About Us

Based in Ely, near Cambridge, UK, we are at the heart of technology and innovation.  

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Led by Dave Abraham, IS Online has over 30 years in IT management and business management experience:

• Successful business leadership:

  • Leadership of 3 companies - web design agency (Words Online), 2-factor authentication cloud service (Signify), IT managed service provider (Cambridge Networks)

  • Including co-founder and shareholder of Signify "The Secure Authentication Service", from inception as CTO, through 6 years as CEO, to successful sale to Accumuli PLC

  • Led the turn around of 3 businesses, combination of technology, processes and people

• Over 30 years IT experience:

  • degree in IT Applied Computing from UEA,

  • web development and software development,

  • running a cloud service with 99.999% availability consistently for over 10 years - Signify, the Secure Authentication Service - from 2000 to 2013.

  • through to putting in place modern IT architectures

• Internet UK pioneer (although it always just seemed "normal"):

  • Working for ElectricMail, I rolled out Internet email gateways (UUCP in the early days, then SMTP gateways) to many leading business and government in early 1990s, including Channel 4, Department of Transport and many other companies.  

  • In the team implementing first packet filtering firewall in the UK - Firewell-1 at UK Foreign and Commonwealth office

  • Innovating websites and ecommerce since 1994 - putting video onto the Pulp Fiction website in 1994, setting up a web design agency within The Words Group PR and marketing agency from 1995 - 1997, and setting up ecommerce sites a range of customers from 1998 - 2000 including Eurotunnel, Iceland and RSM Robson Rhodes.

  • From 2000 co-founded, launched and later ran Signify, the first 2-factor authentication as a cloud service in the world, serving over 350 leading organisations with over 90,000 end users secured around the world, with 99.999% uptime (less than 10 minutes downtime per year, including through upgrades and patching)

• Qualified private helicopter pilot:

  • with radio license and experience flying in the UK and the French Alps

  • There are so many lessons learned from being taught to fly at a highly professional training school, with commercial air traffic control at a small international airport. The best practices of which apply to running a high quality successful small business, such as planning, processes, communication, navigating, situational awareness, responding to emergencies, efficiency and resilience all have comparables in business.

  • Relevance to business best summed up in the quote "No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use his checklist.", by Charlie Munger, the renowned business partner of Warren Buffet. Being a private helicopter pilot gives you the freedom to go almost anywhere, just like running an SME.  There are relatively few rules, compared to being a commercial pilot, or running a large business - but the core principles, laws, and core processes and checklists serve as a safeguard against oversights and errors. Pilots checklists are quick and simple, but not simplistic.  Because flying a helicopter is complex and difficult, so you don't want to spend much time following written process - following the checklists, with a well maintained aircraft, allows you to spend 80% - 90% of your mind flying and enjoying - confident that you can cope with whatever issues may occur.  Successfully running/"flying" an SME is also complex, but having the right basic processes, dashboard, processes and IT in place, and checklists followed, most of your time can be spent serving your staff and customers.

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We specialise taking that experience to help Small to medium sized businesses in the Cambridgeshire area to evolve their businesses to maximise the success of the customers, their staff and the business.

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This usually involves working with a team or organisation to understand their current people, processes, and systems and what they would like to achieve.  

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With our understanding of business and technology, we then identify how their processes and systems can be improved to achieve the organisation's goals.  We come up with a strategy and a plan, including:

• identify how existing processes will ideally evolve to improve the business

• identify what existing technology exists within the business that is not being used as effectively as possible

• identify any areas where new technology would be beneficial, either to enhance the existing technology, or to replace it

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Usually we find that there are lots of improvements that can be made by making use of existing technology, to improve the business processes, whilst not creating shocks to the staff.  Major gains can often be achieved by visualising data from existing systems, and that often leads to small, but significant tweaks to how the existing systems are used that have powerful benefits. This is usually much quicker, and more cost than implementing a new system. 

Once incremental changes have been made, and we and the organisation has got a much deeper grasp of the processes, and has gained some operational benefits, this usually creates scope to make further changes and enhancements.  It is only at this point do we usually need to add new software or systems - and it is usually adding systems to enhance and extend systems that are already in use.  Only in exceptional circumstances have we needed to rip out and replace software - although we always consider that as an option, where the potential benefit is justified.

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