NOVEMBER 2017 / ISSUE 5
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Welcome. Hi everyone and welcome to the first anniversary edition of the Quarterly Insider. I’d like to say a special thank you to the whole business for your relentless hard work, passion and dedication. I’m sure you’ll have all seen our incredible annual financial performance for FY17 which sets us in a strong position to focus on the next phase of growth as we continue to recruit new and invest in all our talent people whilst we continue to build on our strengths across the business. Thank you also for getting so involved in our CSR activities this quarter, from those that braved the gruelling Tough Mudder course, to those of you that sat there supporting me and Mr Smoothey as we smashed lumps out of each other to raise boatloads of cash for an incredible cause. Christmas is just around the corner and we’re planning another top-notch Christmas do. If you haven’t yet accepted the invitation, what are you waiting for? It promises to be a top night. Once again we’ll also be launching our MEANS Christmas mission, so look out for the Amazon wish list doing the rounds in the next couple of weeks and be sure to get involved and buy a gift or two for another amazing cause. As ever, thank you for all your hard work and generosity this quarter, let’s smash Q3 and set ourselves up for Q4!
#ComeOnANS
Helen Thomas Writer Paul Shannon, CEO
Natalie Yates Designer
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Contents.
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Quarterly Sales Update
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FEATURE CityVerve: Why the time is right for a smarter Manchester
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The Latest from Finance & Contracts
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CSR: Building a Better Future
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New Raving Fans
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Dates for Your Diary
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The Low Down from Marketing
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Inside the Academy
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Update from the SOC
We’re Hiring
Your Chance to Win
Quarterly Sales Update. Welcome to the ANS Sales update! We’ve caught up with all the Sales Directors to bring you the latest updates on recent wins, pipeline business and new starters.
The Business Development Teams. The Northern team has had a busy period with new talent joining the team. Newbie Jonny Barrett has already got off to a flyer in his first few weeks, he’s on the score board already with meetings and event registrations. Leah Matthews has been aligned to the Public Sector North team and is performing well breaking into some new target sectors and accounts. The Southern BDMs have, as ever, been smashing the meetings. Alex has unlocked key council accounts and is starting a new campaign to target all London Boroughs, Naz has championed an NHS breakfast briefing where we will welcome over 12 NHS Trusts to the Duck and Waffle Restaurant in London. The team has also welcomed Charlie Wood on as an ISAM who has booked a massive 43 meetings since joining at the start of September. Will and Harry, have also achieved big success this month booking meetings with Thales, PRS for Music, Sliide, Miller Insurance and Vubiquity, who we are hoping to secure some great opportunities from.
// Olivia Jaskolka, Director of Marketing
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Public Sector North.
Public Sector South.
Public Sector North has had a good first half year building a great pipeline for Q3 & 4 which should be our busiest yet! The team collectively sold over £315k of RA margin which is developing some great opportunities in Public Cloud and Hybrid Converged Infrastructure.
Yasin Virani has won a major new client in Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust. This Central London based NHS Trust has contracted ANS to re-design, install and fully manage for 5 years their new Cisco LAN which is designed to enable them to consume new cloud services and digitally transform the Trust.
Beth, Craig and Darius are leading the charge at the half year being on or over their target YTD and having notable wins at the likes of Litchfield Council, Rotherham MBC and Central Manchester Foundation Trust respectively – Well done guys, great job with these customers.
Greg Evans continues to progress on his journey as an ISAM, now taking the lead on a series of first sales meetings and targeting charities to really learn his craft. Harry Herbert has ‘boxed’ his first tender, and has set the bar in doing so both in sheer commitment and quality. Matt Burridge has passed his probation and continues to build a very healthy pipeline, showing that knowing who you want to sell to and what you want to sell them is half the battle and it’s only a matter of time until he bags his first major new client for ANS.
Russ is also now established in the team having closed £195k of margin in his first six months with a number of notable wins including a brand new customer in Staffordshire University for whom we are delivering a £60k Public Cloud Managed Service – Fantastic job Russ! As we go into Q3 Alex and Jason have both developed some good Enterprise Networking opportunities within their NHS customer base and will have a good run into Christmas so keep up the momentum guys!
// Ed Knowles, Director of Public Sector North
The outlook for Q3 is mega, it’s the most significant quarter the team has entered yet from a forecast perspective. Let’s get it done guys!
// David Vukomanovic, Sales Director Public Sector South
Enterprise North.
Enterprise South.
This quarter, Commercial North became Enterprise North with all the old Commercial North sales people now reporting to me.
Q2 was a real test of the team’s character, not the result any of us wanted (296k with 21% MS) but looking to catch up in Q3 which is full of opportunity.
