Published in SC Magazine at http://www.scmagazineuk.com/IT-security-support-offered-on-as-needed-basis/article/113307/
4 August 2008
LiveOnline has launched a service for small to medium firms to help with IT security.
The company claims that small and medium businesses find it too easy to give up and expect the worst, arguing that they don't have the resources to pay for the consultancy and training required. LiveOnline has introduced a ‘consultancy as a utility' service to enable businesses to simplify the process of purchasing and managing consultancy or training.
The key to the concept is purchasing or consultancy by the half hour which organisations can use as they wish. The company claims that this will make information security expertise available to all with it available to the client to use on an as-needed basis.
Alan Calder, chief executive of IT Governance, said: “This is a genuinely new concept in information security consultancy. Company leaders have, for too long, not been addressing information security because of the expense and difficulty attached to ordering and managing their training and consultancy needs. Having to engage consultants for weeks or months, or attend long-drawn-out training events, is not the best way forward for perhaps the majority of companies; the small business needs maximum flexibility and cost efficiency, and the global player needs to be able to access these resources remotely. This LiveOnline service, in contrast, does not require expensive travel plans or consultants: it is an ideal highly flexible do-it-yourself approach to understanding and meeting your organisation's particular needs.”