Schools are increasingly expected to take a proactive approach to safety, and Martyn’s Law marks a significant step in that shift. As of publication, the legislation, officially the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025, with statutory guidance published in April 2026 and full enforcement expected in spring 2027 following a 24-month implementation period.

As requirements become clearer, many education settings are now considering what Martyn’s Law means in practice, and how they can prepare.

What is Martyn’s Law for Schools?

Martyn’s Law is a UK legislation designed to improve security and preparedness in publicly accessible locations, including schools. Named after Martyn Hett, a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena attack, the law was introduced to ensure organisations take stronger steps to protect people from potential terrorist threats.

For schools, this means carrying out risk assessments, implementing proportionate safety measures, and ensuring staff are prepared to respond effectively in the event of an incident.

Why Martyn’s Law Applies to Schools

Schools are considered publicly accessible spaces, particularly during events such as parents’ evenings, performances, and open days. As a result, they fall within scope of Martyn’s Law where 200 or more people are expected on-site, placing most schools into the “standard tier” of the legislation.

Even settings with fewer than 200 people are encouraged to adopt similar preparedness measures as part of best practice.

Implementing Martyn’s Law in Schools

Implementing Martyn’s Law in schools is about taking practical, proportionate steps to improve safety and reduce risk. Rather than introducing unnecessary complexity, the legislation encourages schools to identify vulnerabilities early and strengthen existing processes.

To support this, our Head of Education and Alliances, Alice O’Shea, highlights the key areas schools should focus on when preparing for compliance.

Security Measures Schools Need for Martyn’s Law Compliance

Schools will need to adopt a more structured approach to security to better protect students, staff, and visitors.

This includes:

  • Conducting regular risk assessments
  • Strengthening emergency planning
  • Reviewing physical and procedural security measures
  • Ensuring clear communication systems are in place

The focus is on being prepared and responsive, rather than implementing excessive or costly infrastructure.

Mandatory Risk Assessments

Risk assessments are a core requirement under Martyn’s Law, helping schools identify potential vulnerabilities and prioritise action.

Schools should:

  • Assess site access points and visitor flow
  • Identify high-risk scenarios (e.g. events, peak times)
  • Review existing safeguarding and security measures
  • Regularly update assessments as environments or risks change

This proactive approach helps ensure risks are addressed before they can be exploited.

Staff Training and Awareness

Prepared staff are essential to an effective response. Training should ensure employees feel confident recognising risks and acting quickly in an emergency.

Schools should consider:

  • Basic counter-terrorism awareness training
  • Clear escalation and reporting processes
  • Role-specific responsibilities during incidents
  • Age-appropriate student awareness where relevant

Building a culture of awareness supports both prevention and response.

Emergency Response Planning for Schools

Schools will need clearly defined and regularly tested emergency plans to meet Martyn’s Law expectations.

This includes planning for:

  • Evacuation: safely exiting the building
  • Invacuation: moving to secure internal locations
  • Lockdown procedures: restricting movement and securing classrooms
  • Real-time communication during incidents

Regular drills and simulations are essential to ensure everyone understands their role. When conducting these, schools should remain mindful of:

  • Students or staff with prior trauma
  • Sensory sensitivities or additional needs

Government guidance also highlights the importance of the “Guide, Shelter, Communicate” principles, with mass communication playing a key role in effective response.

Collaboration with Law Enforcement

Martyn’s Law encourages closer coordination between schools and emergency services to ensure faster, more effective responses.

Schools should:

  • Build relationships with local police and emergency services
  • Align emergency procedures with local authority guidance
  • Share relevant safety information where appropriate

Being part of a wider security network strengthens overall preparedness.

Community Reassurance and Communication

A visible commitment to safety helps reassure parents, students, and the wider community.

Schools can strengthen trust by:

  • Clearly communicating safety procedures
  • Providing updates on improvements or changes
  • Demonstrating a proactive approach to risk management

Transparency plays an important role in building confidence.

Complying with Martyn’s Law ensures schools meet their legal obligations while improving overall safety standards.

To support this, schools should:

  • Stay up to date with evolving legislation and guidance
  • Maintain clear documentation of policies and procedures
  • Review compliance regularly as requirements develop

SCG works in partnership with The Protect Alliance (UK) and recommends aligning with established standards, including:

  • ISO 45001: focuses on health and safety, including emergency preparedness
  • ISO 22301: focuses on business continuity and recovery planning

Both frameworks reinforce the importance of risk management, preparedness, and ongoing compliance.