Nick Litherland has done a top job this quarter, finally getting BUPA over the line with £57K Margin. He’s also won Keoghs and Bond Dickinson for £82K and £52K meaning he’s successfully managed to hit his target this quarter – well done mate. Chris Chappell has also had a great win with Paragon for £77K and Simon Chilcot won LEBC with a £32K margin.
Well done Lilly who came in with a reliable £166K, as bookable performance was low ill concentrate on opportunity identified. August and September were a huge step up; it’s been all hands on deck and for the first time in a long time the numbers are spread evenly across the team.
I’m actively on the lookout for more ISAM’s to join the team. So if you know someone with excellent negotiation, communication and presentation skills send them my way. The ideal candidate will be educated to degree level and have 12 months Internal Sales experience (not necessarily in IT). For more info about the role, click here.
Danny has around £200k of real opportunity that is all imminent, two of which are WAN and one Public Cloud migration so exactly what we are after. Rich has £60k to land next week and good ol’ Lilly who hasn’t slept for a week working all hours on a large WAN bid. Our Southern BDMs are going well, it’s really amazing to hear how far they’re going now with their knowledge and call questioning, with the new addition of Charlie who booked 28 meetings in his first month things can only be looking up for us.
// Robin Lee, Sales Director Enterprise North
// Jo Feldman, Regional Head
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The Latest from Finance & Contracts.
If you attended one of our Finance training sessions last quarter, you’ll hopefully have a much clearer understanding of what EBITDA as well as knowing how to put expenses correctly on SOS!! (So you’ve got no more excuses for adding them incorrectly now). We received some great feedback from the sessions and will now be including some of the training during new starter inductions. If you have any questions about pensions, shares, EBITDA or expenses, pop us an email and we’ll be happy to help :) As well as delivering finance training sessions, we’ve just finished the stats for year end 2017 and thankfully Rishella and Ashleigh have come out of it with most of their sanity left. You’ll also have seen that we have finally released our annual financial performance for FY17 with revenues in excess of
£62.6m for the period ending March 31st 2017. If you missed the press release (you shouldn’t have because the news has been everywhere!) then click here. As ever, our team have been smashing yet more exams. Adam has passed his Finance Statements & Business Skills course and Catherine has passed her Professional Ethics exam meaning she has now completed her AAT Level 3. Congratulations both of you! // Lisa Emsley, Finance Director
New Raving Fans. It is our goal to achieve industry leading PR for ANS and our customers, recognising the innovative solutions we collaboratively provide for organisations and their community of users. We aim to sign up 200 Raving Fans to our customer satisfaction programme, which will only be achieved by maintaining the current exceptional level of service to our customers. This quarter we have welcomed the following Raving Fans...
Turn customers into Raving Fans.
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At ANS, there is no such thing as the bare minimum. We endeavour to always go above and beyond for our customers, and every project is a chance for us to deliver first-class solutions and welcome customers into our Raving Fan Club. Our Raving Fans know there’s more to a great customer relationship than technical knowledge or timely delivery – those may be the building blocks of our success, but for them it’s about partnering with a company that they can trust, a company that they enjoy working with and a company that is just as invested in their success as they are.
The Low Down from Marketing.
We went event mad last quarter as we hosted, sponsored and exhibited at over 10 events! Our CIO roundtables continued to be our most successful activity as we hosted dinners in Manchester and London, entertaining 40 CIO and Heads of IT across 4 events. Not only did we fill up on steak, the events have filled up the sales pipeline and it currently sits at £1.7m from these events. We also made plenty of noise at the AWS Summit in June. We had loads of great conversations with lots of household names who are all already using cloud and are keen for our help to optimise their efforts. Later on in the day, Andy also took to the stage to reveal the 5 key steps to successful migration. The success of our Hubspot campaigns has increased as we have focused on creating smaller, targeted, sector specific campaigns to draw attendees to both our events and our web content. We’ve created over 40 pieces of Public cloud content and over 20 pieces of WAN content too. That’s a hell of a lot of blogs, whitepapers, videos and customer references!
It’s been a quarter full of fab PR stories too. Why not take a look at some of our most successful PR stories from Q2 below. • Smooth sailing for ANS and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency • ANS Primes Wakelet for Future Growth • ANS to help lay foundations for Manchester’s smart city project • Public Cloud Delivers Competitive Advantage, say IT Professionals • ANS Awarded 4 Lots on Crown Commercial Service Technology Services 2 Framework • ANS Strengthen Cloud offering with Cloud Security Partner, Alert Logic • ANS announces 14th year of profit growth • ANS proudly supports Living Wage Week
// Olivia Jaskolka, Director of Marketing
Inside the Academy. On the 2nd October, we took on 12 new apprentices that will be starting on our new training program, which will see them spending time on the service desk after they have been us for a month. They’ll be buddying up with the ex-apprentices and senior members of the team and will be scheduled to complete two days on the service desk and complete training with in the academy for the other 3 days of the week.
