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We are delighted to announce that we have made it into The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 list for the fouth consecutive year, achieving 69th place.
The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 is a national league table of Britain’s 100 private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales over a two year period. Within this list Zen revealed a sales growth of 56% a year from £7.8m in 2003 to £19m in 2005.
Iain Johnstone, Sales and Partner Programme Manager, Zen Internet, commented: “We are delighted about our inclusion in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 for the 4th year running.The listing illustrates our continuing work to grow as a company, with significant sales and technical growth. As one of the first ISPs in the UK, we have continually grown and improved by staying true to our core values of quality, reliability and service and this has helped us to expand.”
The list is compiled by Oxford-based Fast Track, an independent research, publishing and networking events company which tracks Britain’s top-performing private companies. For more information on the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 or to view the full league table and a profile on companies listed as they appeared in the Sunday Times supplement, please visit:
www.fasttrack.co.uk.
Monday 25th September saw the launch of a new range of shared Windows hosting products designed to provide customers with greater performance, more advanced features and increased value for money.
The new range of products consists of three packages, i.e. Silver, Gold and Platinum, replacing the old ActiveSpace, .NETspace and SQL Server products.
What’s new?
Zen's new product range includes
- A brand new control panel (Helm), allowing simple administration of your hosting account.
- Improved specification (increased Web space and bandwidth allocation).
- Multiple SQL databases provided as standard.
- The capacity for hosting multiple Web sites from a single account.
- The ability to administer multiple accounts from the same login.
- Increased performance and reliability.
The launch of these new packages follows hot on the heals of Zen being voted the UK’s number one Shared Web Hosting provider for August by the independent online hosting resource Web Host Directory.
These new and improved packages offer a significantly improved user experience coupled with greater value for money and the ongoing flexibility of a monthly contract.
For more information, contact your Account Manager or visit www.zenwebhosting.com.
Zen is delighted to announce that it has been short listed in 3 categories of The North West Call and Contact Centre Awards 2006. The categories we have been short listed in are: Team of the Year for the Zen Customer Services Team; Contact Centre of the Year (under 50 Seats) for the Zen Technical Support Team; and Contact Centre of the Year for the Zen Customer Services Team.
The aim of the ‘North West Call and Contact Centre Awards 2006’ is to highlight and reward ‘excellence’ in North West call and contact centres. The Awards are open to all call and contact centres that operate an in-bound or out-bound customer contact operation in the North West of England.
Winners will be honoured at a Gala Dinner, to be held in the magnificent Great Hall at Manchester’s Town Hall on the 27th October 2006.
Zen is delighted to announce that Zen’s 3rd annual charity ZenMug eBay auction 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.
The winner took away 6 limited edition black ZenMugs, a Mug Tree, 2 limited edition black ZenPens and lunch at the ZenBistro.
The winning bid of £310 was placed by Tom Defty (pictured left with Debbie Gresty of the ZenPartner team and MS Society representatives), Zen Internet customer and Director of Essex based weather consultancy Meteocare Limited (www.meteorology.co.uk).
“As a customer of Zen, it is great that we have been able to work together to raise funds for this much deserving charity whilst smashing all previous records. It was great to pick up my prize as well as having lunch at the famous ZenBistro,” said Tom.
Iain Johnstone, Sales and Partner Programme Manager, Zen Internet, commented: “We are delighted with the amount raised in this year’s auction. The money will be making a real difference to a very deserving cause.”
The Zen Charity mug auction started in 2004 when a single mug raised over £60. Then in 2005 the auction was for two mugs, some pens and some Zen lanyards. The eventual winner, Alastair Kimbell of ZenPartner Picard Solutions, bid £97 to win the auction but rounded it up to £100 to meet Zen’s goal to get into 3 figures.
October is set to be a busy month for Zen for Awards. Following on from being nominated in 3 categories of The North West Call and Contact Centre Awards 2006, Zen is delighted to be nominated in the reader voted category of ‘ISP of the Year’ in the MacUser Awards 2006.
For the first year ever this category has been voted for by MacUser readers making this recognition more prestigious than ever.
Zen has for a long time had an excellent reputation for offering excellent technical broadband support to users of the Apple Mac Operating System (OS), and offer a dedicated Apple Mac Support Team, providing specialised support to users of our Internet-based services, such as broadband, dial-up and e-mail, on Apple Macs.
We have always been recognised as providing first-rate technical support for Apple Mac users and are constantly looking to improve our existing high standards of service for business and home-user customers. We want all our customers to have access to first-rate technical assistance, regardless of the OS they choose to use. Our dedicated Apple Mac Support Team is in place to help new and old users of this operating system make the most of all their Internet services on this platform.
In order to speak to the Apple Support Team, simply call us on our usual number (0845 058 9000) and choose the Technical Support option. You will then be able to select a direct connection through to the Apple Support Team.
For more information on the Zen Apple Support Team, click here.