How Technology Supports Martyn’s Law Compliance in Schools

While Martyn’s Law focuses on proportionate, practical measures rather than costly infrastructure, technology plays a critical role in helping schools meet compliance requirements effectively and consistently.

One of the key expectations under the legislation is the ability to communicate quickly and clearly during an incident. Mass notification systems enable schools to send instant alerts across multiple channels, such as desktop, mobile, digital signage, and public address systems, ensuring staff and students receive real-time instructions during emergencies.

Technology also supports lockdown and evacuation procedures, allowing schools to trigger pre-configured alerts that guide people to safety, whether that’s securing classrooms or safely exiting the building. This reduces confusion and helps ensure a coordinated response.

In addition, visitor management systems help schools maintain accurate, real-time records of who is on-site. In the event of an incident, this makes it significantly easier to account for pupils, staff, and visitors, an important aspect of both safeguarding and incident response.

Other solutions, such as access control systems and integrated security platforms, can further strengthen a school’s ability to manage entry points, monitor activity, and respond to potential risks proactively.

Beyond incident response, technology also plays a valuable role in ongoing preparedness. Systems can support:

  • Staff training and awareness
  • Regular safety drills and simulations
  • Audit trails for compliance and reporting
  • Continuous review and improvement of emergency procedures

Ultimately, the right technology doesn’t just support compliance, it helps schools build a more resilient, responsive, and secure environment, aligning safeguarding responsibilities with the expectations set out under Martyn’s Law.

SCG: Preparing Your School for Martyn’s Law

We provide comprehensive solutions tailored to educational institutions, including secure networking, communication tools and management systems. Our expertise in school-specific technologies ensures reliable performance and compliance with safety regulations such as Martyn’s Law. In addition, our support and training services help schools maximise the effectiveness of their technology investments whilst prioritising student safety and wellbeing.

Martyn’s Law in schools is pivotal, mandating a structured and comprehensive approach to security ensuring that educational facilities are better positioned to prevent and respond to terrorist threats. Correct implementation creates safer environments for learning and growth, fostering a proactive culture of security and preparedness.

You can watch our video on Martyn’s Law here to discover how ready your school is.

If you’d like help to ensure that your school is prepared for Martyn’s Law, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0800 090 1965.

FAQs

Yes, schools that meet the attendance threshold will be legally required to comply once the legislation comes into force.

No, the standard tier focuses on practical procedures rather than physical upgrades, although technology can support compliance.

Most schools fall into the standard tier, which applies to locations expecting 200–799 people.

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) will regulate and enforce compliance.

Cyber security risk management has become a critical priority for businesses of all sizes. With rising threats such as phishing attacks, ransomware, and data breaches, organisations must actively identify, assess, and reduce cyber risks to protect their data, reputation, and operations.

Although you might not be able to prepare for these events, cyber security is different.

Visualising Risk: Your Cyber Security Castle

Imagery is a powerful way to simplify what can otherwise be an overwhelming topic like cyber security risk management. Picture your organisation’s cyber security posture as a castle. Your business is the central keep, and inside are your most valuable assets: customer data, financial information, intellectual property, and the trust you’ve built with your clients.

Surrounding the keep is a series of gates. Each gate represents a potential entry point into your organisation’s systems and data. These could include email accounts, cloud platforms, endpoints, and third-party integrations. Some gates are locked and well-guarded with strong cyber security controls, whilst others may have been forgotten, left ajar, or even propped open for convenience.

Every new cyber threat, from phishing attacks to ransomware, is like an attempted breach on these gates, probing for weaknesses. Without clear visibility and consistent cyber risk assessment, these vulnerabilities can go unnoticed, increasing the risk of a successful attack.

Cyber Threats vs External Risks: What You Can and Can’t Control

Some risks to your business are unavoidable. A sudden regulatory change, an economic downturn, or a competitor’s innovation can all impact your organisation, these are external threats that sit outside of your cyber security strategy. Think of them as forces raining down from above: they cannot be stopped by your walls, and you must adapt to withstand their effects. However, cyber threats are different. While some attacks will be deflected by the strength of your cyber defences, others will continuously probe for weaknesses in your systems. These threats, including phishing attacks, ransomware, and unauthorised access attempts, exploit vulnerabilities wherever they exist.