In other news, Mark Sourbutts has passed his ITIL Foundation exam, this will enable him to train the Apprentice and also the Managed Service team members.
The new training programme, will enable the apprentices to get more hands on and use hubs and test environments, allowing them to gain all the skills they need to become Technical Analysts on our Service Desk.
// Anna O’Brien, ANS Academy Manager
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Steve Jones has passed his MTA exam, this will enable him to train the Apprentice and also the Managed Service team members.
Update from the Secure Operations Centre. Managed Services & Service Management. This quarter has definitely been a busy one. We’ve been working with Marketing to create a snazzy new Managed Services Handbook which has been updated with customer responsibilities and we’ve launched a new SharePoint to the Service desk. We’ve also built a new TAEO report which has been built in-house using Powershell and we’ve developed and refined a new change management process with customer approval. As ever we’ve got more movers and shakers in the team who are looking to take on new challenges. So here goes; Ryan Froggatt has moved to CST, Dave Carroll has moved to SMART working towards Manager; Rich Smith is working towards becoming TL in Apps; Jason Clarke has been promoted to Senior 2nd Line Analyst – Carrier Management; Kirsty and Tom have moved to Carrier Management 2nd Line and Jack Webb has been promoted to Service Manager (SM1). Currently we’ve got 3 open job vacancies for 2nd line Service Desk Analyst positions. So if you know someone with strong communication skills, team working, customer centric focus and the ability to work in a fast paced environment, send them our way. Please note, we will provide any and all technical training required and if you recommend someone we end up hiring, you could just bag yourself £500! Just to round off, I’d like to say a huge well done and top effort to everyone who has completed exam passes this quarter! •
Mark Steen - 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Richard Pugh - 98-365: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals Josh Coll - 98-365: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals Johnny Hall - Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) Andy Porter - 70-411: Administering Windows Server 2012 Callum Sutton - 200-105: Interconnecting Cisco Networking Devices Part 2 Daniel Mather - ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management Joel Nevitt - 98-365: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals Richard Smith - 70-346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements Tim Cartledge - 300-115: Implementing Cisco IP Switched Networks Tyla Boff - 98-365: Windows Server Administration Fundamentals AWS Sysop Associate Mark Gregson - Implementing Cisco Edge Network Security Solutions Liam Maule - 70-533: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions
// Steve Breen, Head of Managed Services
“The Service Desk Incident and Change Dashboards have been enhanced to provide direct links to the relevant SOS records to make it easier to drill down into the underlying data.” 14
Professional Services Team.
Development Team.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve made significant progress on GSTT and we’re now steaming ahead with a renewed energy following a switch around of some team members. Odeon have scheduled some Network migrations and the team are feeling positive that we are going to start progressing. I’d just like to give a special mention to Craig Pugh who received glowing feedback from Trustford regarding the successful WAN migrations so far. Top work Craig!
The SOS migration project has progressed extremely well with all functionality now available within the HTML interface. A bespoke web application to manage Project attachments has also been developed and integrated into SOS. The SOS login page has also been branded using the ANS corporate colours and you’ll also be glad to hear that the system is now more reliable and robust!
We’ve seen some movement in the team this quarter. Ryan Breen and Michael McCormack have both joined the Coordination team -welcome both! And Ed smith and Liam Ellison have transitioned to CST and Graham Fildes is on secondment to the RA team. Just to round off, I’d like to say a huge well done to all of the following people: • Daren Fulwell – passed CCDE re-cert • Martin Brierley – passed TOGAF Foundation, TOGAF Certified and AWS Associate Architect • Edward Smith – passed Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions • Alex Clifford has passed her driving test! //Rachel Sackfield, Head of Professional Services
GLASS v3.1 was released in August with the release primarily focusing upon integrating with ANS’s Wide Area Networking solution, SolarWinds. Enhanced functionality has been added to both the Portal and Mobile apps. Key features include: • • • • • • • • •
Wide Area Networking Integration Active Alerts Top 10 Interfaces by Percent Utilisation Top 10 Capacity Statistics Down Nodes Availability of Nodes Interfaces and Nodes Ability to Add Multiple LogicMonitor Devices into Scheduled Downtime Enhanced Menu System
The Service Desk Incident and Change Dashboards have been enhanced to provide direct links to the relevant SOS records to make it easier to drill down into the underlying data. Further enhancements have been made to the Service Desk Weekly Dashboard report to provide additional metrics. A new automated Board Report has been developed to provide KPIs and key metrics regarding Service Desk performance. The SMR has been rebranded in line with the latest ANS branding and additional enhancements to the report have been implemented. // Tom Barrand, Head of IT and Business Systems
CityVerve: Why the time is
right for a smarter Manchester. Ask anyone in Manchester about where to look for a view of the future and they’re likely to give you the same answer: Manchester.