Winners of the MacUser Awards will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony, to be held in the on the 26th October 2006 at the Hurlingham Club, Fulham.
In October 2006 (date to be determined by successful testing of new systems) the price of purchasing additional bandwidth will be changing for all NEW Zen 8000 Active and Zen 8000 Pro customers. Currently Active and Pro customers are charged £1.00 including VAT to buy an additional Gigabyte of bandwidth when they use more than their Broadband product’s bandwidth allowance; 20GB in the case of Active and 50GB in the case of Pro.
Moving forward:
· All existing Active and Pro customers will have the price of purchasing additional bandwidth frozen at £1.00 (including VAT), for as long as they remain on the same product. This means NO CHANGE for existing Active & Pro customers from October onwards.
· From October 2006, the price of additional bandwidth will rise to £1.49 (including VAT). This will apply to new Active and Pro customers. Lite customers already pay this price, meaning there will be no change for them.
· The price for additional bandwidth will remain at £1.00 (including VAT) for any customer who buys Active or Pro before October 2006.
· If an existing customer moves onto a different product after October (i.e. moves from Active to Pro), the new terms and conditions for their new product will apply and they will not be able to carry over the original £1.00 price.
To reiterate, this change only comes into effect when new customers use more than their Broadband product’s bandwidth allowance.
If you have any questions regarding this, please contact your Account Manager.
How good is our customer service? How reliable are our products? Let PC Pro know in the UK’s most influential IT satisfaction survey. To take part please click here.
The Price is Right, filmed at Granada Studios in Manchester, was the location for a staff night out earlier this month for Zen employees.
A large number of the ZenPartner team were in attendance and Iain Johnstone was lucky enough to be asked to ‘Come on down!’
Iain (pictured above with other audience members from the ZenPartner Team) was on a roll and managed to walk away with £3,000 worth of prizes including a mirror, a mobile phone, an audio unit and a telescope.
Look out for Iain appearing on a screen near you soon!
Zen is currently supplying broadband to Express Newspapers Ltd and ITN (Independent Television Network) to cover three leading political party conferences. This involves providing Internet connectivity for the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat party conferences this Autumn.
The specialist Zen Events Team is ensuring the broadband service is provisioned smoothly, enabling the media groups to set-up remote offices for their political teams at the three conferences. The onsite workers have peace of mind that their Internet connections are covered through reliable, high quality Zen Office connections. The Zen Events Team is now renowned for the successful provision of temporary broadband for important occasions, and is experienced in the field of important events. Many event organisers choose Zen due to the one month contract system and the excellent reputation the ISP has.
Graham Raven, Express Newspapers Ltd, commented: “The Express IT department chose Zen as they could offer the required service to enable essential high quality connections whilst preventing the usual costly 12 month broadband contract term. The excellent standard of customer service and the availability of a specialist Events Team assured me that Zen was an excellent choice to cover these conferences. We are now investigating further opportunities with Zen, due to the fantastic service we have experienced so far.”
Stephen White, ITN News Engineer, added: “Finding a provider who can offer both short term contracts and a high quality service is essential for the events we cover. Zen meets both these requirements and advises and implements the right connections, whilst offering a superior level of customer service throughout.”
This is not Zen’s only involvement in provisioning connections for political use. Zen will be supplying broadband to a Member of Parliament as part of a pilot scheme to review individual Internet connectivity outside the Parliamentary network used at the Houses of Parliament.
Grant Shapps, Member of Parliament for Welwyn Hatfield, who will be using the Zen service at the Palace of Westminster, commented: “After using Zen for my home and business connections over the years, I immediately thought of Zen when it came to choosing a provider for my Parliamentary Office. I've always found Zen's service to be of high performance and reliable and I look forward to receiving this high level of service at the House of Commons from an ISP I know that I can trust."
Premier Rugby were delighted to announce that Zen Internet will be providing a wireless broadband facility at each of the Guinness Premiership clubs’ press boxes throughout the 2006/07 season, earlier this month.*
This agreement will guarantee that the media have access to the Internet both during and immediately post matches at all grounds on match days and will also see Zen sponsoring the live match centre on www.guinnesspremiership.com for the whole of the 2006/07 season.
Simon Lewis, Head of Communications for Premier Rugby, said, “We have been working with the Rugby Union Writers' Club to address issues at our clubs and Internet access was one issue we identified. Our partnership with Zen Internet has allowed us to get wireless connections in every club and that helps writers file their copy, which saves time when working to tight deadlines for evening games. This means we have an increased chance of generating coverage for the game.”
Speaking about the agreement Iain Johnstone of Zen Internet commented, “We are delighted to have this association with the Guinness Premiership. Their business has come a long way in the last ten years as has ours and we have both established ourselves as a premium product in our respective markets. We hope that by providing this service to the media we can help build the profile of the Guinness Premiership.”
