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Since the newsletter began in October 2005 we have been bringing all the latest news and information to you on a monthly basis. Following recent feedback and reviews, the newsletter will now be moving to a quarterly format meaning that you will still receive all the latest news but in an even more info packed format than ever. It is of course our priority to keep you as informed as possible with any changes that happen here at Zen so should any important changes happen between issues we will ensure that we keep you up to date with newsflashes to your inbox.
Keep your eyes peeled for the new quarterly newsletter arriving with you in the New Year!
Zen was the chosen provider to connect The BUPA Great North Run earlier this month. Multiple high speed broadband connections were put in place for Nova International Ltd (Great Run) at the event in Newcastle on Sunday 1st October.
This essential broadband allowed for the uploading of race times to create an online results service for all the participants. The data recorded through an electronic tag worn by the runners was uploaded from the timing computer so that it was available for all to view on the Web. The connections were also used in the hospitality section of the event to display race data.
The organisers turned to Zen as they needed a reliable provider with a temporary contract and Zen is now renowned for providing connections at high profile events. Chris Kewin, Nova International Ltd, commented: “The service from Zen, particularly from the specialist Events Team, has been excellent and the monthly contract has proved a great feature for the type of connectivity we require. The reputation of Zen as a high quality provider is well known in the industry and has been proven to me in every aspect of the service I have received.”
We are pleased to announce that www.zen.co.uk and www.zenadsl.com have been nominated for the UK’s Web site of the Year in the ‘Best ISP site’ category in the
Website of the Year Awards.
"Website of the Year 2006" is a pan-European people's-choice award initiative by online market research agency Metrixlab and supported by Nielsen//Netratings (Industry Partner) and various local Media Partners.
Last year the Website of the Year attracted over 1.5 million unique visitors.
To register your thoughts on these sites visit the voting page for
zen.co.uk and zenadsl.co.uk.
More and more organisations are realising the benefits of outsourcing their business critical hosting requirements, allowing them to reduce risk whilst profiting from greater cost savings, increased efficiency and a clearer business focus.
BES Consulting Limited, the UK’s largest asbestos risk management company, recently appointed Zen to manage their hosting requirements. To find out how managed hosting worked for BES and to see how it could benefit you or your clients’ business, read on…
The Challenge for BES:
As part of BES Consulting’s risk management services, asbestos evaluations from site surveys (including reports, plans, images and scanned documents) are uploaded to an online data storage system which is accessible by clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over time, BES found that the amount of administrative work required to operate and manage the server effectively themselves was causing a strain on resources. This was especially apparent with the company’s growth and the need to deploy resources more efficiently.
The Solution:
In order to address this issue and allow the company to concentrate on their core business, Zen’s Technical Consultants conducted a detailed business and technical requirements analysis. The outcome of this formed the basis of Zen’s proposed solution focusing on their specific needs.
The solution consisted of a dedicated server with full management of both hardware and software, 24/7 support and ongoing service monitoring. Setup with the Windows Server 2003 operating system, DeepMetrix Web statistics and Helm control panel, the solution allows BES to access performance and usage reports as required and make basic day-to-day changes whilst leaving the monitoring, updating and overall management of the service to Zen’s specialist Hosting team. The solution also benefited from Zen’s highly resilient network infrastructure, managed firewall security and UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), therefore minimising any threat of downtime.
As part of the service, Zen provided a comprehensive SLA (Service Level Agreement) including a single point of contact for support requests, a guaranteed 1 hour response with definitive fault resolution times, offsite data backup and detailed service monitoring to identify potential faults quickly.
The Benefits:
Implementation of the managed hosting solution proved to be the ideal choice for BES, providing them with a ‘one stop shop’ for their Internet and hosting requirements.
The initial consultation phase allowed Zen to develop a solution that would best meet their needs, providing guaranteed access to information and records for their clients around the clock. By outsourcing their hosting requirements, BES has been able to allocate more time to achieving their core business objectives whilst improving the service levels delivered to their clients. Also, as BES no longer manages and operates their server in-house, significant cost savings and efficiency gains have been achieved.
For more information about Zen’s managed hosting solutions, contact your Account Manager or visit www.zenwebhosting.com.
Schools and learning establishments can qualify for discounted Microsoft software and operating systems through educational open and volume licensing, and recently qualified Microsoft Authorised Education Reseller (AER) Flexsys are now authorised resellers of this specialised technology.
Flexsys have recently worked with five schools and colleges implementing various solutions including wireless network implementation, outsourced IT services and supply and installation of Interactive White Boards. The AER status has enhanced their portfolio of solutions to the education sector, allowing them to become a one stop shop for the IT requirements of schools and colleges.
For more information on Microsoft Authorised Education Resellers click here
Zen customer London Elektricity was delighted to scoop the “Best Podcast” award at The 2006 Digital Music Awards (DMAs) earlier this month. With a lineup of winners including Lily Allen, Thom Yorke, Lemarr and Peter Gabriel, the BT Yahoo 2006 Digital Music Awards at London’s Roundhouse was a star studded event. Tony Colman of London Elektricity who uses Zen both at home and at work for his connections, stepped up to receive the award for best podcast from Radio One’s Edith Bowman. Tony was keen to claim this as a victory for the whole of Drum & Bass in his reception speech – stating that the worldwide Drum and Bass community was one of the first to embrace new technology.
As one of the only independents to win an award, The Guardian newspaper recently celebrated the victory in their feature on the DMAs, citing that "The awards also reflected the way the Web is leveling the playing field. The prize for best podcast went not to Radio One or another media giant but to London Elektricity".