Strong existing relationships between the city, local businesses and our universities and hospitals mean that we are already sharing ideals and engaging in conversations about how we can improve this city and others across the UK.
I don’t believe this is due to an unfounded loyalty or belief in the city they call home. Over the course of its 163 year history, since being granted city status in 1853, Manchester has kick-started many of the world’s most revolutionary “[Manchester’s] inventions and has even in the past been nominated people have a by UNESCO for World Heritage status. collaborating spirit
The Corridor Manchester Innovation District, where I am chair of the board, is a prime example of where this is happening at scale. Working across healthcare, transport, infrastructure and skills development, our aim is to create a space for people to work, learn and socialise – while contributing to the city’s economic growth and social and cultural dynamism.
Yet the Manchester we know and love today is a very to ensure the city different place than it was then. As much as any other continues to evolve city I know Manchester has a forward-looking and into the future” pioneering approach that sets it apart, and its people have a collaborating spirit to ensure the city continues to evolve into Simply put, the time is right for Manchester – and for the future. CityVerve. CityVerve is an important next step in this journey. From a research and development perspective, Manchester has a strong emphasis on the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart technologies.
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Powered by people What really excites me about this project is its focus on people and the potential benefits to be realised for Mancunians living in the vicinity. I want us to answer questions like ‘What can this technology do for me? How can my life be enhanced by access to new services?’ rather than ‘What can this technology do?’ CityVerve recognises the power of engaging people and businesses to make IoT tangible for everyone. The technology that will be deployed is fascinating and ground-breaking in its own right, but it’s the people that will benefit from it that can – and will – be the real focus here. A key example of this, which as a physiologist I’m watching closely, is the potential to transform health and social care delivery. Earlier this year, devolution of NHS spending made Manchester the first region in England to gain control of its own health and social care budgets. The most interesting aspect of this is not that the money has been devolved, it’s the fact that health and social care budgets are now under the same control. With this coordination and realisation of synergies, providing real benefits to people’s everyday lives becomes ever more achievable.
opportunity to provide an even greater level of care. Initiatives such as Connected Health Cities and this year’s Salford Lung Study (a world first) are evidence of what can be achieved when multiple organisations use technology to collaborate more effectively.
A smarter city for everyone Extending this inclusive approach beyond health and social care will be essential too. Manchester is among the UK’s most cosmopolitan cities and boasts one of its youngest populations. It makes sense to draw insight from all corners of the city and the plan has always been to get as many active participants involved as possible. CityVerve’s aim is to do this through community engagement programmes as well as through enabling local businesses of all shapes and sizes to participate fully. The opportunity with the CityVerve project is to use the city as a proper test-bed for future facing solutions that can be taken as a blueprint for other cities across the UK and beyond. I have no doubt that Manchester is ready for this change and that its citizens are ready to get behind a smarter and more innovative city. As our history has proved already, we’ve always been proud to lead the way. // Written by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell
The combination of CityVerve with health devolution creates a unique
To find out more about CityVerve’s mission, who’s involved and what themes are being covered in the use cases they’re developing as part of the overall project, watch their short video.
CSR: Building a Better Future.
With fresh ideas and bags of enthusiasm, we’ve welcomed a number of new members into the team. The current team now includes: Paul Shannon, Catherine Astles (CSR Leader), Helen Thomas, Katy Rawlinson, Sheryl Godwin Jones, Candice Connell, Adrianna Bannon, David Lillywhite, Alex Clifford and Andy Porter.
