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The PC Pro Awards 2006 were held in December at the Brewery in London. Zen Internet was awarded the highly coveted Best Broadband ISP for the third year in a row.
Voted for by our customers this is further testament to Zen’s unrelenting mission to provide the best Broadband services with the very best service and support for our customers.
In addition to the Best Broadband ISP award, Zen was Highly Commended in the Best Web Host category which in itself is a great achievement beating many of the industry’s specialist hosting providers. Zen is growing and expanding their hosting business through continued investment and a focus on service and this has been rewarded by this excellent commendation.
After being handed the Best Broadband ISP award by TV personality Suzie Perry, Iain Johnstone, Sales and Partner Programme said “I was thrilled to pick up the award on behalf of Zen and to win it for a third consecutive year is a magnificent achievement by the entire company, all of whom work to ensure that our customers enjoy the same high standard of service wherever they come into contact with us. This is an award that we have all contributed to. Our commendation in the Web Host category is a real boost for the hosting team who are already striving to go one step further next year”.
“I must thank our customers who took the time to vote for us and also PC Pro Magazine for making this such a landmark week for Zen Internet”.
Zen hosted a truly memorable event at the BT Tower in London on 4th December to say a special thank you to a selection of customers, Platinum ZenPartners and members of the press. Aptly named ‘Zen At The Tower’, the event was a unique opportunity to celebrate 11 successful years of Zen in this most prestigious of venues.
Iain Johnstone, Zen’s Sales & Partner Programme Manager, officially welcomed everyone to the event and then handed over to Richard Tang, Zen’s Founder and Managing Director. The captive audience heard about Zen’s past, present and plans for the future. Richard strongly confirmed that he has no plans to sell the company unlike the route taken by many of Zen’s competitors.
He also explained how Zen’s mission “to Provide the Best ISP Service in the UK” forms the basis of everything that the company does. This is backed up by the vast array of awards Zen has won including a record 3 ISPAs (Internet Services Providers’ Association Awards) in 2006 for Best Heavy Business Broadband, Best Uncontended Services and Best Business ISP.
Guests including representatives from thinkbroadband.com (formerly known as ADSLguide.org.uk), PC Pro Magazine, ISPA and Premier Rugby were also given an exclusive insight into Zen’s managed security products. Justin Barritt (Zen’s Security Product Manager) and Carl Windsor from Fortinet (the current global market leader in the Unified Threat Management Security market) provided a fact filled overview of this advanced network security solution.
David Smith of BT rounded off the formal part of the proceedings with a fascinating presentation about 21st Century Networks, otherwise know as 21CN - a world first for a Telecommunications company. After a quick quiz about the audience’s knowledge of the BT Tower, everyone headed up to the famous revolving restaurant for a sumptuous buffet lunch on the 34th floor and to admire the spectacular panoramic views across the city.
Attendees were able to meet their fellow guests and learn more about Zen’s plans for the future, Threat Management and the 21CN project in an informal atmosphere. Richard Tang closed the event by thanking everyone for coming and also invited a volunteer to draw out the winners of the special prize draw. Andrew Grey from RockIT, a Platinum ZenPartner, was the proud winner of 2 tickets to a Rochdale AFC home match of his choice and Paul Whiteley of Espresso Education was delighted to win 2 tickets to a Guinness Premiership rugby match.
Iain Johnstone said that the event was a resounding success: “It was an amazing experience and a fantastic celebration of Zen’s success over the years. We wanted to thank our customers and key supporters of Zen at the same time as re-enforcing Zen’s position as a leading Business ISP specialising in delivering quality, reliability and service. The views from the top of the Tower were tremendous and will leave many lasting memories for everyone who attended. On the back of this event, we are planning to arrange further events to a wider audience in the New Year”.
2006 has been an eventful year for Zen Internet’s hosting division, Zen Web Hosting, with a range of new products being launched and a number of awards being received from various independent industry organisations. The highlight of these was receiving the ‘Highly Commended’ award within the ‘Best Web Host’ category at the annual PC Pro Awards ceremony in December.
A Year of Growth & New Developments
Considerable growth of Zen’s Web hosting division has been evident throughout 2006 with the number of customers using these services increasing by more than 125% during the year. This was partially fuelled by the success of Zen’s Linux shared hosting products and reseller packages, launched towards the end of 2005.
In early February, Zen released a new range of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates. Partnering with Comodo, a market leader in enterprise security services, the new products have provided customers with significant cost savings over Zen’s previous SSL offerings.
April saw the launch of a completely new range of hosting services in the form of fully managed servers suitable for hosting Web sites, databases, e-mail and applications. Installed with a Windows operating system and Helm control panel, the products have allowed customers to benefit from greater performance and security by having their own dedicated server, whilst removing the day-to-day management and administrative tasks associated with operating their own server in-house.
