Cloudserve Ltd

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an independent fostering agency, and I’m the systems manager.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Cloudserve Ltd?

We needed help with remote desktop services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They upgraded all of our remote desktop servers. We have 10 offices in the UK and we all work from the same cloud. Cloudserve helped get everyone onto a better, smoother system.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Richard (Director).

How did you come to work with Cloudserve Ltd?

They were working with my company before I was onboarded. When we knew we needed to upgrade, we didn’t even consider looking for another vendor since they’ve gone above and beyond for us before. They understand our business, always help out, and are very reliable.

How much have you invested with them

For this particular project, we spent 10,000 pounds (approximately $12,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015, and their work is ongoing with hosting our new system.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From an end-user perspective, the service is fantastic. It does everything that we want it to do. The team is proactive in resolving issues for us and they monitor the servers on an ongoing basis.

At the point that we began working remotely because of COVID-19, they suggested we add an extra server to make sure the system always worked. Whenever we do have little glitches, they resolve them really promptly.

How did Cloudserve Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication is fantastic. The team has a support desk that we can contact at any point, but we also have individual contacts. Richard makes himself available via email and phone. Their team always lets us know the status of support tickets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their thoughtfulness and willingness to go above and beyond are impressive. They always put our needs first and are always think about how they can proactively help with valuable suggestions. The team’s communication and reliability are why we continue to work with them and recommend them to anyone else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. If there were any issues, we’d be able to bring them up and resolve them. Because we have such open lines of communication, we don’t ever come across many issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to have a main point of contact. Richard has always been a great help.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Futur First, a UK national waste and recycling business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cloudserve Ltd

I needed a very flexible IT provider to provide equipment, software (like Microsoft), and ongoing support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their main project was sourcing a waste and recycling operating system for us. They checked out the market for an off-the-shelf solution and then offered us their opinions on various options. We got invaluable advice from them. Now they give monthly services related to Microsoft and running our general IT services.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with three people: one person found the software, someone helps us with the website, and another works on our day-to-day operations.

How did you come to work with Cloudserve Ltd

They were a personal recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend £600 pounds per month ($730 USD), and there have been two specific projects totaling £5,000 ($6,100 USD) and £15,000 ($18,300 USD) pounds.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2015, and the work is ongoing.  

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The reality is, we’ve never had a problem. Any time we’ve had an employee open a rogue email, they came on and fixed things. If we have new IT equipment, they set it all up. Additionally, they’ve moved our telephone system better offers over the years. I have no complaints.

How did Cloudserve Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty good. First, they look over our brief, question it, and try to understand our end goals. During the lifetime of the project, they will constantly update us, asking us if we want anything changed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their personal approach is the best. When we ring them, we speak to the same people. We know them and they know us. They get into our system and resolve issues immediately. The speed of response is great as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From a customer point of view, I’m not sure. They’re a really good company. I think they should think about singing their praises more, letting people know they’re a very good company.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain to Cloudserve what is it that you need. But, then allow them to come on board and come up with other options or better ways of doing things. Don’t be too straight-minded by saying exactly how you want them to solve the problem.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the IT managers at FJB Hotels. We support probably 250 to 300 users.

What challenge were you trying to address with Cloudserve Ltd?

We had a provider in place prior to working with Cloudserve Ltd. Most of our IT infrastructure including desktop PCs and legacy servers were on-premise. Our hardware was getting old and unreliable resulting in quite a few performance issues. The costs of replacing and fixing components were increasing. We were forced to reassess our approach to IT. We wanted to move to a new service that was more up-to-date and save money long-term.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cloudserve Ltd overhauled our IT system, Wifi being a component across all sites. During our technical consult and through the initial deployment, they were on-site. Initially, their team provided a hosted desktop solution. They replaced all of our on-premise services with a data-center solution where all of our staff log into one central cloud location. We can access any data from across our four hotels and offices. They also set up Office 365, printing capabilities, file sharing, and SharePoint. Their team consulted on our cloud and IT strategy moving forward. Now, they mostly provide remote support. Having four hotels, our users are quite spread out. If a user has a problem, they call the Cloudserve Ltd office. If their team can’t manage a solution remotely, they’ll send an engineer on-site.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two account managers and assigned a project as well as a support pod, which had about four or five people involved in it. Overall, we’ve engaged with six or seven team members.

How did you come to work with Cloudserve Ltd?

We looked around at quite a few other local suppliers. We requested a couple of proposals from different suppliers, and Cloudserve Ltd replied rapidly. They were cost-effective, responsive, and detailed about what they were able to do. Essentially, their team offered the best value.

How much have you invested with them?

Overall, we’ve spent around £250,000 (approximately $319,400 USD) on their services.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014. Cloudserve Ltd remains our partner of choice. We go to them whenever we need any IT support.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve been happy with Cloudserve Ltd’s services. At the moment, we wouldn’t consider going anywhere else. Their team provides monthly service reviews, which give us access to the number of incidents logged by our staff members, response time, and our SLA. The last report showed that they were hitting their 99.9% SLA. Their team has hit or exceeded response times. Our team has said that engagements have been resolved quickly.

How did Cloudserve Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything has been laid out in easy to understand terms. Our assigned project manager and director have been responsive. They understand that we’re a 24-hour business. We have guests in all four of our hotels 24 hours a day. Their team has worked to support us. Cloudserve Ltd knows that we can’t have downtime. They’ve been flexible and helpful in keeping our IT capabilities running as much as possible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve worked with several partners and have been impressed with their team. Cloudserve Ltd has delivered exceptional ongoing support. Their team has been highly responsive, always getting back to us. Everything they promised to do, they’ve done for us. Their team has completed tasks quickly and saved us money in the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, the service delivering reporting side of it took a while to get going. In the last few years, that has improved quite dramatically. That’s a strong point now. We have access to all of their reporting and ticketing systems. If there are any ongoing issues, we can view them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We highly recommend them to any small or medium-sized business. Make the most of all the services they have to offer. Cloudserve Ltd has a broad range of experience. Make the most of the relationship with the account managers.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Director and Chief Strategy Officer at Eagle Eye Innovations Ltd. We provide Unmanned Aircraft, or 'Drone', training and managed services in the Commercial and Defence sectors.

For what projects/services did your company hire Cloudserve Ltd?

Our email serves and data storage solution was not robust enough and was not able to expand to cope with the increased expansion of our business. Therefore we employed Cloudserve to manage a migration for us to Office 365.

What were your goals for this project?

Stable and assured email and data storage with the ability to expand as and when needed.

How did you select this vendor?

Conducted market research to find a vendor that could meet our needs with a proven track record.

Describe the project in detail.

Migration of email servers and data storage solution from two different providers to be encompassed within one solution provided by Office 365.

What was the team composition?

2 people were involved managing our migration. Richard who put the plan in place and Tom who liaised with us to ensure the services were working correctly.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Completing the migration has streamlined our processes and aligned us with a number of our key customers. Our users have commented on how user friendly and stable the system is. Additionally, Cloudserve after service to help fix problems has helped significantly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their workflow was very effective. Most communications had via email and Microsoft Teams meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Knowledgeable, efficient and ensured our business didn't experience any significant 'down time'.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have no improvements to suggest.