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Latest News
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Take a Look at the Aspire Team
January 12, 2011 by adminCategory: Aspire News
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Aspire Staff Share Knowledge with Local Students
February 7, 2012 by Nigel BeggStaff from Gateshead-based Aspire Technology Solutions went back to the classroom last week, welcoming students from two South Tyneside based schools into their workplace.
A group of Level 2 IT Diploma students from St Joseph’s Comprehensive and Hebburn Comprehensive spent the afternoon at Aspire as part of their studies, witnessing how different technologies and business systems are implemented and used within the workplace.
The IT Diploma qualification calls for students to understand the role of key components within networked PC systems, assemble, test and troubleshoot a simple computer network, understand the principles of systems availability, design, develop, test and troubleshoot a simple database system and carry out a system review, assessing fitness for purpose and identifying opportunities for improvement.
Of the student visit, Denis Heaney, Deputy Director of Applied Learning at St Joseph’s RC Comprehensive School said: “Given the specific requirements of the IT Diploma, we approached Aspire as we felt they were perfectly placed to assist with our workplace-based learning.
“Without companies like Aspire that are willing to take time out of their day to answer student questions and show them round their workplace, this kind of practical learning just wouldn’t be possible. We are therefore extremely grateful to the Aspire team for being so accommodating, the students thoroughly enjoyed their visit and gained a great deal from it.”
Nigel Begg, Managing Director of Aspire added: “We are always keen to nurture local talent where possible and therefore work closely with North East schools and universities to snap up the brightest and best.
“I think it’s really important to give students the opportunity to see how we work as it teaches them about real business which you don’t get sitting in a classroom. The students from St Joseph’s were enthusiastic and eager to learn which was great to see so we were more than happy to share our knowledge with them. I wish them all luck with their studies moving forward.”
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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New Sales Team Arrives at Aspire
January 17, 2012 by Nigel BeggAspire is continuing with its significant recruitment drive by appointing a team of five experienced sales executives.
Following relocation to new high profile headquarters in Gateshead at the end of last year, the rapidly-expanding company has recruited Michael Errington, Stephen McNickle, Justin Godfrey, Paul Beat and Shaun Richardson, all of which previously worked for North East communications firm, Executel Ltd which became Talk Talk Business in April 2011.
Michael Errington from Whitley Bay has joined Aspire, taking up the position of Sales Director having spent 14 years at Executel in the same role. Meanwhile, Stephen McNickle from Newcastle has been appointed as Senior Sales Executive and Justin Godfrey, Paul Beat and Shaun Richardson are Aspire’s new Sales Executives.
Of the challenge, Michael said: “I worked for Executel since its inception in 1997 and grew up with the company but when it was acquired by Talk Talk Business last year, I decided that I needed a new challenge. I felt that I had gone as far as I could with the company and therefore wanted to move on.
“Aspire was already a close partner of Executel’s so I knew the team and how they work. As a business, Aspire has grown rapidly and been very successful in recent years but they were lacking the one thing I could provide – sales experience.
“Aspire has some of the best technical experts in the region but had no sales team to go out and sell their skills which is where myself and the other guys come in. We had worked well together at Executel and were a tight team so it seemed the obvious step for all of us.
“Aspire is experiencing a period of significant development and change with additional members of staff, an extended product portfolio and new vendor partnerships so I’m delighted to be joining the team at such an exciting time. The guys at Aspire have never really had the chance to shout about their successes and how good the company is but now is the time to start spreading the word so I’m ready and raring to go!”
(L-R) Paul Beat, Shaun Richardson, Michael Errington, Stephen McNickle & Justin Godfrey
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire Wins Council Contract
November 30, 2011 by Nigel BeggAspire has fought off stiff competition to secure a £50k contract with Gateshead Council.
Rapidly-expanding Aspire was appointed by Gateshead Council to deliver a high speed, 100Mb internet service via the Gateshead Technology Innovation (G-ti) network to four of the borough’s leading business centres.
As a result, tenants of Gateshead International Business Centre, Greenesfield Business Centre and Baltimore House can now benefit from superfast, uncontended internet connectivity with no upload or download limits or restrictions. The service provided by Aspire will also serve the £9.9m Northern Design Centre, part funded by European Regional Development Fund, which is due for completion in early 2012.
