 Integrated Results is ChangingIntegrated Results is a marketing agency that refuses to sit still. In 2013 we will continue to move forward with a total re-brand, making it clear to everyone who we are and what we do. We will also be streamlining the integrated sales and marketing services that we offer, instead of confusing you with jargon and complicated theories. Keep an eye out for the changes in the coming months! 08 January 2013  Sport Relief 2012Last week the Integrated Results Group got together to raise money for Sport Relief. There was a bake sale with HUNDREDS of cookies and buns, fancy dress with a sport/red theme, lunch time bingo and poster competitions. Robert and carly also did a sponsored stay-awake from 6:30 Thursday monring to 6:30 Friday night - a great achievement! In total we raised £328.72! Thank you to everyone who took part and donated and well done to all of our suppliers, partners and customers who raised money for Sport Relief 2012. 27 March 2012 Our relationship with HP goes from strength to strength in 2011Our working relationship with Hewlett Packard continued to flourish in 2011 with several projects completed and new projects to look forward to in the New Year. We have written sales and training collaterals for several departments within HP as well as designing promotional products including pop up banners and posters for the direct and channel branches of the IT company. As a group we also continue to sell HP Care Pack Services through Support Warehouse and distribute HP Contract Services through TSD. We look forward to continuing this relationship in 2012. 22 December 2011 Training interview 2: Tom BrooksbankAbout Tom Tom attended Leeds Bradford Metropolitan University for 3 years and studied business and management. Within those subjects he studied various subjects like marketing and sales. He had to travel to Leeds every day. He also did a dissertation on MacDonald’s, focusing on a strategy for how to improve health, doing lots of research around the subject. Now he’s doing training with HP and Rachel Paeglis the Reseller Sales Manager at TSD, and soon he will take a test which qualifies him for his understanding and knowledge. He previously worked for an IT company in Hebden Bridge which was similar to TSD, although he predominately dealt with IBM there. This means he has an understanding of the market which helps understand this new role. What are you training for/about? I’m studying to gain knowledge of all the products we offer, but mainly to learn about account managing. Rachel will set up training for me soon in regards to the account managing side of things, at the moment I’m doing more quoting which gives me a grounding of understanding about the systems. If I pass this test it means I’m qualified and have understanding of all the products and it upholds the company’s reputation. Have you had funding or time off? Not really because it was internal training, unless Rachel took me on site audits. They helped me to get to know the products and speak to customers. Tell us about the course with HP? Well it was both internal and external to HP. The internal was to do with the actual products, strategies and HP’s processes and tools. The external was about competition with other suppliers such as IBM and DELL. Rachel and I went to visit customers on site audits, and I was able to view the customers’ kit, which was great because I had no understanding of the kit itself and it put everything into perspective, and into a real life situation rather than just writing down things from the training. Have you enjoyed it? Yeah it was really interesting and there was a lot to learn because there’s so many products. I had help from Rachel and Robert and that put it into perspective. I also understand everything a lot better too now. What did you learn? Well there are various support levels, types of contracts and care packs. I learnt all about the differences between them, what they are, and what type of customer needs which. It was important to learn about developing relationships with customers, and actually make relationships as I went through my training so that they’ll be happy with me when I’ve finished my training. I learnt about understanding the differing requirements of customers because that helps determine which support level they want, and finally I learnt about the different stages in sales process. How was the training delivered? HP deliver their training via the partner portal, so it is mainly computer based. The TSD training was a mixture of presentations and on- the- job training including free site audits, quoting and listening to Rachel as she spoke to resellers and customers. How will your training benefit the job/company? Well it helps in my understanding and most importantly my confidence when I’m speaking to customers, because I know what I’m speaking about and which products best meet their requirements. It’ll help me close sales, for example, I spoke to a customer last week after week of trying to get hold of them, and now hopefully we will close the sale. The whole process will benefit it-learning about the products and building relationships. What’s the most important or best thing you’ve learnt from your training? Probably all the requests, whether it’s proactive or reactive, learning about needing to prioritise each customer. When dealing with the sales process you need to be able to adapt to each customer depending upon the urgency of their requirement. What was the worst thing about the training? The length probably. It was very detailed and there was a lot of information to take in. the HP training was a 2 hour recording and I had to take notes, it took days and days for the whole training. Chris and Rachel say that the actual HP training can be difficult to understand because it’s in American style format, so I’m glad I did the internal training. Integrated Results continues to support the professional development of their staff through internal and external training, enabling us to deliver the best service possible to our customers. 