In this fast moving world in which we live, the need for a digital strategy is more relevant than ever. Here at Brighter, we are investing in more high calibre people and another acquisition to add greater strength and depth to the business you know today.

I am sure, having met many of you at recent events and visits to your offices, you are each looking at your own needs and direction and I hope our efforts to share ideas, innovation and ways to make your businesses more competitive are one piece of the success jigsaw that we all aspire to.

The Brighter Connections Group are here to help organisations of all shapes, sizes and market focus and we look forward to working with you on tactical and strategic needs in the future.

Have a great Summer and I hope to meet more of you in the near future.

Darren Stringer—Managing Director

Welcome to Issue 4

Recent Acquisition

The Brighter Connections Group is continuing its expansion with the recent acquisition of PPD Computing, a specialist software company whose primary focus has been the development of its own CRM software, available as both a Cloud (web) application, or a comprehensive on-site server-based application.

The team at PPD also have skills in database software, call centre and telephony integration and Microsoft .Net development; they are keen to bring this experience and knowledge to a wider audience with our help.

We will be investing in enhancing the CRM application and offering a range of competitively priced bundles to our customers that support our goal in helping clients be more innovative, more productive and more profitable as a result of their relationship with Brighter Connections.

If you are looking at implementing CRM on-site, or looking for a cost-effective cloud CRM offering, please contact us on 01244 288281 to discuss your needs.

Brighter Connections Managed Services Ltd

July 2017 Volume 1, Issue 4

Latest News

Acquisition Key Points:

• Acquisition of a software company

• CRM product available

• Additional skills including Microsoft SQL

& Microsoft .Net

Call our Sales Department in Deeside on

01244 288281 for further details.

Alternatively, contact our Applications &

Analytics Sales Team in Huddersfield on

03707 551515

Inside this issue:

Customer Satisfaction Feedback 2

Help Desk 2

Breakfast Briefing Office 365—

Review 2

Meet the IT Storage Leaders

Event Review 3

Forthcoming Events in Deeside 3

New Services 3

New Customers 4

Cloud Services Development Manager

We have just agreed terms to appoint a new senior member of the team who will join us as Cloud Services Development Manager. With over 20 years experience in this market space, this will help us accelerate and broaden the range of Cloud Solutions we can share with the market. There will be more to follow on this and we are excited by the opportunities this will present.

We have also invested in becoming a Microsoft Cloud Service Provider. With extra skills and extra support, we can offer a wider choice of options for clients looking at their IT and Digital business needs, be it simple services such as Office 365 mail, or full-blown business continuity and disaster recovery style service.

If you are looking at Cloud, and want help and advice, then please contact us on 01244 288281.

We recently ran our fourth Managed Services customer satisfaction survey and we want to thank everyone who sent in a response.

We really do value your feedback and constructive criticism of our business. By listening to you, we are able to refine, develop and, where necessary, take any immediate remedial action to improve our business and the value we can bring to others. The key points from the last survey can be summarised as follows:

• The majority of customers indicated that we are generally meeting, or exceeding, their expectations.

• One client mentioned “excellent care and attention to their needs and concerns”.

• Two respondents questioned if we had less staff than when the business was acquired in April 2016 and asked about the structure of the team. We are pleased to advise that we have actually expanded and invested in the team since acquisition, with three additional people joining the Help Desk since June 2016. We have also invested in a new Help Desk Dashboard, using our colleagues in our Applications and Analytics business. This is in test phase right now and is designed to help simplify the role of our Help Desk Team Leader, with a more visual display of events rather than the previous configuration that involved navigating a number of more complex reporting tools.

If you have not yet given us your feedback, and would like to do so, please click here

On Thursday 22nd June we held a Breakfast Briefing on “How to Get the Most

Out of Microsoft Office 365” over at the Village Hotel in Ewloe,

We had a fantastic turnout of 30 people from existing customers and new

prospects.

Our speaker provided some useful insights for companies already using Office 365 and who want to get more out of it to help their businesses become more efficient, productive and mobile, as well as helping people considering using Office 365 to evaluate whether it is right for their business. We were pleased that the event inspired a lot of people and, judging by the demand for follow up, those attending were clearly inspired to see how much more productive they can be with our support and we look forward to helping them create a competitive edge.

Should you need further information on Office 365, please contact our Sales

Department on 01244 288281.

