot a phishing scam?

Unfortunately, scammers are always updating their tactics in order to become ever-more convincing. There are some signs that you can look out for to help you recognise a phishing email or text message.

The aim of a phishing scam is to look like they are from a company that you know or trust, such as your bank or credit card company. They often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. This could be:

• Letting you know that they have noticed some suspicious activity or log-in attempts
• Claiming that there is a problem with your account or payment information
• Asking you to confirm personal information
• Sending you a fake invoice
• Claiming that you are eligible for a government refund or tax rebate

Next time you receive an email like this, there are a few things that you could check. Firstly, the email address that the message has come from. No legitimate organisation will be contacting you from an ‘@gmail’ or ‘@hotmail’ account domain, or similar. Instead, they will have their own email domain which will often be the name of the company i.e. @google.com or @nationwide.co.uk. If you are unsure what a company’s domain is, you should be able to find out via a simple Google search.

And don’t be fooled by simply looking at the sender’s name. It might say the name of your bank or another familiar organisation, but if you actually check out the email address then it might not match. If it’s not a match, then you can assume that the email is part of a phishing scam.

Another thing to keep a close eye out for is copy errors within the email/text. This could be spelling errors, grammatical errors such as not including a full stop at the end of a sentence, or something very subtle like including a space before a full stop at the end of a sentence, or a capital letter where it doesn’t belong. A phishing scam may simply be poorly written and worded in a strange way that you wouldn’t expect from a legitimate organisation. This should ring alarm bells.

Examples of phishing scams

Over the years, phishing scams have evolved to take on a few different formats. Here’s a handful of the most common that you may come across:

• Standard email phishing – the most widely known form, this is an attack to attempt to steal sensitive information via an email that appears to be from a legitimate organisation
• Malware phishing – similar to above, this attack encourages the target to click a link or download an attachment. From there, malware can be installed on the device
• Spear phishing – highly-targeted, well-researched attacks generally focused on business executives, public personas and other lucrative targets
• Smishing – refers to short links to smartphone users, often disguised as account notices or prize notifications
• Vishing – involves a malicious caller pretending to be from tech support, a government agency or other organisation, trying to extract personal information such as banking or credit card details
• Pharming – a tricky one to spot, this form of phishing reroutes legitimate web traffic to a spoofed page without the user’s knowledge, often to steal valuable information
• Clone phishing – this is where your email account becomes compromised and the scammer makes changes by swapping a legitimate link, attachment or other element with a malicious one, sending it to your contacts to spread the infection
• Business Email Compromise – involves a fake email pretending to be someone from within a company requesting urgent action. This can be wiring money or purchasing gift cards. This sophisticated tactic has been estimated to have caused nearly half of all cybercrime-related business losses in 2019

How to protect your business from phishing scams

No one wants to get caught out by a phishing scam, whether you are being targeted as an individual or as part of a business. However, there are things that you can be doing – and should be doing – to protect your organisation. It’s not enough to rely on your email spam filter as scammers are always finding ways to outsmart these. Instead, you should apply extra layers of protection to make it harder for scams to reach your network, such as security software, encryption and multi-factor authentication for access.

It may seem obvious but be aware of the red flags – and make sure your employees are too. Perhaps you could offer regular training to your team to give them the responsibility to be on guard for phishing scams. Make sure you keep up to date with any new scams that emerge and how you can combat them. Treat any unexpected emails or texts with suspicion and analyse them carefully before taking any action.

The best thing you can enforce when it comes to security is prevention. Do you have a security plan in place for your business and software? If not, you should seriously consider this. Ask yourself what would happen if one of your employees was to fall for a business email compromise phishing scam. How can you avoid this?

And it’s not only your business you should worry about – what about other businesses that you rely on? Do you have a software provider that you need in order to carry out your service? External threats could break your connection with them and you may not have a contractual right to access it. In this instance, make sure you have extra protection in place with SaaS Escrow. It protects your critical cloud-based and off-premise software in the event of your hosting provider going out of business, meaning you can access what’s yours for at least three months of business continuity.

If you are interested in making SaaS Escrow part of your security business plan, then we can help. Call LE&AS today on 0800 456 1115.

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Unfortunately, it’s possible that many of our goals and resolutions for 2020 were thrown out of the window by the COVID-19 pandemic – especially in a business sense. After the year we’ve just had, taking back the control in 2021 and setting out some good intentions early is probably high on every business owner’s list.

