The house of independence

NCC Group stands on the two legs of escrow and assurance, but the ‘bare metal’ bones of its varied services are an independence of mind that means it stands firm as an objective and unbiased source of advice

The phrase ‘technology agnostic’ might raise a few eyebrows, especially when uttered by a company that provides services relating to information management systems, but the words reflect not indifference – but the NCC Group’s dedication to independent objectivity.

This impartial and unbiased approach to its services is something the consultants working for NCC Group take a great deal of pride in delivering; it is also regarded as the essential ingredient in the company’s successful growth over the last 10 years. Indeed, in this time it has grown into a global
business; a multi-national headquartered in Manchester, working with a wide range of blue chip clients – 94 of the FTSE 100 companies – both public and private sector, and has built up a close working relationship with the UK’s social housing sector.

Understandably, such clients do not want solutions pushing a favoured package, but one that is devised from an understanding of their needs and tailored to create the outcomes and tangible benefits they require.

To put it another way, NCC Group is about creating the solution that fits the business, rather than about squeezing the client’s business into a preassembled solution: there is no ‘one size fits all’. A gain, it is all about that essential objectivity that underwrites NCC Group’s ability to deliver.

“We will always work to the business driver rather than to a [preconceived] solution,” said Daljitt Barn, associate director. “We are ‘technologically agnostic’. Our approach is to talk to the business in the first instance, find out what the business drivers are, what are the expected outcomes of deploying a system, and then work with the customer hand-inhand to try and realise those benefits.”

David Isherwood, principal consultant, added: “That has always been one of our primary strengths – our independence. W e do not have allegiances to any hardware and software suppliers, and that makes us unique in the marketplace. Our customers see that as a key strength.

“We could be recommending a particular solution to meet a business need in one area, but that product or service – that solution – may not be fit for purpose for another organisation. So we will not say one housing management system is the best – it depends on the client’s business requirements whether it works for them or not.”

So, what does the NCC Group actually do? A great many things, but broadly speaking, its services break down into four themes: Transformation, Efficiency, Assurance and Compliance.

These are provided across the company’s two divisions. The first, Software Escrow – the company claims to be the largest provider of this kind of service in the world – provides clients the surety that software packages andbusiness critical code is protected and accessible should the original vendor cease trading, for example. The second ‘leg’ is the Assurance division and this provides a wealth of services relating to the four themes (see bottom of page).

Advisory services are an important element of the Assurance division, helping clients to enact those four themes in their operations and covering matters such as Business Assurance, Information Assurance, Information Security, operational efficiencies, and reviewing processes to help any organisation undergoing transformation.

Given the current economic climate, and the government’s programme of cutbacks, these are essential concerns for the public sector including social housing, and NCC Group’s services essentially look towards assisting them to streamline their businesses, drive through efficiency savings, by helping them create the infrastructure – both hardware and software, as it were – to achieve more for less.

Technology, be it the hardware or software aspect of the system, is a big part of the equation, but it is by no means the be all and end all. “Yes, it is about the technology, but it is much wider than just the technology; it is about the business, it is about the information, the processes, the people – all of that forms a part of it, but the services we deliver are much broader than that. We regularly work at a business level for which IT is the enabler rather than the solution,” Isherwood added. “We can provide the whole comprehensive business assurance package, from the top-level down: from business and strategic advice, through infrastructure and data centres, right down to the bare metal.”

NCC Group might stand on the two legs of escrow and assurance, but it is the ‘bare metal’ bones of its independence that enable it to take a firm stance in the provision of objective and unbiased advisory services. And in this day and age, that is a must.

The themes of Transformation, Efficiency, Assurance and Compliance cut across the NCC Group’s activities. These can be broken down in simplified form as:

Information Assurance
• Security officer
• HMG CLAS consultancy
• HMG CHECK & CTAS services
• Security Accreditor
• HMG Security Frameworks
• Data Protection & Privacy

Information Security
• PCI-DSSS ervices
• ISO 27001 Services
• Business Continuity & R ecovery S ervices
• Security Technology
• Forensic Services
• Security Architecture

Business Assurance
• ITS trategy
• IT Governance
• Business Transformation
• Sourcing and Procurement
• Enterprise Architecture
• Systems Knowledge

More generally, the company services include:

• Testing and monitoring relevant aspects of system, network and web performance to ensure that technology used can meet the optimum performance

• Penetration and security testing of networks and applications and security policies in practice, to ensure that organisations are protected from the threat of unauthorised access

• Security assistance, covering forensics, vulnerability research, and the development of expert software to assist in the ongoing battle against information security breaches

• Protection against risks through the development of effective strategies and compliance with relevant standards and guidelines

• Providing advice at all levels on the effective use of information, technology and business processes

• Specialism in payment card certification audits, Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards compliance, global strategic advisory services for card manufacturing, data preparation and personalisation vendors