Our IT Services and Support

Our IT Services and Support Solutions

Since our inception in 1995, we have always been a customer-centric business and have mastered the art of pinpointing and resolving customers’ IT pain points. Our long-standing clients, some of whom have been with us for over 25 years, attest to our expertise:
  • We are a highly-skilled, multi-disciplinary, Cloud-first team that looks after all your IT needs and provides genuine bottom-line improvements for digital-first organisations.
  • Our staff are always monitoring and on-call. We work around the clock to ensure your systems work when you need them.
  • The F1 Help team is known for ‘getting complicated things done with minimum fuss,’ and that’s why our clients trust us.
  • Unlike other IT companies, partnering with us allows you to focus on running your business because we have a large, experienced team that is rarely stretched-thin and never unresponsive. Endorsed by Microsoft, our friendly staff deliver relevant solutions and are happy to answer any of your queries, no matter how small they are.
  • Flexibility is one of our greatest assets. We have standard ‘off-the-shelf’ support agreements that fit most businesses, but we also offer customised IT agreements for organisations with existing IT managers/teams or specific requirements.
  • We cover everything, but we are not a jack-of-all-trades. To maintain our position as industry leaders, we commit to our internal specialists’ education, training, and retention. 
  • Like any good IT provider, we do all the “bread and butter” support. But when your IT is stable, we do more, taking you on an unprecedented journey to transform and improve your business engagement, processes, and workflows through Cloud technologies. 
Our extensive industry knowledge allows us to deliver efficient IT solutions and cost savings. We recognise that technology can be tricky and perplexing, but we are here to help you optimise your business by providing the following services:

IT Consultancy & Project Management

We are a pair of safe hands. Our expert IT consultants and project managers can assist you in achieving your business goals with minimum fuss. We work together to set your requirements and then lead the project until completion. Having worked with organisations of all sizes across the United Kingdom, our two lead consultants have successfully delivered technology projects for a combined 60 years. They are fully up-to-date with the latest IT trends and technologies and can traverse the digital transformation landscape, enabling you to achieve more with less. 

Hardware

We are not only partners at the highest level with multiple leading hardware providers, but we are also versed in emerging technologies and the best hardware solutions. Our team is ready to assist you with anything from purchasing to configuration, installation, migration, and ongoing support.

Core Software & Licences

Our certified licensing experts understand the correct licences you need for your organisation to stay legal and can optimise them to reduce or spread costs with specialist know-how. If you are a large enterprise, we can conduct software audits across the network to determine your licensing requirements.

Network Infrastructure

Your business’s core functions will be better supported if you have a solid LAN, WAN, and wireless network infrastructure. Having worked in some of the most challenging environments, we’ve honed our expertise in everything from switching and routing to quality of service, virtual networks, and managed Wifi. Thousands of our clients, ranging from small businesses to schools and a bank, from 5 to 3000 laptop and mobile devices, have benefited from our reliably configured and managed Wifi, switch and router technology. All is done to ensure the appropriate level of security and safety of your organisation and the data within.

Cabling

You don’t have to deal with multiple contractors anymore. Numerous businesses trust our team to manage and implement all infrastructure cabling projects, including designing, implementing, and maintaining structured cabling systems and equipment that adhere to industry standards and regulations. From the oldest cabling Grade 1 heritage buildings to modern workplaces, we have the experience to install new or extend your cabling infrastructure.

Backup Cloud and DR

Backups and Disaster Recovery have evolved as we store so much data in so many places. Therefore, our files must be well-protected by a mixture of backups and technology. Backups, including on-premise solutions, may be sufficient for speedy disaster recovery in the event of a failure. However, slower to recover, Cloud-based backups are necessary in case of a fire or malware taking over your on-premise backup solution—yes, we have seen it happen! While Office 365 and SharePoint have fantastic DR features, they do not perform long-term backups. Envision a disgruntled employee erasing a file without you noticing—the file is gone for good. Over the years, we’ve witnessed numerous mishaps. We can sit down with you, evaluate, and devise a comprehensive disaster backup and recovery plan for your business. Whatever your data or DR requirements, we have a solution.

Cyber Security

Cyber Security is an ever-evolving menace. Practices and measures implemented just two years ago are now out of date. Did you know that 90% of cyber attacks occur due to human error? The practice of safeguarding systems, networks, and programmes from digital attacks is so important to us that we have a sister company, CyberAwake.co.uk, with a dedicated team of cyber security professionals at your disposal. Led by an NCSC-certified head of cyber security, the CyberAwake team focuses on raising employee awareness regarding cyber security challenges to equip them with solid knowledge to protect businesses. We approach cyber security issues from every possible angle, as far too many businesses have inefficient practices or rely solely on the advice of their IT supplier. We conduct independent penetration testing and reviews and provide you with a list of changes needed to satisfy current standards. On top of that, we offer a condensed, non-technical, and user-focused e-learning course in small coffee-break chunks, so your employees are up-to-date with everything cyber security.

Connectivity (Internet-Leased Lines)

Having a fast and reliable business-grade Internet connection is critical. We offer complete connectivity services but specialise in Leased Lines – the most reliable and fastest way to run the Internet or link multiple site locations.  We partner with seven UK carriers to ensure maximum geographic coverage and resilience of connectivity. Our Internet-leased lines come with a service-level agreement and various failover options. Multi-site organisations can save tens of thousands of pounds by switching from traditional point-to-point design to our MPLS architecture.

Remote Staff Connectivity and VPN

Mobile & remote working is the new norm, so businesses must ensure that employees working from home have secure access to their systems. There are numerous ways to achieve this, including Secure (VPN), Remote Desktop (Terminal) Services, Web-based Cloud systems, or Mobile Applications. However, each method is appropriate for different types of services – but you don’t have to worry about it, as our team can advise you on the best option based on the information or application you need to access. We ensure that your company’s resources, endpoints, and devices are protected from intruders, allowing for safe remote work and preventing cyber threats.  We build, design, develop and migrate your processes to web-based Cloud systems on the Microsoft 365 platform so that remote and office staff can easily access your information systems. 

Mail Servers

Email is one of the most important forms of communication; thus, choosing a dependable email server is vital.  While we recommend Microsoft 365 email servers for most businesses and schools, we understand that some still use on-premise or hybrid mail servers like Exchange. Regardless of your system, we support all aspects of mail servers. Trusted by our clients, we are certified mail experts with over two decades of experience configuring and deploying Microsoft mail servers.

Email Security / Delivery

We place a high value on the delivery and security of emails. M365 allows for many configurations, including improved mail delivery lowering the likelihood of emails ending in customers’ junk or spam folders. The F1 team can assist you with everything from SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email delivery setup. We can also implement GDPR-compliant, fully encrypted point-to-point email and document security features where the recipient cannot forward the email or attachment.