Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Cybercrime
It’s that time of year where viruses are rife; no one can escape the common cold in winter! Amor Group is trying to combat another kind of virus in the form of cybercrime. The recently published UK government National Security Strategy categorises cybercrime as a tier 1 threat alongside international terrorism and major accidents. With technological advancements yielding more sophisticated cybercrime activity organisations must protect themselves from the increasing risk of attacks on critical infrastructure such as oil platforms, power stations and nuclear plants.
This danger is real and was brought into focus by the Stuxnet Worm which was designed to reprogram control systems in critical infrastructure. Attacking the SCADA and PLC systems of one of the world’s leading automation vendors Stuxnet is the most advanced computer worm to be discovered to date and the threat it poses could have a catastrophic impact within some of Amor Group’s key energy customers. Over the past year Amor Group’s energy team has tackled this and other threats posed to critical infrastructure. Central to Amor Group's cyber security strategy has been the formation of a strategic partnership with CoreTrace which provides access to the BOUNCER software solution.
‘BOUNCER’ is a flexible Application Whitelisting solution which protects against current and future attacks. Unlike traditional anti-virus software, BOUNCER stops infection of the computer without needing updating or changing in any way. By capturing a complete list of software installed on each computer, known as the whitelist, BOUNCER protects the files from being deleted, renamed or manipulated through cyber attacks. With a low cost of ownership, compared with traditional anti-virus solutions, BOUNCER removes the risk attached to installing and updating these solutions on control systems.
Cyber security risks are not new with 50,000 new viruses released each day. However the emergence of a new form of threat targeting control systems within critical infrastructure is a recent development. With a process engineering background and high-end IT skillset, Amor Group is ideally placed to work with its customers to ensure that they understand, reduce and manage cyber security risks to their business.
Reducing Incidents and Saving Lives
Occupational Health and Safety incidents have fallen significantly in recent years, however, the number of Process Safety-related incidents has risen. Events such as those in Texas City (USA) and Buncefield (UK) illustrate the significant differences between Occupational and Process Safety incidents in terms of costs to the organisation and risk to human lives.
Effective process safety is the by-product of two distinct activities: excellence in asset management by adherence to asset standards, such as UK standard, PAS-55; and the development of performance indicators to give improved assurance control over major hazard risks. The pragmatic use of IT in the collection, calculation and presentation of such Key Performance Indictors (KPIs) is core to the success of a process safety-focused business.
Having each individual KPI maintained within one solution ensures a single source of truth and promotes a group-wide approach to the definition and improvement processes within an organisation. Additionally, the fully agreed definition of each KPI can be made available to all staff within the business, leading to a consistent view of the results set and an ability to compare one area of the business to another.
A KPI dashboard allows the user to quickly identify potential issues with information maintained at summary level. Filtering the information to specific needs provides supporting transactional data to be analysed. Through effective management of cultural change the Process Safety Dashboard is a mechanism for increasing the safety of the workforce and the productivity and longevity of the organisations assets.
Amor Group has harnessed its experience in supporting Energy companies optimise their production systems to develop ProcessSafety+. Our solution provides near real-time access to both leading and lagging KPIs and is highly configurable to organisations operational structure. ProcessSafety+ improves operational efficiency by creating a safety culture which acknowledges the human factors in the management of process safety.
ScottishPower in Safe Hands
Award Winning Approach to Process Safety
Amor Group is delighted to have been recognised by ScottishPower as the energy giants scooped IChemE’s prestigious Health and Safety Award at the Awards for Innovation and Excellence 2010 which took place in Manchester on 4th November 2010.
The award, won for Process Safety Implementation, recognises ScottishPower’s “exemplary performance in developing technology to identify, assess, manage and control risks” (IChemE). At the heart of Scottish Power’s approach is Amor Group’s ProcessSafety+ solution.
“The achievement of this award is testament to the strong relationship we have formed with Amor Group. By working in collaboration we have been able to develop a solution to achieve transformational change in our approach to process safety. Amor Group supported us in defining and documenting our core process safety KPI’s and, through leveraging their software experience, developed a best in class KPI dashboard.”
Martin Sedgwick, Head of Asset Management,ScottishPower.
