Running a business in Moray isn’t the same as running one in Glasgow or London. The opportunities are different, the talent pool is smaller, and some of the infrastructure gaps that city firms take for granted are very real once you get outside the main towns. We work with businesses across Forres, Elgin, Nairn, Inverness and the wider Highland region, and there’s a consistent set of challenges that come up in almost every conversation.
This isn’t a case of the region being behind. It’s just different. And once you understand the differences, the solutions are actually quite straightforward.
1. Connectivity Isn’t Always a Given
If your office is in the centre of Elgin or Inverness, you can usually get decent fibre. Step a few miles out – towards Dallas, Rothes, or up into the glens – and the picture changes. We see businesses paying for ‘superfast’ broadband that drops out at the worst possible moments, and remote workers struggling with patchy service from home.
The fix isn’t always to wait for full-fibre to reach you (we’ve been waiting a while). Options include:
- SD-WAN with a 4G/5G failover link, so when the primary line drops, your team keeps working
- Starlink as a backup for very rural sites
- Cloud-first applications (i.e. Microsoft 365, hosted line-of-business apps) so that when connectivity is patchy, your data is still accessible from anywhere there is signal
Connectivity issues also affect your cybersecurity posture – an unreliable VPN is often worse than no VPN, because staff find workarounds. ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access) is a much better fit for our region than traditional VPN.
2. The IT Talent Pool Is Small
Finding a good systems administrator in Moray who also understands cloud, security and networking – and who will stay for the long haul on a realistic salary – is genuinely hard. A lot of the businesses we speak to have either:
- One IT person wearing every hat, who’s probably overworked
- An ad-hoc arrangement with a local freelancer
- Nobody at all, and the office manager ends up troubleshooting the printer
None of these scale well. And if your one IT person goes on holiday or leaves, you’re exposed.
This is where a managed IT model genuinely makes more sense in Moray than it does in bigger cities. A full team of specialists covering helpdesk, security, cloud and networking – for less than the cost of one full-time senior hire – is hard to argue with. It also removes the single-person dependency that catches so many small businesses out.
3. Seasonal and Industry-Specific Flex
Moray’s economy isn’t evenly spread. Tourism and food and drink (particularly the distilleries) drive huge seasonal peaks. Aerospace around Kinloss and Lossiemouth has its own rhythms. The businesses that thrive here need IT that can flex with them – more seats in summer, different access patterns during visitor season, and the ability to scale back in quieter months without penalty.
Cloud-based licensing models (M365, Azure, SaaS applications generally) suit this far better than on-premise infrastructure, because you can adjust seat counts monthly rather than buying for your peak and paying for it all year.
How MTG Helps
We’re based locally – with offices in the Isle of Man and in Forres – and our ITaaS (IT-as-a-Service) model is designed for exactly these conditions. That means a predictable monthly fee, a full team on call, and infrastructure that’s built around how Moray businesses actually operate, not how a London consultancy thinks they should.
If you’re looking to review your IT setup, or you’re frustrated with the current arrangement, we’re happy to have a no-obligation conversation. Call us on 01624 640400 or e-mail sales@mtg.im.