So, what new year’s resolutions might you make for your business in order to get the best out of 2021?

Review your plans and goals for 2020

A good place to start is to reflect on what you didn’t get round to achieving, or what changed in 2020. Depending on your business, everything you’d planned for the year may have been totally turned upside down. Could you pick up any of these abandoned goals in 2021? Will the way in which your business had to adapt in 2020 influence the way you go into this year?

Do this exercise before planning any resolutions and goals for 2021 to put yourself in the best headspace for creating the perfect strategy for the next 12 months.

Be flexible

That being said, who knows what 2021 will bring? Of course, we all hope that we will begin to see some normality for our businesses, with a future of plain sailing. However, if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we cannot solidify how we do business. We can plan ahead all we like but ultimately, in 2021, businesses must be nimble and ready to change tact at the drop of a hat.

Be prepared for the unexpected and make sure your contingency plans are solid. Model as many scenarios that could affect your business as possible and think about how you would buffer the financial impact.

Support other businesses

In 2020, there was certainly a consumer shift to support small/local business. People became much more conscious of where they were spending money and, particularly around Christmas, shopping small became a focus for many in order to try and help soften the blows that many businesses felt throughout the year. As a business owner, you may support and preach the importance of supporting small/local businesses, but it can be hard to remember to practice yourself to your fellow businesses.

Whatever position you are in, set yourself the intention to help others in a similar situation as much as possible. This could be simply buying coffee and cake from your local cafe for your team on a Friday morning, showcasing some of your favourite small businesses to your following on social media, or swapping your large office supplies company for a smaller one. Whatever it may be, make an effort to shop small.

Perfect remote working

Many businesses that had never had to implement remote working before were suddenly forced to in 2020. They may have muddled by, finding their feet along the way, but remote working is unlikely to be going anywhere for a while. We might as well spend some time getting it right in 2021.

Last year shone the spotlight on so many remote working platforms that exist to make it smoother and more efficient. You should make sure that you are nailing the right instant messaging platform for your team to communicate, the perfect schedule of weekly meetings and catch-ups, and making sure your team has what they need to comfortably carry out their day’s work at home. Remote company culture needs to be a priority, so make it work for you.

Implement cybersecurity protocols

If cybersecurity has never really been a focus for your business, make 2021 the year where you begin to care. If your company experiences a breach, it could lead to major losses. That’s the last thing you need if you are getting back on your feet throughout 2021. Protection is paramount, so ensure that you are implementing robust enough protocols.

If you just take one step towards a more secure business in 2021, let it be SaaS Escrow. If you rely on a third-party software provider to keep your business going, then what happens if they go out of business? The pandemic has put thousands of businesses in a vulnerable position. Whilst you may be going into 2021 feeling strong, other businesses you rely on may not. You can never be too careful. With SaaS Escrow, AccessAssure independently monitors your software provider’s financial position, triggering a cascade of events should anomalies arise. It leaves your cloud-based software accessible for at least three months of business continuity.

We’ve had enough of nasty surprises. Make 2021 the year of protecting your business from anymore disruption. We offer favourable terms or deferred payments on escrow provision. Just give us a call today on 0800 456 1115 to discuss further.

The post 5 Business New Year’s Resolutions for 2021 appeared first on LE&AS.

The run-up to Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Boxing Day are all-systems-go in the retail world, whether that’s in a bricks and mortar store or online. With the tier system in full swing in England and lockdown restrictions continuing their hold, we’re unlikely to see streets packed with Christmas shoppers this year. It’s more likely that people will be working through their gifting lists online, from the safety of their own homes, putting a little more pressure on eCommerce stores.

Online retailers invest in eCommerce software to meet the huge demands placed on them, and this has never been so important. But what happens when things go wrong? Here are a few of the top IT-related risks and threats to your business continuity this season and how software security can help you.

Cyber-attacks

Even the safest of companies can still find themselves up against cyber-attacks. It’s often the more modest businesses amongst us that are the ones to suffer, however, with 43% of cyber attacks targetting small businesses. And hackers don’t take a break over Christmas. In fact, Christmas is the ideal time to cause a storm for an eCommerce business.

A cyber-attack could be in the form of ransomware, a phishing attack, or malware – to mention but a few. The aim of the game is to infiltrate and paralyse your system, software, and services. Hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated, and you should never consider yourself to be 100% safe and untouchable. To avoid being hit with a cyber disaster this Christmas, invest in a few things that will proactively detect and prevent threats to your business.

