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At Lumina, we know that we cannot change the world. It is an impossible task for a single person or organisation. But that does not mean that we cannot take small steps within our work to contribute to a larger vision.
According to the United Nations, small-medium sized businesses make up 90% of all global businesses and provide 60% of the world’s employment. They are described as the ‘economic lifeblood’ of communities around the world.
In the UK alone, government statistics estimate that 5.5 million small businesses support 27 million jobs.
This shows that safeguarding them from perfectly preventable threats: such as a financial loss from being a victim of cybercrime; or a reputational loss due to a technical operational shut down; has become of paramount importance to both the business itself and wider community it supports.
Lumina understands this which is why we choose to partner with small-medium sized businesses. We choose to help the business founders who have made the sacrifices and had the grit and determination to build a business of greater value, whether it’s through job creation and providing the opportunities for people to have meaningful careers or giving back to their local community in another way.
Small-medium sized businesses deserve the same level of protection as larger enterprises – and this is what IT can provide. This makes up a large part of Lumina’s mission, as does contributing to some of the goals the UN has set.
In 2015, The United Nations set a total of 17 goals as part of their 2030 Sustainable Agenda to bring peace and prosperity to the planet. The work we do here at Lumina helps contribute to a few of those goals.
Let’s take a deeper dive into how Lumina is aiming to contribute to these goals…
This has been defined as to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.’
At Lumina, we contribute to this goal by making our entire team feel appreciated and heard in our workplace so that they feel happy to come to work every day. We run an internal employee survey every six months to get regular feedback from people and to monitor employee engagement levels.
We are a close-knit team here at Lumina which means everyone can be comfortable in giving valuable feedback on the company mission, values, and culture. A key behaviour that all our team members have is empathy, and this has enabled everyone to feel comfortable to go to senior managers about any issues they have been experiencing, whether it’s work related or not.
By allowing everyone to feel seen and heard inside the business, we are comfortable in the knowledge that we are doing everything we can to promote the mental health and wellbeing of our team. A happier and healthier employee means a happier service desk for our clients to interact with.
This has been defined as to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
Today, cybercrime is a thriving business, and no one is safe, not as an individual or as a business. Here at Lumina, we partner with small-medium sized businesses to help them stay secure through providing reliable IT solutions. We help our clients embrace a culture of cybersecurity to protect businesses from becoming a victim of cybercrime.
Approximately 80% of all cyber breaches happen because of human error. Part of our mission is to educate people to become security aware so that they can reduce the risk of themselves and the business they work for becoming a victim of a hacker/scammer. We include cybersecurity awareness training in most of our PRISM packages.
Additionally, our CEO, Richard McBarnet was the Cybersecurity Ambassador for the Institute of Directors (IOD) Hertfordshire branch. He is also a STEM Ambassador for our local region of Hertfordshire volunteering at different schools or clubs to discuss IT and Cybersecurity as a career path for young people.
This has been defined as to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’.
Links with Goal 3:Good Health and Well-Being:
By creating an inclusive culture at Lumina where our team members feel seen and heard; they are positively motivated to contribute to our mission. We know that we are providing decent work for our staff, we are profitable, our clients are profitable so we are having a positive influence on our local economy.
Mutual success allows both Lumina and our clients to grow which encourages more innovation and job creation for both of us. Providing a supportive workplace for people to build meaningful careers only seeks to create better work and economic growth.
This has been defined as to ‘build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation’.
Lumina partners with small-medium sized businesses, so that they can achieve rewarding success through being secure, resilient, and mission focused; by providing reliable IT solutions that just work.
In short, we help businesses protect themselves by enabling them to reduce their risk through building a solid, enterprise-level IT infrastructure. By doing this, our clients can achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation.
Higher technology organisations are far more resilient in crises than their lower-tech counterparts.
This has been defined as to ‘make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.
As previously mentioned, Lumina partner with businesses in our local areas of London and Hertfordshire and our work helps drive local economies and communities through job creation, protect businesses from catastrophic financial or reputational damage, safeguard local communities and ensure rapid recovery should a disaster occur.
How does the work your business does contribute to some of the UN goals or a wider vision?
Lumina Technologies have taken the time to understand the requirements of our business and work as our strategic IT partner, enabling us to concentrate on delivering a high quality service to our clients and focus on our growth strategy. They have delivered a 100% cloud solution to our business with no underlying infrastructure costs or maintenance, which gives us scalability for our planned growth. It also means our business critical applications and data are securely accessible from virtually all our user devices. Lumina’s professional approach and strategic expertise is highly valued and their management of our IT – based on their in-depth knowledge, leaves us confident that our systems are available 24×7.
Luke Harrison
Keidan Harrison LLP
Lumina have supported us so well through the difficult circumstances of 2020. They worked extremely hard to ensure we were able to work remotely and continue to operate our business successfully. The support team are very friendly and knowledgeable, and have excellent response times.
The team have also enhanced our cyber security which is so important in the legal sector, and they continue to provide high quality advice to help us move forward with our IT goals.
