New Cisco based Hosted Telephony Service for Birmingham U.K.

Posted by Chris on January 21st, 2011

A new Cisco based Hosted Telephony service is available, via selected Cisco partners, in Birmingham, U.K.
Cisco Hosted Telephony ( otherwise known as Hosted Voip, Voice or  Hosted Unified Communications is particularly suitable for small and medium sized businesses and those with many small offices ( or small numbers of telephony users in each office ).

A representative from Cisco Systems comments:

“We are seeing an increasing demand for managed and hosted solutions in the voice space and this is especially the case for smaller businesses with less than 20 employees. FutureLine have a refreshingly new approach by addressing the key fundamentals of quality, security and ease of use and deployment. This is all underpinned by partnering with Cisco who fully understand how to manage different media provided by the various consumption models.”

Andy Brocklehurst
RSM Cisco Small Business UK

For more information please contact Clare at Futureline

http://www.futureline.net.uk/contact.html

for the chance to win an ipad go to

http://info.futureline.net.uk/win-an-ipad/

Endorsements, Hi Tech News, News No Comments »

New Cisco based Hosted Telephony service for the City of London

Posted by Chris on January 19th, 2011

A new Cisco based Hosted Telephony service is available, via selected Cisco partners, in London City. Cisco Hosted Telephony ( otherwise known as Hosted Voip, Voice or  Hosted Unified Communications is particularly suitable for small and medium sized businesses and those with many small offices ( or small numbers of telephony users in each office ).

A representative from Cisco Systems comments:

“We are seeing an increasing demand for managed and hosted solutions in the voice space and this is especially the case for smaller businesses with less than 20 employees. FutureLine have a refreshingly new approach by addressing the key fundamentals of quality, security and ease of use and deployment. This is all underpinned by partnering with Cisco who fully understand how to manage different media provided by the various consumption models.”

Andy Brocklehurst
RSM Cisco Small Business UK

For more information please contact Clare at Futureline

http://www.futureline.net.uk/contact.html

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The Top 10 Reasons or Motivations for buying your company

Posted by Chris on March 6th, 2010

Some time ago ( after I built this blog ) I came across a company called BCMS who had had a lot of experience in selling companies. I read the information on their website, downloaded various other information and ordered a copy of their excellent book  ” A refreshingly different approach to selling your business for maximum value “.

Later on I attended one of their excellent seminars. ( Very refreshing for Business Owners but a bit damning of normal accountants and lawyers !! )

In this presentation they highlighted the Top 10 reasons/motivations for company purchase ( in order of importance )

Source http://www.bcmscorporate.com/ ( NB. worth downloading their book ” Selling your business for maximum value ” )

Recently I have been working with a number of clients who are selling their businesses or who are still building their businesses with a view to exiting and I have emphasized these reasons and motivations to them and advised them to emphasize these points in a sale and keep these points in mind as they build their  businesses:
1. Client Base ( This is a dominant factor )
The quality of the customer base and repeatable and guaranteed business from those clients is a primary factor.
2. Potential for growth ( This is another dominant factor )
The potential for growth through the existing customer base and via new customers at home and abroad is also a primary factor.
3. Globalisation/regionalisation
We live in a globally connected world. Companies from India and China are looking to acquire in the U.K. and other countries. You must consider the applicability of your company to buyers from India, China and the U.S.A. at the very least. They will buy you because they have a global strategy or because they want to get into a particular region.
4. Ability to generate cash
Cash is King !! ( We didn’t need to say that eh ?? )
5. Development of products and services
If you have processes to ensure that you are ALWAYS at the forefront of your market this carries a high value.
6. Patents and IPR
If you have protected the patents and Intellectual Property Rights of your products and services this is valuable.
7. Operational and/or Financial synergies
You look at the operational and financial synergies and the costs that may be taken out and the additional profits and value that you bring to the purchaser.
8. Skilled workforce
The effort that you have put in to training and developing your workforce now comes to the fore.
9. Profit/ROI/multiples ( LAST )
Yes, amazingly, the very thing that the average accountant ( and probably some of the interested parties Financial Directors and advisers ) will value you on turns out not to be the thing that is held in most value – in fact it is the last !!
This is true now and will be true in n years time when your purchaser comes to do the same thing.
Companies will buy for strategic reasons NOT for multiples of profit or revenue.
When considering the value of your company consider it’s value to the potential purchaser 1 -3 years AFTER they have bought you.
Selling a Business No Comments »

Not all clouds ( or cloud computing platforms ) are the same!

