avsnet's Managing Director Graham Fry has cooked up a recipe for growth that serves the right mix of technology seasoned with a service ethic that always puts the customer first.
Business communications and managed services provider avsnet delivers a full range of network centric unified communications, video conferencing and audio visual solutions to corporate, education and public sector clients. The company reflects the skills and customer service ethic embodied by its founder and Managing Director Graham Fry who with a strong technical background blends a broad knowledge of unified communications technology, network management and data services together with a strong customer centric approach, creating a formula for success that will see the firm almost double its turnover this year following year-on-year growth since its inception.
"I founded AVSolution in 2005 when I noticed a gap in the market for a good reseller focused on exceeding customer expectations," said Fry. "We rebranded as avsnet in 2012. The purpose of our rebrand was to better reflect the broad range of business solutions we provide. We wanted to maintain our strong AV and VC heritage while also increasing our focus on collaborative unified communications. I knew that if we remained solely as a specialist video communications and AV company we might struggle to convince the market of our capabilities in unified and network centric communications. We have seen significant growth in this area already as well as continued growth within VC due to intuitive, lower cost and high quality VC solutions."
Along with its rebrand from AVSolution to avsnet last year, Fry also brought in a management team including Alistair Johnston as Financial Director and Mike Mason as non-exec Chairman to help strengthen the business and achieve its longer-term growth strategy. "Key growth areas are BYOD, hosted UC services and business transformation through UC technology," added Fry. "These opportunities will enable avsnet to work strategically with our customers in the long-term. There is nothing better than an email from a happy customer and knowing we have delivered a project on time and within budget. This is down to hard work and having the willingness and drive to exceed customer expectations."
The company has grown around 40 per cent year-on-year to a predicted turnover of £10 million this year following a group total of £6 million last year. "We currently have 40-50 staff and over 500 customers," explained Fry. "Our customers are mainly in the corporate and retail sectors but we also have a lot in the health, education and government sectors. We work closely with our customers, creating a strategy to suit their needs. We assess what technologies they have already and advise how it can be adapted rather than simply suggesting they purchase something new. Our approach is based on consolidation and adoption, helping businesses realise the benefits of their investments in terms of cost savings, reduced environmental impact and increased productivity. We will also continue the development and expansion of our managed services and Lync practice. This is what customers are asking for."
A key milestone for the company was its acquisition of Besttel earlier this year. Besttel's strengths lie in network, data centre, virtualisation, security and wireless. This acquisition enables avsnet to take the BYOD trend one step further by giving users the choice of instant messaging, presence, audio, video and web conferencing tools on mobiles, tablets, PCs, laptops and room-based telepresence and video conferencing suites. "Technology is always changing so we constantly adapt and evolve as we see relevant for our customers," commented Fry. "We are always training and re-training to keep up to date with all the latest technologies.
"We have a constantly growing team of experienced professionals and a fantastic talented group. This naturally creates great morale. Our high standards are driven by customer expectations and staff willingness to exceed. We also have many social and sport events throughout the year including five-a-side football, softball competitions, charity fundraising events and social nights out. These all help to create a high level of morale which translates into great customer service. To this day, delivering excellent customer service, the latest technology, a strong return on investment and helping enterprises realise true business transformation has remained the company's core values and resides at the heart of every decision."•