IT Support in Bridgend

Managed IT support for Bridgend businesses, from the office in town to the workshop on the industrial estate.

Bridgend

IT support across Bridgend County Borough

Alphabyte IT looks after the IT for businesses in Bridgend and right across the county borough, which is one of the areas we already cover. Our east Cardiff office is around 22 miles away, a drive of about 35 minutes outside the rush hour. You pay one fixed fee per user each month, from £40 + VAT, and support is unlimited by phone, remotely and onsite.

Bridgend’s businesses are a mix of offices in town and workshops, warehouses and production space on the industrial estates. We look after both sides: the PCs, laptops and Microsoft 365 the office runs on, and the network, Wi-Fi and shop-floor computers that keep work moving.

Most problems are fixed remotely. If a fault needs someone on site, we send an engineer, and that visit is covered by the monthly fee.

Book a Call See pricing

Office and shop floor

One team for the desks upstairs and the machines on the production floor.

Grant-ready quotes

Fixed, itemised quotes you can use in a council grant application.

Straight-away response

When something stops your business, we typically pick it up straight away, under our SLA.

Buy or lease

Buy outright, or spread the cost of new hardware with Evergreen IT leasing.

Council funding

Grant-funded IT, bought the right way

At the time of writing, Bridgend County Borough Council’s Business Development Grant, funded through the Local Growth Fund, pays 50% of eligible capital costs, with grants from £5,000 to £25,000. Computer equipment is listed among the examples of eligible spending, alongside machinery and website development.

It’s aimed at established small and medium-sized businesses with a Bridgend County Borough address that have traded for more than three years, in sectors including advanced materials and manufacturing, construction, the creative industries, fintech, and health, care, hospitality and retail. Every grant has to create at least one job, and grants of £15,000 or more need at least two.

The rules affect how you should buy your IT, so read the council’s business support grants page and guidance before you order anything. We’re not grant advisers, and the council decides what qualifies.

What it means for your IT

Five things to get right

Wait for approval. Costs incurred before the council formally approves the grant can’t be funded, so don’t order the laptops early.
Buy grant-funded kit outright. Items bought on finance leases, hire purchase or credit cards aren’t considered, and payment has to come from the business bank account on the application. Evergreen IT leasing suits the kit you’re not claiming for.
Get two comparable quotes. The council asks for two quotes for each item and uses the cheaper one to set the grant. We’ll give you a fixed, itemised quote with clear specifications.
Licences and support sit outside it. Revenue costs, licence fees and subscriptions are excluded, so Microsoft 365 and our monthly fee aren’t covered.
Plan the timing. Projects should be able to finish within four months of the grant offer letter, and no more than five items are considered per application.

Around the county borough

From Waterton to the Llynfi Valley

Supporting businesses across Bridgend is quite different from looking after a city-centre office block. Here’s how the local mix shapes the IT work we do.

Industrial estates and workshops

The council’s replacement Local Development Plan identifies employment land at Brackla, Waterton and Bridgend Industrial Estates, Pencoed Technology Park, Brynmenyn, Village Farm in Pyle and Ewenny Road in Maesteg, among others. Sites like these bring their own IT jobs: Wi-Fi that has to cover a warehouse as well as an office, PCs on the production floor that can’t be restarted mid-shift, and machines running older software that can’t simply be upgraded.

We schedule updates around your shifts and keep shop-floor devices on their own part of the network, so one infected laptop can’t reach everything. For Cyber Essentials, software that no longer gets security updates has to be removed, or the machine moved onto a separate part of the network with no internet access, so we identify those machines early rather than at assessment time. How we look after networks and Wi-Fi.

Big sites changing hands

The former Ford manufacturing plant employed 1,700 people before it closed in September 2020. It covers 45 hectares on one of the county borough’s main industrial estates, and the council’s plan aims to enable its redevelopment. Whenever businesses move into new or refurbished space, the IT is easiest to get right before the move: the connection ordered early, cabling and Wi-Fi planned with the fit-out, and phone numbers moved without a gap. Office moves and IT projects.

Three valleys and a coastline

The county borough runs from Porthcawl on the coast up into the Llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys, and the council’s regeneration grants cover the town centres of Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg as well as the valley centres. Broadband speeds and mobile signal can change a lot over a few miles, so we check what’s really available at your address before recommending anything that depends on it, such as internet-based phones or a mobile backup line. Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker is a useful first look.

Tourism and hospitality

At the time of writing, tourism and hospitality businesses in the county borough can also apply to the council’s Tourism Business Capital Grant, from £2,500 to £10,000 at 50% of eligible capital costs. If better guest Wi-Fi or front-of-house equipment is part of your plans, ask the council whether it counts. Either way, keep guest Wi-Fi completely separate from the network your bookings and card payments run on.

Two Alphabyte IT engineers working together at a laptop

Who we work with

Engineers, makers and professional firms

We look after engineering firms and consultancies, professional firms such as accountants and solicitors, and growing businesses that need their IT to keep up. Whatever you do, the basics are the same: daily backups checked by our team, anti-virus and anti-spam on every device, multi-factor authentication enforced, and systems kept to the Cyber Essentials standard. If a customer asks for the certificate, our Cyber Essentials preparation starts at £295 + VAT, with the IASME assessment fee charged separately, and no business we’ve prepared has failed yet.

Changing provider without the disruption

If you already have an IT provider and it isn’t working, moving usually takes one email from you. Our assessment of your systems is free, and we deal with your current supplier directly to agree the handover, so your team carries on working. See how switching works.

Our agreement includes a no-obligation review period, so you can see how we work before you commit. And because we’re a small team, the person who picks up the phone already knows your set-up and your staff by name.

Questions

IT support in Bridgend: FAQs

Can you provide a quote for our council grant application?

Yes. We’ll give you a fixed, itemised quote for the computer equipment in your project. Bridgend Council’s Business Development Grant asks for two comparable quotes for each item, and the council decides what’s eligible, so check with its business funding team before you apply.

Can you look after the computers on our production floor?

Yes. We support office PCs, shop-floor machines, the network and the Wi-Fi together, and we plan updates and restarts around your shifts so production isn’t interrupted.

Do you cover Maesteg, Pencoed and Porthcawl?

Yes. We cover the whole county borough, including Bridgend town, Brackla, Pencoed, Pyle, Porthcawl, Maesteg and the Garw and Ogmore valleys, along with Cardiff, Swansea and the rest of South Wales.

Should we buy our laptops outright or lease them?

It depends on your cash flow and whether a grant is involved. Evergreen IT, our hardware leasing, spreads the cost over time. If you’re claiming a council grant for equipment, items bought on finance leases are excluded, so buy those outright. We’ll set out both options in your quote.

It’s very simple

How To Get Started With Us

We’ve made transferring to us effortless with our Easy Transfer Service. Book your free consultation now to get started!

Book a Call