Amor Group Acquires Specialist Managed Services Provider
Amor Group has acquired DW Technology Services Limited, a market leader in the provision of fully managed services to the energy sector. Over the last 20 years DW Technology has developed an enviable portfolio of oil and gas customers whom include ASCO, RBG and Gulf.The seven figure acquisition will enhance Amor Group’s international managed service presence and domain expertise in the oil services market. Existing DW Technology customers will continue to enjoy a high level of service from the same personnel and will further benefit from Amor Group’s financial strength, robust infrastructure, processes, domain expertise and additional service and solution portfolio.
John Innes, Amor Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said the acquisition would enhance the breadth and international capability of the group. 
“This is a major step forward for us as we continue to expand globally. We are delighted to have acquired DW Technology Services with its years of expertise and experience and we look forward to working with its staff and customers.”Brian Docherty, Co-Founder of DW Technology Services added:
“Amor is a high growth organisation with a range of diverse opportunities throughout its key sectors of energy, transport and public sectors. We are looking forward to the next stage of growth generated from the combined strength of our businesses.”
Amor Group is continuing to seek further strategic acquisitions that will build the company’s offering to its key markets across the energy, transport and public sectors.
Exclusive Access to Passenger Tracking Technology
Amor Group has invested a significant six figure sum to secure a deal for worldwide exclusive access to the BlipTrack passenger tracking system from Danish Bluetooth company BLIP Systems.
Building upon the previous partnership agreement, which saw Amor and BLIP partnering to deliver BlipTrack to Oslo Airport, the new partnership gives airports across the globe a single point of contact for the Blip system, with Amor now responsible for all customer-facing activity.
The BlipTrack system enables airports to monitor service level performance at key areas and is currently utilised by leading international airports including Copenhagen, Oslo, Brussels and Manchester. Common applications include Security Queue Measurement and Transfer wait time monitoring.
The agreement takes the foremost Bluetooth technology on the market and, in tandem with Amor Group’s PAXPath+ solution, improves tactical and strategic management of terminals through increased situational awareness at key pinch points.
Peter Knudsen, CEO at BLIP Systems, said “The new partnership between BLIP Systems and Amor Group combines best-of-breed passenger tracking technology with Amor Group’s proven expertise in airport operational solutions. The ultimate beneficiary in this partnership will undoubtedly be our aviation customers as our combined strengths means that they can access robust and reliable data on their passenger’s movements across their airports.”
The deal combines the expertise of two of the aviation industry’s leading providers of passenger tracking technology and consolidates their approach to the marketplace. A key aim for Amor Group throughout the transportation sector is to enable operators to better understand passenger movements across their airport, allowing targeted improvement initiatives such as gate dwell time reduction and, ultimately, increased retail spend.
Real Time Airports Need Real Time Control
Airports are required to make a number of decisions everyday whilst dealing with high volumes of traffic - from cars in the forecourt to planes waiting to take-off and land, but how can they manage this more effectively?
The key influencers on these decisions are primarily a result of terminal operations and not just those on the runway. Passenger process data can be scattered across a number of systems such as the AODB, the baggage data warehouse, thermal image counting and Bluetooth passenger tracking. This does not allow for quick and effective decision-making. The challenge is compounded by the fact that many airports do not believe they are in a process industry, so overlook the value of capturing data around their passenger process flows.
To ensure sustainable growth and informed decision-making, terminal managers must look at individual systems to see where the problem stems from and what aspect of the operation is affected, not allowing for quick, informed decisions that are essential in a busy airport environment.
Amor Group believes that providing a real time dashboard that gives a bird’s eye view of essential systems will encourage terminal efficiencies, allowing for effective growth and economy savings within airports, while assisting in the smooth processing of passengers. The need for a solution that delivers a single real time view of the most important systems and data is essential in allowing for flexible and adaptable decisions to be made immediately.
It is Amor Groups vision to work with its airport partners to support them transition towards the real time airport. Amor Group would welcome your comments on this initiative, please email info@amorgroup.com.
Amor Group Delivers First Class Managed Service
Everyone loves first class, the free champagne and the feeling of prestige that goes with it.
Amor Group realises this and is committed to providing a first class managed service solution to its customers that is effective and cost efficient in meeting their business needs.
