4 minute read
NEWS AND VIEWS
THE MONTH THAT WAS
The ‘Keep It Local’ campaign, launched by Nemo Office Club, is calling on all SMEs to get behind the drive towards buying local following a series of letters sent to PM Boris Johnson and then minister for the cabinet office, Michael Gove.
The campaign has updated its www.keep-it-local.co.uk website to include a link to a template letter to send to MPs and, to make it easy to get involved, a link to help people find contact details for their local MPs. Since launching, the letter has been downloaded more than 50 times, with site visitors also encouraged to share the message over social media.
“It is important that we take the message to as wide an audience as possible,” said MD Tim Beaumont. “I shared a letter we wrote to Boris Johnson on LinkedIn and it very quickly received over 2,000 views. Not surprisingly we did not get a response from Boris Johnson - something to do with Brexit, Afghanistan and the pandemic - but we are passionate about the cause and so chose to follow-up with a second letter to Michael Gove.
“At the time Mr Gove was minister for cabinet office, the position held by Matt Hancock when he declared government’s intention for £1 in every £3 of their procurement expenditure to be with SMEs by 2022; it seemed appropriate that we enquired about an update on this and offered our help as a representative of over 300 SMEs within our group.”
Despite the lack of response from Johnson or Gove, the campaign has engaged with several MPs who have relayed the message that the campaign is being heard and the best thing to do is keep going and get more and more businesses involved - hence the move to include all SMEs from across all industries.
Exertis appoints IT director, service operations
Exertis has appointed Cath O’Neill as IT director, service operations. Cath will be responsible for the service desk, desktop services, infrastructure services and the implementation of ITIL standards across Exertis UK. She has more than 25 years’ experience of IT transformation and service delivery, having restructured IT service teams and embedded SLA management and ITIL processes.
Prior to joining Exertis, Cath worked for the Odeon Cinema Group and was responsible for all aspects of IT service delivery, keeping cinemas and offices across the UK and Ireland fully operational and able to trade 24/7. Cath will report to Liz Greenwood, UK IT director, and will be based at Exertis’ National Distribution Centre in Burnley.
ES Tech Group acquires Nexus Websites
ES Tech Group, creators of the EvolutionX B2B eCommerce platform, has acquired Wigan-based Nexus Websites Ltd, a web development and design agency.
“The design and user experience elements of a web platform are far too important now to outsource,” said Patrick Donnelly, CEO, ES Tech Group. “Customers make snap decisions on how your website looks and feels in seconds. If you don’t pass that initial three-to-five second ‘gut check’, they most likely won’t stick around long enough to find out about all your amazing features.
“We’ve been admirers of the incredible Nexus team for years - when the opportunity presented itself to bring their world class design and user experience capabilities into the ES Tech Group family, we jumped on it straight away. ES Tech Group customers can expect to see us build new services and business models on the back of this acquisition that make world class design and user experience accessible to everyone.”
Alex Induchny, of Nexus Websites, added: “After designing nearly 160 EvolutionX and Evolution legacy stores, this move was an absolute no-brainer for our team and customers. Even though we have always held a close working relationship with ES Tech, to officially become part of the family is not only very exciting but should allow us to take our front-end design and development skills to the next level with greater access, knowledge and new tools at our disposal. We aim to continually build the best ecommerce websites, and we believe EvolutionX has the potential to become a household name.” Office Depot has completed the sale of its larger mid-market, major and public sector contract customers in the UK and Ireland to OT Group Ltd. OT Group is part of Paragon Group and incorporates the OfficeTeam, OT Wholesale, Zen Office and Spicers Ireland businesses.
The transaction includes Office Depot Europe’s UK and Ireland contract distribution centre in Ashton and associated colleagues, a dedicated sales and customer service team, and Vital Communications, Office Depot Europe’s print, marketing and communications business. OT Group has also entered into a collaboration agreement with Office Depot Europe, servicing the international customers that will be transferred as part of the deal.
This transaction accelerates the strategic transformation of Office Depot Europe to an ecommerce-focused, omni-channel, business trading solely as Viking and paves the way for sale of the rest of the business to Raja.
“This marks a further step in the strategic transformation of our business that aligns perfectly with the sale of the remaining core part of the business to Raja,” said Raffael Reinhold, CEO of Office Depot Europe. “We are pleased that this will provide continuity of service for our UK and Ireland contract customers focused on bespoke solutions, and a bright future with OT Group for our colleagues.”
Andrew Jones, CEO of OT Group, added, “Office Depot Europe will add a wealth of experience and knowledge to our extended range of workplace solutions and business services. This acquisition aligns with our ambitious growth strategy, as well as our plans to expand operations throughout Europe.”
