ANS replace hip hop misogyny with Nexus technology to bring Kingston PCT’s data centre into the 21st Century.

ANS Group has won a contract with Kingston PCT to upgrade the Trust’s entire Cisco core data centre with Nexus 7k, 5k and 2k products. The Manchester and London based business solutions provider will install the Nexus switches to replace the core network that was no longer fit for purpose, and to prepare the network for a new and improved storage solution.

ANS will replace the Trust’s core LAN infrastructure; currently comprising of end-of-life Cisco Catalyst 4506 and 3550 switches. The ANS Group solution is based solely on Cisco technology and provides a highly-scalable, resilient, future-proof and feature-rich architecture in which all devices will benefit from dual redundant power supplies.

The new Nexus 7000 series switch is a 10GB best-of-breed switch that provides integrated resilience combined with features optimised specifically for the data centre for availability, reliability, scalability, and ease of management. Introduction of this switch into the Trust’s core network prepares it for improvements to back-up and storage. A Nexus 5k switch will replace fabric switches and provide fibre channel and Ethernet at the same time, allowing network consolidation in the data centre. The solution will also improve the Trust’s resiliency and disaster recovery capabilities.

James Edwards, Network Manager working on behalf of NHS Kingston, said, “We knew that we needed to replace our core network and the ANS and Nexus solution not only solves our immediate issues but also improves other areas of the IT estate and prepares us to upgrade our storage technology. We are delighted that we will be able to make these improvements and look forward to continuing to be able to serve the people of Kingston with best-of-breed IT solutions.”

Paul Sweeney, MD at ANS Group, said, “It is excellent to see the enhancements that will be made to the network at Kingston by the implementation of this Nexus technology. Not only does it immediately provide a better service for their staff, it puts in place a platform for them to begin to make significant savings with a new storage solution. ANS remain as proud as ever to be helping the NHS to improve service and cut costs.”

NHS Kingston was formed in 2001 to commission services and administer programmes to help to maintain and improve the health of Kingston residents. In April 2011, the Trust became part of the NHS South West London Cluster of Primary Care Trusts as part of the move towards GP commissioning. The Trust’s vision is to improve the health of people in Kingston by improving the quality of services, reducing health inequalities and preventing ill health.

ANS Group have today released a case study detailing a communications solution installed at Lincolnshire NHS using Microsoft OCS to improve the internal communications capabilities within the organisation.

The case study can be found here: http://www.ansgroup.co.uk/files/pdf/cs_nhs_lincolnshire.pdf

...win NetApp Insight awards!

There have been celebrations this morning at ANS Group offices in London and Manchester as we have been handed the ‘Excellence in success with a go to market partner’ award at the fourth annual NetApp Insight for EMEA event in Rome.

Award-winning partners are chosen for their technical knowledge, customer care and approachability, outstanding contributions to selected account business, and customer wins. NetApp’s recognition of the success of the FlexPod Infrastructure 3.0 architecture in bringing in big contracts with the likes of Salisbury NHS, Milton Keynes PCT, The Guinness Partnership and UHSM, has been extended from naming ANS as Partner of the Year 2011.

“All over Europe, partners are the single most important bridge to the customers. Not only do they support every step of the buyer’s journey, they are also the first go-to point when issues need to be addressed. To show our gratitude and on-going commitment, exceptional partners are presented with a NetApp Insight award, highlighting those teams or individuals that go the extra mile to drive NetApp business in their respective markets”, says Julie Parrish, NetApp Senior Vice President, WorldWide Partner Sales.

“This is great news for ANS Group”, said MD Paul Sweeney. “NetApp are one of our three strategic partners and this is another fantastic award that shows how well we are working together. We look forward to continuing to innovate and produce data centre designs that provide incomparable benefits for our customers.”

ANS Group, the Manchester and London based FlexPod expert, has announced that it will be working with University Hospitals South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) to install a brand new infrastructure. Using the award winning Infrastructure 3.0 network architecture, already successfully installed at other NHS sites such as Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust and Milton Keynes PCT, ANS will build a new next-generation infrastructure that will future-proof the Trust’s desktop solution for the next 3-5 years.

