News

Covid made us reimagine the workplace in 2020, and now as we return to a focus on growth we are keen to ensure that all our people are treated equally and have equal opportunity to benefit from that growth.

The 130% Super-deduction helps UK businesses to invest in their future and improve their competitive advantage. Between April 1 2021 and March 31 2023, all new purchases of main rate plant and machinery will qualify for the super-deduction of 130% capital allowance against your taxable income.

Our CTO, Gavin Wood, analyses the HAFNIUM attack and recommends best practice to ensure you have improved your security posture. In this article, he covers: 

• What is HAFNIUM
• Why is the HAFNIUM attack so dangerous
• How to mitigate cyber risk

It’s no secret, it takes a special mix of ingredients to become the UK Best Company to work for. Our people, their ambition, sense of fun and the passion to work as One Team are what set us apart from the rest.  

Warren Pryer, Group Sales Director at Chess, summarises the key learnings from Chess and our customers from 2020 and the advice he would give to any business looking to thrive in 2021.

Trying to predict technology and business trends is a tricky business in itself - it can depend on so many variables, such as the economy, customer de ...

‘Wellbeing Week’ is a firm fixture in the Chess Calendar, and right now it is more important than ever.

This week, thinking about our physical and mental wellbeing is at the top of the ‘to do list’, for individuals, teams, and the company as a whole.

We’re delighted to have been able to pass on 79 laptops so far, including to Warrington Youth Club and Winsford High School. Huge thanks to the team who gave up their weekends to help make this happen, as we know these machines will make a real difference to students struggling to access essential online resources and tuition.

It’s getting more and more challenging for Financial Service providers to recruit and retain the in-house security resource needed to stay one step ahead of cyber hackers, and cyber security capabilities are coming under increasing scrutiny.

In this article we:
• Identify signs that your current cybersecurity capability may need to be reviewed
• Discuss why Threat Notification alone isn't enough
• Review the best approaches to tackling business critical security requirements 

Lockdown 3.0 has inevitably brought extra pressures to our home broadband with families all under the same roof, working, studying, and entertaining for extended periods of the day.

With the virtual world, an extension of the physical, accessibility has often been treated with the same consideration – as an afterthought. As of 2018, the virtual world has attempted to close the accessibility gap in Public Sector Bodies with the introduction of The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

As we draw to the end of 2020 we look back at the 5 main areas we covered in our weekly Tech Tips and reflect on the advice and solutions that proved to be most popular.

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. 

More than 250 people from local business Chess ICT have been getting fit by taking part in a step challenge to support East Cheshire Hospice, raising £1,000 towards the cost of refurbishing a bereavement support centre.

PowerApps are a no code/low code platform that enables anyone to build rich web and mobile applications. In this blog post we'll explore the features and benefits of introducing Power Apps into your business. 

To help manage the challenges of compliance and data governance, Microsoft has introduced a new set of solutions, including Compliance Manager, which provides more than 150 out-of-box assessments.

Chess is further strengthening its partnership with business technology and software provider, Sage, in an agreement which will see Chess deliver Sage for Education and Sage solutions across the UK.

Chess is announced as a supplier on YPO's new national network and telecommunications framework.

Data Protection and Compliance are amongst the most challenging areas of business operations.

Compliance Manager, created for Microsoft 365, helps to simplify your compliance journey by giving you the information and tools to assess your compliance risks, conduct risk assessments and manage your end-to-end compliance processes when using Microsoft Cloud services.

Customer, financial and business data is one of the most valuable - and vulnerable commodities dealt with on a daily basis within the Financial Services sector. It's also one of the most tightly governed areas, with strict requirements around data retention policies and privacy regulations.