Tag: IT services

QuoStar ranked as one of the world’s top managed service providers 2024

Posted on by QuoStar

QuoStar ranked as one of the world’s top Managed Service Providers

Since its inception in 2005, QuoStar has been on a mission to bring enterprise-grade IT services to businesses of all sizes. Nearly two decades later, its focus on excellence, partnership and client outcomes remains as committed as ever.

Our CSAT scores, averaging at 98%, suggest that our clients approve of what we are doing, and now we have market recognition for this. We are delighted to have been recognised by the Channel Futures MSP 501 as one of the ‘best of the best’ managed service providers (MSPs) in the world. This achievement is a testament to a great deal of hard work and our relentless focus on delivering for our clients.

What’s the MSP 501?

The Channel Futures MSP 501 has been ranking the world’s MSPs for the past 17 years, according to a strict set of criteria. It includes annual revenue, profitability (as measured by EBITDA) and recurring revenue. MSPs also undergo a detailed review by a Channel Futures research team, which further ranks applicants according to long-term financial health, commitment to recurring revenue and operational efficiency.

This year’s list was described by Channel Futures as “one of the most competitive in the survey’s history”, which makes QuoStar’s inclusion doubly gratifying. Those sitting alongside QuoStar on the list generated a combined revenue of nearly $25bn, with average growth or recurring revenue of 19%.

“This recognition underscores our team’s performance, strong partnerships, and our client-focused strategies,” says CEO Robert Rutherford. “This is just the beginning—more well-deserved awards are on the horizon. Thank you to our clients and our team for making this possible. We are excited for 2024 and the years to come as we execute plans, deliver outcomes and maintain quality.”

Delivering time and again

MSP 501 winners are described by Channel Futures as among “the most innovative, driven, and successful MSPs in a fiercely competitive industry”. For QuoStar, being named among the top global MSPs underscores the dedication of our elite team of IT experts, who work so hard to build best-in-class solutions for clients. It’s not about being the biggest, or most successful. It’s about delivering for those clients every single time—to transform and grow their businesses through tailored IT solutions.

Thanks go out to both our clients and our team for helping us achieve this milestone. It won’t be the last. In the meantime, QuoStar will keep doing what we’ve always done. Building great relationships with clients and technology companies. Staying at the cutting edge of technology innovation and delivering service excellence. Even as we continue to grow, this focus will never change.

Contact us today to discover how QuoStar can enhance your business with our comprehensive managed services.

Six reasons for the rise, and rise, of IT outsourcing

Posted on by Robert Rutherford

Six reasons for the rise, and rise, of IT outsourcing

 

IT outsourcing has been rising exponentially.  

Pre-Covid, the main driver for outsourcing was cost reduction. Many small and much larger businesses used a third-party provider to keep the IT lights on under a flat cost arrangement, typically based on the number of users supported.  

Medium sized businesses often had their own internal IT teams, outsourcing small elements of their operations, from a one-off project to a specific area of security, to a third-party.  

Post pandemic, the motivations for using an external IT service provider have changed dramatically. The last year or so has seen outsourcing become essential to most organisations’ operations and wider business strategies.  

A new generation of outsourcing partners are helping deliver the enhanced service levels and top and bottom-line improvements that businesses need in a post-pandemic world. 

 

Here are six reasons why: 

 

1. Speed of change 

Most organisations are transforming at pace, to meet the needs of their clients and win market share.  The rate of change means that many IT teams cannot keep the lights on from an IT operations perspective and handle the volume of strategic and systems focused projects that are thrown their way.  

In-house IT teams are often much better focused on delivering strategic projects, while a trusted IT partner manages day to day IT operations as an extension to the team. 

 

2. Talent shortage 

The worldwide shortage of IT talent includes the UK. This has led many organisations and service providers to outsource overseas to meet demand.  

The pace and volume of change in terms of transformation projects post-pandemic, along with a lack of new IT sector talent has created a crisis. There were more than two million UK job vacancies in tech in 2021, more than any other labour area. 

 

3. Security  

Businesses face a perfect storm of rapid transformation, skills in global shortage, and a fast-growing cybersecurity risk landscape.  

IT teams within organisations are seeing pressure from all sides, which is a tough place to be. Many are leaning on their IT service providers to take responsibility for elements of cyber security, be it day to day security operations, compliance, or governance overlay.  This gives an organisation comfort that a third party is providing checks and balances and is making sure that what needs to be done from a security perspective is done. 

  

4. Too complex 

The race to the cloud and between cloud, the rise of cyber-crime and swathes of transformation projects have made IT environments complex. Arguably more complex than they were prior to the cloud boom. However, most IT departments have not had the budget, talent, or experience to keep up with the demands placed upon them.  

Partnership-focused IT service provider relationships, with the skills and experience these bring, help to augment their own.  

 

5. Enhanced value 

Many older, larger IT service providers have usually delivered flat cost savings based on labour savings. This type of flat service outsourcing, if done correctly, will realise straightforward cost-savings, especially as talent and experience wane.  However, a new generation of dynamic service providers are helping businesses to not only control costs, but also enhance their operations, deliver strategic initiatives, boost their digital transformation capabilities, introduce automation, and Lean initiatives. 

  

6. Competition 

Local, national, and international competition has amplified in most sectors. The largest value gains now are typically driven or supported by some form of digital transformation.  This had led businesses to lean on IT service providers to keep operations secure and available while the IT team focus on business and digital transformation projects. 

Whichever way this use of external and internal IT support is married, augmented teams are invaluable in the current national and international business landscape. 

  

Would you benefit from a review of your IT strategy and support?