A Host of Awards
In August, Zen received its very first hosting award from the independent online information resource Web Host Directory, being named as their ‘Number 1 Shared Hosting Provider’. In September, Zen re-launched its range of Windows shared hosting packages, providing customers with a more advanced specification, increased performance and reliability and the Helm control panel.
Just three months later in December, these products were recognised for their performance and reliability with Zen being voted as the ‘Number 1 Windows Hosting Provider’ by Web Host Directory’s online readers and the organisation’s independent review board.
The year culminated for Zen’s Web hosting team in December when the business was presented with PC Pro magazines’ ‘Highly Commended’ award within the ‘Best Web Host’ category at their annual awards ceremony in London.
James Steel, Hosting Product Manager commented, “We're fast gaining recognition, not just for our achievements in the broadband arena, but also now as premium hosting company in its own right. We are committed towards building on our achievements over the past twelve months in 2007 and to achieving our mission to be the best provider of Web hosting and managed hosting services in the UK.”
For more information about Zen’s hosting products, contact your account manager or visit www.zenwebhosting.com
ZenPartner Induction Training – Twickenham
On the 6th December we ran another induction event at Twickenham which was very well attended by a mixture of new and existing partners. The session proves useful for all those in attendance as it give an overview of what is available from the ZenPartner programme and how to get the most out of being a ZenPartner including commission, up selling and overcoming objections as well as a full products and services overview.
The following attendees benefited from the session: Sean Houghton – Aztec IT Solutions Limited
Damian Coates – Utilize PLC
Samuel Gillon – Utilize PLC
Paul Ridler – idesign
Clive Sheppard – Synapse UK Limited
Mike Warner - Synapse UK Limited
Carel Venter – Pensar Systems Limited
Mark Needham – Glenfield Software Limited
John Baldwin – Networking Engineering and Technical Support Limited
Philip Ware – Allware Systems Limited
Moss Bridge Road
Four new partners attended the first Induction Session of 2007, on Wednesday 24th January, which was a jam packed session and included a sneak preview of the upcoming Zen VoIP products, due to be launched in the near future.
Here are the attendees:
Colin Bryant – Crucible Multimedia Ltd
Simon Holcombe - Black Ram Web Solutions
Jon Rice – Black Ram Web Solutions
Mark Doorbar – Life IT Ltd
Brendan Gallagher – Elliptical Software Ltd
Coming Up
Coming up we will be running another induction session at the Memorial Stoop, Twickenham on Thursday 1st February and on Wednesday 28th February at our Headquarters building at Rochdale.
If you are able to attend either of these events please complete the booking forms to reserve your place which can be found here (you will need to be logged in).
Here is a copy of the current agenda:
Outline
• Introduction to Zen and the ZenPartner programme
• Competitor analysis (why choose Zen over other providers)
• How the ZenPartner programme works
o Benefits & Features
o Commission scenarios and how to claim
o Billing & payment
o Support Roles
o BT Wholesale role
o Policies
o Contacts
• Products & Services overview
o ADSL/MaxDSL/SDSL & Internet access
o Hardware
o Managed Hardware
o Managed Security
o Web Hosting
o Domains
o Web Solutions
Feedback
If there are any products or areas of Zen that you would like to attend a training session on, i.e. if you are thinking of moving from just reselling broadband, to providing hosting for customers as well but aren’t sure of where to start, please send your enquiries to training@zenpartner.com or speak to your Account Manager and we can look at supplying tailored training for your requirements.
Get In Touch
Everyone can benefit. It doesn’t matter if you are a techie or a newbie. Get in touch with Gill Cummings our dedicated Training Co-ordinator, for more information on the course that’s most relevant to you.
On Friday 15th December a number of volunteers from various departments around Zen including Partner Account Executive Sarah Lightwood went to Fairbridge in Rochdale to build a new internet bar.
Fairbridge offer young people a combination of long-term personal support and challenging activities in 15 of the most disadvantaged areas across the UK.
Fairbridge’s goal is simple: to give young people the motivation, confidence and skills they need to change their own lives.
The new facility will be used to help young people acquire some basic IT skills, as well as various creative art and music projects.
The volunteers spent the day converting an old pub bar into a working IT area complete with a 2 foot Perspex wall all the way around the bar area and shelving inside to mount computers, monitors and Keyboards.
Alice Dunn, Partnership Development Officer said: “An enormous thank you goes to the volunteers from Zen from all of the staff and young people at Fairbridge, it means a great deal to us when people believe in what we are trying to achieve and give up their time to help us.”
Gold ZenPartner, PSL (Poundbury Systems Limited) have scooped a hat Trick at the recent British Chamber of Commerce awards.