This is evident in the Transport sector, with a relationship spanning two decades with the UK’s air navigation service provider, NATS, who required a new approach to help realise their vision of creating an enviable end-to-end service level agreement across the business for their internal customers.
The support service provides an experienced team of highly-skilled specialists and robust processes enabling delivery to several key enterprise business applications. As a result, NATS has an efficient, centralised business application support service which exceeds service level agreements delivering a number of improvements including year-on-year cost reductions of 10-15%.
“We are absolutely delighted with the IT services we receive from the Amor team; they truly work with us as partners and contribute significantly to the smooth operation of IT within NATS”
Steve O’Farrell, NATS IS Business Application Manager
Amor Group's managed services model is central to each sector with a number of complex service delivery models in place with leading organisations, the largest of which is with Sun Oracle, one of the world’s foremost technology and information service providers. The core aspect of the contract is to provide data centre management services across their clients’ IT estate throughout the UK.
Amor Group has provided a platform from which to develop service excellence and technological innovations, the implementation of SNMPc has seen its teams deliver a proactive monitoring solution resulting in £150,000 efficiency savings at 2 test sites.
New Appointment brings Local Authority Expertise to Public Sector
Amor Group has enhanced its local authority expertise with the appointment of Fiona Davidson as Principal Consultant.
With over two decades working in ICT across Local Government, Fiona brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Amor Group, including her ability to develop and deliver strategies that ensure ICT services are capable of reducing costs while ensuring efficiency.
Most recently, Fiona was the ICT Manager for Renfrewshire Council where she was responsible for designing, delivering and implementing all aspects of ICT for the Council and partner agencies.
Renfrewshire Council is highly regarded as a forward thinking Council and is leading the way with its Transforming Renfrewshire programme which aims to enhance service delivery whilst making it a leaner, more agile organisation able to meet cost constraints and respond to future change.
In her role as ICT Manager, Fiona developed the business case and was the programme lead for the implementation of the Information Management Work-stream which underpins the Transforming Renfrewshire programme. The business case forecasts recurring annual savings of £10m by 2014.
Fiona has a proven track record in helping public sector organisations transform their operations; delivering value for money and improving the quality of frontline services through shared services, business process outsourcing, and systems development.
”Councils have been focusing on a number of initiatives to enable them to cope with budget cuts, whilst delivering a high standard service to citizens. Many Councils have engaged consultants to help them streamline their business processes and service provision to ensure on-going revenue savings in key areas. Amor Group are well placed to assist councils in reviewing their ICT Strategies and streamlining the ICT service in order to deliver efficiency savings while enhancing customer satisfaction.”Fiona Davidson, Principal Consultant, Amor Group.
Improving Communication within Councils
Cheshire West & Chester Council, and Cheshire East Councils, have just appointed Amor Group to complete an Office Communication Server (OCS) as a Proof of Concept (PoC) project.
The Councils were formed from preceding authorities and identified a need to increase and improve communications and flexibility in working, allowing staff to communicate freely with one another regardless of location.
Amor Group was chosen due to its detailed proposal and the attractive, value for money fixed price. The implementation of OCS will allow Council users to interact via instant messaging, video and audio over the corporate network and beyond. The implementation will also support the initiative and drive for remote, flexible working which in turn will improve team working across the Councils.
Currently, Amor Group is undertaking the PoC implementation of OCS to test, trial and demonstrate all aspects and benefits of the Microsoft Office Communications platform in providing a seamless interface portal to the Councils. Initially, OCS will be trialled by 500 users, with a vision to increase this to 10,000 employees across both Councils over the coming year.
The delivery and implementation of Microsoft Office Communication Server will allow the Councils to realise long term cost savings, although there will be an initial investment to ensure PC’s are suitably equipped and the correct infrastructure and training is in place. The delivery of the contract to Cheshire West & Chester Council and Cheshire East Council will be in partnership with Digital IP, a leading communications and OCS specialist.
Amor Group has been working with Local Authorities including Aberdeen City, Glasgow, Middlesbrough, Orkney Islands and Renfrewshire over many years to deliver value for money and secure services that improve efficiencies, effectiveness and accessibility. This experience has enabled us to deliver smart solutions that harness the power of new technology, apply it effectively, and help improve the service delivery mechanism of our customers.
