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Zen is delighted to announce that it has been named as the North West Business of the Year in the Chamber Awards 2006 (www.chamberawards.co.uk).
The award is given to the company that demonstrates all-round excellence in business and the judging focused on financial performance, future objectives, the competitive advantage of the business, and especially looked at examples of specific strategies which have driven business growth.
2006 has already been a hugely successful year for Zen. In March, we walked away with an award in the SME Employer of the Year category at the Greater Manchester Employer Coalition Awards. This followed on from a hugely successful month in February when Zen swept the board at the 2006 ISPAs (Internet Services Providers’ Association) winning three awards in the Best Uncontended Service, Best Heavy Business Broadband and Best Business ISP categories.
Iain Johnstone, Sales and Partner Programme Manager, Zen Internet, commented: “We are delighted to have won this award. It helps to show our ongoing commitment to quality, reliability and service which has always been the focus of our business and has helped us to grow and expand so rapidly. Although we are growing as a business we will continue to stay true to our core values and ensure that we do not compromise on the areas that have made us successful.”
Further regional winners in the awards will be announced by the beginning of October and Zen will now go through to the national stage to be in with a chance to win The Microsoft Award for Outstanding Business Achievement. This will be announced at a Gala Dinner and Award ceremony at the Old Royal Naval College in London on 23 November 2006.
We are delighted to announce that Zen’s 3rd annual charity ZenMug eBay auction (as mentioned in last month’s newsletter) raised a staggering £310 for the MS Society! This fantastic amount more than tripled last year’s result and has set an incredibly high target for next year. Full details and pictures of the winning bidder will appear in next month’s newsletter.
Thank you for all your support in raising this fantastic amount!
The latest in a recent string of awards is the first of its kind for Zen specific to our hosting services. Zen Web Hosting has been officially voted number 1 shared Web hosting provider for August by the independent online hosting resource Web Host Directory (www.webhostdir.com).
The Web Host Directory awards are given to the best Web hosts within specific categories and are voted for by Web Host Directory’s visitors and the organisation’s independent review board. Hosting providers are rated by six areas of performance including cost, features, support, reliability and speed.
This award follows a number of prestigious accolades this year, the most notable of which being the Best Business ISP at the 2006 ISPA (Internet Services Providers’ Association) awards.
James Steel, Hosting Product Manager, commented: “We pride ourselves on developing hosting services that are both technically strong, feature rich and underpinned by the same excellent support our ADSL customers enjoy. We’re delighted to receive recognition of this by one of the most highly rated independent review sites in the UK.”
Zen’s shared hosting packages are designed to provide high quality Web hosting solutions for both businesses and consumers alike. Available on both a Windows and Linux platform, the packages allow users to design and publish a professional Web site quickly and easily in order to secure their online presence.
This award is the latest in a number of 2006 highlights for Zen Web Hosting, including the launch of their new enterprise class managed hosting solutions.
To celebrate the award, you’ll see below that Zen’s Hosting team have produced two graphic banners you may wish to add to your company Web sites. To download these images simply hover over them with your mouse cursor, right-click and select “Save Picture As...” Upon upload please ensure the URL behind these logos is as follows: http://uk.webhostdir.com.
For more information on Zen’s Web Hosting services, check out: www.zenwebhosting.com.
The Camino de Santiago de Compostela is one of the most famous pilgrim walks in the world and starts in the French Pyrenees and stretches along the northern coast of Spain, arriving some 480 miles later in the stunning Santiago de Compostela.
Barney Upton of ZenPartner Charlton Networks recently walked part of the route with his sister (who did the whole thing!) and covered a staggering 130 miles in 5 days!! Well done Barney!
Zen once again worked with ZenPartner Introspect IT Solutions Ltd to provide highly reliable and high speed Internet connectivity for the V festival this year.
The festival organisers, Roseclaim Ltd, had an efficient remote onsite office using Zen broadband, providing them with access to e-mails and files from the head office network. Introspect IT implemented a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for this, and oversaw the whole project.
Other broadband lines were used for the bands and road crew to access their e-mails with Introspect IT Solutions setting up the wireless networks to enable this access. In addition to this, Zen broadband was also used for demonstrations of music downloads by the sponsors this year.