Tough Mudder This year, challengers from both the Manchester and London rose to the Tough Mudder Challenge. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the event we can only possibly describe it as 12 miles of hell. The muddy (understatement) obstacle course is designed to test physical strength, stamina and mental grit. With no podiums, winners, or clocks to race against, it’s not about how fast you can cross the finish line. Rather, it’s a challenge that emphasises teamwork, camaraderie, and accomplishing something damn right tough! It’s only fair that we say a massive well done to all of the guys who not only signed up for the event but actually finished the course – it was certainly no mean feat! 18
‘Bike to the Future’ The Factory Youth Zone have recently turned their garage into a bike repair shop as part of a project called ‘bike to the future’. As part of the initiative they are calling for people to donate old bikes and spare parts; the children are then taught how to repair these bikes and spruce them up, making the all nice and shiny again so they can be sold on to help bring more into the charity. As well as raising more funds, the children will learn basic mechanic skills, improves team building, helps to build basic enterprise and business skills and helps to improve the environment through recycling. We’re looking to support and encourage this initiative and would like you to donate any old bikes in any state of repair, bike parts and any tools or accessories. To find more about the project, click here: www.thefactoryyz.org/whats-on/bike-to-the-future/
MeANS Christmas The leaves may only have just started falling from the trees but we’re already getting super excited about Christmas! Once again, we’ll be setting up an Amazon wish list and asking you to purchase a gift or two for our MeANS Christmas Mission in aid of the The Factory Youth Zone. MeANS Christmas is a campaign devised in an effort to raise gifts for children from deprived areas, many of whom may not receive any presents this Christmas. We’re therefore asking you to purchase a gift (or two) from the Amazon Wish List to donate to our campaign. You can choose to gift wrap the gift (or we can do it for you) and have it delivered direct to the Manchester office. Please ensure the gift is sporting a tag which lets the Factory Youth Zone know what gender and age of child the gift is suitable for so hopefully the children will be able to receive a gift they would like.
The age categories are as follows: 8 – 10 / 10 – 12 / 12 – 16 / 16 + Last year the campaign was a huge success and we managed to raise over 200 presents. This year we want to do even better, so let’s make it happen!!
Get Involved! We’re always looking for fresh fundraising ideas so if you’ve got an idea or a suggestion please email CSR@ansgroup.co.uk
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Dates for Your Diary. Nov-Dec - Means Christmas Once again we’re collecting gifts for children from deprived areas, many of which may not receive a Christmas present this year without our generosity so please remember to bring in a gift or two!
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Join us for our biggest, most extravagant Christmas party to date. The location is still a top secret but the event promises to boast delicious food, a free bar and live entertainment.
Friday 15th - Christmas Jumper Day Get into the festive spirit and pop on your most festive Christmas Jumper in aid of the annual Save the Children campaign.
Enjoy the time off after Christmas and get ready for full steam ahead in the new year, but spare a thought for the Service Desk who will be running the fort while you are eating the last of the Quality Street!
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27th-29th - Christmas Shutdown
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Dec
Saturday 2nd - Christmas Party
We’re Hiring! Do you know the next ANS superstar? We are always on the lookout for energetic, positive individuals who can add value to our team and ensure that we stay at the cutting edge of technology. The secret to our success is fulfilling our three principles of success; right customers, right technology and right people. Browse the job vacancies below and be sure to share the roles with your network.
Account Managers - London
Enterprise Architect
We’re looking for two Account Managers to join our London-based sales team. The ideal candidates will be motivated and passionate about delivering results. Being able to hunt out new accounts and create opportunities is fundamental to the success of this role.
We’re seeking an Enterprise Architect to assist with the delivery of readiness assessments. The role will include the delivery of ANS Readiness Assessments, covering Metric Collections, Application Assessments, Financial Captures and associated analysis work, for ANS’ customers.
Click the roles below to view the full job descriptions.
The ideal candidate will have customer facing experience of auditing, assessing and analysing enterprise platforms and application stacks and will have some knowledge of public cloud architecture and services knowledge.
- Public Sector South - Commercial South
IT Apprentices We’re looking for new apprentices to help grow an expanding IT Service Desk. The successful candidate will be fully supported throughout with their IT qualifications and will receive full training with helping customers and their managed service environments. Do you know someone who may be interested? Share this fantastic opportunity with them today.
2nd Line IT Service Desk Analyst Do you know someone with excellent problemsolving abilities and previous customer service experience? We’re on the hunt for a 2nd Line Technical Analyst to take responsibility for supporting and managing our customer base from our service desk and, for the right candidate with the right attitude, we will provide any and all technical training required.
Do you know someone who fits the bill?
Your chance to win. As it’s our first anniversary edition of the Quarterly Insider, we’re celebrating by giving away a £40 voucher for a restaurant of your choice! To be in with a chance of winning, correctly identify all of the managers and directors in the 1st Birthday baby photos below. Email your answer over to helen.thomas@ansgroup.co.uk by Friday 24th November. Good Luck!
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We look forward to seeing you all at the Christmas party! Enjoy the festive break and come back fully recharged and ready to smash Q4!