TECH
Evolving – Mark Willis of px Group and Justin Godfrey of Aspire reflect on their firms ’ continuing relationship .
Carbon Humber partnership , which is building a world-leading clean hydrogen plant with Carbon Capture and Storage ( CCS ) at the Saltend site .
Over the past six years , px has gone from 350 employees to well over 1,000 staff and direct contractors , including around 500 on Teesside . The firm was even ranked the 53rd fastest-growing company in the UK by the Sunday Times .
Mark said : “ The reason we went with Aspire at the start was service level . px works in a 24 / 7 , 365 days-a-year , high-hazard , high-risk , demanding environment . When things happen within px , we need to respond fast and Aspire help us do that .
“ Fifteen years ago , we had massive amounts of paper , closed systems and manual processes , with very little collaboration . Fast forward to now and we ’ ve just delivered a site in Norway as a complete , virtual cloud-based site that ’ s as integrated into px as the building next door is .
“ That , for me , is digital transformation – using technology to break down barriers that prevent efficiency . Improving connectivity , putting data where it needs to be , connecting users and collaborating . Aspire have helped us to innovate and transform .”
Aspire sales manager Justin Godfrey agrees . He said : “ 10 years ago , we ’ d have needed to get a team over to Norway to install physical servers etcetera , but technology has evolved so much that now this can all be done remotely , as
proved with this project .” Reflecting on how their business partnership has developed , Mark said : “ When you look at the first services Aspire provided us with – comms , then our strategy with technology adoption – Aspire has been a key partner that ’ s helped design our IT landscape , underpinning all our growth and innovation strategies over the last decade . They ’ ve been the bedrock that has helped us do all that .”
As far as specific benefits in its digital transformation journey are concerned , Mark said there are “ too many to mention ” – but one example , he says , was the switch from hand-written to electronic permitry .
“ That digital transformation turned our outage planning processing document production from over 1,000 hours to just half an hour at the click of a button ,” he said .
“ If you ’ re looking for tangible evidence of what digital transformation can do , there you have it .”
Given px ’ s involvement with critical energy sites , cyber security is another essential requirement for the business – and Mark says the partnership with Aspire is hugely reassuring .
He said : “ We are CNI – critical national infrastructure – so we need to be hyper-focused on our cyber security . “ Our arrangement allows Aspire to
To find out more about Aspire , visit aspirets . com .
do a lot of the heavy lifting and px to look at the more specific ‘ px stuff ’. That ’ s where the synergies come together .”
Reflecting on how the Aspire-px relationship has developed , Justin said that being a national managed service provider , Aspire has been able to support px sites across the UK .
He said : “ When Mark first came to Aspire , we started with small projects , but as px grew , we were able to deliver more .
“ Both businesses have grown together , really . When we first started with px , there were 25 Aspire employees in our base at Heworth , Gateshead – we ’ re now over 265 and still growing !”
Reflecting on how well the partnership works , Justin said : “ It ’ s down to working with a solid IT team within px .
“ Quite often our technical and presales team will sit down with Mark and his team and do whiteboard sessions to discuss future projects , strategic roadmaps , budget planning and any other bespoke ICT solutions .
Mark said : “ Aspire have helped us innovate and grow as a business and we ’ re both on a big growth trajectory . I ’ m excited to see where the future takes us .”
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