East London-based PR agency Idea Generation has outsourced its IT management to IT support specialists Fifosys in a contract worth £35,000 a year, achieving the perfect balance of value for money and quality of service. The fully managed outsourced solution provided by Fifosys enables Idea Generation employees to focus on core business activities, reducing hours lost to resolving IT issues by 70%.

Idea Generation is the UK’s largest arts, cultural and entertainment PR agency, and finding the right IT managed service provider to optimise return on investment and deliver a high quality of service was essential. Fifosys will provide Idea Generation with a fully-outsourced IT solution to help the business run as efficiently as possible.

Hector Proud, Managing Director of Idea Generation comments, “Prior to engaging with Fifosys we had tried seven different companies over a five year period, but we just couldn’t find anyone who could deliver a consistent level of service. If anything went wrong, we couldn’t even speak to someone who was polite. Everything has changed now we are working with Fifosys. They are the dream supplier – conscientious, professional, and the first agency that has achieved what they said they would.”

Proud continues, “The service provided by Fifosys ensures that our core resources – namely our staff – are able to work as efficiently as possible. Inevitable day to day problems, glitches and bugs are quickly sorted by the support desk. Our workforce are much happier and reassured now that they can make a call and get the problem resolved. Hours lost to resolving IT issues have fallen by at least 70% so far.”

Managing director of Fifosys, Mitesh Patel, comments, “For any business with less than 250 employees such as Idea Generation, employing IT people with the breadth of specialist skills required in-house can be near impossible. Through outsourcing, a company can have access to a team of 20+ IT engineers who can deliver to their overall IT requirements and add value by taking accountability of IT and the IT Budget.”

Describing what sets the Fifosys offering apart, Proud comments, “The Fifosys solution offers the winning combination of competitive pricing and a customer service strategy that really works. If they were charging me very little but things were dropping left, right and centre, it wouldn’t be worth it – it’s the two things together that makes this investment work.”

Proud adds, “The vital thing was that Fifosys provided a fresh approach to pricing structure. They offered a straightforward service fee, and were clear about how much they would deliver within this set budget. Importantly, this reassured me that they have confidence in what they can deliver, and secondly, it enables us to plan and budget going forward without any nasty surprises – which is something that IT companies have a bad reputation for doing.”

Idea Generation excels in the creation and management of ‘high-octane’ media relations programmes, offering a new generation of public relations based upon intelligence, honesty, creativity and efficiency. Clients include Veuve Cliquot, The Poetry Society, Playboy, The Clothes Show London and Vauxhall.

Proud concludes, “Finding the best IT provider is one of the hardest aspects of running a business, and it is a very debilitating process of trial and error trying to find the right levels of service. It’s like getting the flu, when an IT system is all up and running you don’t even notice it, but when it fails it is the end of the world – especially in today’s 24/7 IT-dependent world. If you’re working in communications as we do, or anywhere in culture, you need to have an IT system you can rely on – Fifosys has provided us with just that.”

 Boutique debt brokerage business invests in an end-to-end IT solution and a fully managed service from IT outsourcing provider Fifosys -

European debt brokerage company, Yorvik, has outsourced its entire IT infrastructure installation for its Cheapside-based offices to IT support specialists Fifosys in a contract worth in excess of £100,000 over a three year period for the provision of a complete infrastructure and fully managed service. The outsourced solution provided by Fifosys ensures that Yorvik’s IT requirements will be effectively met as the company experiences significant growth.

Yorvik is a fast-growing bespoke debt brokerage business specialising in debt, claims and bank debt; therefore finding the right IT infrastructure provider to understand the increasing demands of a complex financial organisation was essential. The fully outsourced solution from Fifosys provides a scalable infrastructure to the start-up, delivering the levels of service required to support the company’s development.

Lars Lemonius, founding partner of Yorvik, comments, “As a start-up, we needed an IT provider that could facilitate a complete infrastructure solution from scratch whilst appreciating the high-level IT requirements of a complex brokerage business. We needed that organisation to also be flexible and price competitive. We sourced multiple quotes before employing Fifosys, and the decision to engage them was based on the perceived quality of service for the price offered.”