Posted by Chris on January 13th, 2010

Identifying which cloud computing solution best fits your business.

Tags; Cloud computing, outsourced IT, service levels, 365 iTechnology, Garry Growns

In life we often learn the hard way that commonly used terms can mean so many different things to different people. Apparently simple terms such as ‘all inclusive’ (holidays), ‘great views’ (house moving) and “pillion friendly ” (motorcycles) have proven to be so miss-leading to me. The same is often true in the IT arena and the rapidly growing arena of Cloud Computing is no exception.

Cloud Computing is far from being an entirely new concept. In essence it’s how services are bundled from both technical/operational and commercial perspectives. But what’s really interesting is the way the term can mean so many different things depending upon the various vendor solutions. In my role as director of IT managed services for the IT services company 365 iTechnology I’ve spent a lot of time trying to simplify for prospective customers the various scenarios and terminology I use and I thought it might be useful to share this.

Cloud Computing

This is an often used term but a quick web search will provide a vast number of very different definitions. It’s important therefore to appreciate this is only a general term. I explain it succinctly as “the use of IT applications and/or IT infrastructure delivered and supported from a remote location by a third party”. It does not indicate what aspects are included or how and to what standards the various services are delivered.

Accordingly when speaking to prospective customers I use the following terminology:

SaaS (Software as a Service)

This is effectively the renting of applications on a per user basis. The attraction is that users do not need to worry about the procurement of application licensing, server hardware, storage, hosting, data backup or support. The down side is there are limited applications available (although this is growing) and for many businesses they would need to liaise with many suppliers whilst using in-house solutions to meet their entire needs. Not an ideal scenario. Some of the general applications are grouped together, perhaps the best known supplier of these is Google Apps. Accordingly I see SaaS a good fit for two different scenarios; 1) The start-up or SoHo businesses or 2) larger, established businesses needing to use specific applications such as CRM.

Private Cloud

This is effectively the collocation of business specific infrastructure and applications in to a remote data centre environment. Here it may be combined with shared services such as data storage and backup, network access, monitoring and management. It’s effectively enhanced hosting and consequently tends to suit the larger businesses with exiting infrastructure investment.

Cloud Computing Platform

In this scenario the service provider would provide all aspects of the computing infrastructure whilst using the customers existing applications. The services supplied vary enormously but should include servers with operating systems, data storage, monitoring and management e.g. OS patching and anti-virus updates, data backup and server DR (disaster recovery). These should all be delivered against agreed service levels.

This diagram shows these various elements and highlights how this approach enables the customer to focus on managing the applications knowing that the infrastructure and supporting services are all in place, monitored and underpinned by robust recovery and support procedures.

In addition the Cloud Computing Platform is usually provided on service fee basis thereby avoiding the need for capital expenditure whilst assisting with budgeting.

ROI is also underpinned by driving service improvements and through the lowering of support costs as in-house IT support is now free to manage applications and strategic activities rather than day-to-day IT admin.

This Cloud Computing Platform model should be able to meet the needs of most businesses. Clearly this is dependent up the selected service provider and care must be taken in choosing the correct partner.

About Garry Growns

Garry has 30 years experience in IT services and telecommunications, including the Internet, disaster recovery and data management services. His previous position was as a main board director for Guardian iT plc where he had specific responsibility for group sales. He was also chief operating officer with responsibility for the group’s day to day disaster recovery and data back up businesses. Previously Garry worked at COLT Internet as international sales director and BT as a general manager in the data networking and Internet sectors.

About 365 iTechnology

365 iTechnology are a proven team of IT service delivery experts which though its six operating divisions provide affordable IT services, business continuity, network security and management, storage solutions, data back-up, support and many more IT services to help you serve your customers better.

365 iTechnology delivers enterprise class IT services and solutions that enhance operating effectiveness, raise productivity and increase ROI. 365 iTechnology is not just about service delivery, but is committed to providing seamless, cost effective iT solutions

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email and Social Networks

Posted by Chris on December 17th, 2009

I don’t really consider myself to be an expert at email marketing ( but I know people who are very experienced ) but I have a couple of views in relation to email in association with social networks ( Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn etc ) and information sites ( Digg, StumbleUpon,Delicious etc ).