Of the significant contract win, Chris Fraser, Technical Director of Aspire said: “The G-ti network has put Gateshead at the forefront of broadband technology and ensured that the borough is one of the best connected locations in the UK. Aspire is therefore honoured and delighted to be working in partnership with both the Council and G-ti to equip some of the region’s primary business centres with leading-edge technology.
“Gateshead Council is the first local authority in England to install a world-class fibre network of this kind which in turn enables service providers like ourselves to deliver fast, reliable and resilient connectivity to local businesses over a future-proof infrastructure.
“Since going live in 2009, the G-ti infrastructure has attracted a wealth of business to the Gateshead area; in fact we now have some 60 customers who currently receive their services from Aspire via the G-ti network.”
Nigel Begg, Managing Director of Aspire added: “The 100Mb service we have provided has capacity up to 1Gb and replaces a 30Mb connection that was previously being shared by approximately 100 businesses, all of which have now been migrated to the new service with minimum disruption and downtime.”
Gateshead Council cabinet member for employment and skills, Cllr Malcolm Graham, said: “Our existing business centres and the under construction Northern Design Centre provide the vital step for business either starting out or looking to take a big step forwards. Providing high quality facilities is a big part of our offer to businesses and in this day and age high speed broadband is an essential component.”
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire Embarks on Expansion Plan
November 21, 2011 by Nigel BeggAspire has embarked on a significant expansion plan that will see head count increase by a third within the next six months.
Following relocation to new headquarters at Heworth Hall in Gateshead, the rapidly-expanding company has recruited Isabelle Bambridge, 34, Sarah Cooper, 29 and Catherine Richardson, 38, all of which previously worked for North East communications firm, Executel Ltd.
Isabelle has been appointed by Aspire as Marketing & Communications Manager having spent five years in a similar role at Executel. Meanwhile, Sarah has stepped into the role of Customer Services Manager taking overall responsibility for Aspire’s existing service desk function and Catherine has joined the team as Billing Manager.
Of the new challenge, Isabelle said: “Aspire is a growing company with a huge amount of potential and I’m delighted to have joined the company during a period of significant expansion and development.
“Having worked closely with Aspire whilst employed by Executel, I have a good understanding of the business already which has enabled me to hit the ground running.
“As a business, Aspire has a very exciting time ahead with more staff appointments to be announced in the new year, expansion of its product portfolio coming in early 2012 and a magnificent new head office which was officially unveiled earlier this month.”
Sarah added: “Aspire is known for its first class after-sales support and as the business grows, it’s important for someone to oversee and coordinate the ever-expanding service desk and technical team in order to ensure that the quality of customer care remains as high as it always has been. This is the primary function of my new role and I’m thoroughly enjoying the challenge.”
Of her appointment as Billing Manager, Catherine said: “Having spent nearly eight years with Executel, I have an in-depth knowledge of the billing process and have therefore been employed by Aspire to implement and run their billing platform moving forward. This will enable the business to streamline and automate its existing processes which in turn will result in a better service for customers.
“Aspire is at a very important stage in its development with significant expansion taking place over the next few months and I’m therefore delighted to joining the team during such an exciting period.”
L-R Isabelle Bambridge, Catherine Richardson & Sarah Cooper
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire Breathes New Life into Iconic Building
November 3, 2011 by Nigel BeggOne of the North East’s iconic buildings has become the new home of Aspire Technology Solutions Ltd following an 18 month renovation project.
Fast-growing Aspire – which has sites in Hebburn, Central London and Sunderland – has invested in excess of £1m in restoring and updating Grade-II* listed Heworth Hall located on Shields Road in Gateshead and invited the Mayor of Gateshead, Councillor Joe Mitchinson to officially unveil the new building.
Speaking at the opening of Aspire’s new headquarters, The Mayor of Gateshead said: “Heworth Hall has been a recognisable structure in Gateshead since the 1600s and over the past 18 months, Aspire has worked closely with Gateshead Council and English Heritage to breathe new life into the building. This modern office space, which retains many of the original features, will now help to provide more jobs for the borough and I hope it will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Of the company’s ongoing success, Nigel Begg, Managing Director of Aspire said: “The development of Heworth Hall has been a real labour of love for all involved but the result is a magnificent head office for Aspire which undeniably makes a statement about us as a business. When you think that we started out just five years ago as a two-man business and now we have 25 existing members of staff and more to come in early 2012 plus four sites across the North East and London.”
