Category: Archived

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Archived End User

Onsies for Children In Need

onesies for children in needYou have to be a hermit to not realise that today is Children In Need day. We have a few things going on in the office to raise cash and as you can see from the pic some of the girls have paid to come in to work in their jim jams.

I dunno what the running total is because it’s changing all the time but if you swing by you can buy home made cookies, muffins chocolate cake etc – all for the cause. I will just have to donate cash – I don’t touch that kind of stuff obvs – body/temple.

If I’d have known I’d have worn a onesie meself. In fact I don’t mind them coming in in their onesies even if it isn’t Children In Need :).

Ciao bebe.

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Archived Business

We are looking for a head of Technical Pre Sales – gimme a call

Timico is looking for a head of Technical Pre-Sales. This is a great opportunity to join a business that is showing great organic growth despite the fact that the country has been going through economic woes.

We need serious Cisco Network Architecture/Design background and sound experience of leading and managing teams. Timico delivers large-scale networks (500+ sites) so experience in delivery of such projects is key.

Obviously I can guarantee a great working environment with great people and you get to make suggestions for blog post content

Drop me a line if you want to chat about it. More details here.

PS I only want direct contact from techies interested in the job. If you are a recruitment consultant please go through our HR department.

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Archived Business

What’s in an award? Timico is 3x finalist in ISPAs

Earlier this year I spent an appreciable chunk of my life filling out awards entries. Three of them were for the ISPAs. Google it. These awards entries have pretty strict entry criteria and very fixed number of words that you are allowed to use. Not nearly enough space to adequately cover how great you are at what you do.

However you have to put yourself in the position of the judges, whoever they are. They don’t want to have to plough through several editions of War and Peace (Tolstoy) when they are giving of their time free and gratis. So it takes ages to condense War and Peace into 500 words or whatever the number was (war was waged, someone won).

Anyway the upshot is that of the three categories entered by Timico we made it to the shortlist for all three: Managed Service Innovation, Customer Service and VoIP, as I recall. Yay.

This is great news because we are up against a lot of other great companies with great services (what a great novel War and Peace was). Great.

Companies enter these awards because if you win it means you have bragging rights and can show off to customers and prospects and hopefully turn the prospects into new customers. I think you know what I’m talking about. So I’m reasonably chuffed to make it to all three shortlists.

Details here. Wish us luck on the 11th July. If you’re going come and say hello.

Ciao.

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Archived Business

Job vacancies

Ton of job vacancies up on the board at Timico including an Applications Support Apprenticeship, 3rd line Network Eng, Linux Sys Admin, Biz Dev and Telesales.

Take a skeet here if you are interested. Tell your friends. Encourage and cajole them into sending in their CV. Only good people should apply:)

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Archived Business

Timico has made it to the finals of the ITSPAs again yay

Timico is ITSPAs  finalist in Best Business ITSP (Corporate) category. I am of course uber excited. This is the Award we won at last year’s ITSPAs. I recall our product manager Gemma being worried that having been given the expensive piece of crystal to look after for the evening  she might lose it in the mist (not a typo for midst) of the celebrations. Good bit of news to have on your first day back off holiday innit?

Awards night is at the House of Commons Members Dining Room on 6th March hosted by MP Julian Huppert. If we win I’ll tell you about it:) If you’re going come and say hello.

ciao

Next up Timico SMB team bakeoff

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Archived Business

Land ho – overseas customers spotted

Timico engineers wave goodbye to Blighty as they depart from Liverpool DocksWhat do the following countries have in common?

France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, USA, Mexico, Hungary, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Liverpool.

They are all places where we have customers. During our monthly Exec meeting yesterday a Singapore customer was discussed which made me think of totting up all the other places we have installations.

It’s quite a cool list and quite took me by surprise. We are a business with global reach. Most of them represent locations of overseas offices of UK based organisations that we supply services to – broadband, SIP, MPLS connectivity, phone systems, that kind of thing.

I slipped in Liverpool for a laugh. That’s not overseas. It’s on Merseyside – top left on the map for you Southerners. It’s where our engineers depart from when sailing to see these customers. Big port etc.

Strikes me it’s about time a certain CTO made a tour of duty to visit all these locations, just to make sure everything is ok 🙂

Inset photo is of a bunch of Timico engineers gazing wistfully back at the shoreline of Liverpool as they depart Blighty on a trip over the water.