The main thing that I want to see is a weblink for the email, ideally with a relevant url and /or a share facility so that the email can be posted on the Social Networks and Information sites.

This is the weblink for The Glan Christmas email that we have just done. 

http://www.glanyrafoninn.co.uk/Mailshot/Glan-xmas09.html

The reason that you want a web link is that you can then post this link to multiple social networking platforms very quickly.
 
Why is this important ?? Because you get VERY rapid exposure of your newsletter/news/announcements to ( depending on the number of SN connections you have ) thousands of people AND you get links back to your website ( in the case of The Glan emailer because the page is on The Glan website ).
 
So, you bang out your newsletter, then you post to eg Facebook ( that’s a couple of thousand viewers and a link back ), then Twitter ( same ) , then Ecademy ( same ) then LinkedIn ( same ) etc etc etc
 
In the space of minutes you have massive ( depending on the network of the person that posts ) exposure of the one piece of work. This is one aspect of what I call ” rippling ” ( think, you just dropped a pebble in the pond and the ripples are going out or you dropped one pebble in your email database pond, another in your Facebook pond, another in your Twitter pond etc etc )
Now, as I was writing this I was collecting together some recent email-shots that I had received and this one was of particular interest

http://www.cloudhosts.co.uk/cloudhosts-email.htm

for a number of reasons: It was in an area of interest to me ( cloud computing ) and it had a relevant weblink ( the one above ) and it had a share facility included. While I was looking around at the email I accidentally clicked on the ” Chat with an expert online ” button and that led to this conversation with Chloe:

Hello. welcome to CloudHosts. How can I help you today?

You are now chatting with Chloe

Chloe: Good afternoon

Chloe: Welcome to Cloudhosts, may I take your name please?

you: Hi Chloe

you: Chris Windley

Chloe: Hi there Chris! How can I help you today?

you: Hi Chloe, Got to be honest and say that I was looking at the emailer I just got and pressed the chat button by mistake !! I could lie but you know ..

Chloe: I appreciate your honesty! Is there anything I can help you with at all Chris? What did you think of the information in the email?

you: It is an area of interest and I was quite impressed with the email system ( and now the chat system !! ) !! You at FBT Media or UK Hosts ??

Chloe: I work for UKFast, which is a sister company of cloudhosts. We work closely with fresh business thinking to try and accelerate the business of our clients and new clients. I’m glad the chat system impresses!!! 🙂

you: Yep – I am impressed all around in fact I am blogging about this as we speak !! So I don’t waste your time let me review the email itself in more detail and come back to you. You obviously have my email and you can Google me for more info 🙂 Have a great day, Regards, Chris.

Chloe: Thanks Chris – please do not hesitate to get back to me my email address is chloe.green@ukfast.co.uk and my number is 0800 458 4545

you: cool Chloe very cool 😉

Chloe: 🙂 I look forward to hearing from you Chris

you: Thank you.

Now, Chloe is a really nice girl and it’s clear that email marketing is not only connecting into the Social Media space but also leading you into direct discussion with people like Chloe.

Of course email-shots can also tell you when someone opened the email, if they re-open it, if they follow any links, if they forward it etc etc

So, although email-shots can be described as ” Push marketing ” they also bridge into ” Pull marketing “.  

 

Marketing No Comments »

Well done BMW Sytner High Wycombe !!

Posted by Chris on December 17th, 2009

Well done BMW Sytner High Wycombe !!

It’s got to be said that I have not been a fan of BMW service over the last few years but yesterday I was REALLY impressed with the service that I got from BMW Sytner High Wycombe. So impressed that I have posted this on Facebook and Twitter and sent them an email:

Chris Windley OMG !! Driving down the M40 today and the windscreen wipers decide to go out of sync and one rips the other off and throws it over the car !! eeeeek !! Worse – it’s the driver side ! worse – it’s sleeting !!! Anyway call BMW Sytner High Wycombe and Alison guides me in and gives me ( good ) coffee. Colin in service sort…s the car out AND gives me a very reasonable bill AND gets my car washed !!!!! Now this IS service. Missed my meeting but they had Internet access and I was on the phone anyway. Very impressed !!!