They may sneak in through hidden passages like unpatched software, disguise themselves as trusted contacts in phishing emails, or gain access when simple security steps are overlooked. This is why cyber security risk management and ongoing monitoring are so critical.

Unlike broader economic or regulatory challenges, cyber security risks can be actively identified, managed, and reduced. With the right controls, employee awareness, and cyber risk assessment processes, businesses have the power to significantly lower their exposure to cyber attacks.

Training Your Guards: Cyber Security Awareness in Action

Here’s where cyber security awareness training plays a critical role. If your staff are the castle guards, they need the knowledge and training to help keep your organisation secure. Without it, they may unknowingly open the drawbridge to a cyber attacker disguised as a harmless visitor, often in the form of a phishing email, malicious attachment, or suspicious link.

With the right preparation, your team becomes an active part of your cyber security risk management strategy, able to:

  • Spot threats early: recognising phishing attacks, suspicious attachments, unusual login behaviour, and other signs of a potential breach.
  • Respond effectively: knowing exactly what to do when something doesn’t look right, reducing response time and limiting potential damage.
  • Protect your assets: safeguarding sensitive data, maintaining business continuity, and preserving customer trust.

By investing in ongoing training, businesses can significantly reduce human error – one of the leading causes of cyber security incidents – and strengthen their overall cyber resilience.

So, Who’s Watching Your Gates? Strengthening Cyber Security Accountability

When you think about the risks your organisation faces, ask yourself: would you ever leave the castle unguarded? Probably not. Yet too often, businesses treat cyber security as an afterthought, assuming “it won’t happen to us” or relying on IT teams alone to manage all cyber security risks.

Hope isn’t a strategy. Awareness is.

By investing in cyber security awareness training, you’re not just locking the gate, you’re building a culture of shared responsibility across your organisation. Every employee becomes part of your wider cyber security risk management strategy, helping to identify threats, reduce vulnerabilities, and respond quickly when something goes wrong.

In a landscape where cyber threats can emerge at any time – from phishing attacks to data breaches – this kind of collective vigilance is one of the most effective ways to strengthen your cyber resilience and protect your business.

Ready to train your guards?

Strengthen your organisation’s defences with expert cyber security awareness training from SCG. Build a proactive security culture, reduce human risk, and protect your business from evolving cyber threats.

Contact us today

As organisations evolve, so must their infrastructure. Basic connectivity is no longer sufficient for modern businesses, with high-speed and robust performance being a necessity. However, many find themselves impacted by connectivity issues whether through their existing provider or when trying to establish a new site.

These are four common problems experienced by organisations, and what to look for to ensure you identify a provider who will overcome them.

1. Issue resolution time

Every minute of connectivity downtime costs your business. When looking for a reliable connectivity provider, examine both their Trustpilot rating to get an idea of customer feedback, and look for dedicated SLAs (Service Level Agreements).

With these, you have a much better understanding of how quickly they will resolve issues, and whether they will maintain communication through aspects such as keeping you updated during the ordering process.

2. Slow speeds and a limited choice of connectivity options in your area

As digital transformation shifts critical functions online, slow connectivity is a threat to more businesses than ever before.

A good connectivity provider will deliver the right solution for your needs, offering a range of connectivity options even in remote locations through factors such as leveraging partnerships with network providers. They should be able to provide the latest technology, such as advanced Layer 3 connectivity to ensure the most efficient network performance, with a full suite of cyber security services including DDoS protection to secure it.

3. Limited connectivity resilience

Businesses need a way to de-risk the increased reliance on connectivity created through transformative technology such as hosted telephony and Cloud solutions.

A diligent provider will work with you to understand your business priorities, so they put the right level of redundancy in place. This could include failover to a secondary network in the event of primary network failure.

4. Uncertainty around in-house knowledge and resources to effectively manage network devices

Failure to properly install and maintain network devices can result in connectivity problems and cyber security issues.

Choosing a network provider who is also a Managed Service Provider (MSP) means they will have an operations team able to manage your routers and network devices for you, and resolve in-life issues. Some will also offer an installation service for broadband and ethernet routers.

SCG: your connectivity partner

Whatever issues you are experiencing, SCG is here to help as your trusted partner for connectivity across the UK.

We continue to invest in our own core network whilst fostering partnerships with major carriers and alt net providers. This means we are uniquely positioned to offer the widest range of solutions backed by industry-leading service.

