Stephen Dracup

Adapting to a new normal and getting the most out of your investment in systems and people are big discussion points in the current climate, especially if, like us, you are likely to have people working remotely for the foreseeable future.

With local lockdowns being introduced in some areas and all the talk of a potential second wave of CV-19, now might be a good time to focus on small businesses and ways to improve vital infrastructure.

For many of us, the last few months have been a period of making the best of a difficult situation, but I think we are all aware now that we need to change and adopt new ways of working to prosper in the post-COVID -19 world.

This week I'm looking at five reasons why moving to a cloud solution can reduce your costs.

With Sophos' decision to retire on-premise legacy security platforms and focus on next-generation products, I thought today we would have a quick look at the key advantages of synchronised security and how it can save you money.

This week two of our experts, Paul and Dan share their 5 top tips on securing your cloud, there are links to our recent live hack webinars, where you can watch Penetration Tester, Stuart White carry out a live hack on Microsoft 365 and Azure AD.

As the reality dawns that we are all going to be working from home a lot more in the future, how do we make sure we make the most of it? There are plenty of benefits, but possibly a few challenges too, especially if you are a manager. There will be difficulties that you may not have dealt with before – especially if you’ve been used to sitting in an office with your team.

We have just conducted a survey of all our people to ask them how they want to work in the future, and it turns out that only 2% wanted to return to full-time office working, 37% wanted a mix of home and office and the remaining 61% wanted to work from home. So. it looks like for us at least, home working is here to stay! 

I’ve been watching with interest the sharp rise in uptake of video conferencing apps during CV-19 lockdown. So far, they've done a great job in meeting the rising demands of our need to communicate and video conference with one another.

Working from home is now an everyday reality for many of our customers and network issues can be a challenge. As schools have now closed and other businesses have also sent people home, many home workers are struggling with ensuring they can run their real-time work apps such as Voice and Video conferencing without interference from other people, who are also working from home or using other online content.

As another lockdown starts I thought it would be useful to revisit some of the products and services we offered in the Spring that are aimed at making working from home easier.

Management of threats and compliance with regulations have not gone away over the last 9 months and many of our customers have asked us to help them with their digital information infrastructure, so I thought it might be useful to highlight 3 areas to consider. 

Microsoft have introduced a range of powerful apps which are built into M365 and Azure. These allow you to build high productivity apps for your business with a rich set of tools, which can help to grow your business, save you money and empower your people to work better together.

We can help you deploy these and work with you to create apps or train your people to get up and running, so please get in touch if you need help. 

Whilst there is no doubting the power of Microsoft 365. Many organisations deploy it quickly without understanding the need to get the platform set up ...

Many apps are already hosted in the cloud, however, two out of every three apps remain on-premises. This leaves many businesses caught in the middle of old and new with resource tied up managing a complex IT environment.

In this article, Stephen Dracup, Chief Operation Officer at Chess, covers why the company decided to adopt hybrid working:

• Why hybrid working? >
• Advice on adopting hybrid >

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, looks at the three key things we learned about how to adapt our new starters onboarding process to make it work virtuall ...

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, has years of experience in the industry and has seen not one or two jumps in technology. He covers how you can manage change in your organisation using a simple three-stage method

Chess has been awarded Microsoft’s Advanced Specialization status for Teamwork Deployment.

There are few things worse than having a busy day ahead of you only to find you cannot connect to the internet. To help out, we have launched Broadband Protect. With Broadband Protect you can work securely anytime, anywhere. Here’s how...

The 2025 PSTN and ISDN Switch Off - It's a big problem! Here's what to do.

Stephen Dracup, Chief Operating Officer at Chess, summarises the most recent updates on the 2025 PSTN Switch Off.

Stephen Dracup, COO of Chess, reviews the risks we noticed when we launched hybrid working and our solutions to address these.

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, reviews the three key areas every small business should consider to reduce their costs and preserve cash.

Includes Video Summary

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, explains how Chess celebrated Earth Day and how the Green Team decided to used it as a springboard to encourage our people to pledge to take small steps to minimise their impact on the environment.

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, heads up the Green Team in the organisation. He reviews three main technology areas you can focus on to improve your business sustainability easily - Microsoft, Device Leasing and Recycling, and FTTP.

Updates from the Green Team including our community litter pick and updates on our people's green pledges.

Chess has been a member of the Microsoft Partner Network for many years, with several advanced specialisations. In October 2022, The Microsoft Partner ...

At Chess, we are passionate about playing our part in the wider community by supporting charities, minimising our impact on the environment, and creating opportunity. Stephen Dracup, Chief Operating Officer at Chess, reviews how our people celebrated Earth Day this year and covers ESG at Chess. 

Stephen Dracup, COO at Chess, discusses key insights from our eBook on how technology can help you build a sustainable, resilient organisation, while driving operational costs down.