Embracing the connectivity unknown and reaping the rewards

After an extended search and having considered all the most well-known providers, Amvia, a CityFibre Partner, won a contract from a customer that was previously unfamiliar with CityFibre but is now reaping the rewards of choosing the company’s Full Fibre connectivity services.

The Background

When Spencer Riley contacted Amvia, they were expecting to get a quote containing the usual suspects as carriers. However, the CityFibre Ethernet 1000 Flex service changed the company’s perspective on what was possible.

Spencer Riley is a leading international executive search and recruitment partner for C-level, executive and director placements, with extensive experience in securing talent across Europe, North America, and the MENA region.

Headquartered in central Leeds, Spencer Riley is well-connected in the private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and outplacement service industries has had extensive experience in a number of sectors, including life sciences, healthcare, safety, and defence.

The Challenge

Spencer Riley was relocating its team of 30 people to new headquarters in Leeds and needed a service that could support its high demands for connectivity. This also had to happen by the end of March 2020, as the business was due to move into its new premises on 1 April.

“The search for talent has never been more competitive, or geographically dispersed”, Scott Ellam, Managing Director at Spencer Riley, explained. “We are building relationships with highly-experienced and skilled executives, who are in high demand, and not just by retained clients of Spencer Riley. The candidates our clients want to recruit can be anywhere in the world. As a result, finding, engaging, and screening these candidates has all but moved online. We had to have resilient and high-capacity connectivity in the new HQ to support that activity.”

The company sought and received quotes from various mainstream providers for 100Mbps services – and additional costs to upgrade when necessary – but none of these offered minimum speed thresholds. Nor would they provide future-proofing without constraint or additional upgrade costs. More significantly, the end of March 2020 date was looming. As Scott Ellam emphasised, this was a date that could not be missed – but the suppliers it had approached up to this point were not willing to provide any assurances. “No-one would commit to getting us in by our move-in date. There weren’t even so much as any encouraging noises. It was really frustrating.”

The Solution

Before it took a chance with one of the prospective service providers, Spencer Riley decided to explore one last avenue. “We put a final enquiry out to Amvia, and this is when things began to change”, said Scott.

Amvia took time to help Spencer Riley understand the supplier/carrier universe and suggested that there was a significant option that had not been explored in CityFibre, and specifically, the 1000 Flex service.

This provides synchronous connectivity with a guaranteed minimum speed of 200Mbps, with the ability to burst upwards to a full 1Gbps if and when required. It was immediately clear that this would provide Spencer Riley with both the assured performance and the future-proofing it desired.

“It was fortunate that Spencer Riley contacted us when they did”, said Rob Taylor, Head of Sales and Account Management at Amvia. “Had they not gone that one step further with their research, they might have ended up with a service that was unsuited to their immediate needs and offered no option for a cost-effective upgrade at a later date. With CityFibre, we are able to deliver the speed and the flexibility the company really needs.”

To find exactly the right service, it’s important to work with a supplier like Amvia who are independent and will provide a broader perspective of the market, he added. “Few of our customers have a real appreciation of the connectivity market and the options available. We always speak at length with customers – as we did with Scott and the team at Spencer Riley, and help them to get a good understanding of how data networks are delivered, and how partners like CityFibre are shaking up the market and providing the kind of connectivity and Internet services that modern business need.”

There was, however, one final hurdle to overcome before the contract was signed and the service installed, as Spencer Riley’s Scott Ellam explained.

“We’d heard of BT and Virgin, but we were not familiar with CityFibre. It was a concern that we could be engaging an unfamiliar entity to support what is a critical service to any business. But I’m really pleased we entrusted that responsibility to Amvia and CityFibre. It has turned out to be an excellent decision. Not only have we had a fast and fault-free Internet service since it was installed, but they were also pro-active in offering financial support when lockdown hit, almost two weeks after we had moved into the new HQ.”

The Results

Spencer Riley is now achieving speeds way in excess of 500Mbps and are reaping the rewards. Even though the team is all back together in the head office now, video and VoIP calling are critical to the day-to-day operations and the CityFibre connection gives the company’s staff the guaranteed synchronous bandwidth required to support high quality collaboration.

Being able to communicate with clients and candidates, knowing that they are supported by a fast and reliable service is vital to the continued progression of the business, said Scott Ellam. “The future looks very bright for us at Spencer Riley, and we have confidence in the Internet service to support our growing team and demands.”

About Amvia

Amvia is a full-service MSP/CSP and CityFibre Premier Partner, based in Sheffield, with customers ranging from global organisations such as eHarmony and HBO, to local Sheffield institutions such as Birkdale Prep School and HotHouse Beauty (owners of the St. Moriz and Kids Stuff brands). Amvia services and solutions cover Leased Lines, Business Broadband, Bonded Broadband, Business Mobiles & VoIP, Microsoft 365, Business Cyber Security & Business Energy.