Even higher speeds were available at the 2006 event through the Office 8000 Max service that Zen has introduced this year which offers download speeds of up to 8Mbps* and potential upload levels of 832Kbps.* Introspect ordered more lines this year bringing the total to ten Zen ADSL connections, all benefiting from this new high speed service.
Another bonus since last year was the introduction of the dedicated Zen Events Team. Zen has provided broadband for a wide range of events through this team over the past year including The Senior British Open Championship 2006, The World Snooker Championships and The 2006 Download Festival, working both directly with customers and also alongside partners. Zen is now the first choice for many companies who need to maintain a high standard of Internet connectivity while working at remote locations.
The Events Team have become experts in the field of temporary broadband which needs to be activated fast, and the monthly contract at Zen is a key selling point for many event organisers.
Mike Dixon (pictured above with Andy Spence of Introspect and Debbie Gresty of the ZenPartner team at the V festival), Technical Director at Gold ZenPartner Introspect IT Solutions, explained: “Once again we turned to Zen to connect this festival due to their proven record as a reliable and high quality provider. This year the added bonuses of higher speed broadband availability and the dedicated Zen Events Team led to even more reasons for our customer to trust Zen to deliver effective connections for this high profile event.”
Iain Johnstone, Sales and Partner Programme Manager, Zen Internet, commented: “We have a great relationship with Introspect and have worked with them previously on the V festival as well as other big events. Our customers and partners choose to work with us on a range of events as we are a reliable provider and through our specialist Events Team have gained a large amount of experience and expertise.”
* Customers' ability to receive the maximum upload and download speeds was dependant on line quality and distance from the exchange.
The ZenPartner team would like to say congratulations to those partners who have moved up levels in the programme this month meaning an increase in the resources available to them and a move towards a more strategic commitment.
These were:
Gold to Platinum:
Peoplistix Ltd
Bronze to Silver:
Casscom Ltd
Execution Ltd
Proactive Networking
G-Tec Consulting Ltd
Mac Systems
Take 2 Systems Ltd
Vector System UK Ltd
Keep up the Good work!
Zen has supplied broadband to Destination Cornwall, allowing them to add a technical outlook to their WeatherWatch system.
Destination Cornwall created one of Cornwall’s leading Web sites, www.destination-cornwall.co.uk, which provides regular information on events in the area.
It also includes a WeatherWatch system which offers online information on the weather, sea conditions and other observations, which proves popular with locals and tourists.
Until now Destination Cornwall has relied completely on visual observations from National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) watchkeepers and other organisations to update their reports. The watchkeepers would call through and then staff at Destination Cornwall would have to manually upload this information to the Web site. Now using the Zen broadband connection, one of the NCI stations at Penzance can bring these daily reports to a whole new level of efficiency.
Using the new Zen connection and new weather recording equipment at Penzance (a Web camera also provides visual input of Mounts Bay), information automatically updates to the Destination Cornwall site. This will improve efficiency levels massively.
Destination Cornwall chose Zen due to its reputation as a reliable and high quality provider with excellent support levels. The Zen core network has no contention, enabling consistent speed levels even at peak times for the transferral of data to the Destination Cornwall Web site.
Chris Robinson of ZenPartner Flexsys joined Charles’ and Camilla’s garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Prince’s Trust.
The visit came about because Chris’s partner, Tracy Barlow of 2B Marketing, does voluntary work as a Prince’s Trust Business Mentor. This involves spending time each month with a young person who has recently set up in business, helping them with anything from marketing plans to accountancy issues, advice on premises to sourcing alternative suppliers.
All volunteers had the opportunity to enter a ballot for a place at the garden party in July and Tracy was one of the lucky volunteers to be invited along with her partner. There was also the opportunity to mingle with a host of celebrities who currently act as Trust Ambassadors or who have been involved with the Prince’s Trust during the past 30 years. These included Brian May and Anita Dobson, Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell, Martin Cloones, Jools Holland, Carol Vorderman, Bill Wymann, Vernon Kay and Tess Daley plus many, many more.