Customer Satisfaction Feedback

Breakfast Briefing Office 365 - Review

Help Desk

Our Help Desk has been expanded this past year, from three people to six people, and we have invested not only in quantity, but quality.

With the world changing, and clients wanting to explore services in the cloud, we are investing in greater Microsoft style skills and accreditations so that our staff are able to help with cloud service provisioning, cloud service management and cloud service fault diagnosis and resolution too.

We have recently engaged with a company called Lift The Stones. This is a team of experienced IT Operations professionals who are helping challenge, enhance and prepare the way we operate, to support our growth ambitions. With the help of Lift The Stones, our Help Desk team and Engineering teams have been able to really analyse the way they work, prioritise improvements and implement positive changes.

Page 2

Latest News

http://www.brighter-connections.com/feedback-services/

On 29th June, we held our third “Meet the IT Storage Leaders” event at The Tetley in

Leeds.

We were joined by top level speakers from NetApp, HP Enterprise, Tegile, Microsoft,

Veeam & Tableau Data Analytics who each gave a 35-minute overview of the latest

developments in their storage offers, as well as holding one-to-one sessions with our

guests after the presentations.

We were joined by almost 30 people, who were a mix of existing clients and new

prospects; all gave very positive feedback on the event as regards to how it expanded

their knowledge in relation to what is available in a changing digital market place when it

comes to storage, cloud storage, data analytics and business intelligence.

For more information on the storage solutions we offer, or further details on any of the

vendors mentioned, please call us on 01244 288281.

We are currently expanding our range of packaged services that make it easier for you to

protect your business, protect your digital assets and to provide more choice and more

cost-effective packages from the Cloud. The expanded range of services includes existing

and new services below:

• Office 365 Protect - We now offer solutions to add greater availability of Office 365 in the event there are challenges at Microsoft.

• Cloud Backup

• Cloud CRM

• Backup Flatters—Recovery Matters (Data Recovery & Restore Test Services)

Based on feedback secured at both of our recent events, less than 10% of people test their backups either ever, or less than once per annum. Based on this feedback, we were obliged to highlight this important area of your IT strategy and look at how we can help you plan and test your ability to recover and restore data.

This is a process that will inevitably highlight some areas of your business and policies that may need addressing, but if the outcome is greater confidence in your ability to survive a genuine threat to accessing your data, after any local data loss, then it is a good thing. We would be happy to speak to anyone who wishes to look at their recovery and restoration position and to have one of our team speak with you and outline what this may look like for you based on your individual needs and requirements, as there is not a one size fits all approach to this.

Meet the IT Storage Leaders Event Review

New Services

Page 3

Volume 1, Issue 4

Forthcoming Events in Deeside

We are planning a greater number of “Digital Awareness” events in Deeside over the coming 6 months. Based on feedback from those attending the recent Office365 event, the hot topics are Business Continuity and Security and we will therefore prioritise and plan suitable content and announce dates in the near future.

Ground Floor, Holywell House,

Parkway Business Centre,

Parkway,

Deeside Industrial Park

Flintshire, CH5 2LE

Phone: 01244 288281

Email: managed-services@brighter-connections.com

Twitter: @YourITPractice

Over the last 3 months we are delighted to have acquired a number of new

customers for Brighter Connections Managed Services as follows:

• A contract to support a West Yorkshire Sixth Form College which is

rated “Outstanding “ by Ofsted and is in the top 15% of schools and

colleges nationally for student performance at A Level.

• A contract to support the market-leading provider of commercial

laundry equipment, based in Yorkshire, with 800 employees.

• A contract to support one of the North West’s leading providers of

sponsored Advanced Apprenticeships.

• A contract to support an Accountancy practice in the north west.

• A significant Microsoft migration project for a 450 person

engineering business which is part of a multi-national operation.

Two of these organisations are existing customers of our infrastructure

business. It is encouraging that they have recognised the value of engaging

with the wider group for additional services and we hope to build on this

trend in the months to come.

Brighter Connections Managed Services Ltd

I hope you have found this issue of our newsletter both informative and useful; if you would like to know

more about any of the items covered in this newsletter, please contact:

• Your Account Manager on 01244 288281

• Darren, Claire or Kathryn at our Huddersfield Office on 03707 551515

• Email us: react@brighter-connections.com

• If you would like to suggest content for future issues of this newsletter, we would love to hear

from you. Please email marketing@brighter-connections.com

Best wishes

Darren Stringer

Get in Touch!

www.brighter-connections.com

New Customers

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