How Chess Can Help You

As one of the UK’s leading independent and trusted service providers, Chess offers in-depth knowledge and expertise across your technology stack. These include business critical specialisms;  unified communications,  business software and technical services, tailored to your exact requirements, complementing the skills you have and supplying the skills you need. 

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Chess

IT Managed Service Provision (IT MSP) /  IT Services / IT Service Management (ITSM) covers the provision of support for any or all elements of your IT applications and infrastructure: be it strategic IT leadership, network service provision, cyber security, and application support, through to IT help desk services for your employees.  

Ensuring robust, resilient, secure IT services for your organisation, helping make IT a business enabler rather than a cost, and ensuring that your IT runs smoothly.

IT Managed Service Provider / IT Services / IT Service Management 

Web development services and technology to design, create, and manage websites, so that they deliver for your business, and perform well. 

Designing websites and website applications with strong UIs (user interface) and UXs (user experience) so that they are easy to use, appealing to look at, and well structured from a logical and business perspective.

And then, beyond the design and the function, there is the performance.  It is vital that a website is responsive and fast: this is a function of the hosting, the architected design, and the technologies and languages chosen to build it with.  If the website has business functions, then reliability and accuracy is mandatory.  Integrity of data is ensured by adhering to ACID design principles.

Finally there is the key element of security.  Websites need to be built in alignment with OWASP, and developer teams should have a "security first" approach to design, with assigned AppSec responsibilities.

Website Development and Support

Creation, coding and development of software for business applications and mobile apps; providing technology solutions and consultancy services to assist application development.

Application development can use Waterfall or Agile methodologies.

Core to the Agile methodology, is DevOps where the Software Development and Live Business Environment Operations teams are joined, rather than being siloed, and where there is continuous deployment of updates, and automated software testing.

Application development is also referred to as custom software development.

The application development process includes
- a discovery phase
- confirmation of high level functionality
- estimation of development costs
- design of the UI / User Interface aka GUI / Graphical User Interface or the front end of an application
- design and architecture of the back end of the application
- specification of the technology stack
- ensuring best security standards and practices
- development of the prototype
- testing
- release to production, often as an MVP / Minimum Viable Product

Application development

IP Telephony is digital telephony, otherwise known as Voice over Internet Protocol or VOIP.    

Legacy telephone systems run off a physical PABX (private automatic branch exchange). A PABX is an analogue system, where the voice is transmitted in analogue format sound waves over copper wires on a PSTN / Public Switched Telephone Network.    VOIP or IP Telephony runs off virtual PABXs either hosted on a server, or in the cloud, and the voice is transmitted in a digital format over fibre or ethernet.

IP Telephony: VOIP

Cloud Telephony is the term for cloud provisioned telecoms services, replacing the physical servers and call systems (PABXs) that used to be in company offices.  

Cloud Telephony

Digital Transformation is the process of transforming a company's business processes alongside selecting, implementing and leveraging best fit technology solutions to enable those processes to deliver increased value, efficiency and profitability.  Also referred to as IT Transformation.

A central element of digital transformation is effective project and programme management.

Working back from required business outcomes, determining the approach, technologies, and partners needed to assist in the realisation of those outcomes.

Effective project and programme management is not just about following a methodology or framework, such as Prince2 or Agile, it is about team leadership, team work, collaboration, and strong relationships.

Core to digital transformation is designing and implementing the correct Enterprise Architecture.  The most common methodology for implementing Enterprise Architecture is TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework).  

Digital Transformation (DX)

IT is the world of Information Technology, and covers everything to to with computer hardware, computer software, information stored on computers, whether in the cloud, or on premise in your own data centre.

IT includes storing, processing, creating or changing data on a computer system - from managing your company accounts, to running your company factory, to creating amazing films, music, art and literature.

IT is at the heart of our world - with applications getting easier and faster to use, and doing more and more for us.

From smart fridges, to smart houses to smart cities - the beauty of efficiency and automation, versus the worries over data privacy, camera surveillance, and govt needs to know, versus an individual's right to privacy.

From cyber currency to cyber crime, from information clarity to online manipulation, troll farms, the dark web, and cyber crime.

This is all the area of IT.

Making It Easy To Work Securely Anywhere, Anytime