The latest news from Meantime IT

Meantime IT has been awarded the ISO27001 standard, making the Kendal-based business one of just a fraction of UK organisations to achieve this prestigious information security certificate.

The IS027001 certification demonstrates that its holder manages the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to them by third parties to a very high degree of competence. ISO27001 is the best-known standard in the family providing requirements for an information security management system.

Fenner Pearson is Meantime’s managing director. He explains why being awarded the certification is so important to an IT business: “When it comes to data storage, people make assumptions that the cloud is a secure environment,” he says. “When Meantime first started operating, people were incredibly worried about where and how their information would be stored. Now, you tell them their data is stored in the cloud and they’re incredibly blasé about it. It’s become such a part of the IT and mobile revolution, they assume it will be safe.

"That’s a very dangerous attitude. You just have to read the national news to know that data security breaches are happening regularly, and with devastating effect; look at Ashley Maddison, or Sony, or the countless celebs who’ve had their cloud-based photographs stolen. Now, more than ever, if you’re going to be putting your business in the cloud, you should be looking for someone who can demonstrably look after your data and give you the confidence you require about that."

The accreditation process took Meantime around 18 months to complete, and involved a series of consultations, inspections and audits to ensure that all their processes were compliant, both in terms of IT and physical security.

"We’ve always been very strong on data security and we wanted someone to come in and evaluate that and demonstrate that we are as good as we think we are," says Fenner. “It was also an opportunity for us to see if there was anything we didn’t know, and as a result we upgraded our physical security by introducing a swiped entry system to our offices."

Being one of only 0.05% of businesses in the UK with the IS027001 security certificate is good news for Meantime’s clients, who include Heathrow Airports Ltd, local and borough councils and numerous private businesses.

"Our ability to safely and securely store and process data has always been at the forefront of our offering as a bespoke software provider," says Fenner. “Now, we’ve got the certificate to prove it."