Insights

ASL have been working with Vision since 2007 and manage their entire IT estate. Vision was purchased by a US multinational in 2019 and ASL were retained to deliver a refresh of their hosted private cloud environment. We support approximately 70 users at their site in Blackburn, and another 30 users in China, Dubai, Pakistan and India. Mark Doyle, Group Finance Director has this to say: “Vision has partnered with Awareness who have been our outsourced provider for in excess of 10 years. I can’t speak highly enough of the team and how they support our needs on a daily but also strategic basis. Awareness is an innovative business with exceptionally skilled employees who work with us to not only meet the day-to-day requirement but to also ensure our IT infrastructure is future proofed. Security is obviously uber important in this modern age and Awareness have successfully fended off two separate attacks on Vision in the past 3 years – something we are eternally grateful for.” Mark Doyle.

ASL have supported Pure since their inception and manage their entire IT and communications portfolio. We provide a hosted private cloud and support approximately 150 users across 18 sites. Louise Parrot-Bates (CEO) and this to say about us: ASL have been our ICT support since we established our charity Pure Innovations in June 2005. We currently employ over 240 staff across the Greater Manchester area. Over 150 of those staff require IT equipment to be able to do their jobs – they need to be connected and supported with any daily IT issues they may encounter. Our staff’s IT skills and knowledge is vastly variable – making the demands on ASL unpredictable. They have supported our teams to effective remote workers and addressing issues that arise daily in a prompt effective manner. They have supported the relocation of premises to ensure we have the correct infrastructure to be operational and effective.

ASL have worked with NorthEdge since 2011 providing a hosted server private cloud, supporting over 50 users across Manchester, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. In 2020, ASL conducted a full Cyber Security Review and proposed a 3-year technology plan that included software, training and next-gen firewall technology. Derek Knowles (Head of Operations) has this to say:  I have personally worked with Awareness for over 4 years and during that time have built a really good, solid relationship with them – from their management team to their support team. We run our own business based on good relationships, so it is crucial those that work with us know how important this is. We rely on the team at Awareness to undertake all our IT activities, advise us relevant changes and implement those changes with minimum fuss and downtime for our employees. They remain a critical component to our success, and I would not hesitate in recommending them.

ASL provide a private cloud environment to support their web-based software solutions (also developed by ASL). We presently provide hosting, software development, and application support to over 200 users. In addition to this, we have provided IT Consultancy and assisted in the due diligence process of the IT portfolio of a £30m company acquisition. John Rigby (CEO) provided the following feedback: “I write in my capacity as CEO of K3 Capital Group plc, an AIM listed Professional services group comprising of Sell Side M&A, Insolvency and Restructuring and Specialist Tax. Our Market cap is in excess of £115m, we are a high growth business with significant aspirations.  Our M&A business comprising of three brands, Knightsbridge, KBS Corporate and KBS Corporate Finance has been working with Awareness Software Ltd for a several years. During their tenure they have taken ‘ownership’ of the development and hosting of several of our bespoke software platforms. During this time they have played a significant part in transforming our software to be both better, faster and more stable which in turn allows our corporate broking teams of almost 200 staff to process and handle our vendor clients and business purchasers at much greater scale with increasing efficiency, in turn creating significant value in our business.  The systems and support provided are without doubt excellent and we are always able contact the relevant members of the team in short order to rectify any issues or instigate any development which we may have.  During the summer we raised £30m from shareholders and embarked on a significant acquisition strategy during which, as our trusted partner, Awareness, via John and David have been able to provide invaluable and detailed IT due diligence insight that has allowed us to progress our acquisitions forearmed with the knowledge that the IT systems of the target companies are fit for purpose.  John has built a great team of very knowledgeable and expert staff who are a pleasure to deal with…. In all a great company. I would happily recommend Awareness to be the IT partner of choice for any company and our experience over the years has been significantly better than that experienced by previous providers.“

ASL were parachuted into Accrol with a brief to stabilise the IT environment and support them during a technology refresh. The majority of their infrastructure is onsite which we manage remotely, supporting approximately 150 users across 4 sites in Blackburn and Leyland. “Accrol Group Holdings plc is £140m turnover business, producing high quality, private label tissue products for Retail Sector in the UK & Ireland. Accrol established a formal relationship with ASL in December 2019, as the organisation was looking to significantly improve its IT infrastructure in terms of reliability, security, and future proofing. Accrol were also preparing to change their business system in terms of new EDI, ERP and WMS systems, which required a fundamentally more stable IT infrastructure than was present at that time. The partnership with ASL has been very strong from the start. ASL’s open approach, focus on getting things done at speed and flexibility to react when called upon, has been excellent. Together we have developed a clear IT strategy and have diligently executed key elements of this over the last 12 months. We have joint meetings every month to ensure system performance is improving based around a clear and concise performance report – this forum also allows us to raise new issues/future plans and ensure we are ahead of the game. When things do go wrong, ASL have a strong in-house team, who are able to react quickly and get to resolution very quickly. If the issues are major, I know that I can contact either David or John to ensure the correct level of focus is being applied, however, this is a rare requirement. Accrol have now moved to their new business system environment with minimal IT infrastructure issues – the process of transition was made much easier with ASL by our side. As COO of the Accrol business, I would strongly recommend John and the team as a partner.” Mark Dewhurst (COO)