SME News March 2018

SME NEWS / Q1 2018 5 NEWS GIC Capital provides SMEs with vital fund- ing through privately owned investment companies and is highlighting the fact that a number of factors including Brexit and a shortage of skills could be behind the drop in recruitment figures. The latest immigration statistics, which were released in February, revealed that there was a drop in EU net migration, with the num- ber of EU citizens coming over to the UK having decreased by 47,000, which could go some way to explain why more Lon- don companies are struggling to recruit, especially given the fact that EU migrants make up 20% of the workforces in 18 British in- dustries. Kennedy Zvenyika, Managing Director of GIC Capital said: “SMEs are the lifeblood of the British economy, but without the right staff being recruited, they will be unable to operate in the way that they need to. Recruiting more staff generally means that a business is growing, so these new statistics could suggest that SMEs are struggling to facilitate growth, perhaps as a result of difficulties obtaining appropriate finance. “Over half of the SMEs in the UK are unable to access the funding that they need to grow their busi- ness, with the main reason for this being a lack of understanding about the options that they have available to them. Here at GIC Capital we take the appropriate steps to get to know all of the businesses that we work with and ensure that they understand the financing options that we have available and what will work best for them, whether that be busi- ness loans, retail overdrafts or expansion capital.” While the impending doom of Brexit continues to hang over businesses head, the rise in a skill shortage across the UK is another factor set to taint recruit- ing across SMEs. At present, skill shortages are at a critical level in the UK, putting the future growth of businesses at risk. Asavie, a leader in secure Enterprise Mobility and IoT Connectivity, have announced that Vodafone Ireland, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, has launched VDC for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The solution built on the Asavie Moda service enables businesses to protect and control employees’ mobile device usage and aid GDPR compliance and drive cost savings. VDC is built on Asavie Moda, a cloud-based, self-service solu- tion, enabling employees to work securely on any device, from an- ywhere. VDC offers network pro- tection against business mobile threats and zero-day exploits. Its essential mobile device manage- ment (MDM) capabilities enable companies to physically protect the device with password, lock, locate and wipe features. This helps businesses comply with Global Data Protection Regula- tion (GDPR) by securing the mo- bile device and the data on the device. It also helps businesses control the costs of employee mo- bile data usage and avoid experi- encing “bill shock” when an em- ployee exceeds their data plan. Paula Corcoran, Product Man- ager for IoT & Mobility Solutions, Vodafone Ireland said, “We are delighted to partner with Asavie to deliver a multi-faceted mobile Why Are SMEs in London Recruiting Fewer Staff? Visibility and control to protect company mobile data and aid GDPR compliance. With new statistics from the London Business survey revealing that recruitment figures are down 43% across SMEs in South London, a capital financing firm is keen to assess whether there is a staffing crisis sweeping UK businesses. security and data management solution to the Irish SME market. Until recently there has been no easy to use, all-in-one solution to protect how devices consume mobile data. VDC now addresses this issue by offering sophisticat- ed tools to help businesses com- ply with the latest regulations.” Ralph Shaw, CEO, Asavie said, “We are pleased to partner with Vodafone on the launch of VDC. VDC proactively addresses the risks and regulatory concerns of running a mobile workforce in to- day’s hyper-connected world. Any company operating today without a robust mobile security and data control solution runs the risk of exposing itself to a variety of financial and regulatory policy breaches. Our solution is a win- win option for any company strug- gling to gain visibility and control of how its employees are using their mobile phones while protect- ing them into the bargain.” VDC is a SIM-based solution, with any malicious sites blocked before they are accessed. Web- based management enables an administrator to run VDC even if the SIM card is removed and in- serted into another device. Addi- tionally, end users can view their usage via the Data Control App available on iTunes and the App Store, as well as on mobile hand- sets, tables, Mi-Fi and data cards.