NetUtils has appointed Steve Nicholls as its new Commercial Director – a move that coincides with its acceptance onto the Crown Commercial Services Technology Services 3 framework and major SoC investment to deliver flexible cybersecurity services to public sector organisations across the UK.
Over the last 28 years, Nicholls has gained a proven track record working in high pressure, high growth environments at leadership positions within SolarWinds and telent including successful, large scale projects with the MOD, London Ambulance Service, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Network Rail and DEFRA.
Nicholls said, “It is clear that the impact of the recent health crisis has led to a significant increase in our national debt and the public sector is likely to face a period of belt-tightening in response. Yet, the ongoing digital transformation across national government, local authorities, health and education shows no signs of slowing down. This makes robust and cost-effective IT and cybersecurity a major requirement and the perfect focus for a highly-regarded specialist such as NetUtils that is well-known for delivering cost-effective services.”
NetUtils has also been accepted across multiple lots of the recently published Crown Commercial Services Technology 3 procurement framework. The seven lots span areas including technology strategy and service design, operational services, major services transformation programmes, integration and management.
The appointment of Nicholls is part of a multi-million-pound investment by NetUtils to recruit additional staff with enhanced training and expanded data centre capacity to deliver an enhanced IT services portfolio. For public sector, this includes a highly integrated managed cybersecurity service to help organisations strengthen their security posture and meet growing compliance requirements such as the Cyber Essentials Plus framework that becomes mandatory for all NHS Trusts this year.
NetUtils has also created special public sector pricing for its 16 cybersecurity managed services ranging from Endpoint Protection and Email Security all the way up to fully-fledged SOC services.
Nicholls adds, “The public sector has different procurement, operational and contractual requirements than the private sector and our new portfolio reflects these nuances with an offering that is not just technically sound but also commercially compelling.”
With a heritage spanning over 27 years, NetUtils is one of the UK’s longest-serving specialist integrators of network, security and data solutions. Today, it serves over 400 public sector, enterprise and service provider clients. NetUtils is the most certified Juniper Networks partner in Europe and maintains over 420 industry and vendor accreditation within its team. NetUtils is one of only a handful of UK suppliers to maintain ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essential certification.
Although a new addition to the Crown Commercial supplier framework, NetUtils has worked with over 200 public sector clients during the last 27 years. These include central government agencies, local, district and county councils, numerous NHS trusts and every ‘blue light’ emergency service.
The list includes the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, Fife Council, State Hospitals Board for Scotland, London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Police & Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire and Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust.
Ashok Thomas, CEO for NetUtils, said, “Public sector has always been a major area for us and Steve joining the team along with our acceptance within the Crown Commercial Services framework is a new focus that recognises that the public sector needs better value for money from IT – and especially within cybersecurity. We are a highly focused and agile supplier that has built our business organically by delivering tangible results for our customers and our ongoing investment will help us to address the needs of a larger public sector client community.”
