Fast-growing 848 lures leader from UK telco giant

Former BT executive Chris Ainslie strengthens young team

The 848 Group, the cloud services company behind the ‘Virtual CIO’, today announced the appointment of the experienced sales leader to its rapidly growing team. Chris Ainslie, who is an expert in team management and motivation, has been appointed as a director at the Stafford-based company.

Ainslie joins The 848 Group from BT where he was Managing Director of Global Partners, responsible for sales worth more than £500 million a year. Having previously held senior leadership positions at Energis and HP, he has a wealth of experience in managing transformational programmes, global P&Ls, delivery and sales. The 848 Group has ambitious plans for 2012 after having just been named provider of the Government’s G-Cloud initiative, an area in which Ainslie will play a major role.

With such a breadth of knowledge in sales and technology, Ainslie hopes to bring the expertise gained at such large scale companies to make a real impact to the 848 Group. During his 15 years in the IT sector he has proved his sales prowess with the ability to deliver ambitious results, whilst receiving high ratings of satisfaction among his staff.

A spokesman for The 848 Group said: “We are pleased to have Chris join us at 848 at this exciting time for the business. Cloud service and our ‘Virtual CIO’ offering are driving a lot of growth and we look forward to the ideas and experience that he can bring to the board. As we continue to lead the way in cloud services it is vital that we have have the best team working with us as the UK wakes up to the innovation available from the cloud.”

Chris Ainslie, Non-Executive Director, The 848 Group commented on his new position: “I am incredibly excited about my new role, 848 are at the forefront of Cloud technology, making it available to real clients and capable of fulfilling their needs. There has been so much hype around what Cloud computing could offer and 848 are the first company to really move away from this and start delivering systems that are making a real difference.”

Formed in 2010, The 848 group has established itself as one of the UK's foremost Cloud Computing vendors. They provide advice on how best to exploit the cloud computing phenomenon irrespective of vendor, fad or trend.

848 guides businesses through the process of moving from premise based IT systems to a cloud based solution including cloud solutions for accounts, customer records, email, calendar, document handling and ecommerce. 848 are positioned as the ‘Virtual CIO’ for growing businesses.

FreeAgent Alerts tool puts accountants out in front

Online accounting pioneers FreeAgent, www.freeagent.com, has launched a new Alerts tool that will enable  accountants to automatically track their clients’ finances and highlight, in real-time, areas of opportunity or of concern.

FreeAgent Alerts allows accountants to set-up customised alerts to monitor their clients’ account activity for transactions and entries that may warrant closer examination. By using Alerts, accountants will also be able to take a more proactive approach in helping their clients keep on top of their finances, and ensure that potential issues are spotted and acted on sooner rather than later.

The new feature is available exclusively through the accountant’s existing dashboard - which presents an at-a-glance view of all of their clients on the FreeAgent platform and a portal to drill into the specifics of any one of their accounts.

Because FreeAgent is entirely online and has been seamlessly integrated into the IRIS accounts production solution, it also provides better accessibility for users and a significant reduction in time spent on manual or paper based processes.

FreeAgent believes that Alerts is a major breakthrough in cloud accounting and a first for the industry. Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, explained: “Alerts will enable accountants to immediately focus on advising and providing insight to their clients, rather than having to spend a lot of time doing more manual monitoring. It puts them on the front foot and helps them to be more proactive in advising their clients.”

FreeAgent collaborated with a number of accountants and accounting firms on the development of Alerts including Freelance World, which provides a full range of accountancy services to small businesses across the UK.

Alasdair McGill, Managing Director of Freelance World, said: “Online accountancy has revolutionised the way accountants work with their clients and FreeAgent’s latest Alerts tool goes even further to help us keep on top of our clients’ accounts. Alerts will give us the ability to monitor our clients' accounts on a daily basis, giving them peace of mind that we're watching the numbers. I’d like to congratulate FreeAgent on how far they’ve come over the last year to give us a great all-round product that will help us to do a better job for our clients.”

FreeAgent is available to accountancy practices throughout the UK via the company’s close partnership with IRIS Accountancy Solutions where FreeAgent powers the IRIS OpenBooks solution, a key component of the OpenApps suite. With the company’s clear insight and knowledge of the accountancy marketplace, IRIS was involved throughout the planning and development process of Alerts.

Commenting on the latest initiative, Phill Robinson, Chief Executive of IRIS Accountancy Solutions said: “Accountants are always looking at ways in which they can add value to their clients and stand out from the competition. IRIS OpenBooks already enables them to get a real-time picture of what their clients are doing 24x7; this new development means that they can now add even more value by stopping problems before they escalate. It gives accountants a real opportunity to support small businesses beyond basic bookkeeping and give them the support and guidance they need in this challenging economy.”

Cloud is on the horizon for SMEs

In our increasingly globalised world, small businesses need an operational communications network to span the geographically spread regions of the company. But the business applications required to achieve this are an costly proposal in our ongoing economic climate. 

This is making it more and more challenging for smaller businesses to contend with large corporations who hold seemingly infinite budgets. But we are now seeing the emergence of multi-tenanted business applications based upon a price-per-user model, or in other words, the Public Cloud. This is allowing youthful organisations to enjoy enterprise level services, security and products, at a fraction of the price.