The London Elektricity podcast has become something of a cult classic with 10,000s of subscribers tuning in to hear not only the latest D&B tracks, but Tony’s ‘musings’.
Check out www.hospitalrecords.com/podcast.shtml for more information.
October has seen three main training sessions for ZenPartners. We travelled down to Bristol on the 4th October to carry out Induction and Product update training to some of our South Western partners. Attending were Richard Perry, Roberta Walker and Duncan Foster from Charlton Networks, Jon Attree and Ian Vickers from Three Cherries and Stephanie Dialbiac-Reay, Jon Reay and Kevin Hicks from Labyrinth Computers.
Other sessions this month included an Induction session at our Moss Bridge Road HQ, with Stacey Wendrenski from Cheshire Telecom and Mark Williams from Pensar Systems. This gave our newest partners a great insight into the programme and a kick start to the partnership.
In addition we also held a ZenExpress session which is designed for Gold and Platinum partners to streamline the fault raising process. Upon completion of this course, attendees are given the ZenExpress phone number which prioritises the call through to ZenExpress members of staff who will understand that initial diagnostics have been carried out. In training were Jonathon Slinger of Control Key and Andrew Oxford of Crucial Systems.
With the Draytek problems we have been experiencing recently with MaxDSL, we also decided to run a Speedtouch Focus Group to show what alternatives are available and work with MaxDSL- the following attendees benefited from the session:
Chris Ambler - TSG
Alistair Mclauchlan - TSG
Andrew Charelsworth - NCS
Steve Rock - K Lowther
Steve Kelly - Cheshire Telecom
Robert Bray – Peninsula
Dean Morris – Peninsula
Raymond Novonty – Novotec
Martin Longbottom - Oakhouse Technical Services
If you feel you may benefit from any of the training mentioned here, or would like some more bespoke training, please do not hesitate to contact Gill Cummings on 0845 058 9084.
Training and Events Survey
In order to make sure that the training and events are meeting your needs as partners we would like to get some feedback from you as to what you would find useful and interesting to be included or covered within them. With this in mind, please could you take 5 minutes to complete our short online survey to help us asses your requirements and further improve events. Please click here to take part in the survey.
New ZenPartner Blue Rising Systems are an IT solutions company with a division (DataScan Retail Systems) which provides an EPOS and Stock Control system called Retail Pro. They recently benefited from ZenPartner induction training and have already started putting through high-value security orders.
One of their customers - a leading Sheet Metal Fabrication company - needed to review their network security recently and so turned to Blue Rising. Blue Rising discussed what the best solution would be with Zen and a Zen Office 8000 Max ADSL line and a Fortigate 60A is now being installed. This solution should allow the customer to experience both costs savings and increased security protection.
Jason Paton of Blue Rising commented: “We became a ZenPartner as we were partnered with another ISP but there was very little communication between them and us and there was no development of the relationship. We were losing sales because of this and so did some research and checked out the ISPA awards and saw that Zen were well awarded. Since becoming a partner I have experienced excellent customer service and competitive pricing as well as extremely useful and well laid out Partner Induction Training, all of which are helping me with a variety of new orders which I am now working on.”
ZenPartner Central Networks & Technologies Ltd (www.cnt.co.uk) was recently contacted by the organisers of their local carnival as they were need of a Web site to advertise the coming dates and events relating to the local carnival. The site was also required to keep past carnivals alive to allow local people to reminisce about the carnival and see photos taken on days gone by.
Central Networks along with the help of Zen’s domain and hosting services has now set up www.nordencarnival.co.uk. This is a work in progress that the organisers are still working on but is something that they are finding invaluable.
David Wilshaw, Norden Carnival Committee Chairman, commented: “The Web site is proving to be an invaluable tool for organising the carnival and letting local people know when things will be happening. I think it is also important to remember carnivals gone by and the site has provided us with the perfect vehicle to do this. We have built up a great relationship with Central Networks and are really grateful for all the help that they and Zen have given us.”
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:
ATB Computing Services Ltd
Silver to Gold:
3AIT Ltd
Active Voice and Data Ltd
Neon 19 Ltd
Gardner Systems PLC
Bronze to Silver:
Apex Business Systems UK Ltd
FJL Microsystems
Olt Consulting
Pelstar Computing Ltd
Central Business Services
Tellemachus Ltd
Keep up the Good work!
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. Here ZenPartner News steals a few minutes with Steve from the Billing Team ….
Full name: Steven Mullington
Age: 33
Postion(s): Partner Billing Executive
Length of time with company: 2 years
THE QUESTIONS
Where are you from originally?
Bolton
What were you doing before you joined Zen?
Budget Officer, Rochdale LEA; Civil Servant.
What are your 3 favourite Web sites (clean please)?
www.youtube.com
www.betfair.com
www.myspace.com
Which album /single do you have in your stereo?
The Pipettes
Which football team do you support?
Bolton Wanderers
What is your favourite childhood TV programme, and why?
Blue Peter. I enjoyed the different appeals and the lights going up on the appeal thingymijig.
If you could be any one else for a day who would it be and why?
Although he’s sadly now dead - John Peel. Would love to have listened to as much diverse music as he did in his lifetime.
What was your best Christmas present?
I particularly enjoyed the boxes that accompanied most of my Christmas presents.
Do you have any bad habits?
Biting my nails
What was your first computer?
Toshiba MSX
Thanks Steve, 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 4).
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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