I’d you’d like to discuss the challenges your business is facing, or the different options available to you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

With the Big Switch Off already limiting businesses yet to upgrade, more than ever are moving to Cloud telephony and experiencing its many benefits. When speaking to those making the jump, the number one comment we hear is, ‘we don’t want our phones to go down if our internet goes down too’. This is a natural concern, but experienced telecoms suppliers will build multiple layers of resilience into their solutions to prevent this from happening. So, what should businesses be looking for to ensure their communications are protected when migrating voice to the Cloud?

In-built Cloud telephony resilience

The first point of resilience should lie with the Cloud telephony system itself. A robust solution should have the capability to cope with issues at both the end-user level, and at the data centres where it is hosted.

In the event of a local power cut or broadband failure, a Cloud telephony system should be able to detect this outage and activate failover functionality, such as automatically diverting all incoming calls to a pre-assigned mobile number. Softphone availability enables you to use an application to make and receive calls on a laptop, tablet or mobile device with an alternate internet connection (such as 4/5G). This means you can seamlessly switch to these devices, and if necessary, work remotely in an area unaffected by the connectivity outage.

When it comes to the data centres hosting your Cloud telephony solution, there are two specific factors to look at: one, that the service actively operates from multiple data centres (in the event of one going down), and two, that they have a high ‘tier’ rating. This tier system ranges from one to four, categorised in ascending order of seamless operation through elements such as security and redundancy. For the purpose of Cloud telephony, Tier 3 data centres ensure the required levels of business continuity.

Additional resilience measures

As these measures are intrinsic to a Cloud telephony solution, they would usually be included in the cost of a standard user licence. However, if your business requires further resilience, there are additional measures that a telecoms supplier should be able to put in place.

One option is to supply two circuits for your connectivity. These can be network diverse, carrier diverse, and exchange diverse; this gives you the highest degree of redundancy in the event of any kind of issue. It is worthwhile noting the difference between networks, carriers and exchanges here. Frequently, we’ve spoken to businesses who thought they had sufficient continuity in place by having connectivity through two different networks, only to discover that they both use the same carrier or exchange, creating potential vulnerabilities.

A diligent supplier will even look at providing these circuits through two different physical routes and points of entry into your premises. This means that in the result of nearby construction work severing a wire, you still have connectivity. A further step is to install a 4G/5G backup, which gives you a lights-on solution prioritising core business functions until regular connectivity is restored.

SCG’s Cloud telephony solution

As a complete telecoms solution provider, SCG offers all the above resilience options alongside the benefits of its own Cloud-hosted telephony solution, Evonex. Operational and synchronised across three Tier 3 UK data centres, Evonex increases productivity and flexibility across your business, with a simple and cost-effective licencing structure. Our industry-leading 4.9 Trustpilot rating reflects our approach to customers, working with them to understand their specific needs and ensuring we put the right level of resilience in place.

If you’d like to see how easy it is for your business to take advantage of robust and resilient Cloud telephony, contact us on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk.

Evaluating new service providers within education is a very difficult and time-consuming process. With that in mind, our Education Product Specialist, Alice O’Shea, has put together some valuable insights for Trusts who are looking at procurement frameworks and tenders for VoIP (hosted telephony)/IT services.

Having spent a lot of time writing and responding to tenders within educational establishments myself, I want to highlight a few points of concern that need to be addressed and shared. Often when it comes to an overhaul of technical services, so many fundamental things are missed which then cost a great deal of time and money. Budgets are tight, and for most schools if the annual budget is not spent, you may get less the next year which isn’t ideal when you need to make the switch to VoIP.

So, how should your Trust ‘Be More Prepared’ for going out to tender?

The Importance of Site Surveys

Site surveys are vital! Imagine going through the tender process and realising that all your requirements are wrong when you have already agreed on a cost model. Pricing discounts agreed with suppliers are based on the quantities authorised. If there is a decrease, the rates per handset/extension will increase. I often see handset requirements that are wildly inaccurate; this is because the right questions haven’t been flagged internally.  Sometimes schools require less handsets or bigger quantities, so you need to consider the following:

1. Do I have a budget for additional cabling and data points to be installed?

2. What is my current solution, and how many handsets do I currently have vs how many do I actually need?

3. Do I have a senior leadership/head office team that need to be contactable at all times who require softphone capabilities?

