Siren, a recent merge between Kugel and Thin Air, is a UK top 30 marketing agency, based in Soho, the hub of London’s thriving centre for Media. Established in 1995, their services range from branding, design, interactive media, marketing literature and corporate communications. They have a wide range of clients including AXA, Anglo Irish Bank, Habitat and Jo Malone. The company is also known for its prestigious work in the property sector. This includes work produced for the £900 million Chelsea Barracks development for their client, Drivers Jonas on behalf of The Ministry of Defence.

Siren’s maxim is ‘good design should boost profits, not egos’.

Following a growth period where they now have 40 employees and a turnover of £4.5 million, it was time for a radical rethink of Siren’s systems and processes. The decision was taken to appoint a highly-experienced IT manager. Crispin Green was appointed to the role, bringing with him over 18 years of experience in various IT departments. His first step was to undertake a review of the whole IT infrastructure. A critical step was getting the right business broadband service. Crispin commented, “Broadband is the backbone of most businesses today where a reliable and constant Internet connection is a must for communication with customers.” The contract with the incumbent provider was terminated after it had provided a poor service with regular downtime, lost emails and woefully inadequate support.

Crispin had been pleased when he had used Easynet Connect’s broadband service in a role at a previous company. After developing a detailed specification, he selected the Easynet Connect SureSteam SDSL service. This was because it provided a dedicated 2Mb line and offered guaranteed 99.9% availability. This was complemented by an ample 50Mb website space and hosting. Also, there is an ADSL back up service for the purpose of business continuity, so in the event of any disaster there is a solution to ensure no disruption to client service.

“Easynet Connect has a nationwide network and support service which is superior to other operators. Also, it is one of the rare broadband providers to offer a professional, business service in contrast to many who say they can, but when push comes to shove – this doesn’t translate into reality,” continued Crispin.

Another reason why Siren selected Easynet Connect was down to its experienced Technical Support team that supported Siren’s transition from the previous provider. Crispin acknowledged that the transition can often be a minefield. The Support Team masterminded the switch over to the new broadband service during a weekend to avoid disruption to the business. Also, they kept Crispin updated on progress during the two week process from order to transition. This included an accurate date of when the engineer would visit the office and activate the new SDSL line.

Also, Crispin praises the expertise of the Support Team on an on-going basis. “I like having their Support specialists on tap where I can actually get through to someone who can help. This is in contrast to being forced to wait in a long call centre queue – only to find that the agent who answers has a standard script and cannot help sort out the problem. With Easynet Connect, I can get through quickly to someone who can resolve my issue - for example, getting a DNS specialist for website hosting queries.”

Overall, the new IT infrastructure has made a big difference to the business and the service it provides clients. Siren’s business is centred on design and creativity which means transferring very large electronic files. Before changing to Easynet, this was a real problem as there was only a 10Mb size limit for any email. “Now, we have 10 times that capacity, making it easy to transfer files between staff and clients who are located from London to USA and Russia”, said Crispin.

A key requirement of the new infrastructure is the ability to allow staff to work flexibly – not only in terms of them getting the job done but also as a means of staff retention. Now the account directors and managers are equipped with PDAs – all supported by the Easynet Connect broadband email. This allows them to receive email regardless of whether they are working from home, or are en route to client meetings or out at events. Most importantly, they can access information at any time and respond in order to meet the deadlines and demands of such a fast-moving industry.

An important client service development supported by broadband is the facility of a client extranet hosted on the Siren website. One client using the service is the Bulgarian property developer, yooBulgaria. Siren’s advertising and brochures created for yooBulgaria are now posted on a secure, extranet where the client can review and amend files. This reduces the need for email to transfer these large files. Also, it is helping to reduce approval cycles and improve efficiency.