10/08/2021

IT IN THE PLATINUM GROUP - AUGUST UPDATE

Dear Team Members,

By way of update on our IT infrastructure and improvement project in conjunction with our consultant Tim Kidney, please find below a summary of the work that's been undertaken over the summer months, as well as snippets of new work for the coming months:

Network Modernisation Project

Our infrastructure partner company Whippet Networks have undertaken the migration of all Network traffic onto the new Cisco infrastructure. Following this, the IT Department now have access to the Cisco Meraki portal where we can monitor traffic, make port changes remotely, and detect and isolate any Malware/Virus activity. We are also now fully functioning with Whippet Networks with regards to their Helpdesk system.

Our next step is the implementation of primary and secondary lines at each site in conjunction with Whippet Networks and the subsequent removal of all lines held with CanCom and Virgin, so that we have full control of the traffic beyond the Platinum sites.

As part of this work, each comms cabinet has been completely re-cabled to ensure ease of future work, such as simply knowing where things are, and also to make diagnosis of problems easier. There may be some fine tuning still required, but over time we should be able to simplify this and improve both network and working efficiencies.

Helpdesk

The Helpdesk system is fully operational and is being used daily by the IT Department, and by the majority of team members in order to log tickets. With full use of this system, we can utilise the reporting functionality as a useful management tool.

Please ensure that all team members use this facility by emailing helpdesk@platinummg.co.uk or using the Helpdesk portal as the primary method for reporting IT issues. We do still have some users emailing directly to Paul Jones's and Paul Hillman's personal emails, so if we could always use the method as described above, that would be great.

Office 365 Installations

The majority of Microsoft Office installations are now complete with the latest version (Office 365). This is to ensure we have an office application that can be updated with the latest security patches. If you still have the older version of Office on your PC, please log a ticket with the Helpdesk at helpdesk@platinummg.co.uk

PC Roll Out

The IT Department are continuing to upgrade slow Windows 7 PC's. New SSD (Solid State Drives) and increased memory are installed before upgrading to Windows 10. The IT team are currently working through a project over the coming months that will see all older machines replaced, and all devices upgraded to the Windows 10 platform.

Cloud Project

We have current engagement with an "internet cloud" specialist company to carry out a study for the Platinum Group to potentially migrate our devices and users to a cloud based platform called Microsoft Azure. This would mean each user could login to their device using their email address and own secure password. There are benefits to this journey, including increased security and centralised control of users accounts and all devices connected to the Platinum Network.

We will consider this study in due course and communicate further at a later stage.

Wireless Network Modernisation Survey

Whippet Networks have been active across the sites over the last few weeks to carry out a Wireless Network survey in order to identify what investment may be required to implement improved WiFi coverage both inside and outside of the dealerships. The Whippet Networks team have presented their initial findings and proposed ways forward which the Board will now consider.

Ransomware Attacks

Increasingly in this modern digitalised world,  ransomware attacks are becoming alarmingly common (and also more sophisticated) as hacker groups and cyber-criminals attempt to disrupt businesses and organisations in order extort ransom fees to be paid in order for data and or systems to be restored. As part of a wider Disaster Recover Plan, the previous work we describe above is all helpful in avoiding such scenarios.

We trust that you will find this update useful in understanding the recent work that we are engaged in. Should you have an questions, please direct them to the IT Department in the first instance.

We will communicate further updates on the topic of IT in the autumn.

Please feel free to share with your teams as appropriate.

Yours sincerely

Jeremy, Odette, Martyn, Paul & Michael
The Board of Directors