4. Do I have a dedicated emergency plan that is linked to my communications platform? If so, how does it work, and can I enact a lockdown/invacuation externally from the playground/sports hall etc (why pay between £10,000 to £20,000 towards tannoy systems when you can receive this dedicated service through a VoIP Platform, unless there is a requirement to split it)? Can this be used in the event of a lockdown, and can it support children on EHCP care plans should there be a medical emergency?

Contract Expiry Dates

Make sure you are aware of when your contracts expire. I’ve seen so many commitments made via schools who are not aware they are still in contract, and as a result have hefty termination fees. Once you sign with a new supplier, you also have to adhere to their terms of service where live dates are agreed; I’ve seen a rise in double payments to two different suppliers because there was no due diligence in the first place. I have also seen a rise in company bases being acquired by bigger outfits and issuing a new contract whilst the schools remain oblivious. Don’t be afraid to have those conversations with Ofcom if your existing suppliers are playing hardball!

1. Tell your existing supplier that you will be going out to tender.

2. Find out what your termination dates are, and if all those services line up. All too often you will quickly see that if you have added additional lines or extensions over the years, this will have extended your contract term.

3. Always ask for access to your portal with a supplier when you are looking at a multisite solution. This enables you to compare your existing lines and services, and what’s being billed vs what is live. You may have extensions, services for alarms or lift lines that you have already migrated but are still being charged for.

The Next Steps

Once you have completed the above, it’s time to ask yourself these further questions.

What are your main points of focus for communication?

These could include:

  • Risk reduction.
  • Policy compliance and support.
  • Emergency planning and lockdown procedures.
  • Time management and efficiency improvement.
  • Accessibility and productivity enhancement.
  • Support for the welfare of children and staff.
  • Alarms and safety measures.
  • Safeguarding children & staff.

What features do I need to include, and is the solution built with what matters most to my School?

Potential features include:

  • Security lockdown for intruder alerts.
  • Paging alerts for emergencies and public announcements.
  • Dedicated support lines for students/welfare support line for families.
  • Automated and detailed call reporting to ensure all unreturned missed calls are picked up.
  • Night mode for optimised functionality (it’s as simple as pressing a button on your handset).
  • Conference calls with PIN codes for secure communication with children on EHCP (Education & Health Care Plans).
  • Calls recorded – do they automatically link with a parent/child’s folder so they can be downloaded immediately at the click of a button? Consider how this is linked to your MIS platform.

What policies should I align this with for compliancy?

These could include:

  • The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
  • The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
  • DfE (2018) ‘Health and safety: responsibilities and duties for schools’.
  • DfE (2015) ‘Emergency planning and response’.
  • DfE (2019) ‘School and college security’.
  • National Counter Terrorism Security Office (2015) ‘Developing Dynamic Lockdown Procedures’, soon to be supported by ‘Martyn’s Law’.

The Final Element

The last part is establishing what you want the training to look like. This could include a basic overview for how to make and receive calls, through to transferring, and larger elements such as live broadcasting of announcements and lockdown training. Ask all your staff questions on things they enjoy vs improvements that need to be made.

Knowledge is power, and as I get frequent requests and see the same mistakes made, I know how important it is to ensure consistency, particularly when your Trust is paying a company to write the tender and consider all the above.

If you need help and are unsure of what to include for your Trust, please do not hesitate to reach out on 0800 652 5612.

Whether you are a small company without any IT resources, or a larger business that just needs some additional support, a Managed IT Services solution is the perfect answer: an outsourced, fully managed IT department with the ability to scale with your requirements.

This form of IT support offers many benefits, including an increased level of security and assurance. As the festive season always brings with it a rise in cyberattacks, this peace of mind is even more valuable at this time of year.

SMEs might consider themselves safe from cybercrime, thinking that they aren’t a big enough target, but this is a common misconception. In fact, since they often lack sufficient security, they are both very popular and often very easy prey. Recent figures in Vodafone’s ‘The Business of Cyber Security’ report show that more than half of UK SMEs were the subject of a cyberattack in 2022, up from 39% in 2020. Considering that almost one in five still admit to having no cybersecurity whatsoever, this isn’t surprising.

The financial ramifications of such an attack hit smaller businesses harder too; the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2023, published by gov.uk, estimates the average cost to businesses of a non-phishing cyberattack at over £15,000. Some SMEs would certainly struggle to recover from losing such an amount, especially during the cost-of-living crisis. Managed IT Services represent a cost-efficient yet highly effective cybersecurity solution.