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Archived Business datacentre

Importance of staying in touch – with your customer

Trefor Davies Chris Darke and Martin Kelmanson One of the things I like about working at Timico is the opportunity to meet and chat with customers. If you don’t talk to your customers you never find out how you are doing. Also if a business is going to stay current it needs feedback on what interests its customer base in the new technology world.

This week I met with Chris Darke and Martin Kelmanson of the British Medical Association. We had a good session and it was only as we were getting ready to leave the room that we realised that one the wall was an endorsement from the BMA for the service provided by Timico. We joked that this was regularly changed based on which customer was in the room at the time :).

The pic taken by the excellent Katie Nicholas is of me Chris and Martin. We are dressed for the Artic conditions that lay outside the comfort and safety of the Timico datacentre in Newark.

That’s all folks…

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Archived Business

Timico is the most innovative business yay

winners need to celebrateOn Friday night we won the award for “Excellence in Innovation” presented by the Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Chambers of Commerce. Yay. A good night was had by all.

neil armstrong grinsThe photos tell it all. Click on the header pic to see more of what me, Kirsty, Kate and Faye are up to. The bloke behind Neil clearly didn’t win, a condition exacerbated by the fact  that he was driving and not quite in the same “joyous” state of mind.

The Most Innovative Business Award goes to TimicoThere have been times when we entered awards expecting to win but came away with nothing. I specifically remember the time when we had just reached 4th position in the Sunday Times/Microsoft Techtrack 100. That means we were the 4th fastest growing privately held tech company in the UK.

That same year we entered the local Newark Business Awards (I think it was for the fastest growing business but time fuddles the memory). We thought it must be a shoe in. In the event it went to a small local gardening business we had never heard of. I guess we must have read the brief wrongly (growing – pun – never mind!).

The lesson there is you have to take these things with good grace. Win some lose some.

Anyway this present award builds on the Best Business in Newark gong we won earlier this year and on the Best ITSP (Enterprise) cert we got at the ITSPAs. A reasonable haul for a 12 month period.

There are some who think these awards are not worth anything. I disagree. They send out a message, both to the outside world and to staff inside the company.

To our staff I say well done. You are a great bunch of people and I am proud to be working with you.

That’s enough emulsion. Ciao…

PS the award was based on our Mobile Access Management product – see here and here for more.

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Archived Business

Looking for 3rd line VoIP engineer – can you help?

I’m looking for a 3rd line support VoIP engineer based in the Newark NOC. If you know anyone who might be interested or are interested yourself can you please drop me a line?

Ta

Tref

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Archived Business

Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce Best Business Innovation Awards Finalist

Life is great. This morning my in-tray told me we have been selected as finalists in the Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce Best Business Awards  Innovation category.

I don’t have to tell you, astute reader, this is an exceptional achievement with the added benefit of if we win we go through to the “Nationals” in London in November.

The entry was based on our Mobile Access Management (MAM) solution which you should all by now know is a fantastic mobile data broadband backup solution.

Chambers of Commerce are obviously good places to get exposure for a business selling to business. They do need to know that Timico operates internationally and so a further tier of “International Awards” would be eminently suitable. I’m thinking the Bahamas in January or February –  I wouldn’t want to miss the run up to Christmas in the UK.

If we win I’ll let you know. If we don’t it will almost certainly slip by unnoticed:)

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Archived Business

We got quality

Check this out. We just got awarded our ISO9001 certification.ISO 9001 certification for Timico Hooray. This year we will also be adding to the existing ISO27001 certification in the Timico Technology Group.

This game is a continuous process of improvement and as the company gets bigger the importance of sticking to quality processes and procedures becomes ever more important.

For some in the business this is a champagne moment – it is the culmination of a lot of hard work. For me it represents one of those moments of quiet satisfaction – another milestone on the road to the top 🙂

Bit more on this here.

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Archived Business datacentre

Advertorial for Timico Managed Service Provider Partner Programme

Timico Manged Service Provider partners get a tour of the Newark datacentre facilitiesI realise that most of you reading this blog think that life at an ISP is exciting. We seem to only do fun things you say? Pigeon versus broadband racing, major industry parties at the London Transport Museum to celebrate the end of the IPv4 address space, Charity world record attempts, 4G testing on double decker busses in London, cake baking competitions, Christmas parties, offsite seminars in 5 star country houses etc etc etc.