20 October 2011  Training Interview 1: Sam HollandWe are always looking at career development and improving the skills of the team; here is an interview by our work experience placement, Lauren Brooks, as part of series of interviews into staff training. First up we talk to Sam about his Sage training. About Sam Sam joined Integrated Results just a few months ago and is currently studying for his PHD at Manchester University. He did a bachelor of computer science degree for 5 yrs, and was awarded a 1st class degree with honours, then was given funding to do a PHD, and he has been working on his PHD for almost 5yrs, and it hoping to finish late November. Because he is a researcher not an undergraduate he can work from home-he doesn’t have to always be at the university. Sam has recently completed a 3 day course with Sage, at Sage’s headquarters in Newcastle, about accounts and helping people to buy online more easily. He is mainly learning how to write software, which he will then customise for tools which will be used solely by Integrated Results and our clients. What are you training for/about? I’ve learnt how to use Sage’s ‘develop tool’ so we can modify their software for ourselves, which will be really helpful. Have you had funding and time off? Yes I’ve had funding but no time off. The funding was mainly that the company booked my hotel, and paid for my meals and the course. I guess I did have time off in the sense that I live 5 minutes from the training centre- meaning I got a extra hour in bed! Normally I have to travel for an hour to get here. We start work earlier here than at the training too. Tell us about the course at sage? It was for three days, there were two instructors each with a team of students, we reviewed code examples shown on a big screen then were able to have a go ourselves on our computers, and we ran line by line and interrogated the code. The only problem was that the code they were teaching is a different code than I use at work normally so I had to translate it in my head! Have you enjoyed it? Yes absolutely enjoyed it! It provided an interesting insight into sage’s software development practices. What did you learn? We were given two large books, which are basically help manuals. I learnt about customising their products- changing the way it looks and changing it so that it stores more information. I learnt about integration-we write new software and it communicates with sages software-e.g., we write a website, and then when you buy something it sends that information straight into our financial database. How will your training benefit the job/company? It will benefit the company because I can automate some of the processes that people would have done. Also it means people will only need to enter something into a computer once. There’s also lots of different software and now we can share that software better, making it easier for us to link software. It will help my job because I have a better understanding of the sage software. Before the course I couldn’t integrate directly with sage stuff and without training I would have had to type into sage software to find out about it. It’s mainly our finance and records of finance-when people buy stuff or we buy stuff it goes into there. It also manages our entire payroll, so we’re careful not to let it break! What’s the most important or best thing you’ve learnt from your training? Well Adrian (the Financial Director) wanted me to go on the training because customising the software is strategically important for managing renewal information in future. I think that we’ll see a lot of benefits from integrating our systems with that. It’s that particular insight that I think is the most useful thing. What was the worst thing about the training? Probably the fact that the books are so big! Also that it was hard to change how they were teaching us the software to how I use the software at work normally like I mentioned earlier. 20 October 2011  They think it's all over ... it is now!Driving Services Sales has finished, marking the end of TSD’s first ever reseller sales incentive. We have had a great time getting to know our reseller partners throughout the year and hope you have enjoyed learning more about TSD, our team and the services we offer. When we launched Driving Services Sales we knew that it would catch your eye. With fewer incentives offered by distributors since the recession, a brand new car was definitely a prize worth winning, and our reseller partners were quick to get involved. The lucky winner of the Citroen DS3 is from RichardsonEyres and the victor proudly took the keys to his brand new car when we visited the office last week. The runners up were then invited to Brands Hatch to watch Dan Lloyd, the racing driver we sponsor, compete in the UK round of the Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup (part of the German Touring Car series) and show their mettle in a fierce round of go-karting. Hopefully none of you have been put off working with TSD by Rachel, our Reseller Sales Manager, getting a little over-competitive and ramming you off the track! (Check out their serious racing driver faces in the photo) Last but not least, the TSD team and a handful of reseller representatives raced around the track at Oulton Park with Dan and Tim Sugden (legendary GT racer who competes in the Le Mans 24 hour race), learning how to take the corners like a pro and then getting scared stiff by Dan driving a Caterham. We have been overwhelmed with your positive feedback on Driving Services Sales and are looking forward to more incentives in the future. Keep an eye on our website for our next incentive which will launch in the New Year. 07 October 2011  Bake Sale for the Great North RunSarah, our Marketing Manager is running the Great North Run on Sunday in aid if Breakthrough Breast cancer, and to raise money she held a Bake Sale at the office. The team were treated to courgette chocolate cake and buns, flapjack, gingerbread and double chocolate chip cookies! If you would like to donate to Breakthrough Breast Cancer you can do so through Sarah's Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/sarahdoesthegreatnorthrun/
Take a look at the feast! 16 September 2011 Integrated Results has a whole new look!Over the past decade Integrated Results has transformed into a marketing and sales fulfilment business. We work with clients to develop successful, targeted campaigns which consistently deliver results. So why have we decided to get a new look now? With an influx of new staff, two new offices and growth overseas, now is the right time to match our image with our business; professional, creative and driven. Keep checking back for more news about Integrated Results, Support Warehouse, TSD and stories from the wider world. 07 July 2011 |