Proactive cybersecurity

As cybercriminals have become increasingly skilled, so have the methods to detect and repel their attacks. It’s no longer enough to rely on passive anti-virus software to protect your valuable business data. Our Managed IT Services solution comes with 24/7/365 proactive monitoring from a live threat team of humans. Advanced techniques such as ransomware canaries (decoy files which sit on your system purely to detect any attempt to encrypt them as part of ransomware attacks) pick up intrusions before they reach truly valuable data.

We also utilise persistent foothold detection. A persistent foothold occurs when a cybercriminal has initially evaded your security methods and established a virtual presence on your system. From here, they can launch further malicious activities which will continue to run even after you log off or reboot your PC. This form of cyberattack can be especially difficult to counter, as it’s like trying to protect your house from a burglar when you don’t realise that they have your front door key. We will detect and eliminate these threats, keeping your business safe.

Complete peace of mind

Our Managed IT Services solution brings the reassurance that whatever happens, you have unlimited access to our IT help desk. If you have any issues or questions, we are always just a phone call away and in the worst-case scenario, we provide disaster recovery and rapid restore. Every minute your critical systems and data are unavailable will financially impact your business, and we give you that additional safety net.

We also increase the visibility of your networked devices through reporting, so you can get an easy overview of their security status, and even their patch update progress. Ensuring your devices have the latest software installed is another way to defend against cyberattacks.

Whereas traditional IT resources can be costly and inflexible, our Managed IT Services solution comes with cost scalability, so it can adapt to both your business size and requirements. With a competitive per-user model, it often works out as a far more cost-effective alternative than having to increase any existing IT resource.

If you’d like complete peace of mind this Winter with a safe and reliable fully managed IT solution, contact us now on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

Have you enabled Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on your LinkedIn account yet?

A rising trend has seen malicious hackers enabling 2FA on accounts they have breached, which is completely avoidable by simply turning on the 2FA feature in LinkedIn.

Some key LinkedIn user security tips:

  • Create a strong, unique password for your LinkedIn account i.e., don’t skimp on the numbers and symbols.
  • Enable the 2FA security feature:
    • Go to Me > Settings and Privacy.
    • Select Sign in and Security.
    • Find Two-step Verification and click Turn on.

LinkedIn appears to offer both app-based 2FA and SMS-based 2FA.

Check your LinkedIn account’s settings to ensure that it is associated with an email address that you check on a regular basis. If you don’t do this you might miss a vital communication telling you that someone else has added their email to your LinkedIn profile.

Maintaining customer loyalty is crucial to the growth of any business. It provides a reliable source of revenue and upselling opportunities.

Studies show that the power of brand loyalty is increasing, with 62% of previous customers more likely to purchase from their existing providers again, potentially at a higher cost (Cheetah Digital). By listening to your customers, understanding their needs and promptly addressing any issues they have, you build trust from the beginning and continue to nurture the relationship. The loyalty this creates enables you to reap benefits such as referrals, case studies, and testimonials that further enhance your brand.

Three Way You Can Be More Connected

Be More Available

Offering round-the-clock support options in the event of any issues is a unique selling point. If this is not possible, then providing alternative means of contact and submitting enquiries outside regular business hours is still valuable.

With Evonex, the Hosted Telephone System fully owned by SCG, you have access to a variety of features that can keep your phone line open 24/7. Our user-friendly online customer portal and mobile app enable you to effortlessly redirect your main line calls to your mobile phone with a single click, even if you’re already out for the day.

Do you have employees working on different shifts or in multiple locations? With the Time of Day routing feature, you can easily set up automatic call forwarding to various handset extensions and mobile devices. This ensures that your staff can receive calls at any time and from any location, without any hassle. 

Our handsets are set up with Cloud-based technology, ensuring that your DDI is accessible wherever you go. With an internet connection, you can use your phone as if you were in the office, at the expected call rates. This has proven to be particularly helpful for customers with out-of-hour teams situated in different time zones, allowing them to reduce call costs while still providing customer support even when their UK office is closed.

Be More Reliable

In addition to increasing your level of availability, it is important to have a dependable communication solution that guarantees you will be accessible as promised. This is critical in establishing trust with your customers.

The term “uptime” is used to evaluate a provider’s service’s reliability, performance, availability, and quality. Essentially, it measures the duration of time that the provider’s service is functional and accessible to users. Conversely, “downtime” refers to the period in which the service is offline or not operational.