Robin Illingworth
Managing Partner, Adams & Remers LLP
The quality of IT Support provided by Lumina Technology is of the highest standard and is complemented by effective client liaison with impressive response times. Trap Oil Group plc has no hesitation in recommending Lumina as a dedicated and specialist group of IT professionals.
Martin David
Technical Director, Trap Oil Group plc
Richard and his team are a real inspiration to anyone who meets them and I have watched Lumina’s growth over the last few years with interest and admiration. Richard has been an amazing supporter of the Hospice of St Francis, being a Gold member of the Corporate Partner Network for almost two years. He takes an active interest in the community and is passionate about his company and his town: nothing is too much trouble, he is always willing to help, to give up his time and to provide business advice when asked. Lumina is an inspiration to any company wanting to set up business in Hertfordshire.
Carolyn Addison
Corporate Fundraising Manager, The Hospice of St Francis
Lumina Technologies Prism Hosted Desktop has allowed our business to centralise our global corporate data, allowing much faster access for all our staff – regardless of their location. We have also been able to simplify and reduce our infrastructure and management overhead. With the new Prism Hosted Desktop solution all staff now have simple and secure access to corporate data using any device they choose. Prism Hosted Desktop has increased the productivity of our staff and given us a single, consistent and familiar experience for all users from any device, in any location, 24/7.
Katherine Roe
Chief Executive Officer, Wentworth Resources PLC
The commercially sensitive and regulated nature of Lambert Energy Advisory’s business requires an IT provider able to maintain the highest levels of integrity and confidentiality, Lumina Technologies has consistently been unimpeachable in this regard over the nine years we have employed them.
Patrick Agar
Lambert Energy Advisory
It has been a great pleasure working with Lumina Technologies over the past two years. They have fully committed to being involved in the local community with volunteering and with professional advice and commitment, helping many local charities along the way. As a growing company it proves that being involved in the local community is helping them attract and retain a talented workforce and I look forward to working with them well into the future.
Cindy Withey
Connect Dacorum
Hawkstone Management Services Ltd is a small company for which IT Outsourcing is realistically the only viable option. Lumina Technologies have successfully performed this role for over fifteen years. They also provide innovative solutions to keep pace with technological progress. I would have no hesitation in recommending Lumina to similar sized businesses.
Stephen Pembury
Hawkstone Management Services Ltd
Charles Douglas Solicitors LLP have been using Lumina Technologies for a number of years now and continue to be impressed by the technical know-how and contemporary knowledge of their senior management, who provide a timely, efficient and friendly service. Whether it is a small issue with one computer, or a strategic IT decision, they maintain a current knowledge of available technologies. Lumina are always at the other end of the phone to help resolve issues and minimise business interference. The technical knowledge of Richard and his senior team means that there has not been a problem that they can’t solve to date. I am sure we will continue to use them in the years to come.
Charles Douglas
Managing Partner, Charles Douglas Solicitors LLP
The team at Lumina Technologies have made the Amoun Travel & Tours office IT transition seamless and problem free. The office set-up has been vastly improved and the IT Support services are flawless. No issue goes unresolved, which is extremely reassuring.
Adam Helmy
Amoun Travel & Tours Ltd
Lumina Technologies has been Salamander Energy plc’s IT provider since start-up in 2005 and has supported us in London during our expansion across operational offices in SE Asia. Their professional approach, strategic advice and close co-operation have been essential in making this a success.
John Bell
Group Technical Director, Salamander Energy plc
Richard and his team at Lumina have provided Perrett Laver Limited with high quality strategic and practical IT Services for over ten years. During this period, Perrett Laver has grown from 10+ colleagues based in London to nearly 100 colleagues located in six offices across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Richard and the Lumina team have not just been responsive to our ‘everyday’ IT needs, but have proactively sought to work with us on developing an infrastructure suitable for the type of operation we are today, and are planning to be months and years down the line. I would not hesitate to recommend Richard, especially for small to medium size business with growth in mind.
Clementine McKinley
COO, Perrett Laver Limited
Society Limited has been supported by Lumina Technologies since our earliest start-up phase. From large logistical challenges like an office move, through to smaller fiddly issues like fixing a faulty e-template, we know we can count on their support and advice. They’ve also been able to engage with us strategically on the challenge of scaling-up our infrastructure as the firm continues to grow and evolve. We always feel confident going to Lumina with a problem, since we know they genuinely care about sorting things out and helping us to get on with our core business.
Simon Lucas
Managing Director, Society Limited
The Vita Group HQ staff have worked with Richard McBarnet and Lumina Technologies for over 9 years, with Lumina providing all our PC, server, phone, and software support. The services have included C-level executives based in London, Manchester, the US, as well as supporting home office IT as well. The service provided and intellectual capabilities are outstanding and we would highly recommend Richard and his Lumina team.
Joe Menendez
CEO, The Vita Group
We worked with Lumina on a GDPR Audit. Richard was knowledgeable and professional throughout, and did the best he could to bring a dry topic to life through lots of real life examples and analogies. We were so impressed with the service Lumina provided and the value we got from partnering with them on this project – we couldn’t recommend them enough.
Holly Cottingham, Vintec Laboratories
