Government Funding. 50% on the costs of approved software, worth up to £5,000.
Government funding is going to be made available for SMEs to purchase software - so we will be keeping you updated and passing on relevant information. More details will be released this summer so watch this space.
The Chancellor has announced £520 million to help SMEs recover from the pandemic through the “Help to Grow” initiative.
There are two schemes:
Help to Grow: Digital – this scheme will provide SMEs with discounted software and expert advice on how to best utilise it.
Help to Grow: Management – this scheme will offer MBA-style management training to SMEs with the aim of increasing innovation and boosting growth.
Small businesses will be able to get free impartial advice on how technology can boost their performance through a new online platform.
Eligible businesses will also be able to get a discount of up to 50% on the costs of approved software, worth up to £5,000.
Who’s eligible?
You have between 5 and 249 employees and are registered at Companies House
You have been trading for more than 12 months
You are purchasing the discounted software for the first time
Contact Richard for more information
T: 0113 234 1548
Super-Deduction - 130% capital Allowance on Plant & Machinery
If you are considering investing in new computer hardware or software then this is a good time to take advantage of the Super-Deduction capital allowance, announced by the Treasury last week. Businesses will be able to offset 130% of investment spending on plant and machinery against profits for the next two years, equating to a cut in a tax bill by up to 25p for every £1 invested.
From 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2023, companies investing in qualifying new plant and machinery assets will be able to claim:
a 130% super-deduction capital allowance on qualifying plant and machinery investments
a 50% first-year allowance for qualifying special rate assets
The scheme is hoped to encourage firms to invest in productivity-enhancing equipment to help then grow. If you are considering an equipment upgrade, call Richard who will be happy to advise you.
Contact Richard for more information
T: 0113 234 1548
Microsoft has issued a warning regarding on-premise Exchange Servers 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. Vulnerabilities have been identified and administrators are being urged to apply updates as a matter of urgency. Exchange Online is not affected.
The attacks are being attributed to HAFNIUM, a Chinese nation-state affiliated group who are attacking Microsoft Exchange Server installations using multiple zero-day exploits.
Conformedia, a Microsoft partner, received the alert on the morning of 3rd March. Patches were immediately applied to all clients’ on-premise Exchange servers.
David Rayner, managing director at Conformedia, stresses the urgency to act, “Anyone administering an on-premise Exchange Server must take remedial action and patch their servers. This is a serious and immediate threat to infrastructure and user’s data. Without action your email servers can be compromised, leading to a full data breach, and increasing the threat of further infection from other malware, such as ransomware.
“As soon as Microsoft alerted us to the problem our team got to work, and I am pleased to say that all our clients received the patch the same day. Our clients who subscribe to ConnectWise Automate received this automatically, others had the patch applied manually by the team.”
Please call the team at Conformedia if you need assistance.
Microsoft have released a script to test for evidence of attack: https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security
Further information is published in a Microsoft tech note: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/03/02/hafnium-targeting-exchange-servers.
