About
Independent IT and cyber security consulting, since 1991.
Three and a half decades of looking after small-business IT — and now, increasingly, small-business cyber security. The same standards, the same independent, honest advice.
Our story
Built on real infrastructure. Adapted ever since.
Bishop Consultancy was founded in 1991 with a simple intention: independent IT support and advice for small businesses. Three and a half decades later, that's still what we do — though how we do it has moved with the times.
The grounding runs deep. Our founder built real computer networks from the ground up, back in the earliest days of business computing — wiring offices together before Windows existed and before any office could take the internet for granted. That hands-on understanding of how systems actually fit together is the foundation everything else rests on.
We've adapted continually since — in the technology we work with, and in where we put our focus. That willingness to change ahead of our clients' needs is, if anything, the most consistent thing about us.
Why cyber, why now
The work has changed. We've changed with it.
Small-business IT looks very different now than it did even ten years ago. The on-premise server room has migrated to the cloud. First-line support questions are increasingly answered by AI. The day-to-day fire-fighting that used to fill an IT consultant's week has thinned out — and that's a good thing for our clients, even if it changes what they need from us.
What hasn't thinned out, and is in fact getting harder, is cyber security. The threats are sharper. The compliance asks are louder. And small businesses are still expected to navigate it all without a dedicated security team.
So we've shifted our focus toward where independent expertise still genuinely earns its keep. It's not a fashion — it's a deliberate move, reading where our clients' real risks now lie and meeting them there. Looking after our clients' best interests has always meant adapting before they have to ask.
How we work
Independent, by design. Local, by choice.
We work with a small number of clients we know well. No ticketing system, no franchise targets, no software vendor whispering in our ear about which products to recommend. When we suggest a piece of kit or a licence, it's because it's the right thing — not because it's on this quarter's incentive plan.
We're based in Ipswich and work with businesses across Essex, Suffolk and the surrounding counties. We turn up in person when it matters — some problems are quicker to solve at someone's desk than over a remote session, and the relationship is stronger for it.
And someone is always reachable. We keep our client list deliberately small, but with availability you can rely on — whether you need urgent help, a planned visit, or a second opinion before signing off on something that matters.
About our founder
Kevin Bishop — independent since 1991.
Kevin founded Bishop Consultancy in 1991 and has been at the heart of it ever since — from running cable and standing up early PC networks, through to the steady shift of focus toward cyber security. He's an IASME-qualified Cyber Essentials Advisor with the kind of curiosity that doesn't fade: a hobby electronics engineer who still solders things together and writes code for microcontrollers for the pleasure of it.
It matters because someone still genuinely curious about how things work after thirty-five years — who'd rather understand a system than memorise a vendor's troubleshooting flowchart — is, on average, the kind of person you want looking at your network.
Who we work with
Small businesses who'd rather get it right.
Our clients tend to be owner-managed businesses with somewhere between five and a hundred staff, who've reached the point where IT and cyber security are too important to leave to chance, but not big enough to justify a full-time IT director.
We're not the cheapest, and we're not trying to be. We won't take on every project that comes through the door. What we do offer is honest senior judgement from a consultancy that's been around small-business IT for a generation — and the discretion of a small, close operation that knows your setup and stays on top of it.
If that sounds like a fit, let's have a conversation.
Sound like the kind of help you need? Get in touch.
A free 30-minute call. No sales pitch — just a conversation about whether we're a good fit.