Gold ZenPartner Sotic work closely with Premier Rugby both managing their online presence and delivering the Live Match Centre service which allows fans to follow every Guinness Premiership match with live audio and point by point match tracking.
Sotic is a specialist provider of award-winning Web technologies and applications to the sports industry and is also responsible for delivering the majority of the Guinness Premiership Club Web sites, including ecommerce platforms.
Sotic were also responsible for the initial installation and setup of the equipment in the press boxes, and have partnered with Zen on other rugby projects including broadband access at the Millennium Stadium.
* The London Irish and Leicester Tigers stadia are already equipped with Wireless Broadband and so are not catered for by this agreement.
Zen Internet has proved to be an award-winning Internet Service Provider (ISP) since we emerged as one of the first ISPs in the UK back in 1995. Now a new book reveals the inspiration and story behind the start of the business.
Author Rachel Bridge, Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times, has included Zen’s creator and Managing Director, Richard Tang in her new book, "My Big Idea - 30 Successful Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Found Inspiration." The book reveals how Tang’s early insight led to the creation of a company that has experienced impressive growth whilst providing premier levels of Internet services for businesses and residential users.
Sir Richard Branson claims that the book: “Brilliantly captures the challenge of turning a big idea into a successful business...”
Tang’s challenge began through a discussion with his brother in a pub about the Internet. A smart business decision to invest in this new technology then followed. Over the years he discovered that businesses valued excellent customer support over cheaper deals. From this came the creation of the Zen ethos, investing in the latest technology with an excellent core network, while staying true to the values of quality, reliability and customer service. The Zen core network can handle capacity ahead of demand, and this highlights that the company has an ambitious yet achievable future vision led by Tang.
This is also reflected in the development of the new Zen headquarters, still in Tang’s hometown of Rochdale. This will cater for the projected growth of the company and provides evidence of the financial stability of Zen. The success of the Zen was emphasised in this year’s awards when we 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 amongst other industry awards.
Bridge’s book looks at how Zen has been brought to this highly successful level, the challenges Tang faced and why Zen can be clearly considered true to its mission statement, to provide the best ISP service in the UK.
Earlier this year the ZenPartner team made some important changes to billing for partners. Following the rapid growth of the Partner Programme, and the re-organisation of the billing team, we now offer partners improved contact to the Billing Team to ensure that the highest level of billing support is available to partners.
There is now a dedicated e-mail address for partner billing enquires (billing@zenpartner.com) which receive priority status. In addition to this improved system we also offer all Gold and Platinum Partners a dedicated Billing Contact, Roxanne Simpson. Here ZenPartner News steals a few minutes with Roxanne….
Full name: Roxanne Simpson
Age: 23
Postion(s): Partner Billing Executive
Length of time with company: 4 years 11 months.
THE QUESTIONS
Where are you from originally?
Rochdale.
What were you doing before you joined Zen?
Student.
What are your 3 favourite Web sites (clean please)?
www.google.co.uk
www.itv.com (have to keep up to date with my soaps)
www.riverisland.co.uk (retail therapy purposes :o) )
Which album /single do you have in your stereo?
Kelly Clarkson’s album.
Which football team do you support?
Don’t really like football find it boring.
What is your favourite childhood TV programme, and why?
Fraggle rock and the raggy dolls were my favourite programme.
If you could be any one else for a day who would it be and why?
I have thought about this and I can’t think of anyone I would like to be.
What was your best Christmas present?
A Wendy house when I was about 4, I made all my family (obviously at separate times) have tea with me in my little house.
Do you have any bad habits?
Loads but the only one I will tell you is biting my nails.
What was your first computer?
Commodore 64.
Thanks Roxanne, and that concludes the inspirational interview with this month’s Zen team member.
For more information on the Billing team and processes, please contact the Billing team on: 0845 058 9000 (Menu Option 5).
Next month: Steve Mullington, also of the Zen Billing Team.
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:
Introspect IT Solutions
Silver to Gold:
Creative Juice
Lazer Beam Security
Sedcom Networks Ltd
ITFixer.com Ltd
Zion Solutions.Com Ltd
Bronze to Silver:
Box Black Trading Ltd
Fiverivers Solutions Ltd
Network Webcams Ltd
Phoenix Broadband Services Ltd
Q-Developments
David Chester Ltd
Indigo IT
999 Network Services
Keep up the Good work!
Zen in partnership with Introspect IT Solutions Ltd provided highly reliable and high speed Internet connectivity earlier this month for 2 Robbie Williams concerts on 8th and 9th September in Leeds.
These followed on from a number of high profile events that Introspect have provisioned through Zen including the V Festival, Bon Jovi concerts and the Lovebox Weekender this Summer.
Mike Dixon, Technical Director at Gold ZenPartner Introspect IT Solutions, commented: “We always use Zen for all of our high profile events as we know they are a reliable provider who we can trust. We have built up a great partnership over the years and were pleased to move up to Platinum partner status this month.”
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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