The company which sponsors European rugby champions Exeter Chiefs has beaten competition from larger companies to win a major international award.
Exeter’s swcomms has been named as the Best SMB Partner 2020 by telecommunications manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.
The South West communications, connectivity and IT business beat competition from much larger resellers in Alcatel-Lucent’s European and North region, which includes Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Israel, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Scandinavia.
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Announced at the recent global, but virtual, Alcatel-Lucent’s Connex21 Partner Conference, the award recognises swcomms’ success in selling telephony solutions to small and medium businesses, including an innovative product hosted in its Exeter data centre.
The Exeter company sells a range of Alcatel-Lucent products from single-site phone systems to multi-site enterprise solutions, plus suite of unified communications apps that supports remote working.
Swcomms has just beento create a £100millon business, but continues to operate under its brand name.
Brian Lodge, swcomms’ managing director, said: “This award recognises us as being the best in our field for sales of Alcatel-Lucent’s telephony products.
“Our long-term partnership means our engineers and sales specialists are experts in designing solutions to meet our customers’ needs and to support them into the future.
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“This award reinforces our position as one of the leading telecommunications businesses in the 海角视频 and underlines why we were able to attract the investment from Focus Group.”
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Mr Lodge added: “Our staff are delighted to receive this award and I am proud of everything they achieved last year. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have continued to supply telephony solutions to our customers to ensure their business communications are as flexible and reliable as they need them to be survive and thrive in the current climate.”
Focus Group’s acquisition of swcomms coincides with the retirement of the company’s creator Tony Rowe, who is also chief executive of Exeter Chiefs and ranked as one of the most significant business figures in the South West.
Mr Rowe stepped down as chief executive and chairman of the firm he set up in 1983 but the business communications and IT provider will continue to operate from its HQ in Sowton, Exeter, where it has signed a long-term lease.
The “majority” of the existing management team and employees will continue to work for the business. They have already started recruiting new staff through its training academy.
Focus Group, also a business communications and tech firm, is said to have made a “considerable investment” in snapping up swcomms.
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Focus Group’s investment will provide valuable resource and opportunity for growth in the future for swcomms while the Shoreham-headquartered venture will benefit from an extended footprint in the South West.
The combined outfit will be a £100million turnover enterprise. Most recent accounts show that swcomms earned £19million in 2019, making a pre-tax profit of £300,000.