PSL who supplies, installs, maintains and supports computer and telephony networks and systems won three of the categories for the South West Region:
-Business of the Year
-The Microsoft Award for Innovation through Technology
-Skills and Workforce Development
2006 was a busy year for PSL, they also gained a whole host of other awards and accreditations including, ISO 9001:2000, Investor In People, Microsoft Certified Partner, Microsoft SMB specialist, Cisco SMB Partner. This combination of awards leaves PSL ideally placed to serve companies with a complete, converged solution to all their technology needs.
PSL understand that the needs of each business can be very specific. They can offer tailored advice which takes their particular situation into account. Their mission is to give their customers maximum levels of profitability through highly efficient and effective, professionally maintained ICT Systems.
They are experts in all areas of networking and business IT systems, from network upgrades to Voice over IP telephone systems. PSL also provide 24 hour maintenance and monitoring services. Their customers are not only all over the South West but also throughout England.
Director Clare Jenkins says “We are really pleased to win these British Chamber of Commerce awards. It is always good to see that the efforts of our staff and the quality of our procedures have been confirmed by an external organisation. Everyone at PSL is looking forward to an equally exciting 2007”
You all speak with them, whether it’s daily or only now and again. But who are these wonderful people really? Once again, ZenPartner News steals a few minutes with a member of the ZenPartner team...
Full name: Andrew Juan Sayle.
Age: 25.
Postion(s): Partner Account Executive.
Length of time with company: 2 years.
THE QUESTIONS
Where are you from originally?
Burnley, Lancashire.
What were you doing before you joined Zen?
Student.
What are your 3 favourite Web sites (clean please)?
Google
BBC
Gizmodo
Which album /single do you have in your stereo?
Kooks - Inside In/ Inside Out.
Which football team do you support?
The Clarets, Burnley F.C.
What is your favourite childhood TV programme, and why?
Transformers.
If you could be any one else for a day who would it be and why?
Eerrrmmm, that’s a hard one, I’m quite happy being me. Probably a footballer, getting paid to play footy, that can’t be bad!
What was your best Christmas present?
Shiatsu Massaging Cushion.
Do you have any bad habits?
Probably but I can’t remember. I have the worst memory!
What was your first computer?
Amstrad CPC 464.
Thanks Andrew, and that concludes the inspirational interview with this month’s ZenPartner team member.
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Wayne Moran of Zen presents Julian Lewis of Positive Computing Ltd with their Gold status plaque |
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:
Omnisys Solutions Limited
PRR Computers
Rochdale Online
Spectrum Interactive
Silver to Gold:
AVI Syestems
ICT Partnerships Limited
Isrighthere Limited
PM & M Solutions for Business LLP
Positive Computing Limited
PURE Technology (UK) Ltd
Samarind Limited
Bronze to Silver:
Advanced Computer Technologies Ltd
Augmented Reality Limited
DC Systems (UK) Limited
EVE Networks Limited
First 4 IT
Glenfield Software
Key Computer Applications
Principle Focus Computing Limited
SciTech Computers
Synentia Limited
Take 3 Systems Ltd
Keep up the Good work!
Office Max and Office 8000 Promotion
9th January 2007 - 2nd March 2007
To celebrate the recent launch of our Office 8000* and Office 8000 MAX* products we have decided to run a competition for ZenPartners, with a Prize of a weekend break for two.
The prize will be awarded to the ZenPartner who accumulates the highest number of points** throughout the 8 week promotion. Points are awarded for new activations and upgrades for the Zen Office 8000 and Office 8000 Max.
For further information, please speak to your Account Manager or the ZenPartner Team.
The competition started 9th January and will run until 2nd March. The winner will be announced shortly after this date - Good Luck!
* Please note:
- Actual download speeds will be no higher than 7150kbps.
- BT Wholesale estimates that 78% of customers will achieve download speeds of 4Mb and above.
- Fluctuation in line speed is expected to occur within the first 10 days of service whilst your line
speed adapts to the maximum it can reliably support.
- It is likely that speeds no greater than 2Mb will be achieved at peak usage times.
**
All orders must be fulfilled by 2nd March 2007
In order to maintain a high level of service, the Customer Services Team has reviewed the opening hours available for customers.
As the demand for Customer Services is at a higher peak between 9am and 5pm, the opening hours have therefore changed to this time to ensure there are enough resources to meet the customer demand. This will be continually reviewed, and as demand evolves we will evolve with this, in order to maintain our high standard of customer support. This will take effect from Monday 22nd January.
The Customer Services Team can be contacted either via e-mail or phone with the following contact details:
E-mail: customerservice@zenpartner.com
Phone: 0845 058 9007
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact your Account Manager or the Partner team.
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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