Cyber security firm ECSC hopes to open office in Leeds as it targets recruitment drive

The Bradford-based firm wants an office in Leeds that could accommodate upto 100 people due to the city being a major rail hub.

Ian Mann. CEO of ECSC, told The Yorkshire Post: “We have plans to open a facility in Leeds. We’re going to offer staff the choice of being able to base themselves from Leeds or Bradford depending on what’s easier for them in terms of commuting.”

It will still keep its base in Bradford and allow staff to work flexibly with competition for talent increasing in the sector.

ECSC revealed that group revenue was up 15 per cent to £3.01m for the six months ended June 30, 2021, as it reported strong growth across both its managed detection and response (MDR) and assurance divisions.

The MDR division, which provides managed services and incident response, saw its revenue increase 17 per cent to £1.45m.

While the assurance division, which provides testing, standards and certification services, saw revenue rise 20 per cent to £1.49m.

Mr Mann said the focus for the next six months will be on finding talent to fill vacancies at the firm.

“We currently have about 90 people,” he said. “Out of the 90 you’re looking at about 40 that are based in the Bradford office.”

The business has people based on clients’ sites as well as an operation in Brisbane, Australia, so that it can provide round the clock support.

The switch to remote working is likely to remain with many businesses likely to return partially to offices, says Mr Mann.

He added: “There’s a real shortage of good people. A lot are struggling with recruitment. A lot of companies are saying we will offer flexible working so you can have so many days from home or a permanent home base.

“They are offering flexible working as a nice incentive to try and recruit people. This cloud working and remote working is really here to stay.

“The post-pandemic impact we’re seeing now with a shortage of people available is translating into a shortage of cyber security people.

“It makes sense then for organisations to outsource because it’s becoming more and more difficult for them to recruit their own cyber security expertise and retain that expertise.”

ECSC used to have an office in Leeds prior to the pandemic but it is targeting a much larger site that is also client facing.

The addition of a new office will also help introduce more resilience in ECSC’s IT systems in case there are any issues with the Bradford security operations centre.

Mr Mann said: “It’s more about flexibility of recruitment. Leeds is a very good rail hub and therefore it gives you a wider range of personnel who might want to come in on the train.

“Offering a choice of Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre just gives you lots of flexibility for people.

“If you allow hybrid working and you have got a choice of two offices to work from it just gives you lots of flexibility when it comes to giving people a better lifestyle and home-work mix.”

He added; “We did have a small office in Leeds before Covid but we closed that down. We’re going to open a bigger one that we can do more from and make it more client facing as well.

“We get quite a lot of clients visiting us from London so having something in the centre of Leeds as well makes it more convenient for clients visiting because you’re just a short walk from the train station.

“Given our rate of growth, we’ll probably have a facility for about 100 people in Leeds. That gives us some scope to grow.”

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