Unified teams identified as top success factor

When asked about the key factors that make their business successful, this month's cohort of industry leaders fingered the power of unified teams as the main growth driver, with customer experience, partnerships and differentiation close behind.

RICHARD SCOTT,
SALES DIRECTOR, START COMMUNICATIONS

People are the most important factor in our success. Alignment on core values of transparency, honesty, and integrity ensures we work toward common goals with greater efficiency. Regular development keeps our team growing and aligned. Next is customer experience. Instead of focusing only on what we think we deliver, we look inward to examine how customers perceive every interaction with us. Our aim is to make each touchpoint, across every stage of the journey, genuinely positive and meaningful. A third success factor is offering a comprehensive yet uncomplicated service range. When product options become too numerous, the value proposition can become diluted, making choices harder for customers and reducing overall impact. By keeping our offerings simple, effective, and efficient, we boost customer satisfaction and business profitability. These factors in balance drive the sustainable growth of our business.

RICHARD BETTS,
CEO, VIZST TECHNOLOGY

Vizst Technology’s success is built on three key factors. People are at the core of everything we do. We’ve created a culture where trust, autonomy, and curiosity drive performance. Our team is empowered to innovate, challenge convention, and make decisions that deliver better outcomes for our customers. Purpose keeps us focused. We exist to simplify complex technologies, helping businesses reduce risk, remove stress, and achieve more through IT. Our clarity of mission ensures every action we take adds measurable value to our customers. Partnerships power our growth. We work with a narrow band of vendors by design - allowing us to go an inch wide and a mile deep. This focus means we can be true specialists, offering depth of knowledge and strategic guidance our customers can trust. As we grow, we’ll continue investing in people, partnerships, and purpose-led delivery.

EMMA CARTER,
CEO, WESTSPRING IT

Our people’s their passion to deliver excellence in service and their commitment to providing technical expertise in a personable way has been the foundation of our growth over the last eight years. We will further this through investment in formal development programmes, enhancing our recognition and engagement methods, and developing our mental, physical and financial well-being support with flexible policies and personalised benefits. Second is client relationships. We have genuine strategic partnerships that drive growth for both parties. Without partners being willing and open to change, committed to us and being reasonable people, we wouldn't have the business we have. Finally, is the good old boring 'structure' of our business! The way we organise our teams, our processes, our decision making and our culture of EVERYONE getting stuck in means we are agile, efficient and can scale sustainability. We have a major project plan over the next year to evolve our structure, processes and ways of operating to enable the next stage of growth.

DAVE MIDDLETON,
FINANCE DIRECTOR, FLOTEK GROUP

As a service-based organisation, we obsess over customer experience. Without this, customers will look elsewhere and our team will lose confidence in the service we provide. As more data and more noise is at our fingertips, we must remain focussed on customer outcomes. Ensuring we remain an exciting and rewarding place to work as well as continuing to develop our services and team are crucial to stay ahead of the curve. Our team and customers identify with us as a growing business, so constantly evolving how we provide our service and developing what we offer is important to continue this. Strong leadership encourages different perspectives and opinions but ultimately aligns the team on a strategy and delivers consistently. Confidently taking calculated risks and adapting when plans inevitably change is crucial in a high growth organisation. We’re investing heavily in developing our management team to build on this for our future.

IAN WALKER,
COMPANY DIRECTOR, FIFTEEN GROUP

The single most important factor in our success is our team and our culture with the employee experience being key. We invest in their growth, foster a culture of collaboration, and empower them to lead with creativity and accountability. We believe that a motivated, skilled and engaged workforce is our competitive edge, we don’t do anything different to any other MSP, we just need to do it better than everyone else. Therefore, pillar two is innovation. Technology evolves rapidly, and so do we. We continually invest in R&D and software development, adapt to emerging trends, and integrate the latest tools to deliver smarter, more resilient and secure solutions. Our innovation keeps us relevant and respected in a fast-paced market. Finally, we pride ourselves on building long-term relationships based on transparency, reliability, and measurable results. Understanding customer’s evolving needs by being the trusted advisor ensures we stay agile and indispensable.

DAVE O’CONNELL,
MD, ADVANTEX NETWORK SOLUTIONS

Our success comes down to three key things: people, trust, and doing the job properly. We’ve always believed that if you build a strong team and look after them, they’ll do the same for your customers and that approach has driven our growth.  We’re proud to be a place where everyone has a voice, from apprentices to senior leaders, and that inclusive culture flows directly into how we work with clients: honestly, reliably, and with long-term goals in mind, not quick wins. Looking ahead, we’re investing heavily in both emerging technologies, particularly AI-driven automation and surveillance, and the continued development of our team, but without losing sight of what matters: being easy to work with and solving real problems. We’ll keep growing by staying agile, listening to our colleagues and customers, and never settling for good enough.

JAMES HEALEY,
COO, AIR IT
Our success is built on a people-first culture, where colleagues feel supported, empowered with the right tools and are given opportunities to grow. As a growing business, retaining and developing top talent is essential. As Richard Branson once said: “Look after your people, and they’ll look after your clients”. A motivated, engaged team is key to delivering excellent service and building long-term client relationships. What will truly set us apart is this combination of culture with our forward-thinking approach to technology. We’re actively investing in innovation and leveraging automation, AI and data-driven tools to drive performance, both internally and for our clients. These technologies are core to our long-term strategy. We believe our people and our passion for innovation through technology, will continue to be the driving force for growth.

STEVE HARRIS,
CEO, CLOUDCLEVR

Customer relevance. We’ve strategically completed four baseline acquisitions to build a portfolio across six core technology pillars. We believe that customers are increasingly looking to work with suppliers who can deliver fully converged solutions across Cloud, Communications and IT, and we will continue to innovate in these key areas. Differentiation. We don’t just deliver services, we prove value. Our proprietary Clevr360 platform powers a unique customer engagement framework that maps solutions to measurable ROI. This is how we drive a genuine partnership with our customers and we’re doubling down on it. Execution. Data drives our decisions. We’re investing heavily in becoming a data-led business that consistently delivers on its promises. Values. Everything we do is grounded in commitment, expertise, and innovation. These values aren’t just internal, they shape every customer interaction and drive long-term trust.

TOM HORNSBY
HEAD OF TECHNICAL, COBALT

Our business succeeds through strong client relationships, an empowered team, and a commitment to quality. Managing customer expectations is key so we communicate clearly and honestly to build trust and deliver reliably. Our team is our greatest strength. We invest in people by supporting natural talents and developing new skills through apprenticeship schemes. Our culture is shaped by values such as decisiveness, being supportive and working collaboratively. These principles empower staff to make confident, informed decisions. Consistently high-quality service reinforces our reputation and builds lasting client loyalty. To develop these strengths, we continue prioritising team development, embedding our values in daily practice and refining how we engage with customers.