For an assessment of your business operating maturity level contact us here

‘A New Era for QuoStar’

Posted on by QuoStar

QuoStar Board

QuoStar has appointed three new senior members to its recently restructured board as part of the firm’s continued growth plans. Since the start of the year, 20 new people have joined the experienced QuoStar team, with the new additions set to bolster the company’s growth trajectory in 2022.

Andrew Forder, who has nearly 20 years’ experience in the IT service sector, joins QuoStar as Commercial Director.  Previously Head of Sales at Nasstar, Andrew has a wealth of sales and account management experience in both mid-size and large UK organisations. He will be managing a dedicated team of enterprise sales individuals focussing on new business while maintaining QuoStar’s first-class client service.

Joining as Chief Technology Officer, Gavin Vickers will take charge of service delivery, IT project management and pre-sales processes. Well-respected industry veteran Gavin was previously Principal Consultant at Nasstar and brings unrivalled experience and capabilities in technical transformation to the role

QuoStar also welcomes Neil Clark as its first Cloud Services Director. Neil, who will lead the cloud services team, has designed, built, and managed numerous cloud platforms over the last decade. Neil previously held the position of Director of Cloud Services at GCI and Nasstar before moving to Head of Service at IT firm Transparity.

With the extended board, the team will continue to develop QuoStar’s position as a leading consultancy and service provider. QuoStar has started working with some well-known clients earlier this year and is continues to expand with a further product launch set for later this year.

The new board members will join David Clarke (Head of Security), Simon Gadsby (Chief Operating Officer), Chris White (Head of Consultancy) and Rebecca Montgomery (Head of Business Services), to work alongside QuoStar co-founders Robert Rutherford and James Stelfox.

James Stelfox, Managing Director of QuoStar, said: “As a team, we’re firm believers in bringing the right industry-leading expertise to each pillar of the business. With these new hires, we’re reiterating our commitment to deliver the best service possible to our clients, which is not only deeply personal to us but also unrivalled in the industry. We’re joined by some of the very best talents in their fields and are excited to leverage their expertise to drive forward their areas of the business.”

Robert Rutherford, CEO of QuoStar, added: “It is an exciting time for QuoStar and we’re delighted to welcome Gavin, Neil and Andrew to QuoStar’s board. Our firm has always been seen as a smaller, heavy hitting consultancy, but the time is now right for us to expand our team and make this transition, while retaining the real care, quality, and outcome-focused attention we have always been known for.”

 

Welcome to the team!

Posted on by Teila Hurlock

Welcome new starters 2022

 

Welcome to the team!

QuoStar continues rapid expansion in 2022 with a series of key hires

  • QuoStar has announced a series of new hires to support its 2022 growth trajectory
  • New additions to the team include Alan Drake joining as Service Delivery Manager, Rob Goult as Senior Technical Consultant and Cliff Woodward as Relationships Manager
  • New members of the team and further product launches are set to be announced in the first half of 2022

QuoStar has bolstered its team with a raft of key appointments as part of its growth forecast in 2022.

10 new team members are in place and all bring extensive knowledge of working in the IT industry to QuoStar’s already highly experienced team, with a few more senior tech high hitters in the pipeline to come onboard by May 2022.

Alan Drake joins QuoStar as Technical Service Delivery Manager with over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry. Alan rose through the ranks of service through to Technical Service Delivery Manager at GCI. Alan will step in to lead QuoStar’s new 24/7/365 UK-based manned service desk, which launched at the beginning of 2022 and provides customers with all-hours IT support from highly skilled professionals, 365 days a year.

To assist him in his role, Drake is joined by Liam Baxter, Greg Foster and Carl Bennett from Nasstar, who each bring upwards of six years’ experience working in IT services.

QuoStar being joined by such seasoned professionals in the industry has meant the business has bypassed ‘first line support’ – which in turn means clients will automatically be communicating with someone far more experienced in their field.

Further appointments at QuoStar include Michael Swart, who joins as a Technical Consultant with more than 30 years’ experience, Joanna Roper as Service Desk Team Manager with close to 30 years’ experience in tech and telecoms, and Rob Goult, who steps in as Senior Technical Consultant. Goult brings with him over 20 years’ prior experience supporting decision-makers in the IT industry to develop and implement cost-effective technology solutions.

The QuoStar team has also expanded their team of Relationship Managers. The team has been joined by Cliff Woodward and Jody O’Reilly, who both bring over a decade’s experience each in business development within the tech space, and Andy Green with over two decades experience in the field also. Reece Scarley, a previous QuoStar employee, returned to the company at the end of 2021 too, taking the position of Professional Services Consultant, to architect technical solutions and to help with project delivery.

This latest announcement is part of QuoStar’s 2022 rapid growth trajectory, which has also included the unveiling of a brand refresh led by its new Marketing Manager, Teila Hurlock-Phillips, who joined the company mid-2021 – with two previous marketing roles in the tech industry under her belt among others.

Already this year QuoStar has been busy sealing deals with some high-end, high-brand customers, and is due to announce further key product launches over the coming months. The company has some more high-ranking players joining the QuoStar family soon, and some very exciting changes afoot, that are set to shake up the industry this year!

Robert Rutherford, CEO at QuoStar comments:

“These new additions to our QuoStar team have been driven by our commitment to deliver the best service possible for our clients.  All our new joiners have many years of experience working within IT services and we’re extremely pleased that they’ve chosen to bring that experience to QuoStar.

We spent a lot of time during COVID positioning the business to come out stronger and with all the services mid-markets need in a forever changed world. We’ve released a raft of new technical, security, cloud, and strategic services, with our 24x7x365 manned UK service desk being a critical piece of our services wrap.

“These are very exciting times for QuoStar and we look forward to seeing the positive results that the growth of our proposition and team will bring for our clients.”

 

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