Lemonius continues, “Fifosys’ approach is encouraging and we were satisfied that they could deal with the complex requirements of the business, with the right balance between outlay and return on investment. More often than not, you consider the smaller IT providers but question if they are able to deliver the service levels required. Then you go to the bigger providers and they demand a massive price premium for the guarantee that they can deliver, so it was a case of finding the balance, which Fifosys has achieved well.”

Fifosys is providing Yorvik with a comprehensive one year infrastructure installation strategy including a server and desktop environment, IP telephone system, email and information store, network security, and a data backup and disaster recovery programme. This is complemented by a fully managed outsourced service, delivering maintenance and 24×7 support, as well as consultancy services as and when Yorvik requires it.

Commenting on the key benefits of the Fifosys solution Lemonius adds, “The development plan Fifosys provides is integral to our growth as a company. At the moment we have 10 staff, but we expect to be 20 by the end of 2010, so we need to have a managed service which can keep up. And if we do encounter any technical issues they are resolved quickly, as Fifosys provides a 24-hour hotline – something smaller companies cannot necessarily provide. If you have a mission-critical IT set-up as we do then you need to have this in place, even if it is rarely used.”

Lemonius concludes, “What is key about Fifosys for Yorvik is the integrated approach to telecoms and IT. Some companies will only offer the IT side, but the two are so integrated today that you need an IT outsourcer to provide both.”

Managing director of Fifosys, Mitesh Patel, comments, “For an expanding company such as Yorvik it is imperative to invest in a reliable and scalable IT infrastructure from the start, which will deliver return by offering secure and robust IT delivery and allowing the organisation to focus on core operations.”

Patel concludes, “This IT infrastructure should then be complemented by a fully managed service. Fifosys delivers added value through the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) concept framework, acting as the single point of contact with all third party suppliers, and ensuring that IT is aligned with the business objectives of the client.”

Already providing successful support and infrastructure management to Proud Camden, Fifosys were the obvious choice to produce seamless infrastructure integration with Proud’s newest investment. In preparation for Proud Cabaret’s launch, Fifosys installed a robust and secure IT infrastructure as well as CCTV, door entry and time attendance systems to help with the smooth running of the restaurant and club.

The CCTV system allows Proud Cabaret’s management to access cameras from remote locations, forming an integral element of the club’s security strategy, whilst the innovative time attendance system uses a fingerprint scanner to record when staff clock in and out of their shifts, providing real time data to the office network and streamlining management processes.

Alex Proud, Owner of Proud Cabaret comments, “We were originally recommended the services of Fifosys when we were looking to outsource our IT requirements at Proud Camden. Given the great job they’ve done there for the last year, it made sense to bring them over to Proud Cabaret in the City to do the same right from the word go.”

Proud continues, “For me, the best thing about the service we get is its efficiency. Time is money and downtime can be costly. With a service that means you are always operational, downtime is not a problem I envisage us running in to.”

In 1998, Proud launched the Proud Galleries group with the opening of Proud Central, and Proud Camden – bar, live music venue and photographic gallery – followed in 2001. Proud Galleries is now one of Europe’s most successful privately funded photographic institutions, with up to 10,000 customers visiting shows reflecting popular culture, encompassing rock and roll, fashion and sporting moments.  Proud Cabaret is modelled on a 1920s speakeasy and is an elegant new City destination which offers fine dining and entertainment in surroundings which exude the illicit glamour of a bygone era.

Mitesh Patel, Managing director of Fifosys comments, “Mid-market and SME businesses face a real challenge in managing their IT support requirements. For an organisation the size of Proud venues it is extremely difficult to justify a full-time IT department, particularly as they need support outside of normal office hours. Therefore, outsourcing the whole IT support function to a specialist organisation is not only a cost effective solution but also provides higher levels of service”.