Chris Fraser, Technical Director for Aspire added: “Heworth Hall is really the icing on the cake for us, it’s been a challenging journey but we now feel that Aspire has arrived. The new building forms just part of our ambitious expansion plans which are set to continue moving forward. We have new products and services in the pipeline, a number of partner announcements to make, additional members of staff coming on board and a whole host of exciting developments that I believe will take our business to the next level.”
L-R Nigel Begg, the Mayoress of Gateshead, the Mayor of Gateshead and Chris Fraser
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire Selected as Mitel Partner
October 24, 2011 by Nigel BeggAspire Technology Solutions has been selected as an authorizedPARTNER of unified communications vendor, Mitel®.
Gateshead-based Aspire can now offer the complete Mitel solutions portfolio, thereby enabling the company to further expand its product offering to include a range of sophisticated voice and video communications platforms as well as mobile applications.
Of Aspire’s new Mitel status, Managing Director, Nigel Begg said: “To have been selected as a reseller of Mitel’s products is a fantastic achievement for Aspire. Our background and experience to date has been very much focused on the managed IT services market but it became clear that there was a gap in our offering and that many companies want to deal with just the one supplier for all their business systems and applications.
“We therefore decided to widen our net to include telephony and unified communications solutions and have worked hard to prove that we are a good fit for Mitel. We have committed to recruiting additional staff that have existing knowledge and experience within the telephony market and are working with Mitel to ensure that our technical team are trained and fully qualified across the entire product set.”
Chris Fraser, Technical Director of Aspire added: “Gaining authorizedPARTNER status with Mitel is a real coup for us and it will enable us to offer additional added value solutions to our clients. This in turn will provide them with a greater variety of technology to choose from and a single supplier from which to get all their services. As a rapidly growing company, we will be able to target previously untapped markets, offering the very latest in emerging technologies.
“Throughout the life of Aspire, we have made it an absolute priority to partner with the best providers in the industry including Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, VMware and now Mitel. We are therefore delighted to be selected as one of their partners and look forward to working closely with the organisation moving forward.”
Commenting on their decision to work with Aspire, James Madgwick, Account Executive for Mitel, said: “Aspire is a fast growing company with the skills and ambition to make its mark in the telephony and unified communications marketplace.
“As a business, they have proved their commitment to Mitel and invested heavily in technical resources, training and internal systems in order to ensure they have a fully qualified team of first-class communications consultants that will help broaden their existing product offering. We are therefore delighted to name them as a Mitel authorizedPARTNER and look forward to a long-standing and prosperous relationship with the company.”
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire helps businesses guard against winter weather
October 13, 2011 by Nigel BeggWith weather experts warning us to prepare for another year of Arctic temperatures and snow, managed services provider Aspire Technology Solutions is urging North East businesses to ensure they are equipped to cope with the disruption that a spell of severe weather may cause.
Last winter, it’s estimated that the cost of absenteeism to the economy due to adverse weather conditions ran into the billions. Therefore, with heavy snow reported to be hitting the UK as early as November, Gateshead-based Aspire is advising that flexible remote working could help maintain business continuity and minimise the cost of staff absence.
Nigel Begg, Managing Director of Aspire explains: “Despite the chaos experienced last year, many businesses remain unprepared for the possibility that staff may again be unable to travel to work due to heavy snowfall. If as predicted, the weather turns, employees may well be left stranded at home but that doesn’t mean they can’t continue to work as normal.
“By implementing a secure remote working solution, employers can ensure that their staff have seamless access to emails and the corporate network from home. Meanwhile, telephone calls can be re-routed to them quickly and easily using an integrated IP telephony system, so essentially they can operate from home as effectively as they would in the office.
“In terms of the technology itself, there are a number of options for remote working depending on existing infrastructure and it needn’t require a heavy investment. At Aspire, we specialise in the delivery of productivity-enhancing solutions and as such, we are keen to work in partnership with local employers to advise them of their options.
“Regardless of whether the snow arrives next month or not, remote working can help firms to cut costs by reducing the amount of dead time that workers spend travelling to and from meetings. It also gives staff the chance to achieve a greater work/life balance which is something we all strive for!
“At the end of the day, it costs nothing to seek advice which is why we are urging local businesses to get in touch.”
Category: Aspire News, Press Releases
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Aspire Partners with Top Visitor Attraction
September 19, 2011 by Nigel BeggAspire Technology Solutions Ltd is celebrating the completion of a significant £70k contract for one of the region’s most famous visitor attractions.