You would of course be completely right. What you don’t necessarily see is all the nitty gritty hard work that goes on back stage that keeps the show on the road.

Continue reading “Advertorial for Timico Managed Service Provider Partner Programme”
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Archived Business

staff wanted

the new Timico Network Operations Centre in Newark has gone live

Get on board – we are looking for staff for our Newark based Network Operations Centre. Vacancies include a 24×7 NOC position, 1st and 2nd line engineers and a “Helpdesk to Helpdesk” person to interface with IT Staff of our larger customers.

We are also after a senior network engineer Cisco, Juniper, MPLS, BGP,VPLS, TCP/IP (both IPv4 and IPv6), GRE, IPSec, PPP (including Radius), HSRP and SNMP.

Check out the vacancies here.

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Archived Business Cloud

The 2011 Timico Network Operations Awards – what a great team

The Netops team assembles for pizza, champagne and the Annual Timico Network Operations Awards

Penny Wilkinson accepts overall champion award/holiday certificate for David Sears who is on holidayXabi Merino leader of the Timico data centre projectTimico Group Ops Director Calum Malcolm holds the sorting hat whilst CEO Chris Tombs draws the name for the overall winner of the Group Ops Employee of the YearMichael Goodinson - builder of the best NOC display in the businessKarl Dawson - runs a very tight project management shipIan Christian has built a top quality VM platformDi Davies -her attention to detail made sure the whole Timico data centre project ran to scheduleGareth Bryan - a giant amongst engineers bends down to receive his award from CEO Chris TombsLaura Compton receives an award for great work doneHow do you thank a great team that has bust a gut for you all year to make your operation a success?

You have pizza and champagne for lunch at the Annual Timico Network Operations Awards.

This has been a special year because the team has had the new data centre project to contend with on top of having to deliver another record year of sales.

The data centre has been delivered on time and everyone is busing a gut to get the last few customer networks provisioned before the Christmas break, and as it happens our financial year end.

Hover your mouse over each photo to find out more about the person in it.  The prizes are being handed out by Timico CEO Chris Tombs.

Group Ops Director Calum Malcolm stays discretely in the background but this is his team and a special thanks must go to him from the business for making it all happen.

The overall winner of Engineer of the Year is David Sears whose prize was accepted on his behalf by Penny Wilkinson. David, or Biscuit as he is known internally, happens to be on holiday. His prize is, wait for it, a holiday – choice as I recall of Paris, Brussels, Rome or Scunthorpe (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it). Well done guys – it’s great to work with you 🙂

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Archived Business

If you know anyone that might fit the bill please put them in touch #telesales #jobs in Newark please retweet

If you live within striking distance of Newark – Lincoln, Nottingham, Mansfield Grantham etc and are looking for a job in telesales then I have the job for you!

We are hiring. This is a new team.  In fact this is the first of many teams in a growing area of the business and so could represent a great career opportunity for ambitious individuals. There will be money making opportunities.

There will also be promotion opportunities. This is a classical way in to a future in account management, business development, marketing, operations, in fact you could be a future Managing Director. Everyone has to start somewhere.

If you know anyone that might fit the bill please put them in touch – details on the website here.

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Archived Business

Timico named by Telegraph as one of Britain’s Brightest Businesses

Timico,Telegraph,Britain's,Brightest,BusinessesTimico, as the post title says, has been named by The Telegraph as one of Britain’s Brightest Businesses. That is good to hear.

The research was compiled with the help of NESTA and Dunn & Bradstreet together with inputs from more than a dozen membership organisations and is intended to highlight medium sized companies that the Telegraph thinks will be the backbone of economic recovery in the UK.

Timico has in recent years regularly featured in league tables such as the Deloitte Technology 50 and the Sunday Times/Microsoft Techtrack100 fastest growing private technology companies.  These tables don’t necessarily mean much but as far as I am concerned every bit of positive promotion helps when it comes to growing the business.  It’s a tough old world out there.

It’s also worth noting another article in the Telegraph that says “Impatient entrepreneurs are not the answer“. You should read the article but a well written headline gives away the plot and in this case it’s all about growing at a pace that ensures ultimate success.

Having been been part of a start up in 2004 one always wants things to happen faster. However at Timico we have always taken the long view. We want a business that provides value to our customers and we work hard on that in the belief that this is ultimately what will create value for our investors (me included).

