Garry Sheriff, managing director of IT managed solutions and services specialist ITPS, highlights how strong supply chain partnerships are crucial to commercial success
As North East managed IT solutions and services experts we attribute much of our 18 years of steady growth to building strong partnerships. Nurturing client partnerships is one of our key strengths, but good relationships with high calibre partners are equally vital in supporting our own business and those of our clients.
For example we hold strategic partner status with Virgin Media Business (VMB), a level only available to a select few within the UK, and an award that is measured on customer feedback, technical expertise, volume of business and the ability to support VMB’s product range at the highest level.
We have invested over £1.2m in a peer to peer, high speed, large capacity communications and infrastructure at our ISO27001 Tier 3 North East data centres. While we deal with other carriers, we partner and lead with VMB for its ability to deliver 21st Century fibre network solutions. It guarantees our customers reliable, scalable connectivity with reduced latency, faster access, and no other unknown parties involved in their connectivity solutions.
As one of the UK’s acknowledged IT connectivity experts, we are one of only a few suppliers currently permitted to sell connectivity and services such as unified communications, security and cloud services for the new Health and Social Care network (HSCN). This will replace the N3 network, one of Europe’s largest virtual private networks, which currently connects 1.3 million NHS staff.
HSCN is a vital element in the digital transformation of NHS services and the criteria for qualifying as a supplier is, quite properly, extremely stringent. The network will eventually connect thousands of health and social care organisations, delivering reliability, efficiency and cost-effective connectivity, and giving them the freedom to choose network services to suit their needs.
We are committed to helping all our clients find the right solution, one which will reduce costs and negate risk, increase service levels and improve availability, security and efficiency. The VMB partnership means we can give clients access to discounts, a portfolio of 60 VMB products, and a level of VMB extended support not open to others.
The combination of our investment in the HSCN infrastructure and our strong VMB partnership is two-fold, delivering immense benefits to our existing clients, and leveraging new opportunities.
The power of forging long term partnerships cannot be underestimated. We are here to help our clients succeed, and if they succeed, so do we.