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BULLETIN : RESELLERS
12
Back to school
IT solutions provider Opal has added
Scotland’s oldest independent prep
school to its client list. Founded in 1873,
Cargilfield School caters for more than 300
children aged 3-13 years. Opal designed
a multi-site server virtual environment to
protect the school against loss of data and
downtime, including a disaster recovery
system, a 40Gb fibre optic cable, ultra-fast
Wi-Fi, a secure cloud-based back-up
solution and mobile device management
solutions that allow the school to monitor,
manage and maintain pupils’ iPads, on and
offsite.
TeleWare celebrates silver
anniversary
Communications technology business
TeleWare is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
The Thirsk company was established by
Geoff Haworth in his garage in 1992,
initially working with British Gas to deliver
hot-desking solutions and improve pager
connectivity. Since then, it has created
single numbering solutions; pioneered cloud
communications solutions; and launched a
mobile SIM that records all voice and SMS
communications. Today, three out of five
FTSE 100 banks use TeleWare technology
and TeleWare is the world’s leading SIM-
based mobile voice and SMS recording
provider.
Partner companies IT@Spectrum and
The One Point have extended an open
invitation to customers to visit their new
£2.75m headquarters at Bridgehead
business park in East Yorkshire.
The two companies have been in
partnership since 2014, providing a one
stop shop for print and office automation
solutions and services (IT@Spectrum) and
IT and telecoms services (The One Point).
They have a combined client base of more
than 1,200.
Moving their 75 staff from Hull to the
new premises has enabled IT@Spectrum
and The One Point to integrate their sales,
finance, consulting, engineering support
and helpdesk functions.
Ken Sturdy, Managing Director of IT@
Spectrum, said: “We remain two brands,
but when customers ‘come and see’, they
see our people and functions working
seamlessly, side by side. They see how our
two businesses work together; they see the
teams collaborating; they see the latest
technology in action; and they see how it
delivers business transformation.”
Science park
Rowe IT and Info-plane have become
the latest IT companies to move to new
premises at Plymouth Science Park (PSP).
PSP’s 25-acre wooded campus has a
total of 180,000sq ft. of office space and
is home to technology, digital, creative,
marine and science-based businesses,
from one person start-ups to multi-national
corporations.
In the black
Insight has qualified as a Dell EMC
Titanium Black Partner. A new status within
the Titanium Tier of the Dell EMC Partner
Program, Titanium Black is reserved for
partners that have shown an exemplary
commitment to Dell EMC as customers
transform IT and become digital businesses.
Open invitation
Emerging star
Office technology reseller and service
provider Midshire has been included in
Megabuyte’s Top 25 Emerging Stars of 2017
listing (in 17th place) for its achievements
in IT. In 2013, Midshire set up its IT
division to provide additional IT support
to the company’s Managed Print Service
customers. Since then it has flourished,
and the department now has a total of 13
in-house IT experts. The Emerging Stars
awards rank the performance of growing
companies within the UK’s IT services and
software sectors, with the aim of identifying
mid-market leaders of the future.
@philjones40
Insider...
Looking back, 2016 will be
remembered for many things
– BREXIT, the passing of many
famous celebrities, political
turmoil in the UK, Donald
Trump, to name just a few.
One thing that struck me about the
political year was that it became defined by
slogans – ‘Let’s make America great again’
and ‘We want our country back’. The need
to wrap everything up into a memorable,
repeatable slogan promoting a simple
ideology separate from the detail of policy
is a by-product of the world we live in, where
time is short, attention spans limited and
social platforms are the primary sources of
breaking news.
There is a lesson here for us all, around
the importance of keeping things simple
when communicating and trying to break
through the noise. This was a point made to
me recently by Daniel Priestley, author of
Key
Person of Influence
. Over lunch, he explained
how important it is to be able to summarise
succinctly what it is you do, so that when you
meet new people or prospects they ‘get it’
instantly and quickly establish your value. What
do you do? What makes you different? What pain
point do you solve?
I experienced this recently when an IT
salesperson attempted to convey what his
business did over the telephone. Two minutes
into the call I had to stop him. He hadn’t paused
for breath and was no nearer to telling me what
value he could add to our business; it was a
litany of industry acronyms and vernacular. He
really needed to polish up his position and get to
the point – to make the pitch sharp yet simple,
condensed yet captivating.
Decision-makers are busier than ever, forced
to prioritise the things that matter, which is often
confused with being time poor. When you come
into contact with them, you need to deliver a
compelling message that impresses, impacts
and initiates action. Those who do will inevitably
achieve greater success, conversion and results.
See you out there.
Phil Jones MBE
,
Managing Director,
Brother UK
Andrew Metcalfe of Opal IT (left) with
Ross Murdoch of Cargilfield
itatspectrum.
co.uk
theonepoint.
co.uk
