Yep, it’s that time of year again. Already. And it’s been an absolute cracker (that wasn’t a Christmas joke). Talk about busy and exciting. All sorts of new stuff has happened. So, before the Silly Season really gets into its stride, we all befuddle ourselves with rum custard & sherry trifle and lose our minds trying to top the tiger feet novelty slippers we got uncle Bill last year, we thought we’d take a minute to share some of the year’s memorable moments and exciting events with you. Use our menu below to jump to the section you want to check out first!
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We’ve moved house, so now everyone has their own room
Welcome to the Fold - You’re part of the family now. Muhahaha
Company Culture Video - The Blooper Reel!
How have we supported you this year?
Xmas Hours - We’ll be at home. Not wearing reindeer jumpers.
Amazing tours and treks, er, I mean talks and tech.
This year’s resolution is to not make any more resolutions.
We’ve moved house, so now everyone has their own room.
At the start of this year, we were getting a bit cramped (and it wasn’t just the result of too much turkey, pud and blue cheese). It was obvious that it was looking like being another bumper year, and the business was expanding strongly. So we decided to take the plunge and invest half a million euros into new, state of the art premises. The new offices are 4x larger than our previous home, with separate areas for all of our departments. And there’s a lot of space for us to grow into.
- Some of the team taking part in the sponsored IP Telecom Park West Run in September. Picture taken in our new offices!
Welcome to the Fold - You’re part of the family now. Muhahaha.
It’s lucky there was space to grow into, as we’ve already started filling it and made some big additions to the IP Telecom family. So far, we have welcomed 2 new members to support our, er, Support team. There’s another member to the Sales Team (they sold us on that one), and also a new Marketing Manager. Well, if we’re doing amazing work and kicking some big goals, it seems wise, that we should actually share the news with our loyal customers and partners.
Company Culture Video - The Blooper Reel!
As you might expect, we try our absolute best to make sure we know our subject intimately, so we can understand how it can help you. It’s only then that we can perform beyond your expectations and give you a polished, reliable product and service. Wonderful. Sounds great so far. Boxes ticked all over the place, but (and isn’t there always a ‘but’) we are human. And evidently humans are still evolving. Well, some are. So, for your amusement, here’s a window into our own fallible, little world, and how our staff dealt with a few curveball questions.
- outtakes from our company culture video - If you're curious to see if we've pulled it off, check out the real thing HERE.
How we have supported you this year?
Customer Support
It’s not a brilliant party conversation opener (maybe try it on someone you’re trying to get rid of) but you might be interested to know that we’ve collated some statistics about the performance of our products and services. They might sound a bit dry to some people, but we thought they were really cool (we’re a bit geeky like that), and if they affect your business, you might find them pretty impressive too.
For instance, the new independent porting system, which we implemented at the end of 2017 has produced a 48 hour response times for 90% of our national ports. And IP Telecom are 100% compliant with industry SLAs. This project has now been completed by all carriers.
We’re also proud to say that our Support Tickets are performing superbly well too. So much so that 76% of all tickets are responded to within 1 hour, which is 65% better than the industry standard.
Partner Support
We are happy to announce that we have now a dedicated support channel for Partners, which gives access direct to level 2 support. We have also developed an automated network health system, which we hope to have available to our Partners by year-end. Finally, we are almost finished work on the self-support knowledge-base, and we’re looking forward to contacting you soon to set up your support logins again and allow you access to the documentation.
Xmas Hours - We’ll be at home. Not wearing reindeer jumpers.
After a huge year of happy advances and successes with our partners and customers, we’ll be having a bit of a turkey/nut roast (depending on your views) induced snooze over Christmas and New Year.
So the IP Telecom offices will be closed for Christmas from 5pm on Friday 21st of December, and we’re back again (bright eyed and bushy tailed-ish) at 9am on Wednesday 2nd January.
And if tech things at work get a bit twitchy over the holiday for you, our Support ticketing system will be available from 9am to 5pm on:
- Thursday December 27th
- Friday December 28th
- Monday January 31st
Our partners can use the IP Telecom Partner Portal to manage new customers, number allocations etc. The IP Telecom Porting desk closes at 5pm on Friday Dec 21st 2018 and resumes on 9am Wed 2nd Jan 2019.
The deadline for submission of ports to be completed prior to Christmas is close of business on Wed 19th Dec 2018.
Amazing tours and treks, er, I mean talks and tech.
As a company, we like to think we’re on the ball and keen to stay at the leading edge of our industry. So, to learn about what the brightest and most innovative companies are doing in the rest of the world, this year, we attended AfricaCom in South Africa. And we’re very glad we did. To say it was a rewarding, eye-opening and educational trip would be the understatement of the year.
But it wasn’t the only tech convention we had a good look around. This year, Mario, our lead software developer, attended Web Summit 2018. One of the world’s biggest technology conferences. He said he could learn a lot about new technologies and skills, which could help us keep a few steps ahead of the competition. Well, he would say that. This year it was held in Portugal’s beautiful, coastal capital city, Lisbon. Sounds awful, but someone had to do it.
It was 4 days of being immersed in insights about current "hot" ideas around the world. With multiple stages of interesting talks, there was just so much to see, hear and learn, it was like a Glastonbury for cutting-edge technology with talks on tech, business, cryptocurrency and trading.
There were also start-up pitch sessions, where passionate entrepreneurs from all around the world were sharing their vision and looking for financing from investors.
It was an incredibly well-attended event, and there’s obviously a huge global buzz about new ideas and directions, and the technology, which can realise those visions. So, thanks Mario, for making the trip on our behalf, so we can, as you said, ‘produce an even better product for our customers and partners’. You’re a trooper, Mario!.
This year’s resolution is to not make any more resolutions.
So that about rounds it up! We hope you’ve had a rewarding year. And we’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you for your trust and loyalty, and for choosing to work with our products, our services and our people. The whole team at IP Telecom would like to wish you a safe, healthy, hearty, relaxing holiday. We ho ho hope (sorry, couldn’t resist it) you have a Merry Christmas and New Year’s celebration. And we look forward to seeing you in what we’re sure will be a happy, prosperous 2019.
