The Client 

Grays are a Cardiff-based consultancy that delivers commercially intelligent design solutions to clients across the UK. Their motivated and enthusiastic team of high-quality Chartered ICE and IStructE Engineers thrive in a collaborative working environment, each equipped with the knowledge and aptitude to deliver the right technical solutions to clients.  

For anyone who is looking for a flexible and professional approach to projects, Grays are the best people to help you achieve your project goals. 

Since 2021, CSG has been providing GRAYs with ongoing IT, Telephony and Security services, to which Tony expresses how he deals with a “fantastic group of people [who] gets tickets (tasks) dealt with straight away and professionally.” 

The Background

Tony Venn, Office and Facilities Manager at GRAYS, had worked with CSG with his previous company and when Tony moved over to GRAYS, he highly recommended the team due to his positive experiences. 

GRAYS welcomed the task of relocating offices so reached out to CSG for support in understanding any potential restrictions when moving and to evaluate GRAYS’ current infrastructure model. GRAYS were looking for a seamless transition, to which CSG helped supply. 

Anyone working within the public sector understands the importance of data security and clients would not only request this, but evidence for the data security as well. This is where CSG helped provide GRAYS’ clients with the confidence that GRAYS takes their cyber security seriously.  

Allowing more staff to work from home has become second nature to companies, but many forget the importance of security when it comes to remote working. CSG helped GRAYS identify the issues when it comes to remote working and provided the consultants with solutions to their unique problems, emphasising how CSG takes time to understand the clients’ individual needs as we know that every single business is different. 

GRAYS wanted to ensure that they were ahead of the game when it came to cyber security threats within the construction and engineering industry, so partnering with CSG was the start of a perfect solution. CSG account managers take the time to research the latest security threats and issues within the construction and engineering industry so that GRAYS can be prepared before the issue arises. 

Companies who work with clients and the public sector, including governmental clients, will understand the importance of data security. You cannot risk being left vulnerable to the latest cyberattacks, let’s look at how CSG helped shape GRAYS’ security… 

The Solution

Horizon Telephony 

In this connected world, strong communication links are crucial for any business. As a Gamma partner, we provided Horizon Collaborate; a unified communications bolt-on that offers document sharing, instant messaging, presence, voice, video and more. Employees at GRAYS can easily access communications and collaboration tools no matter where they are. 

GRAYS needed support with hybrid working and Horizon helped the daily activities of the business commence when people needed the support most – during Covid.  

“Our previous system was ISDN and the change to Horizon has been great. The quality of calls are much better! CSG made the transition from IDSN to Horizon seamless, we’ve been on it for around 5 years now and haven’t looked back. 

The transition from office A to office B went smoothly, we plugged it in, pressed play and it all worked.” – Tony Venn, Office and Facilities Manager, GRAYS. 

Server Infrastructure Upgrade 

GRAYS used to work on a home server and after a lot of disaster recoveries, Tony identified the need for a server that was efficient enough to reinforce the foundations of the business moving forward. 

“We compared CSG to other local IT companies and other companies wanted payment for a quote, offered too high prices and not the same level of service that CSG did.  

CSG came out on top and what’s better is we get to support a local business.” – Tony Venn, Office and Facilities Manager, GRAYS. 

The consulting engineers holds a “massive amount of data,” making the server upgrade extremely beneficial to the company as CSG helped free up more space for new data. 

“Good investment, [and has been] very cost-effective,” Tony expresses. 

Security Services 

Sophos Firewall 

Sophos Firewall has been recognised as the Number 1 Firewall Solution by G2 users (sophos.com). At CSG, it supplies our clients with a full next-gen firewall optimised for the modern encrypted internet, offering industry-leading protection and performance and coming with built-in ZTNA for secure and easy remote worker access.  

GRAYS found a previous issue of not being able to set up the Sophos Firewall to work properly on the internal infrastructure – which is something that CSG has the knowledge to fix. This emphasises why Sophos always recommends partnering with a Sophos Gold Solutions Partner when it comes to implementing their products. 

Sophos Antivirus  

Cyber threats are constantly changing and becoming more complex. Cybercriminals are not only aiming for organisations but also for individuals and their home PCs, so if you are a sole-business owner, you are still at risk of a ransom attack. 

CSG and Sophos help clients upgrade from outdated security solutions to next-gen defences that are designed to fight advanced threats. Sophos antivirus for Windows delivers comprehensive business-grade security that ensures unmatched protection for your Windows PCs and meets every business’ criteria. 

“The email filtering side of the Sophos packages has been fantastic.” GRAYS had an experience where someone who had left the company’s old email address was receiving phishing emails and potential viruses every day. “Because Sophos was picking up the phishing email straight away, it meant that all threats were picked up and our systems didn’t install any programmes that would have damaged our systems.”  

CSG has made us far more robust. We often see competitors spending thousands of their budget on IT with other companies, leaving them go bust because they were no longer financially viable – because of CSG’s costings being so cost-effective, we can protect ourselves without breaking the bank.” – Tony Venn, Office and Facilities Manager, GRAYS. 

365 Security Hardening  

Microsoft MFA (Multifactor Authentication) adds an extra layer of security when it comes to logging in to your accounts.  

“The MFA set up has gone seamlessly and we have had little issues with people logging into computers at all. We’ve only had one issue with a device log in across the network and CSG were able to correct this in under 20 minutes.” 

The most significant advantage of MFA is the instant increased security it provides, even if someone manages to obtain your password, they won’t be able to access your account without the additional verification factors.  

This has helped reduce the risk of data breaches, which is one of the most common threats to companies, as even if the passwords are comprised, the attacker still requires additional verification factors to access the account. 

Many industries, including the construction and engineering industry, are required to adhere to specific security standards, CSG has helped GRAYS reach those standards by bolstering security practices through services including MFA. 

Datto Backups 

We’ve all been there, someone’s accidentally deleted a file without meaning to and they cannot recover it. CSG has supplied GRAYS with cloud and onsite backups to ensure that anything that has accidentally been deleted can be restored. 

“GRAYS have needed the backups a few times because people have deleted a file without meaning to and they cannot recover it themselves. When this happens, knowing that we have the level of control to recover the files means that people can continue to do their job.”  

Mass Security Implementation

“Since partnering with CSG, we have been able to achieve mass security implementation, whole infrastructure upgrade, future protection and scalability for future development.” “Everything is going to the cloud, so it’s important to have that end security. We find that everything is on a 3D model now and if the model becomes corrupt, then you have lost your entire project. If something in the cloud gets corrupted it will cost the client – so knowing, we have the backups is very important.” - Tony Venn, Office and Facilities Manager at GRAYS.