Star helps Richmond Events right-size for the future
London, July 28th – Star, a provider of on-demand computing and communication services to UK businesses, announced today it has been selected as the hosting partner for UK business events pioneer, Richmond Events. The decision to select Star, replacing incumbent supplier Computacenter, was made based on service level requirements and cost-savings.
Over the last 20 years, Richmond Events has revolutionised the events industry with an automated service which allows delegates to personalise their agenda from bespoke websites. These complex attendee requirements are met using advanced modelling on a specially designed programme called ‘The Crunch’ to create tailored itineraries.
An eight year veteran of hosted computing, IT director, Liam Quinn’s objective has been to steadily move his four person internal team away from day-to-day maintenance towards more strategic roles. Having previously coped with a 50% reduction in staff in 2001 with delegate numbers dropping due to the stock market crash of 2000, followed by September 11th, he particularly prizes the option to scale his systems up, as well as down - as Star’s service model was designed to allow.
Working with Star formed part of a strategic IT review requiring a hosting partnership with both appropriate service levels and the deep technical expertise required to maintain 75 staff, with IT services delivered via the cloud. Today Richmond Events delivers IT services to the business at a significantly lower cost using Star’s hosted and virtual servers.
Quinn noted: “We require the flexibility to run our business how we want to, yet have the support we need. Our customer teams are in constant communication to clients and potential clients all day and we must make sure they have access to the tools they need to facilitate the sales which are the lifeblood of our operations and must happen very smoothly.”
The role of the internal IT team is now significantly changed, focusing less on managing infrastructure and more on guaranteeing a quality end user experience. This means employees get a much richer service and Quinn can focus his resources on the core business; maintaining the company’s differentiation in the events markets it operates in.
Ricky Hudson, CEO of Star commented; “Richmond Events’ experience lays out a path which will be followed by many UK companies, who are just embarking on their cloud journey. Whether scaling up or down, IT teams need to keep an eye on the cost but also the quality of the service and agility their business requires. Customers want to be able to talk to one person who is knowledgeable about their business and able to take responsibility for any actions. Star has developed into an organisation that is set up to do just that. We look forward to helping Richmond Events make the right decisions at the right time, to help them meet their future challenges.”