FEATURE
Port – The Port of Middlesbrough is an imposing backdrop for Neil Warren and Justin Godfrey .
Historic – AV Dawson ’ s head of IT Neil Warren and Aspire ’ s sales manager Justin Godfrey at The Staiths .
the most reliable services available in the country .
And that , says Neil , was just what he was looking for .
He said : “ We didn ’ t have an IT department but the mindset changed in the business . Gary identified a need to make improvements to certain areas and market leading technology was on our roadmap .
“ My remit was pretty much a blank canvas – introduce a new IT strategy for the business and then implement it .
“ I ’ d worked with Aspire previously for other companies on different projects , so when I needed to identify and bring in a new connectivity solution , I didn ’ t hesitate to reach out to them . ”
Getting AV Dawson on board , says
Justin , was a real vote of confidence in UDC . He said : “ Having worked with Neil on other projects , we were keen to engage with him at AV Dawson .
“ Everyone knows them and , fortunately , we had the right solution at the right price .”
He agrees UDC has been a “ game changer ” for the company .
He said : “ We ’ ve made a £ 6m investment in UDC since its launch and we ’ re really keen to invest in the Tees Valley and support the fantastic growth here .
“ We have set ambitious plans for improving digital innovation across Teesside and we want to support as many companies as possible . We ’ ve recently just installed UDC at Teesside Airport and Teesworks , as well as a host of other SME businesses . Having AV Dawson as an advocate for UDC is really fantastic .”
Previously , Neil explained , AV Dawson ’ s connectivity had been a patchwork affair .
He said : “ Our old head office was running from site-to-site connections from our other transport building . It was very hit and miss – bad connections , bounces , latency issues across every site .
“ We installed UDC at our old head office and made that the primary site connection . Then when we moved here , we ran fibre between sites , so we passed it back to this building as well to provide more resilience across the network .”
AV Dawson ’ s UDC hubs are in The Staiths and , across the road , the AV House coil warehouse ( named after company founder Arthur Vernon
Dawson ), but it reaches buildings across the sprawling 100-acre site .
And Neil , who runs the IT department with technical support specialists Martin Cunningham and Jonathon Aungiers , says the improvements in latency , speed and flexibility are plain to see .
He said : “ I think UDC was already proven by the investment made in it – and it was very cost-effective compared to other systems we looked at .
“ It has worked really well , with excellent speed and performance . And it will give us the flexibility to increase speed and bandwidth when we need to . We can flex up very quickly – with previous suppliers , upgrading the bandwidth could take months . With UDC , we can flex up within 48 hours .”
UDC ’ s success means Justin now heads a large team at Aspire ’ s Teesside office at Fusion Hive in Stockton , including business development specialists Oliver Birleson , Richard Pearson , Nicola Mogie-Pickering , Ben Bousfield and new starter Tiago Santos . And Justin , who is also heading up Aspire ’ s recently opened Leeds office , is braced for more enquiries as word of UDC ’ s benefits continues to spread .
Neil added : “ If any other businesses are looking at replacing , upgrading or renewing their existing lease line , it would be foolish not to look at UDC because of the flexibility benefits and the low latency . Commercially , in terms of what you ’ re getting for your money , I would definitely urge companies to look at it as an option .”
Visit aspirets . com
The voice of business in the Tees region | 119