IT Support services for Freelance Professionals

Greenlight Computers Freelancer Support Hubs

We provide Freelancer IT support across the UK and operate in numerous different sectors including life science, law and finance. However, our geographical our major locations are situated in Alderley Park, Sci-Tech Daresbury, Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and The University of Manchester – each area containing onsite dedicated IT support staff. Greenlight is already developing full-service facilities in Cambridge, Oxford and London.

Cyber Security

Greenlight Computers relationship with freelancers is focused on IT support and cyber security. Greenlight is expert in self-employment regulatory requirements. Contractors and freelancers are classed as high risk for cyber security as they are a sole company. They are less likely to have the infrastructure, knowledge and technology in place to remain secure when compared to larger companies. Consequently, they are easier targets for cyber-attacks. It is now standard practice for clients to audit their freelancers in order to ensure that they will not be a weak link in a business transaction. Freelancer & IT Protect from Greenlight Computers is born of an industry knowledge that identifies and removes cyber compliance gaps to ensure our clients remain a secure part of the supply chain. As a result – Freelancer Protect and VIP Protect ‘Cyber Compliance Certification’ ensures that the freelancers we support are fully compliant with IT standards.

Data recovery

Greenlight Computers works with freelancers from day 1, providing baseline IT, design and deployment services to establish all IT tools. Greenlight Computers technical staff work with clients across multiple disciplines to ensure data segregation, backup and disaster recovery solutions are all established from the beginning. Safe storage of data and recovery of both personal and work data whilst freelancing is essential as without it, work cannot be completed – without work being completed, income is impacted. Having the correct systems to facilitate the recovery of data quickly and accurately ensures efficacy and productivity is maintained at all times.

Employer compliance

Freelancers are a part of a supply chain of which individually may not be regulated and audited, however clients which they work for can be and frequently are. Due to the advancements in IT and cyber security, freelancers are now included within the supply chain audit trail which ensures all parties are protected. Subsequently, they are subject to completing questionnaires and forms from potential clients which captures their IT and cyber security information. Commonly, there are mandatory IT requirements in order to meet the minimum standards to operate efficiently and securely as a freelancer. This can be a determining factor on whether or not contracts are secured with clients which is crucial when self-employed. Greenlight Computers is experienced in working within regulated environments. The use of flexible IT solutions is enabling Greenlight Computers clients to manage any change of cyber security, data flows or storage and backup changes without concern.

GDPR and Data Breaches

In 2021/2022, 39% of businesses across the UK reported a cyber-attack with the most common attack being email phishing. The aim of cyber-attacks is to obtain data. Data has value to hackers. This could be personal sensitive data such as bank account details or obtaining confidential data from a business transaction such as an IP or patient data if working within the life science sector. Data management, retention of confidential information, confidential emails and documents are all common daily exchanges between freelancers and their clients. By ensuring robust cyber security measures are in place, it minimises the risks of GDPR and data breaches which can carry significant consequences and fines. Greenlight Computers provides the consultancy service to design the ideal data storage, access control and collaboration between partners to protect the cyber supply chain.

Cyber Security

• Cyber protections (Devices/Emails/Data)
• Cyber Investigation (Digital Forensics/First Hour Response/Incident Response/Insurance Reporting)
• Cyber Compliance (Vulnerability Testing/Cyber Essentials Plus/ISO27001/Policies/Audit/Outsourced DPO)

If you require IT support services please contact us here

Marketing Support services for Freelance Professionals

As a freelancer, It is essential to not only, ‘look after the today’ in terms of your cyber compliance and the ongoing protection of your existing client relationships, but also to plan for ‘the tomorrow’ and cementing the future growth of your business. Freelancer Promote from Greenlight Web delivers strategic thinking coupled with beautiful design to enable the delivery of key messages to your target audience.

Our digital marketing team understand the importance of building intelligent marketing solutions that clearly define your businesses proposition in the marketplace. As a freelancer, especially those first transitioning from being employed by a company to self-employment, there is increased pressure to clearly define service features and benefits across every audience touchpoint, as you won’t necessarily carry the same gravity as your corporate business counterpart.

Our goal is to deliver impactful branding and marketing solutions in comparison to competitors, in order to engage and influence target consumers for our clients.

How ‘Freelancer Promote’ from Greenlight Web helps Freelancers get to grips with their marketing

Digital Marketing Services

• Brand Design & Print (Logo/Digital/Video/Stationary/Promotional)
• Website Design & Development (WordPress/Magento/Shopify/PHP/UI-UX) Domains & Hosting (Register/Host/Backup/Caching/SSL Protect)
• Website Maintenance & Support (Regular Maintenance/Helpdesk/Content Update/Performance Reporting)
• Email Marketing (Template Design/List Admin/Safe Send/Analytics)
• SEO – Webmaster Services (Lead Generation/Google Ranking/On Page/Off Page/PPC/Content Copywriting)
• Social Media Management (LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/YouTube)
• Digital Marketing Benchmarking (KPI comparison with key Competitors)

If you require digital marketing services please contact us here

TOP 10 Regular IT issues for Freelancers

On behalf of clients Greenlight Computers manages and mitigates against these potential issues regularly. We have highlighted
some of those in this top 10:

1. The most common issue faced by freelancers is ‘time is money’. If IT systems are not functioning as they should and time has to be spent trying to fix it, essential time is wasted whilst trying to balance client deadlines.
2. Corrupt or lost data – robust backup and recovery are essential. Users make mistakes so having a secure backup is called on to recover files/folders/versions.
3. Cyber-attack – common targets for spoofing/phishing attacks as freelancers are known to hold confidential information for multiple clients
4. Data storage – cloud storage and replication, costs vary widely.
5. Validation of IT changes in regulated supply chains of employment – change management is an essential element of QA which can involve input from IT. Freelancers are often included in QA audit trails by their clients.
6. User awareness – keeping vigilant about cyber safe computer use.
7. Secure data access– when operating from home, shared locations etc. when accessing client data needs to be secure and multi-factor authenticated.
8. Integration of new technologies – there are frequent increasing demands for IT and cyber security transformations from both clients, insurers and auditors. This knowledge and implementation of new arising technologies is challenging to keep up to date when self-employed.
9. Cost containment – IT is world-renowned to boost productivity, but this can be expensive when you are self-employed. Outsourcing IT allows corporate discounts to be applied.
10. Noticeability – being self-employed relies on effective online marketing and branding to increase recognition.

IT under pins every freelancer. Subsequently, weaknesses in tools and processes can present serious risks to operational viability. Preventing and mitigating against risks needs to be of high priority for any person.

Please contact us at the Greenlight Computers team for confidential advice if you have concerns, do not wait until the “horse has bolted”.