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“Our company actually predates email!” technology director, Paul Alsop laughs, as he discusses the timeline of Lucid Technology Solutions, now based in Norton.

The business, formed in 1989 and initially named Yarm Computers, began as a retail establishment selling computers to the public, before a management buyout took place in 1998 that changed their path significantly.

The buyout led the business to focus on B2B services, and with the continuous introduction of new technology in the 2000s, the business grew its portfolio of services to include managed IT, cyber security, telecoms, CCTV and access control.

Touching on the journey, Paul states: “Thanks to the continuous advances in technology, this has enabled us to grow the business massively over the last decade, including a rebrand four years ago to reflect the B2B business we are today.

“90 per cent of our ticket support can be completed remotely and our company was one of the first in the region to adapt to this model.

“We’ve always focused on how we can work smarter by investing in modern technology, and this is what has enabled us to offer the best services to our customers. We’ll never sell something we wouldn’t use and we test everything in-house first.”

Lucid Technology Solutions separate the tech jargon and pride themselves on ensuring the client understands the benefits of the service and our offering in simple terms.

Cheryl Spears, sales director adds: “We’re all about building relationships with our clients, we ask the why questions and look at their challenges from all angles, to ensure we can provide the best solution.”

The company is also big on apprenticeships, so big that every current employee was once an apprentice.

Paul states: “We’re massive supporters of apprenticeships. We’ve had around 25 to 30 apprentices over the years. We feel it’s so important to help young people in our region, develop a career in the IT industry.”

In today’s digital world cyber security has never been more important for businesses, and as a key aspect of their services, Lucid Technology Solutions know this all too well.

“Cybercrime has now surpassed physical crime rates for businesses, and still SMEs think it will never happen to them,” states Cheryl.

Paul adds: “85-95 per cent of cybercrime has a person involved due to human error, whether it be clicking through unsafe links, or unintendedly providing bank details to fraudsters.”

“Every business is at risk from cybercrime, and it’s essential that companies educate themselves on the topic.”

Discovering the demand for education on cyber security within businesses, Lucid Technology Solutions developed a 12-month training programme to tackle the issue.

“Businesses can easily protect themselves from cybercrime through training. Our course, that can be provided individually or as a package with our other cyber security services, ensures that employees within a business are fully cyber risk aware.”

“We continuously monitor employees’ progress and re-visit modules with them until they pass the tests,” Paul states.

Having been a member of NEPIC for three years now, Lucid Technology Solutions are keen to see how they can help businesses benefit from their services.

Cheryl highlights “NEPIC is a great figurehead throughout the region and it has given us access new businesses via their high-quality events. Currently we work with around five NEPIC members.

“We’d love to find out how we can help more NEPIC members throughout the North East. No business in the process sector is too large or too small for us and we encourage them to reach out and grab us for a coffee.”

You can find Lucid Technology Solutions in our member directory here.

Read more about our Digitalisation and Cyber Security Conference 2022 here, where we discussed how the North East is embracing digitalisation and protecting itself from cyber attacks.