Almost everything within your organisation now depends on a strong, reliable internet connection and businesses often choose Ethernet connectivity to ensure consistent speeds and support critical applications. Ethernet eliminates the connection quality fluctuations caused by multiple users sharing the same volume of bandwidth, which is a common issue faced by broadband users. At SCG, we provide a wide range of connectivity services to meet your specific needs. By partnering with various internet service providers, we offer dependable failover services backed by a comprehensive SLA, ensuring uninterrupted business operations at all times.

Be More Visible

Aside from being easily reachable via your phone lines, it’s important to consider those customers who prefer to gather information electronically. This means your online presence is a key factor when connecting with your digital audience and keeping them up to date with your latest news, products and opening times.

Your web-based platforms play a vital role in informing customers about your shop front opening times and helpline hours. It can be frustrating for them to come across a closure notice or a “call back later” message. Displaying your opening hours clearly, especially on Bank Holidays, can make all the difference in retaining a customer’s business or losing it to a competitor.

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), managing your presence on over 70 different platforms can be a time-consuming task.

Web Listings is an intuitive solution that syncs automatically across 50+ digital channels. It provides businesses with a toolkit to showcase and update their online information, making it easy to update your business listings across all platforms with just one click.

A powerful tool in helping you connect with new customers; Web Listings will get your business noticed. It offers valuable insights and analytics on how your business listings are performing, giving you suggested feedback while enabling you to monitor the impact of any changes you make. With real-time results, you can see exactly how your customers are finding you, from the number of clicks on your website link and phone number, to the frequency of your location appearing on search engines.  Connecting with new and existing customers is so much easier with Web Listings.

We make it simple and efficient to monitor and improve online visibility and increase availability with reliable and trustworthy solutions. Now you can Be More Connected with your customers, in a way you may never have been before.

Contact us today to take the first step, on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk.

Even the simplest business model relies on multiple connections. It can often involve reaching out to attract new prospects, communicating with stakeholders to move them to the point of sale, and then coordinating delivery of your product or service.

Your ability to grow your business through these connections relies on the communications solutions you use, and having the right infrastructure in place that evolves alongside changing needs and priorities.

Connections across your business

In order to reach both existing and new business, you will need to engage with prospects across a range of different digital platforms such as your website, social media and email. Access to all these needs to be uninterrupted so you can maintain frequent contact and rapidly respond to any interest. The level of service you demonstrate at this stage is an indication of what future customers can expect, so any downtime can be very detrimental.

Once contact with a prospect has been made, you will need to coordinate your approach across your organisation; if you have a dispersed workforce, this could involve staff who are not physically present in the office. Can you easily reach colleagues when they’re working at home or out in the field? Do you have the ability to collaborate in virtual spaces, and hold online meetings? These are all factors to consider.

Additionally, you might need to consult with external stakeholders as part of supplying the finished product or service. Any orders to be placed with suppliers may have to be raised online, and if this is impeded it could potentially threaten customer delivery dates.

All of this highlights how important connections are; any disruption impacts the sales process and therefore business growth. First impressions are especially important, and it’s unlikely you’ll be given a second chance if this happens with new business.

So, if a business wants to continue to thrive and achieve success, what kind of considerations are necessary to ensure you don’t miss any valuable connections?

The right infrastructure for success

Every business is unique, and therefore the infrastructure you have in place must meet your individual needs. Does it have the right levels of cybersecurity? Since it’s highly likely you will be storing customer data, it’s vital that this is secure. Does it avoid congestion? If your business requires the transfer of large files, there needs to be provision for this to happen in a timely fashion, and without impacting other bandwidth-heavy activities such as video calls.

It’s important to remember that mobile communications are an extension of your infrastructure. With a dispersed workforce operating across different areas, using just one mobile network might mean connectivity is not always reliable. SCG allows you to mix and match both networks and devices to ensure you can provide the very best customer experience, no matter where your staff are.

Resilient communications

The last few years have seen seismic shifts in business communications, first due to the pandemic, and now because of the Big Switch Off.

The Big Switch Off signals the end of ISDN and traditional phonelines, and will also impact your internet connection if you still use ADSL or FTTC. This is an ongoing process of sunsetting legacy technology which completes in January 2027. The national stop sell in September 2023 means that copper-based services cannot be purchased or modified beyond this date. If you don’t have a plan to upgrade, it’s crucial that you start taking steps now; the longer you leave it, the more your business will be affected.

