Adapting to the ‘new normal’ in 2021
Like most people in the UK and much of the world, I spent the first half of the year in the comfort (or perhaps confines?) of my own home speaking to my colleagues and extended family via a video screen. While I’m a techie at heart, I’m not attached to my computer or the dystopian existence of seeing all life through a High-Definition Monitor.
So, it was more than just liberating to kick off the second half of the year and get back to face to face meetings and travel. We are a growing company. To give you some perspective. Last year we were around 60 people. This year we are almost 100. So many of our new colleagues were hired virtually. It was so exciting to be face to face with the team.
My partners and I have been living in each other’s pockets for years ever since we started the company. The forced absence from seeing one another for over a year was a real shock to the system. I’m still smiling from my first in-person meetings with them.
To ‘celebrate’ being able to get together, we thought it would be a good idea to take on some sort of a charitable endeavour. What ensued was a gruelling 56-mile bicycle ride in aid of Make A Wish UK. It seemed like a good idea when we volunteered for it. It felt like a less good idea as we trained for it and heard tales of the Ditchling Beacon. It was a great result to finish – but I can tell you that I don’t miss my bike!
From a business perspective, what a year! We almost doubled the number of employees in the company and grew our revenue by over 40% – wow! We won great business with amazing blue-chip customers and seriously grew our mid-markets business. Maybe most exciting is the progress we’ve made in our Power Platform offerings. On top of building a world-class practice, we are delivering really exciting projects for our customers using both Power Apps and Power BI. The demand for these skills is astounding!
We’ve seen a real uptick in general. Since people have started going back to the office over the summer, everything has gained momentum. I think to some degree emerging from home working to hybrid working has unearthed realities for our customers. That they are paying for a Microsoft solution and an existing Voice Solution and they have great opportunities to consolidate, save money and really drive their digital transformation. Our experience in helping customers deal with the complexity of their businesses has been really valuable to them.
A couple of other areas of real pride for us – we did our first NPS survey and scored a 63. Also, we launched our employee benefits programme and did our first employee engagement survey to help us to understand how our team sees their experience. Great feedback and some really tangible things for us to work on.
Looking ahead to 2022
So, what’s next? We are on another growth spurt. We are expanding our Sales team to reach more customers needing to eliminate telephony costs and deal with their complex solutions. In parallel, we continue to invest in our development of world-class voice tooling for both customers and carriers. It’s going to be another busy year.
All that is left for me to do is to wish you all a very Happy Holiday season and I truly wish you a happy and HEALTHY new year.
Lastly, a note to the team that is setting up the next charity event – my bicycle and I still aren’t on speaking terms! I think my legs have finally loosened up after the long ride 😊