This could be in the form of robust virus protection, encryption encoding to add an extra line of defense between your software and outside threats, multifactor authentication for your access controls, and investing in online security education. Knowing what’s out there and how to be vigilant is not to be overlooked – and that goes for both you and those within your team.

Data breach

Data has become somewhat of a hot topic in recent years, with the introduction of GDPR legislation. GDPR has meant that businesses, governments, and individuals alike can experience huge complications and consequences from having sensitive information exposed. Without the right processes and attention, a small vulnerability can cause a massive data breach.

With Christmas being such a busy and consuming time, hackers can see this as an opportunity to seep through the cracks whilst business owners are distracted. Not only this but as our computers, mobiles, and tablets get more connective features, there are more and more places for data to slip through. New technologies are being created faster than we can protect them.

A data breach can have a devastating effect on a business’s reputation and finances – not to mention its data breach victims. Data leaks can reveal everything from social security numbers to banking information, inviting fraudulent activity. Protect your business and your customers by updating any software as soon as you’re given the option, making use of encryption encoding, enforcing strong passwords for customers, and educating your team on how to avoid these attacks.

Software Access

It’s not only your business you need to worry about. What happens if your SaaS service or software provider goes out of business? The COVID-19 pandemic has put thousands of businesses in a vulnerable position, so you can never be too careful. Losing your cloud-based technology access would be catastrophic at the best of times, let alone at Christmas. It can also result in the loss of access to business-critical data too.

To avoid this, you should implement SaaS Escrow into your business plan this season. AccessAssure independently monitors your software provider’s financial position, triggering a cascade of events should anomalies arise. This means that your cloud-based software will be accessible for at least three months of business continuity. Think of it as the best Christmas gift you could give to your business – and yourself!

Want to know more? Give us a call today on 0800 456 1115 and let us help you get your software security wrapped up in time for Christmas.

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Software security

How secure is your software? Cyberattacks are something that both personal and professional individuals must be aware of in the digital age. Disturbingly, 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses, and 60% of those attacked go out of business. Hackers are continually devising viruses that infiltrate and paralyse systems, software and services across the globe, purely to cause chaos. When better to create utter chaos than at Christmas? Don’t leave your software security to chance, invest in robust virus protection and cyber security systems that proactively detect and prevent threats to your business.

Investment provision

Start up and established companies alike rely upon investment capital to get off the ground or grow to the next level. Yet, relationships can go sour, circumstances can change and investments may or may not continue. If the funding for your company is pulled, can you continue operating? Chances are the answer is no, therefore it is vital that businesses ringfence money to soften the blow in the short term should this occur. Another point to consider is how much time your ringfenced money buys you until a new investor is found. Finally, your own investment in software access protection is key to maintaining business continuity.

Software access

SaaS businesses rely upon the software developer and/or host to provide access to their cloud-based software. The beauty of this is low overheads and easy updates, but the downside is being at the mercy of the provider in terms of accessing the software. The biggest threat to your business when it comes to maintaining access to your SaaS is if the provider themselves actually go out of business.

The best way to avoid your business following suit would be to implement SaaS Escrow in your business plan. AccessAssure independently monitors your software provider’s financial position, triggering a cascade of events should anomalies arise. This ensures your cloud-based software is accessible for at least three months of business continuity. Want to know more? Call LE&AS today on 0800 456 1115.

The post How software security can save your business appeared first on LE&AS.

1. Off the shelf vs Bespoke Software

Bespoke SaaS can be considerably more complicated, and arguably more valuable to a business because it is tailored to their individual needs. ‘Off the shelf’ software services are more generic, and therefore potentially easier to replicate or replace. Either way, if the SaaS is business-critical, then both can benefit from SaaS escrow. The actual escrow agreement itself may differ greatly between the two depending on the level of service that you need to uphold should your host or software provider cease trading.

 2. Software Development and the SaaS Escrow Provider

What do you want to do with your software?  This is a very important question because the level of expert input and development you require will affect the software escrow you need. Regular software escrow agreements clearly define your rights to modify or update your software. But if you are accessing SaaS you are technically at the mercy of your providers, should they go out of business. To ensure that you don’t follow suit with zero software provision, invest in a proactive SaaS escrow agreement like Access Assure. This agreement will monitor your provider’s financial stability and alert you to any potential risk that could disrupt your business software long term.