As technology continues to evolve, further changes to communications are inevitable. Your infrastructure needs to be resilient enough to withstand such changes, rather than having to make continuous alterations which cause upheaval and disruption. This resilience also gives you the flexibility to alter priorities as your business continues to develop, and expand it as it grows.

With the right infrastructure in place, you ensure that you never miss a connection. This approach maximises productivity and profit across your business, so it can reach its full potential.

We will help you Be More Connected. Contact us today on 0800 090 1965 or sales@scgconnected.co.uk for a free review of your communications infrastructure enabling you to achieve greater success.

Although all of us have our own unique way of answering the phone, it goes without saying that ‘hello’ is a universal option. However, it wasn’t the first choice. As communication rapidly progressed from the birth of the telephone, amongst those advances is an oft-forgotten precursor to ‘hello’. This lost phrase provides insight into how a current shift in communications technology could be an opportunity for businesses to achieve greater success.

The First Greeting

In 1876, new communications technology required new etiquette. Prior to the invention of the telephone, societal convention asserted that you didn’t address anyone directly without a prior introduction; there wasn’t a requirement for a word such as ‘hello’. This explains why the fateful line isn’t “Hello, Dr Livingstone”.

When Alexander Graham Bell patented the device in March that year (the credited inventor is still a subject of debate, with Bell, Antonio Meucci and Elisha Gray all in the running), he advocated the use of the word ‘ahoy’ or ‘ahoy-hoy’ as the first telephonic greeting. Already in common nautical usage, it originated from ‘hoi’, the Dutch word for ‘hi’.

It was Bell’s rival, Thomas Edison, who actually coined the word ‘hello’ as a method of initiating telephone calls. Prior to Edison’s adoption, its common usage was as an expression of surprise rather than a greeting. For context, think of the classic policeman impression.

What’s particularly interesting is the logic behind why ‘hello’ was mooted as an option; it’s here that history creates an analogy with the current state of the communications industry.

Business First

In 1877, Edison was in discussions with the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, the organisation prepared to introduce telephones into the city. At the time, Edison saw the device having application only for business, functioning with a constant open connection between both sides. As such, a method was needed for one operator to signal to the other that a message was imminent. Although the idea of a call bell was considered, Edison was confident that the word ‘hello’ was clear and punchy enough to get attention.

This triggered somewhat of a war for the salutation of choice, with Bell still favouring ‘ahoy’, and even a third option of ‘What is wanted’ briefly muddying the waters. However, it was all over by 1880 and ‘hello’ was the clear winner, appearing in operating manuals as the standard greeting. Edison was right, and perhaps more so than even he could have imagined.

Then and Now

The story of ‘hello’ demonstrates that technology drives change. It also reinforces that business is often a leading consideration, with the most to gain from it.

For anyone still using copper-based phonelines or ISDN, a similarly wide-reaching change is in progress. The process of switching off all analogue phone services has already begun, and will complete by January 2027. Although this change is happening over a longer period than the lifespan of ‘ahoy’, it shares similarities in that there is a compelling reason behind it, and an end result that benefits everyone. Just as ‘hello’ was initially proposed to improve business communications, the Big Switch Off provides a similar opportunity.

Like most things at the point of conception, copper technology was never designed to be the pinnacle of telecommunications backbone. The latest telephonic evolution doesn’t even require traditional cabling at all, relying entirely on the Cloud for its infrastructure. Hosted Telephony requires less equipment on site, saving on costly maintenance and upgrades. It offers the freedom to communicate when, how and where you want without any disruption, using anything from a handset, mobile or desktop app. That makes it perfect for another recent development, the rise of remote working.

The only aspect of this migration businesses must watch out for, as with all new technology, is how to adopt it without causing disruption. And SCG can help with that. There are a lot of things to consider, and every company is unique; we’ll discuss all your available options and ensure you’re able to say hello to both new and existing customers on the best telephony system for you. We even have our own Hosted Telephony System, Evonex, both in name and intent the Evolution of Customer Experience. A scalable, flexible and reliable solution, it delivers all the features you need to communicate across your business whilst increasing productivity.

Would anyone want to go back to using ‘ahoy’ as a greeting nowadays? I doubt it, and I believe it will be the same once we move away from copper wiring; an interesting anecdote, but a total impracticality for today’s business needs.

If you’d like help preparing your business for the Big Switch Off, or to discuss the benefits of hosted telephony solutions, please call SCG on 0800 090 1965. I promise we won’t answer with ‘What is wanted?’.