UHSM is a major acute teaching hospital trust that provides services for adults and children at Wythenshawe Hospital and Withington Community Hospital. They are recognised as a centre of clinical excellence and provide district general hospital services and specialist tertiary service to the local community. The Trust is recognised for the quality of its teaching, research and development, with major research programmes focussing on cancer, lung disease, wound management and medical education. The Trust’s sound financial management in recent years has seen it generate annual revenue surpluses that are re-invested in services.

ANS won a tender to provide an end-to-end infrastructure for a 550 terminal services solution for the Trust to replace its legacy desktops; this will include an upgrade of the server-based infrastructure and will deliver increased resilience in storage array network services across two data centres, with a third site used for archiving purposes.

Using NetApp, Cisco UCS, VMware technology the Trust will implement a compute & storage platform capable of replacing the entire desktop estate through a hybrid VDI & Terminal Services solution that provides much improved disaster recovery between two data centres, centralises all of the storage requirements, reduces the physical server count, reduces the carbon footprint, improves and simplifies backup requirements and empowers end-users with the ability to perform file level recovery.

Mark Wright, Head of IT at UHSM, said, “We were looking for a new infrastructure that could not only replace our existing desktop solution but significantly improve it. We were very impressed when we saw the capabilities of Infrastructure 3.0 and, even after a thorough search of the market place, nothing else came close for ROI or technological benefits. The combination of cost savings and technology improvements is significant and we look forward to reaping the benefits of this installation.”

Paul Sweeney, MD at ANS Group, said, “The ANS FlexPod solution is going from strength to strength in the NHS and as ever we are very proud to be able to help to improve the health services available through the organisations that we partner with. The combination of financial and operation benefits that we can provide are impressive and we are glad that UHSM will now benefit from them.”

ANS Group has announced that it has become the first Cisco partner in EMEAR (and one of a handful worldwide) to have achieved full Cisco cloud builder status as its expansion into the sector gathers pace. In a recently released statement on their financial performance to yearend 2011, ANS Chairman Scott Fletcher spoke of a £1m investment in the company's managed services practice, the appointment of Richard Gascoigne as managed services director and the board's expectation that commoditised IT will soon become a major part of the company's portfolio.

The Cisco Cloud Builder designation, launched in April of this year, is part of the Cisco Cloud Partner Program, and recognises ANS' competencies to sell and implement end-to-end cloud solutions that utilise Cisco technology. The designation covers competencies across all cloud infrastructure components (security, networking, compute, storage and virtualisation), cloud management applications, and a formal cloud professional services practice.

ANS' announcement of this achievement coincides with the company welcoming two more customers to its managed services family. Howard Jackson (recruitment) and HL Interactive (legal), both based in Manchester, have signed up with ANS.

Richard Gascoigne said, "As a board we have sent a strong statement of intent with our comments in the financial release and these two pieces of good news show that we are serious about the future of cloud services. Our expansion into cloud-based managed services will benefit greatly from becoming the first EMEAR partner to achieve the Cloud Builder status, which demonstrates our capability to build private and hybrid clouds and provides more confidence for our customers that we are a trusted partner. We can fully manage the progress to the cloud; from assistance with initial cloud assessments and evaluations, to using our years of experience in migrating our customers to new infrastructures, to full post-implementation care in delivering the real benefits of an outsourced IT solution. We are delighted to welcome Howard Jackson and HL Interactive to the company and look forward to long and mutually-fruitful working relationships."

Fast-growing IT sales recruitment firm Howard Jackson have appointed ANS Group to run their IT network with a full managed services package; a five year contract has been signed that will see ANS provide a fully managed IT solution.

Howard Jackson is a leading IT sales recruitment agency that has offices across the UK. They have been established for over 20 years and offer only the best IT sales roles, and have consistently placed IT sales managers, sales directors, account managers and sales executives.

ANS have assumed complete management of Howard Jackson's network, which is now hosted on a shared-platform data centre running the ANS-designed FlexPod solution, Infrastructure 3.0.

Howard Jackson's staff numbers have grown by 50% in the past six months, their infrastructure was due for a complete refresh and they do not have a dedicated IT team, meaning that managing the network was impacting upon staff members' ability to do their job. The ANS managed service will provide a full Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) service, allowing their users to securely log in to a desktop delivered by Citrix from any device within the company's three offices across the UK. All licences are for software used by the staff and are included in the solution at no extra cost.

