Storage Made Easy (Vehera Ltd)

About Storage Made Easy (Vehera Ltd)

Storage Made Easy® (SME) is the trading name of Vehera Ltd, a UK Limited Company that provides a multi-cloud data management and protection product called File Fabric that unifies on-premise and on-cloud company storage assets.

The File Fabric solution offers a "blanket" that companies can privately apply to wrap around all their data: on-premise, within a public cloud, or on a third-party software vendor's cloud service (such as SharePoint or SalesForce). Customers can use File Fabric for security, encryption, and control, with a focus on compliance regimes such as GDPR, HIPPA, FERPA, and GBLA.

Customers include one of the world's largest social media companies and one of the largest global retailers, in addition to global Internet service providers, universities and international government and governmental bodies.

The innovation

CEO Jim Liddle was introduced to Myriad after being approached by CEO Barrie Dowsett on LinkedIn. Barrie informed Jim about R&D tax relief and mentioned that SME might be eligible to claim. Jim responded by asking Barrie to visit SME in Sutton, Surrey. It was early days for Myriad, around March 2013, and SME has been a client since that initial meeting.

Financial Controller Caroline Reid joined SME in 2014 and quickly became familiar with Myriad and our R&D tax credit knowledge and expertise. This allowed her to concentrate on other critical areas of the business. "Myriad, right from the beginning, were very professional. The staff have a high level of expertise regarding R&D tax credits. They know more about this area than I do as a company accountant, which is useful. I found the staff at Myriad very helpful and easy to talk to."

Caroline wasn't aware of R&D tax credits when she started with SME and firmly believes, based on her experience and initial background knowledge of R&D tax credits, it can be difficult for company accountants to have the level and depth of expertise to understand and fully maximise an R&D tax credit claim on top of the existing everyday workload.

How we helped

"When we started our most recent claim with Myriad, we were given a template to complete, which was helpful. It guided us through everything we needed to include, so we only had to complete some analysis work and populate the form. They were accommodating in pointing out things we might have forgotten and answered questions about the types of claimable expenses. They have a very realistic approach and have more R&D tax relief background knowledge than I have regarding what types of expenses are claimable, which is, for me, very helpful because I haven't got the time to investigate whether we're claiming the right expenses and the right percentage value."

Caroline continued, "If anyone is considering R&D tax credits or is unsure whether they qualify, they should contact Myriad to find out if they qualify because the tax incentives can be substantial. You can't pass up on an HMRC tax rebate, in my view."

The reward

"Myriad is professional, helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. Even though I'm an accountant, I don't want to speak to people who just talk to me in professional terms. I want someone to talk to me realistically because I'm not a tax expert. I would recommend Myriad to anyone who thinks they might have an R&D claim. It's great value for money, and they have the tax expertise I don't have. So it's a no-brainer for me."