3. Who owns what

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is an important factor to consider, especially with bespoke SaaS software. Although the business software is tailored to your company, it is being maintained and hosted by third parties who are, in effect, in control and ownership of this software. Unlike software escrow, an SaaS escrow provider is unable to release the source code for you to develop and host your software elsewhere. But some providers are able to uphold access by temporarily hosting your services until you can review it.

4. Show me the money

Any entrepreneur knows that you must balance the books right from the off. It is all too easy to blow your budget on stock and marketing strategies, but you also need to invest in SaaS protection. SaaS escrow offers you protection in the event that your provider fails to perform software maintenance or updates that are critical to the software function, or in the event of the provider going into administration. The cost of an SaaS escrow provider will heavily depend upon the services you require such as software hosting and software development. However, the implementation of such a plan will give you peace of mind that your business services will continue and your clients are happy.

For more information contact our team today on 0800 456 1115 or visit www.leaas.co.uk.

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Get going

So how do you create a company that gets attention? Well first and foremost you need to determine the needs of your clients and how you are going to meet them. Market research is vital so that you know what they need and you also know how to provide a solution that is superior to your competitors. A start up needs to consider the costs of comparable product/service analysis, consultancy fees, prototype manufacturing and testing and other expenses.

Get digital

The world operates on devices, so like it or not, it is vital that you offer digital services. To stand head and shoulders above the rest in the marketplace, companies are developing bulletproof branding and bespoke software. Bespoke software can be a big outlay for new start ups, so look for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. This enables you to provide the same digital service at a fraction of the cost as you will not need to develop or host the software yourself.

Get noticed

Once you have found the software to meet your client’s needs, you need to market your solution. Investing in Digital Marketing is the fastest way to reach a growing audience. Agencies work with you to develop your brand and deliver a consistent digital marketing strategy from the start. Agency fees vary wildly depending on their experience and the level of services you require, so shop around to find one that is the best fit for your business and your budget.

Get protected

Business and software insurance is essential for all start ups. Most banks will not entertain the idea of supporting your venture without it, therefore you need to factor these costs in to your budget. SaaS escrow offers peace of mind when it comes to protecting access to business-critical software in the cloud. LE&AS have created Access Assure, a unique SaaS escrow plan that monitors your host and software providers allowing early detection of changes to your provision. Should your provider cease to trade, AccessAssure upholds your SaaS access for up to three months while you review your providers. This way your business-critical software remains in place and your business remains operational.

Want to know more about protecting your start up investments?

Simply call LE&AS today on 0800 456 1115.

The post What are the start up costs for a new business? appeared first on LE&AS.

Cyber security

Cyber security is one of the most important elements of daily business function. It is responsible for the protection of both company and client data, and also your business-critical software. If cyber security is jeopardised, would-be hackers can infiltrate your system within minutes, rendering software defunct and bringing the biggest corporation to its knees. There are, of course, standard security measures that you should be implementing such as data encryption, high level firewalls and antivirus protection. However, the biggest threat to your cyber security is often your own employees.

Staff security

Members of your teams may have access to both your business servers and the internet through work mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Each device they hold acts like a key into your company. If lost or stolen, this key could become a powerful weapon against your business in the hands of hackers. By making your teams actively aware of the need to safeguard your company cyber security then they are far less likely to make thoughtless mistakes that can have devastating effects. IT training alongside cyber security training can go a long way in protecting your data and your business software. If an employee knows how to use a system correctly, they are unlikely to misuse it. Ideally, removable media should be limited across the company, and any sensitive information should be stored off site to eliminate the risk of data loss or corruption.

Software Security

So, what happens when your business data or business critical software is in the cloud? Software as a Service (SaaS) relies upon a consistent connection with both the host provider and software provider. Should external cyber threats interrupt or break that connection, or your providers go out of business, then you will be left with blank screen syndrome and inaccessible data. This is where SaaS escrowcomes in.

LE&AS have designed Access Assure, a SaaS escrow plan that protects your cloud-based software access. Although we cannot stop cyber threats coming to your door, Access Assure works alongside your existing Disaster Recovery plans to help maintain service continuity should your providers go out of business.  SaaS escrow offers an enhanced level of security for businesses by monitoring your SaaS provision. Access Assure detects potential risks such as cyber threats or outages that may result in your provider ceasing to trade. In the event that these risks are identified, LE&AS offer you the opportunity to review your providers while we work to uphold SaaS access for up to three months.

Don’t sacrifice your cyber security this summer, let LE&AS help you protect your business software access today. Call now on 0800 456 1115.

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