With an SLA for guaranteed uptime in the contract, this means that Howard Jackson no longer have to worry about the performance of their IT and can concentrate on their ambitious plans for further growth. With the managed service delivered on a fixed cost, per-user basis the scalability of the solution is crucial; new members of staff can be effortlessly and quickly added and budgeting for increased staff numbers is a swift and simple process.

Peter Ingram, MD, at Howard Jackson said, "This has quite simply revolutionised our IT network. We have gone from the hassle of having to run an aging infrastructure in-house to just letting ANS run this impressive, next-generation data centre for us. The fact that the solution can grow with our company is both reassuring from a cost and an operational point of view, particularly that we will not be wasting any money on spare bandwidth in preparation for future growth. It will just be there for us when we need it."

Paul Sweeney, MD at ANS Group, said, "We're delighted to welcome another happy customer to our managed services solution. Once again we see the real and massive benefits that an outsourced IT network can make for a business, financially and operationally Howard Jackson are reaping the rewards of this decision. We see managed services becoming a large part of the ANS success story, and it is examples such as this contract that show just why we're so confident about this sector."

ANS Group has won a three year contract with HL Interactive to provide a managed IT service. The partnership will see ANS take responsibility for managing the Manchester-based law firm's entire IT network.

HL Interactive specialise in the provision of volume legal services to property groups, financial institutions and private individuals and are committed to becoming the UK's leading legal services provider to financial institutions. Their move to a managed service IT solution was driven by a desire to lower IT costs, remove day-to-day maintenance tasks from their in-house IT team to allow them to focus on strategy and application development, improve their disaster recovery capabilities, improve their IT support and service delivery without having to employ extra (and more skilled) IT staff members, to refresh aging hardware and software, and to facilitate more flexibility for staff, including remote working.

It is also critical that HL Interactive retain and enhance the aspects of their ‘in-house' IT that deals with legal sector specific compliance and regulation. To ensure that this is the case, ANS will now manage the provision of data security, data privacy and data archiving.

The hybrid on & off premise solution means that ANS are now responsible for monitoring the entire infrastructure and will also be providing and managing an ‘off premise' virtual platform. This transformation has already led to a substantial cost saving for HL Interactive as it means that they do not require a replacement for a recently-departed member of the IT staff.

ANS' managed service guarantees improved reliability for HL Interactive, with IT uptime SLAs written in to the contract. As the existing infrastructure had reached the end of its life-span and was due to be replaced the switch to a managed service has meant that no CAPEX investment has been required, and that HI Interactive can easily and accurately budget for their IT spend over the course of the contract with a simple, monthly fee.

The 60 staff members at HI Interactive experienced no disruption during the migration of the virtual platform and have carried on with business as normal. The technology used in the data centre is the ANS FlexPod architecture, Infrastructure 3.0. This means that HI interactive are now using best-of-breed technology from Cisco, VMware and NetApp, and this has markedly improved the company's disaster recovery policy. The environmental savings made possible by Infrastructure 3.0 will also reduced HI Interactive's environmental impact.

ANS' SysCare (system care) department will be monitoring HL Interactive's entire IT estate; ANS' Gold support means that they will now be responsible for proactive monitoring, reactive support & comprehensive reporting to deliver the highest levels of service. By combining these three elements, the SysCare team provides the power, visibility, and efficiency of centralised remote management for the whole IT environment. This will provide an improved level of network management while freeing the internal IT team to focus on strategic and business improvement initiatives.

Matt Hather, Head of IT, at HL Interactive said, "Our infrastructure was due for a complete refresh however this managed solution from ANS Group has proved to be much more sensible for our business. It has made our lives so much simpler; we can now leave the details of running the IT network to ANS and focus instead on our core business activities. We have avoided a large infrastructure investment, have improved our business continuity and disaster recovery policies, and are now able to fully budget for IT spend over the next three years."

Paul Sweeney, MD at ANS Group, said, "More and more companies are beginning to see the overwhelming benefits that come with switching their IT network to an outsourced and fully managed service. By using our FlexPod design, Infrastructure 3.0, as a service they are able to reap all the benefits of a managed service on a fixed monthly basis, safe in the knowledge that we will always be providing a solution built on best-of-breed technologies. We are delighted to welcome HL Interactive to ANS Group and we look forward to taking care of their network from now."

