
It is the season to be merry, spending quality time with your family, your community and your colleagues and put that time consuming IT on the back burner (if you can) and recharge yourself for what promises to be a very different 2021!… In all years prior to this one, this really would have been the message that I would have sent out to you.
Work from Anywhere (WFA) is now prevalent within all industry segments with large proportions of the workforce working remotely and for extended periods of time. This has many consequences to an organisation which now needs to facilitate rapid transition to often create from the ground up a modern workplace for the employees which is not bound by the traditional office and often includes software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud systems / storage. The investments being made to facilitate this transition have been enormous and the workplace is forever changed.
BUT… There are many reasons to be concerned as the workplace adjustments over the last 9 months have in our considered view been defined for the most part by tactical responses to COVID rather than strategically aligned business decisions harmonised with the future direction and needs of that organisation. There is no blame or criticism implied by this observation as COVID occurred with little warning or planning and all organisations that have adapted should be applauded for doing so in seriously trying times. However, now is most definitely the time to review all tactical workplace orientated IT decisions to consider the following:
- Do they enable the employee to communicate effectively?
- Are employees using the tools correctly?
- Has the new WFA workplace created a larger Shadow IT presence?
- Is the organisation at heightened risk of loss or theft of intellectual property?
- Are the employees and their welfare being overlooked?
Over the last 12 months, PAV have covered many of the above questions either within recorded webinars, released blogs, through our seasonal customer newsletters or via the events that we have run with the input of senior industry specialists from our strategic partners / suppliers. If the consequences of COVID on the workplace are concerns for you and your organisation, we recommend that you view the following YouTube recordings from our PAV YouTube Channel as they cover the above from a multitude of angles to provide a more complete picture of the issues / pitfalls and their recommendations to address the #modernworkplace and #WFA.
At PAV we firmly believe that we help all of our customers all day every day by delivering them with IT Certainty. We believe that this will indirectly provide our customers with more personal time to spend with your families and loved ones! To this end, over the last 12 months we have focused on the stories behind our customer engagement and have released 15x new case studies covering our solution sets for modern workplace, communication and collaboration as well as data and governance. Additionally, we have a plethora of customer statements that testify to the importance of our work in support of their businesses. We have many more in the hopper and are adding on average a brand new case study every month!
Finally, we would like to provide some specific information to you covering our latest enablement activity, the reference program, our festive period working, some industry success we have had this year and an update relating to the pavASSURE Monitor service.
Virtual Round Table Event – Managing and Securing your network in the new WFA world
With the WFA (work from anywhere) culture expanding, PAV i.t. services have brought together a consortium of organisations who have significant insight or provide key technologies that we believe are essential for all organisations such as yours at this point in time. The consortium includes CISCO, Comstor, Gauntlet Group as well as Wells Technology and Pentest People. The consortium represents an organisation focusing on CISO / CIO guidance, the insurance industry and world-wide suppliers of networking and security products. Additionally, @PAV is an IT services company which has more than 250 customers and brings a unique service first approach to the technology considerations as outlined within this campaign. For more information and also to register to attend the event, please go here: https://www.pav.co.uk/managing-and-securing-your-network/
If you are not sure whether or not this event is for you, then please do review the following feedback comments from our November virtual round table event:
Gavin Searley | ICT Manager | Devonshires
Thanks to you and the team for putting on the event which certainly provided more of an insight into the areas that PAV cover.
Roger Gaunt | Managing Director | Gauntlet Group
Thanks for hosting the event today. Great format. Speakers were good with interesting topics and the wine and charcuterie were fab – good work
Global Technology Category Manager | Law Firm
“A good balance between business related content and more informal discussions, paired nicely with the tasting menu segment as well keeping it more interesting than the standard video conference that has become a staple over the past 8 months.”
The Reference Program
At this time last year we released a reference program to help customers to finance their XMAS festivities. This year and specifically in light of #COVID restrictions, we would like to revise this program and offer our customers two opportunities to secure funding for virtual departmental activities:
- If you are prepared to refer PAV i.t. services into another company where you have links to the IT department and sponsor us to meet with that customer then we will agree to reduce your next PAV invoice by £100
- If you are prepared to be a PAV case study / reference then we would also agree to reduce your next PAV invoice by £100
Both of the above will effectively provide your business with a credit that can used to fund a COVID compliant social gathering or virtual team meeting! Either of these activities would be really important right now due to the isolation that COVID has created within the modern workplace. Anything that can strengthen bonds between colleagues is essential right now!
If you are interested then all you have to do now is register your interest using this link to our web form and a member of PAV will make contact with you to discuss this referral further. Terms & Conditions always apply and are on the registration page for you to review.
PAV Festive Period Hours of Service
Please see our website for details: https://www.pav.co.uk/support-hours/
Industry Success
It was a big year for PAV with respect to industry accolades. We were shortlisted and selected as finalists in the 2020 Sales & Marketing awards under the following categories:
- Best sales team
- Best new business win
Alas, we were not successful in either category but we will double our efforts for 2021. For more information, please review this blog: https://www.pav.co.uk/blog/pav-shortlisted-for-double-awards-crn-2020/
pavASSURE Monitor Service
From time to time we review our own IT service / support technology and ensure that it remains aligned to the needs of our customers. After analysis of the monitoring tools that are available within the #MSP community, PAV has decided to consolidate our pavASSURE Monitoring service on PRTG. There were several technologies that were considered but we felt that PRTG offered the best coverage for devices and applications, was the most feature rich and the easiest to manage at scale.
Our pavASSURE monitor customers do not need to do anything as this technology will be delivered to you in the support of your business as part of this Monitor service. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your account manager or a representative of our support organisation.
We hope you find the content valuable, and we’ll be in touch again soon.
Regards,
Nathan Collins – Sales & Marketing Director