Commenting on the day, Chris said: “it was a great event, a fabulously sunny afternoon and a real experience to walk in through the front gates of the palace, through the central courtyard and out into the gardens. Everything was superbly organised, we met Charles and Camilla as they were leaving but the real highlight for me was meeting Brian May! He’s been a hero of mine for a long time so having a chat with him was the icing on the cake.”
Full name: Stephen J. Riley
Age: 22
Postion(s): Partner Account Manager
Length of time with company: 5 Months (ish).
THE QUESTIONS
Where are you from originally?
Manchester, born and bred.
What were you doing before you joined Zen?
Working as an Account Manager for an IT Reseller for around five years.
What are your 3 favourite Web sites (clean please)?
Google, IMDB, zen.co.uk (obviously!!).
Which album /single do you have in your stereo?
At present it’s an MP3 disk consisting mainly of Indie Rock.
Which football team do you support?
Toronto Maple Leafs (I’ve kind of changed the question to suit my answer!)
What is your favourite childhood TV programme, and why?
Have to say Thundercats… though the A-Team and Knightrider would have to be high up there – I still call my car KITT to this day!
If you could be any one else for a day who would it be and why?
Muhammad Ali in his Heyday – It would be hard to be humble, if I was as great as him.
What was your best Christmas present?
My first BMX (though ending up in A&E on Boxing Day with concussion wasn’t the smartest move).
Do you have any bad habits?
Spending money I don’t have!
What was your first computer?
A Sega master system with built in Alex Kid – I was a late bloomer!
Thanks Stephen, and that concludes the inspirational interview with this month’s ZenPartner team member.
We have now completed our series of interviews with the ZenPartner team (see past editions of the ZenPartner newsletter for interviews with other team members) and so next month will be moving on to some other teams at Zen who provide vital support to ZenPartners.
ZenPartner Pure Technology, based in Leatherhead, has become the youngest company in the UK to receive the latest Investors In People accreditation, receiving the award just three years
after the company was formed.
The award highlights Pure’s dedication to the service it provides its clients through its team.
Managing Director Danny Long has made the scheme an integral part of the Pure operation: “Whilst we provide technology services and support, we never lose sight of the fact that it is still our people who make the difference. At the end of the day, our team are what keeps our clients happy. Whether it is the remote monitoring of clients servers or on site maintenance, it’s the team who have to deliver. We see it as our duty to our clients to make sure they are both highly trained and highly motivated.”
Investors in People was originally developed in 1990 by a partnership of leading businesses and national organisations to improve company performance through the management and development of their people. Since it was developed the Standard has been reviewed every three years to ensure that it remains relevant, the most recent review being completed in November 2004. Pure Technology is the youngest recipient of this new standard of accreditation.
It is unusual for a company to achieve this accolade so soon after being formed and this awarding shows Pure Technology’s dedication to delivering the very best service through its staff.
World Snooker Ltd recently turned to Zen for their broadband connections for the Northern Ireland Trophy which ran from the 13th to the 20th August in Belfast.
After the reliability and consistent speed levels displayed at the 888.com World Snooker Championship, the company knew that Zen were the best choice for this important event. The Northern Ireland Trophy used two Zen Office connections, one line for communication purposes and the essential live scoring and the second for the Internet browsing requirements of the media.
The communications link through the Zen connection allowed for e-mail and file access via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for staff at the event. This connection also enabled the uploading of files to the Web server, meaning that text files could be converted into live scores for everyone to view on the Web. The free static IP addresses with the account aided management of security policies protecting this Web server.
Journalists used the other Internet connection to e-mail out news stories and update their Web sites. The excellent uncontended Zen network ensured that speeds remained stable, steady and to the highest quality.
The ZenPartner Programme now provides a full, detailed welcome pack as a reference point for all partner information.
The pack contains up-to-date information on key topics such as ordering online, faults/support processes, payment and billing, and commission structures with an additional section on resources such as a full training programme.
The pack also features the latest price lists for all products and services from Zen available to partners through the ZenPartner Programme and a complete list of contacts.
The pack is updated regularly and there have been lots of updates since last month. For all the latest information please visit the member’s area on the ZenPartner Web site under Marketing and download the latest version of the pack.
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