ANS Group has won a major Infrastructure 3.0 contract with Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust to virtualise their IT estate. The London & Manchester-based IT solutions provider will revolutionise the Trust's current estate with its Infrastructure 3.0 network architecture, providing an estimated £234,000 saving over a five year period.

Established on 1 October 2000, Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust is responsible for commissioning all the health services in the borough and also provides community and mental health services. It is responsible for spending more than £300 million each year, including £45 million on the services it directly provides. The Trust is working to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents, reduce inequalities and social exclusion and secure fair, fast access to a comprehensive range of services. It is also increasing choice and convenience for patients and improving their experience of health services.

The project will see ANS Group use VMware to virtualise the current IT server estate, reducing the number of physical servers from 46 to 7. This will dramatically reduce both Capital and Operating expenditure, and reduce the Trust's environmental impact by cutting the power and cooling requirements of the estate.

Cisco UCS has been implemented at the primary site, with the Trust's existing servers being re-used for Disaster Recovery at a secondary site off campus, saving even more money in upfront costs. NetApp and VMware Site Recovery Manager are being implemented at both sites to transform Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery processes.

Mark Pinner, IT Network & Technical Manager, at Milton Keynes PCT says, "This project delivers a vastly improved IT infrastructure to Milton Keynes PCT. The solution provides benefits such as a scalable virtualisation platform fit for current and future business growth, an architecture that contributes positively to the Trust's Green Policy through enhanced carbon efficiency, dramatic improvements in Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity capabilities and a significant reduction in our total cost of ownership. ANS' solution sees our IT spend reduced and the benefits that we get from the estate increased. This innovative solution allows us to maximise our infrastructure in the most cost effective way and is great value for the Trust."

Paul Sweeney, Managing Director at ANS Group, says, "This is another big win for our Infrastructure 3.0 technology, we are very happy once again to see another valued customer realise the improvements in performance and reduction in spend that are made possible by this outstanding network architecture. We feel that healthcare in Milton Keynes will be improved by this solution and that makes us all very proud."

ANS Group Plc has been named as one of four companies on the shortlist for the prestigious CRN Reseller of the Year award following a year of excellent growth.

Setting the benchmark for excellence throughout the IT channel industry, the prestigious CRN Channel Awards provide a spectacular opportunity for the entire industry to showcase and celebrate exceptional performance and innovation within the UK.

The Reseller of the Year will be announced at the lavish prize-giving ceremony that takes place on Thursday 17^th November at Battersea Park Events Arena in London.

Paul Sweeney, the Managing Director at ANS Group, said, "This nomination to the shortlist for the CRN Reseller of the Year award is a further indication that ANS have had a splendid year. These awards are well known throughout the industry and we are delighted to be involved. With our Infrastructure 3.0 FlexPod architecture producing big deal after big deal, and continuing to win plaudits from customers and the industry alike, we feel that we have a good chance of winning the prize on November 17^th!"

Headlines

• Turnover increased by £16.1m to £29.4m up 122%
• Gross Profit increased by £2.7m to £6.6m up 68%%.
• Operating Profit (pre exceptional item) increased by £600k to £1.5m up 66%
• Cash reserves reduced by £556k to £3.7m due to acquisition  financing
• Investment in Alpha acquisition
• Contracted revenues now £8m , 27% of annual turnover
• Further investment in managed services and cloud

Financial Review

ANS produce another excellent set of results during what has been a truly eventful year for the company. The business continued with its impressive record of year on year growth and this was achieved both by organic expansion and through the acquisition of Alpha Business Computers Limited of Stockport which took place on 31^st October 2010.

The enlarged group has increased Gross Profit by 68% to £6.6m and Operating Profit (pre exeptional item) by 66% to £1.5m. The business delivered a 122% growth in turnover to £29.4m and the cash balance at the end of the year was only reduced by £556k to £3.7m despite paying the initial consideration of £1.75m in respect of the acquisition of Alpha Business Computers Limited. Total annualised contracted revenues now stand at £8m and account for 27% of the annual turnover. The guaranteed future income line for all contracted revenues has risen to £14.5m which amounts to an increase in excess of 100% on the previous year.

The board is delighted that the acquisition of Alpha Business Computers Limited and the continued development of the Infrastructure 3 solution has seen the business recognised as a leading independent data centre solutions provider. This investment will provide excellent opportunities to cross-sell the Infrastructure 3 solutions into the Alpha customer base and give the business the required critical mass to further develop the managed services data centre proposition.