Watch this space 🙂

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Archived Business

All those who want a job get in line #Timico

I note that we have a lot of job vacancies at the moment –  Sales Director (Partners),  eBusiness Manager, Biz Dev Manager – mobile services, Telephone Sales Manager – SME Telesales and finally 3rd Line Technical Operations – IP Telephony.

Its a very exciting time to be around this industry and certainly a great time to be joining Timico.  We have been prominent for the last few year as one of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies and we plan for this to continue.

Timico is spending a lot of cash  to promote future growth.  This is not just in sales. We are talking systems, core network, a new data centre,  quality, everywhere really. The business is moving into a new phase.

If you want to know more check out or website.

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Archived Business

exciting dynamic fast moving bright creative imaginative video production company wanted

I’m looking for an exciting dynamic fast moving bright creative imaginative video production company. If anyone knows one can they please get them to contact me. I want to make a video.

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Archived Business

Product Manager #vacancy #jobs #marketing #B2B #IPv6

I’m looking for a product manager to join the Timico Marketing team.  Marketing speak => ” This is a great opportunity to join one of the UK’s fastest growing and happenin’ ISPs.  If you want to work in an action packed environment that is going to take your career places over the next few years then this is for you.”

Marketing blurb over – this is actually a great opportunity for a Product Manager who wants to make a high profile impact for him or herself. Timico is fast becoming one of the best known B2B brands in the communications industry. What’s more the rich mix of high quality services on offer – including mobile security, MPLS, IPv6, VoIP, hosting and FTTX will give you the opportunity to work on interesting and market leading products.  You will be able to claim ownership of their success.

If you are interested please check out the full job spec here. Advert over.

 

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Archived Business

New kids on the block

You may or may not spot Timico in the press this week with the announcement of two new senior appointments.  These are Fraser Anderson as Group Sales Director (below left) and Neil Armstrong as Marketing Director (below right).

These are exciting times to be around and these appointments represent two more signs of a business growing up. Everyone is in this game for different reasons. Some have lifestyle businesses, some trundle along in a mire not knowing where to go. I am here for the action and these two guys are here to take us to the next level.

If you want to find out more about each individual take a look at the Timico press release here. They both have very impressive track records.

 

 

 

It is very comforting to know that we can attract such high calibre individuals to the team.

PS I know I keep going on about these being exciting times but I’m sorry – you are just going to have to put up with me. Also I’ve just noticed they look remarkably similar. Note to self Neil is the one wearing specs 🙂

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Archived Business

New Job Post – Timico Marketing Director

I missed a trick here. We are looking for a Marketing Director. This is a new post. If you are interested check it out here.

This might not be of particular interest to the normal readership of this blog (though I don’t really know their actual demographics – other than by the fact that people occasionally come up to me and tell me they particularly like my posts about cake competitions! –  it is nice to meet readers:) ). It is exciting for me personally because I am sat in a business that I helped to create and am now watching that business grow up. Other appointments we have made in the last 12 months are also indicative of the maturing nature of Timico – Group Operations Director and Information Services direction to quote just two.

Anyway back to the Marketing Director it isn’t me personally doing the recruiting but if you want to know more about the company you know where to find me.  You will find there is never a dull moment at Timico:)

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Archived Business

Sunday Times/Microsoft Techtrack awards – Timico

Sunday Times/Microsoft Techtrack Awards Timico

On Tuesday night I attended the 10th Annual Sunday Times/Microsoft Techtrack Awards at Vinopolis on the South Bank. This is the fourth year running that Timico has appeared in these rankings – no mean feat as they are based on a 5 year compound annual growth rate. We hit the heady heights of fourth place in our second year on the list.

Couple of points of interest from the evening.  The first was the fact that the net worth of the 100 companies that appeared on the first ever list was £500 million.  This year the list is worth £2.5Bn.

Secondly it was amusing to note that one of the main topics of conversation was EBITDA.  Also every other guest seemed to be a financial adviser! They can keep away from me – I have 4 kids to pay for:)

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Archived Business

Evolved format for trefor.net

Regular readers will have noticed a new look trefor.net this morning. This represents an evolution rather than a revolution on the blog.

