Network Innovation Competition Winners: H21 Project, Leeds
In November, Ofgem announced the winners of its annual Network Innovation Competitions (NICs). Seven projects share funding of £57.5 million, and we are delighted to say that – with NGN – QEM Solutions are working on one of the winning projects, the Leeds-based H21 project – reducing the UK carbon footprint forever. Working with Northern Gas Networks on this since 2016, we’ve been working hard to establish whether the existing gas grid of a UK city could be converted to hydrogen. NGN chose Leeds as a test area because of its size, location, grid complexity, and high demand. Leeds serves gas to 1.25% of the UK’s population alone. Simply put: if hydrogen works there, it could work anywhere. And thereafter, a zero-carbon grid could become possible. It’s an honour to work with NGN on this challenge, and doing out bit to reduce the UK carbon footprint forever.
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Socially responsible encryption for a safer future
Encryption has been much in the news, as it becomes clear that many criminal activities are organised behind its closed curtains. Creating ‘backdoors’ to let authorities see what’s going on hasn’t helped, since skilled cybercriminals and terrorists just exploit them. And we can’t ban encryption, because even the simplest encryption does help reduce cyber-crime. So, just what do we do?
Our patented model for socially responsible encryption is called Light Blue, and it’s pretty simple. Light Blue is a true end-to-end encryption system, but – distinctively – has two recipients for each message. There’s the primary recipient, who gets the message immediately, and there’s a government of the sender’s choice, who must wait for it. Crucially, the government in question knows from the outset that they have access, should they require it. Suddenly, it’s easier to spot the people who may have something to hide, because they’ll choose to go elsewhere. Further, the more users Light Blue has, the smaller the landscape in which the bad guys can operate. And they become increasingly visible big fish in an ever-decreasing pond. As well as being a model, which can be used by anyone, Light Blue is also a system, which we're in the process of developing, initially for Android devices. The Fedora app will go live for beta users in the Google Play store on 1/1/2018.
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GDPR Training and Consultancy is added to the QEM Solutions portfolio
The GDPR – or General Data Protection Regulation – comes into force on 25 May 2018. It’s the biggest change to record control in the UK since the introduction of the current Data Protection Act in 1998. The GDPR will ensure that – should a company lose data or have a security breach in this age of cyber-attack – that company can accurately know its extent and be confident that it had permission to hold that data in the first place. While the Data Protection Act came into force at the beginning of the growth of the internet, it’s now simply not far-reaching enough to handle the scope of information media that businesses now handle. In response, the GDPR moves in, to address the challenges of the digital age.
But for some SMEs, the scope of the GDPR may be daunting. That’s why we’re delighted to have launched a GDPR Training and Consultancy offering, to help our business peers through the process of compliance and thus avoid the stringent fines. QEM’s GDPR services can be tailored to the specific needs of an organisation, while addressing all of the main requirements of the GDPR.
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IsCompliant helps all its clients achieve ISO transition
Using our isCompliant software, all of our isCompliant clients have now transitioned to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 (where applicable), with no non-conformities. Using isCompliant’s bite-sized modules to organise their businesses, each of these clients have achieved compliance, certification, transition to the updated standards, and – as a happy side effect – improved business quality, too. isCompliant meets the requirements of both the 2008 and 2015 versions. If you are currently certified to ISO 9001:2008 and you need to bring your system in line with ISO 9001:2015, isCompliant can take you smoothly through that transition.
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