Operational Review

During the financial year the delivery team's capacity has more than doubled and, as the business moves forward, it is already obvious that the increasing size and complexity of our deals means that we will be constantly looking to recruit the most highly qualified delivery specialists in the industry to keep pace with the escalating number, and contract values, of projects.

During the year the delivery team broke all previous records with monthly delivered professional services days exceeding 400 for the first time.

The company is fortunate to have found an extremely capable director in Howard Johnson who joined the board with the acquisition of Alpha. He has taken on the role of professional services director with full responsibility for project delivery. Richard Gascoigne now focuses on our managed services offerings as managed services director. As business focus intensifies on our data centre solutions and managed services portfolio, Richard has demonstrated all the necessary skills to take up the challenge and generate the critical mass required to deliver a profitable performance from this exciting new division.

The integration and transfer of the Alpha business from Stockport to the head office in Manchester has been carried out with commitment and professionalism from all involved. The transition has been made as seamless as possible for the Alpha customers who now enjoy a relationship with the enlarged business. The benefits being delivered to the client base are clearly displayed through the success that the London office (acquired through the acquisition) is having with the growing number and size of Infrastructure 3 projects that are being won.

With staff numbers doubling during the year to 120 the demands of the business require ever more highly qualified staff to deliver our portfolio of solutions.

The managed services and data centre divisions have been tasked with driving this fast growing business forward in a controlled and sustainable manner for the future. Our managed services contract base has grown by 60% to £8m helped by the acquisition of the Alpha contracts. With current expenditure agreed, investment in the managed services offering is set to top £1m. Following the investment, the division is growing quickly and the financial outcome is expected to become positive before this coming year end.

Outlook

Despite the world trading conditions continuing in a fragile condition and much of the economic news being negative the board maintain a highly motivated attitude to take the business forward profitably, with the knowledge and confidence that the key solutions provide real opportunities for public and private sector customers to develop more efficient IT infrastructures that deliver real and long term cost reductions. Although the public sector has been targeted for spending cuts, the company has seen no significant changes in the level of business from this sector as our proposition is both cost-effective in providing long term cost savings and fits the localisation policy for IT systems being encouraged by the current government

ANS have a market leading proposition with Infrastructure3 and this is a key factor in the development of our data centre solutions and the private cloud environment. The business has invested wisely and, with a planned and well executed growth strategy, your board is confident that the business will continue to flourish.

"This has been another year of fantastic growth for ANS Group. The figures speak for themselves but there is more good news as we see tremendous potential in our managed services proposition. Crucially we have been able to retain the unique ANS culture through a period of acquisition and organic expansion; when you combine our talented and highly-motivated staff base with our well-planned business strategy you cannot fail to be excited about the potential for further growth." Scott Fletcher, Chairman and founder.

ANS Group has become the first European partner to receive Cisco's cloud infrastructure status. The IT solutions & managed service provider, based in Manchester and London, has followed up the recent accolade of being named as Cisco's Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year with another achievement in the data centre environment.

The Infrastructure competency is the first stage in Cisco's new cloud builder and provider program and is designed to accelerate partners' cloud offerings through various enablement and demand-generation activities that will leverage existing investments in certifications and specialisations from both Cisco and other technology ecosystem partners such as NetApp and VMware.

ANS Group's award-winning Infrastructure 3.0 data centre FlexPod architecture has proved hugely popular with customers and vendors alike. The company has done over twenty deals over the past twelve months with customers such as Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, and has been named NetApp Partner of the Year and VMware Business Continuity Competency Partner of the Year in addition to the award from Cisco.

Paul Sweeney, MD of ANS Group, said, "We are delighted to receive yet more recognition from Cisco for our data centre credentials. Infrastructure 3.0 has revolutionised ANS Group and to be the first partner in Europe to be accepted to this program is another sign from within the industry that we are moving in an exciting direction. We have recently expanded our infrastructure portfolio to offer I3 as a managed service where we will run customers' networks on our shared cloud infrastructure - providing all of the benefits of Infrastructure 3.0 and saving money and time for our clients. We are very excited about the potential of this latest program from Cisco to further increase our share of the data centre market."