The Alnwick Garden awarded Aspire the prestigious contract which covers the provision of IT services including a full technology refresh across the estate and the migration of key servers and business applications to a virtualised environment as part of a comprehensive disaster recovery plan.
Aspire was also required to design and implement a robust data backup solution for the organisation, thereby ensuring that business critical data can be retrieved quickly and easily should the need arise.
Of the investment in an updated infrastructure, Rod Kelly, IT Manager for The Alnwick Garden said: “The Aspire team have been extremely professional and have put in a lot of hours on this project, many outside normal operating times.
“Replacing the systems has been very challenging but Aspire have been up to the task and I look forward to working with the team on future projects.”
Dave Sample, Technical Services Manager for Aspire added: “The Alnwick Garden is a hugely important visitor attraction and we are therefore delighted to have been chosen as their technology partner.
“The management team were looking for an experienced IT services provider that would work closely with them to design and implement a site-wide integration and upgrade of existing business systems as well as the migration of key servers and applications to a virtualised environment.
“Virtualisation is an important and growing trend and many UK businesses are now incorporating virtual solutions as part of their IT strategy so we were delighted to see that The Alnwick Garden had this firmly on their agenda. A comprehensive disaster recovery strategy was also a key requirement for the organisation so that in the event of a system failure, the estate can continue to function with minimal disruption and downtime.
“Aspire has a wealth of expertise in these areas and as such, we have successfully delivered phase one of the project. Phase two will focus on Alnwick Castle which is run as a separate entity to the Garden but shares the same management team and we look forward to delivering the same high level of service during that phase.”
Category: Press Releases
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My INCREDIBLE Experience at Aspire Technology Solutions!
July 15, 2011 by Nigel BeggMy name is Kieran Lawson, aged 15 and I am a student at St Joseph’s RC comprehensive school in Hebburn. I am currently studying the new IT Diploma course and I had work experience so I chose to develop my experience of work by going to Aspire Technology Solutions to advance my experience of IT as I want to take the IT route for my career.
I have been at Aspire for 5 days and I have had an unbelievable experience. All of the staff gave me a very warm welcome when I arrived and have provided me with a very friendly atmosphere. Even though it’s a small office in which they work, I have witnessed a lot of the work that they do which really fascinates me.
I have been working with the Help Desk team and have watched them solve technical problems remotely using “log me in” where they can remotely control the computer from their own as if they were sat in front of it. They have had problems with servers, networking which is a great help for me for part of my assessment in the Diploma.
They have a pro-active monitoring system where it constantly monitors all of the systems that Aspire manage and if there is a fault, it is automatically logged onto this network monitoring software and the Help Desk team can solve these problems without the customer knowing that there is a fault which is a bonus to the customer which ensures good CRM with them.
Overall my experience at Aspire has been flawless and it has enhanced my knowledge on what life is like in a working environment and I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I would like to thank all of the staff for this amazing opportunity.
Category: Work experience
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My Eye Opening Work Experience
by Nigel BeggHi, my name is Ryan Ablett aged 15 and I am a student at St Josephs Comprehensive School Hebburn, currently I am Studying an ICT Diploma Course. As I am in year 10 in our school we do 1-2 weeks of work experience because it is getting closer and closer for us leaving school and applying for jobs. So i chose Aspire Technology Solutions as my work placement because I would like to have a career in ICT in the future.
Therefore at Aspire Technology Solutions I have had a fantastic opportunity to see what life is like working within ICT in the business world. All of the Staff are very welcoming and friendly and they give a friendly atmosphere, the office is not that big but the work that they do fascinates me. Also they have included me in all of their work to show me what kinds of ICT Skills they use in their everyday life.
In the two weeks work experience here I have mainly worked with the Help Desk team. They have been showing me what their job consists of, e.g. installing software onto computers, Fixing backup problems, Pro-Active Network Monitoring and Solving server issues Etc. As I have been here for two weeks my knowledge of ICT has grown massively, the knowledge that aspire has given me I hope it helps me achieve more in the later years.
Pro-Active Network Monitoring is where alarms occur which tells the team what problems they have and instead of the customers coming Aspire, Aspire go to them to keep good customer relationship.
As I have been working on the Help Desk, I was working in a team with Tony Dougan developing a virtual infrastructure for a large company. I was testing a virtual desktop environment on VMware View Client to roll out of a company wide upgrade.
Category: Aspire News, Work experience
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