  1. The categories are going to be easier to track so that people looking for specific types of post can get to them more quickly.
  2. The pages are being turned into areas where more information can be found. For example the FTTC postcode interactive map will let people drill down to their own street to see whether and when they will be getting FTTC.
    Continue reading “Evolved format for trefor.net”
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Archived Business

Sunday Times Techtrack 100 features Timico for 4th year running

The 2010 Sunday Times Techtrack 100 came out yesterday featuring Timico for the fourth year running. The Techtrack is really the domain of young small companies that can easily demonstrate high compound annual growth. Six years into the game Timico is really no longer a startup and each year it is going to become harder to maintain the rates of growth.

Having said that it is always nice to be recognised and this is our fourth year in the Table so we must be doing something right. (Good 🙂 )

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Archived Business

developer wanted Linux Perl Bash Ruby Python PHP5 SVN symfony Doctrine OOP

developer wanted Linux Perl Bash Ruby Python PHP5 SVN symfony Doctrine OOP.

Junior position with great career potential in fast growing market leader. Suit someone with a couple of years experience or a grad with nouse. Must be a geek.

More on website here, give me a call, send email or leave comment on this post – it will not get published.

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Archived Business

Los Trios Timicos featuring CMC Partnership

Los Trios Timicos
Los Trios Timicos - Trefor Davies of Timico with Ann Hallett and Lee James of CMC Partnership

Had a visit from CMC Partnership today.  They are a fast growing provider of project management and consultancy services based in South Wales.  They are also a customer – it is great to meet customers and in particular as they work in such a diverse range of industries – one of the nice things about being a Communications Provider.

Ann Hallett and Lee James from CMC proved to be a very talented duo and great sports by joining me in a rendition of La Bamba by Los Trios Paraguayos. Readers will also remember the B side of the 1966 hit : Llama En El Cuerpo. We didn’t play the B side.

The photo above is us (Los Trios Timicos) doing the reprise.

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Archived Business

Timico hits the headlines at FCS Awards

I’m pleased to announce (somewhat belatedly but I was mega busy last week) that Timico was runner up in the Federation of Communication Services Communications Provider of the Year 2010 Award.

I did think about this before writing this post. Runner up doesn’t sound as good as Winner. Having thought about it though the FCS has knocking on 300 members so second out of that many isn’t so bad. We aren’t even members so nobody can say it was a stitch-up.

Next up ISPAs 8th July.

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Archived Business

Cisco Sales Expert Gemma Barsby

One of the nice things about my job is the fact that I am surrounded by talented people. The photo below is of me presenting Timico sales executive Gemma Barsby with a bottle of bubbly for passing her Cisco Sales Expert examination. She’ll be the one buying the champagne in future with all the commission I expect her to be earning. Hope she remembers me when she’s rich and famous!

Trefor Davies presents Gemma Barsby with a bottle of champagne for passing the Cisco sales examination
Trefor Davies presents Gemma Barsby with a bottle of champagne for passing the Cisco Sales Expert examination

As a footnote the more training a sales person gets the more he or she will bring in in revenues, assuming there’s a reasonable brain there in the first place.

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Archived Business

Timico’s #WorldCup Wallpaper

I walked in this morning to find that the wallpaper in the office had changed overnight. Being Welsh and with no real interest in the football World Cup other than the fact that I have drawn Chile in the office sweepstake it took me a bit by surprise. Having said that everyone is excited and the whole tournament (at this early stage before anyone has been knocked out) has lifted everyone’s spirits.

The video below is a quick scan around the office to show off the decor. The bit at the beginning is where the Network Operations team sits. Note no flags here.  They are all uber-geeks who care only about tech stuff and are only vaguely aware that there is a sport called football. They will still celebrate a win with everybody though.  Work hard and play hard.

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Archived Business

Timico's #WorldCup Wallpaper

I walked in this morning to find that the wallpaper in the office had changed overnight. Being Welsh and with no real interest in the football World Cup other than the fact that I have drawn Chile in the office sweepstake it took me a bit by surprise. Having said that everyone is excited and the whole tournament (at this early stage before anyone has been knocked out) has lifted everyone’s spirits.

The video below is a quick scan around the office to show off the decor. The bit at the beginning is where the Network Operations team sits. Note no flags here.  They are all uber-geeks who care only about tech stuff and are only vaguely aware that there is a sport called football. They will still celebrate a win with everybody though.  Work hard and play hard.