Now is the time to begin “Thinking Big” – and utilising communications to get there. With Cloud Computing, instead of running Desktops, Applications, Exchange or Voice through physical in-house servers, they are hosted on centralised virtual servers in a data centre. 

This whole procedure is instant to setup and easy to use; you just login, customise and begin. Applications are more scalable, more secure and more reliable as you don’t need a copy of an app for every department using it, just one app which is adaptable enough for everyone to customise for their own particular demands. You can immediately supply applications whenever you need them as the end user directly controls the resources they require. This allows businesses striving to adjust to the pace and dynamism of business today to deploy highly resilient virtual machines for their staff, dawning a new era of flexibility.

Directors are starting to recognise a change in the dynamics of their firms now that staff can be networked more cost-effectively, no matter where in the globe they are. Employees can gain from enhanced mobility with access to their personal desktop user profile from any device – Laptop, Thin Client or iPad – from anywhere in the world within reach of a 3G network. 

This makes it easy to link up individuals and offices in one cohesive, responsive unit in which users share and synchronise emails, diaries and files. Small companies can employ home-based workers, or open small branch offices, or more effectively connect employees on their mobiles to deliver seamless, customer service as easily as a large corporation. Cloud Computing also furthers staff productivity and innovation by allowing for access to the latest technology without the need for any investment in upgrades so small businesses get first class IT on a global scale without having to spend a penny.

IT executives have raised some concerns about the security of their data in the Cloud. But since all data and applications are centralised in a data centre, it is immensely simpler to enable and enforce processes and procedures to ensure security, privacy and other best practices. No data is stored on a device, so you never have to worry about proprietary data coming into the wrong hands if the device itself is lost, stolen or breaks. This is particularly noteworthy with potentially gigabytes of sensitive corporate data sitting on the desk of every member of staff.

But some executives are still hesitant to take the step: their thought is that they would no longer be able to ‘touch and feel’ the systems which drive their business. Alex Parker, CTO of Commensus PLC is not surprised by this reaction, but feels there is sufficient experience of remote working to relieve those concerns. “Data centres have been on the scene for three decades or more: Cloud computing is simply a logical progression of that service. There has been little evidence of businesses experiencing troubles with access to data and with comprehensive service level agreements that specify virtually constant availability, any remaining concerns should be set aside.”

Most businesses are small (over 98% have under 100 employees) and they like it that way: they value the flexibility, responsiveness and customer interaction. It is clearer than ever that the competitiveness of an organisation is now less based on its size than ever before. 

By making effective use of today's communications capabilities, small firms can contend against anyone, anytime, anywhere, of any size. If you think it, you can do it. With the development of cloud technology and the applications and solutions available to small business, the sky really is the limit and size is no longer an issue.

Jack Wilson is the Digital Marketing Manager of Commensus Cloud Computing

Cloud computing expert iomart named as finalist for UK National Business Awards

Cloud computing company iomart named as finalist for UK National Business Awards

iomart Group plc, a top managed hosting and cloud computing services company, has been shortlisted for one of the UK’s most prestigious business awards.

The company is a finalist for the National Business Awards 2011 in partnership with Orange. iomart has been shortlisted in the Santander Small to Medium sized Business of the Year category.

Stephen Dury, Santander Corporate Banking’s Director of Strategy and Market Development, and member of the shortlist panel, said: “iomart is operating in a highly competitive market and has shown the leadership courage required to grow by proving to be capable of expansion through organic business development and acquisition. A great achievement from a dedicated team at iomart.”

iomart was recently named Scottish Digital IT Company of the Year 2011 and is ranked as one of the top 25 cloud services providers in the world by Talkin’ Cloud 50 and as one of the top 10 managed hosting providers by MSPmentor 100.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart Group plc, said: “We are delighted that iomart’s commitment to sustainable growth and innovation is being recognised on the UK stage. We’ve worked hard to position the company as a leading provider in the competitive market for cloud services and being shortlisted for the National Business Awards alongside some of the most famous names in British business demonstrates that we’re making real headway.”

Announcing the finalists, Steve Pateman, Head of Santander Corporate, Commercial and Business Banking said: “Small and medium sized businesses are the drivers of the UK economy, and the National Business Awards are an excellent opportunity to celebrate the innovation, flexibility and hard work of these companies. I would like to wish all the finalists every success both in these awards and for their future business ventures.”

Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone, Chair of Judges, the National Business Awards, said: “The economic climate continues to present UK businesses with an unprecedented challenge: it is therefore particularly encouraging that the entries in this year’s National Business Awards have shown no drop in quality or performance. Congratulations to all finalists for demonstrating tremendous strength in their ability to adapt and innovate which no doubt reflects the resilience and optimism that are the hallmarks of UK enterprise.”

Organised by UBM plc, winners will be honoured at the National Business Awards gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, Tuesday 8th November, where George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will deliver this year’s welcome address.

Martin Stiven, Vice President of Business at Orange, part of Everything Everywhere, said: “Reaching the finals of the National Business Awards is no mean feat and I am delighted that the calibre of entrants keeps on improving. All finalists have demonstrated exceptional drive, resilience and innovation during challenging economic conditions. Many congratulations to all finalists and best of luck with the next stage of the competition, I very much look forward to the live judging in September and October.”

Visit the National Business Awards website www.nationalbusinessawards.co.uk for a full list of all 2011 finalists. For more information about iomart Group plc visit www.iomart.com