A challenging year

2020 was a challenging year for us all. As we put the past behind us and look towards a more safe and social future, it is important to reflect on the last 12 months. Only then can we understand what we have overcome and where it is that we are going.

With the world in full crisis by March last year, it soon became clear how valuable our managed IT support services were to our customers. Record numbers of businesses had to work from home and were faced with the challenge of enabling remote working capability for their teams, as quickly as possible, to ensure business continuity. To cope with demand, we had extra hands on our already busy service desk and prioritised working from home issues. Thanks to the sterling efforts of our team, we were able to keep our customers businesses running smoothly and securely – virtually bringing together their isolated teams.

Karl Mannering, Finance Director of Myerson Solicitors commented: “In just one week we had become a virtual law firm servicing clients from our homes, thanks to the first-rate support Richard and the Seriun team have provided, allowing us to continue business as usual during these difficult times. They prioritised scaling up our existing remote environment, that was originally designed for a handful of users, and worked around our team with early starts and late finishes to get the job done. The partners and I have been extremely impressed and incredibly grateful for the support the Seriun team have delivered.”

Seeing the disruption Covid19 was causing businesses caught in its wake, we decided to counter this with a positive ripple effect. We needed to be proactive and put things in place that would allow us to drive forward and continue along our planned growth trajectory. We wanted to take the ‘bull by the horns’ and do even more of the things we love – not just satisfying our customers but really delighting them.

It's all about the experience

This mantra spurred us on to develop our XLA – eXperience Level Agreement. With our customers at the forefront of everything we do, we developed our XLA to ensure we are giving every customer, not only a unique experience, but the best experience possible by increasing their perceived value. Matthew Whittaker was promoted from Service Desk Manager to Customer Experience Manager. He works very closely with our clients to make sure their voices are heard, which in turn will shape our managed IT services and solutions.

Matthew said: “We have amazing customers, so we want to be amazing for them. We’ve developed our Service Desk and put a new structure in place with a dedicated support team to give even better service. I am in constant communication with our customers to find their honest opinion of our solutions and what their experience has been like. That information is the Holy Grail that will shape our future solutions and service delivery. We want to exceed customers’ expectations and deliver them an excellent experience, all of the time.”

Empowering employees

To enhance the lives of our customers further, we expanded our product portfolio with the introduction of two new solutions. Our flexible and scalable 3CX phone system, which has proved to be incredibly popular. It delivers best of breed technology with huge cost savings. At a time of uncertainty, where purse strings are tightly held, saving money while optimising communications within teams and externally to customers, is a win-win situation.

We also unveiled our employee engagement tool ‘Inpowa’ – to drive reward and recognition within teams. The automated system integrates with business management software, allowing managers to actively reward employees for the great work they do. In the first six months, we personally saw a 36% performance increase across all departments at Seriun. It is more critical now than ever for employees to feel motivated, valued and connected. Afterall, it is the people behind a business that will ultimately drive growth and development.

As demand for our services grew, we were able to avoid furlough and instead develop our teams. We expanded our service desk and welcomed two IT apprentices – Ryan Parker and Jake Douglas; and three new support engineers – Ben Walkden, Timon Holden and Connor Pritchard. We employed Omar Lund as Field Service Lead to oversee the smooth operation of all services, and promoted Paul Jameson to Service Desk Manager to ensure we continuously deliver service excellence. We ended the year with another promotion as Steven Robson moved up the ranks to Project Engineer, and now manages the successful delivery of customer projects from start to finish.

City dwellings

In the face of adversity, 2020 has been a good growth year for Seriun. By October we were able to widen our physical footprint by acquiring a city presence with a new office in the heart of Manchester – bringing a chic and trendy vibe to our unique and quirky roots.

We certainly will not forget the past twelve months. We will be grateful for everything we have managed to put in place to enable us to empower the future.

Interested in a career at Seriun? Visit our careers page: www.seriun.co.uk/careers

Meet the Seriun team here: www.seriun.co.uk/meet-the-team