To say that G3 Comms Managing Director Tony Parish has the Midas touch might just extend the reach of his achievements into the realms of mythology, yet his golden merits ensure, by any stretch of the imagination, that he remains one of the industry's larger than life characters.
London-based G3 Comms was established in 2002 by three of the existing board members, headed-up by Parish, with an intent to capitalise on spiking demand for converged networks and unified communications. Today the firm employs 45 staff and boasts £12 million turnover derived from 300 customers, 80 per cent of which are mid-sized enterprises of 250 to 1,000 employees. In more detail, 33 per cent of the company's revenues come from UC, with the same 33 per cent split between technical support and voice and data services delivered to a growing number of UK-based multi-national businesses.
Parish is not one for sitting on his hands and so standing still is not an option. And in a move that advanced his strategy to the next level G3 Comms and sister company G3 Network Services merged operations in 2012 to become G3 Comms Group. Over the past 10 years both companies had built capabilities in designing, implementing and maintaining IP communications and converged network solutions. During this time, the two businesses increasingly pooled resources to enable their customers to capitalise on the latest communications technology, and according to Parish the new structure opens up many more opportunities as it is better able to address the needs of enterprise clients.
"We've always believed that the most important thing for any business is to stay ahead of the competition," commented Parish. "To get some kind of advantage that makes you special, more profitable, more efficient and a better choice for your customers. Staying ahead means you can never stand still."
G3's strategy includes greater penetration of global markets and the company significantly expanded its global capabilities as founding partner of the Aura Alliance, which in less than five years has grown to become the world's largest Avaya endorsed global alliance with more than 50 members and over 3,200 Avaya accredited specialists providing local support in 112 countries. During this time, G3 played a key role in accelerating the size and capabilities of the Alliance as well as shaping its role in supporting global partners.
"With this support we can deliver the latest converged network solutions across LAN and WAN, next generation hosted, cloud-based voice and data services and UC anywhere in the world," said Parish. "We will continue to innovate, stay ahead of developments in technology and market trends and adapt our business services. Our approach to business is straightforward - we believe that by staying in front we can put our customers first."
The Aura Alliance has evolved from being a facilitator to becoming a provider of global deployment services and project management. This means that local members now have more support, improved resources and greater flexibility when they undertake projects, resulting in a better experience and a better deal for international clients, noted Parish. "In a period of economic uncertainty and massive changes within technology ecosystems, global clients are increasingly reliant on providers who can eliminate system complexity, deliver cost savings and realise business value with seamless end-to-end solutions delivered with a seamless end-end-end service," he explained. "With G3's help, the Alliance has risen to this challenge as a provider to multi-national businesses deploying global Avaya systems."
Advances in technology are rapidly transforming the way businesses operate and new virtual and cloud-based network delivered services are creating the chance to realise step-changes in efficiency and productivity. To extract maximum value from next generation communications investment, enterprises need to rely on service providers who can deliver end-to-end solutions. Stepping up to the mark, G3 Comms has specialist skills and experience on both sides of the firewall and the agility to combine these to deliver solutions that are fit for purpose.
"By fully integrating our businesses, developing our technology partner relationships and embracing next generation connectivity, G3 Comms is now better placed and better equipped to empower a new era of enterprise communications," said Parish. "Accessed from a single contact point for expenditure accountability, our end-to-end expertise gives clients the ability to design, implement and maintain their complex, mission critical technology using one seamless service."
According to Parish, increasingly complex communication estates, higher maintenance costs and greater technology interoperability are driving a move towards virtualisation, from total IT infrastructures and hosted UC to cloud contact centres and virtual data centres. "By the same token, BYOD is also now high on the corporate communications agenda," added Parish. "While conferencing and collaboration solutions are providing new opportunities to cut costs and streamline operations, particularly for multi-national businesses."
With many businesses now opting to upgrade communications rather than replace their ageing systems the demand for first class telecoms management and maintenance services has become increasingly important. G3's technical help desk and services such as G3://4D and its suite of network monitoring tools are helping clients to maximise the performance of their existing infrastructures by identifying and resolving system issues before they become a business risk. "These services complement our end-to-end offering and mean our clients can rely on us to cut downtime, reduce risk and extract maximum value from their technology investment," added Parish.
G3 employs a team of people with the skills necessary to plan, deploy, manage and maintain such complex communication solutions. Its engineers are recognised as some of the most experienced and highly qualified in the business and G3 has won numerous awards for its standards of customer service. But despite these achievements G3 Comms still has some way to go to fulfil its potential. And the firm's watchwords for next year, noted Parish, are 'bigger and better'.
"Having integrated G3 Telecommunications and G3 Network Services into one larger entity we're now going through the process of establishing G3 Comms as a legal entity," added Parish. "The merger brings everything together, combining skills and expertise to give us the end-to-end solution capabilities that businesses need. After the recession, we're growing again and have just logged our best monthly figures for the last three years for both turnover and profit. The future is bright for G3."•