I am even more impressed to have recieved a text this morning asking how it went and for feedback !!!!

http://www.sytner.co.uk/bmw/high-wycombe/contact-us.aspx

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Unified Communications specialist 5i becomes sister to IT Managed Services company 7 Global

Posted by Chris on December 1st, 2009

The news that 365iT has acquired IT Fully Managed Services company 7 Global this month along with 5i earlier in the year is a Christmas present to all those involved with 365iT, in my opinion!

Since Peter ( Howells ) and I were at Voyager Networks where we had a national IP network to complement our data networking and Internet skills and expertise we have long harboured the desire for 5i to work closely with a forward thinking Managed Services and Hosted Communications provider.

The areas of ICT that 365iT covers include IT operations and management,IT Managed Services, Unified Communications, Business Continuity, Data Backup, IT Security, Virtualisation, Networks, Storage Solutions and Infrastructure Solutions.

These are some of the hottest areas in the ICT world at the moment and for the near future. They encompass other hot sectors like ” Cloud Computing ”  and ” Software as a Service “.

One of the great attractions to 5i of being involved with 365iT and Peter MacLean was his experience of putting together powerful, advanced communications companies. Don’t forget, he is doing this in one of the most difficult economic periods of our lifetime.

Where there’s a will there’s a way and now LMS Capital is also an investor in 365iT.

The story unfolds …….

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365 iT plc acquires IT managed services and computer hosting specialist 7 Global.

Posted by Chris on December 1st, 2009

365 iT plc has acquired the IT managed services and computer hosting specialist 7 Global Group Ltd (7global) from LSE Listed ,LMS Capital plc and LMS have taken a 12.5% equity interest in 365 iT.

 

 

7global, based in Liverpool, was originally formed in 1999 and has

developed a portfolio of fully managed IT services specifically aimed at

software vendors and end user organisations that wish to take advantage of Software as a

Service (Saas). The acquisition strategically enhances 365 iT’s capabilities in the fast evolving IT

managed services sector. It also strengthens 365 iT’s business relationships with key global IT

providers which include Microsoft, Cisco and Citrix.

“This acquisition is an excellent fit for 365 iT” said Peter MacLean,

chairman and chief executive. “It strengthens our strategic position

within the IT managed services sector, whilst also extending our product

portfolio, our client base and our geographical presence. The combined

focus of the enlarged 365 iT Group will enable us to further develop our

strategy of rapidly expanding our revenue and market share.”

MacLean concluded; “The Group’s capabilities are further enhanced by

the substantial technical talent and strong customer support attitude

that is prevalent at 7global.”

“We remain positive about 7global’s prospects as a leading Saas

infrastructure provider in the UK. 365 iT is well positioned to accelerate 7global’s growth,

thanks to its scale and complementary service offering. Therefore we are delighted to become

a shareholder in 365 iT in order to share in the profitable growth of the combined business”

said Pieter Hooft, MD UK Investments LMS Capital plc.

“This acquisition is an important development for all our customers and employees” said Chris

Bithell, Managing Director of 7global. “I am personally very excited about the opportunities

the future holds for us and am very confident that 7global will play a major role in the

development of 365 iT.”

 

Notes to the Editor

1. 365 iT plc was founded in 2005 and now employs over 85 people. Through its wholly owned

subsidiaries (365 iTechnology Ltd, 5i Ltd and 7 Global Group Ltd), the Group provides an

extensive range of IT services and solutions that address the nine strategic functional areas in

IT operations and management: IT Managed Services, Unified Communications, Business

Continuity, Data Backup, IT Security, Virtualisation, Networks, Storage Solutions and

Infrastructure Solutions.

2. 7global will continue to operate under its brand and name and will trade as a wholly owned

subsidiary of 365 iT plc. All 7global’s executives and employees will remain with the enlarged

365 iT group. 7global provides a range of support services and IT managed services including

hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM, software and server hosting and Software as a Service (Saas)

delivery from its data centres including its ISO 27001 registered data centre located in the

former bullion vaults of the Bank of England in Liverpool.

3. LMS Capital plc is an international investment company whose shares are listed on the

London Stock Exchange. The investment portfolio comprises investments in both the US and

UK, with a spread of early stage and second round technology investments, development

capital and mature company buy-outs.

 

Enquiries:

Stephen Bean

Marketing-Alliance,

Tel: +44 (0) 7747 100000

www.365iTechnology.com

www.7global.com

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