ANS Group Plc announced today that it has been certified to the international security standard ISO27001. ISO 27001 defines a standard that provides a model for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving an Information Security Management System. The design and implementation of an organisation's ISMS is influenced by their needs and objectives, security requirements, the processes employed and the size and structure of their organisation.

ANS Group currently has 600 customers spread across the public and private sectors, including NHS Trusts and various local Councils. By implementing the 27001 standard ANS Group will provide a model for supporting the varied requirements of ‘responsible' information management.

Peter Kay, Management Consultant at Peritus Management Consultants, said "We were very impressed with the security management processes that we observed at ANS Group, the management's commitment to information security was evident throughout"

Paul Sweeney, MD at ANS Group, said, "This is excellent news for ANS and excellent news for our customers; the ISO certification is a reinforcement of the culture and standards that run through the business and in particular our attention to detail when it comes to safeguarding our customers' information. We deal with large organisations and are responsible in many cases for their critical data; now that we are independently recognised for our fastidiousness in guarding the security of their information they can be absolutely sure that they are in safe hands."

ANS Group Plc is an IT business solutions provider based in Manchester and London specialising in Data Centre and Managed Service provision. The company holds the top-level accreditation with its key partners Cisco, NetApp and VMware. Turnover is expected to grow to £40m next year and they were recently named Cisco's Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year, NetApp's Partner of the Year and VMware's Business Continuity Competency Partner of the Year.

ANS Group has won a contract with North Staffordshire IT Service to implement a wireless network solution that will provide carrier-diverse and resilient WAN connections between the key NHS sites in the North Staffordshire region. The Manchester and London based IT business solutions provider will be installing wireless capabilities that will allow full backup connectivity in case of network outage.

The IT Service manages the IT infrastructure of Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, a specialist Mental Health Trust, and NHS North Staffordshire and NHS Stoke-on-Trent which are all Primary Care Trusts serving a population of around 480,000 people.

ANS have installed a wireless network that will operate across key NHS sites that are controlled by North Staffordshire IT Service; using a mixture of Radwin 5Ghz radios and High Bandwidth licensed microwave radios, ANS are providing up to 200Mbs connectivity between all locations.

By moving away from the traditional model of provision for network resilience (two separate cables from separate network providers, often sharing the same duct and thus significantly increasing the potential for single point failure to key sites) and utilising two completely separate mediums in underground cable and ‘over-the-air' wireless network connections, North Staffordshire IT Service have significantly increased the effectiveness of their Wide Area Network resilience.

The wireless technology has been deployed using third party masts with link distances ranging from less than 1km to 22km, with a mixture of clear and non-line-of-sight connections and provides North Staffordshire NHS with flexibility, fast deployment and high bandwidths while also bringing significant cost savings.

Adam Cooper, Associate Director of IT at, says, "We needed a money-saving solution that would improve our ability to continue doing business in the event of a failure in our WAN. We also needed everything designed and installed as quickly as possible. ANS have done a terrific job in meeting all of our needs. Their design provided us with a much-improved resilience and by using the wireless technology we have been able to save significant sums of money."

Paul Sweeney, Managing Director at ANS Group, says, "This solution has provided significant benefits for the NHS in North Staffordshire and we're always delighted to be helping the NHS to save money on their IT networks. The wireless connectivity that we have provided means that business critical NHS sites in the North Staffordshire region will have much improved connectivity in the event of a WAN failure and we're very proud to have been able to assist."

The trophies are flooding in to Manchester this month and ANS Group Plc has made sure that they are not missing out on the fun. With Manchester City and Manchester United both bringing silverware back to the city over the past two weeks, ANS Group, whose Head Office is at the Manchester Science Park, have joined in by landing the prestigious NetApp Partner of the Year award at a glitzy ceremony at One Marylebone in London on Thursday night.

It has been a big year for ANS, whose acquisition of Alpha Business Computers Ltd at the back-end of 2010 was recently named the Plus Markets Transaction of the Year. Staff numbers have risen by 30% and the revolutionary Flexpod offering, Infrastructure 3.0, has seen phenomenal growth for the company with big contracts announced with the likes of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. It has not yet been announced whether or not ANS are planning to follow United and City's lead in holding an open-top bus parade in Manchester to celebrate this award!

Paul Sweeney, MD of ANS Group, said "We are absolutely ecstatic to have done so well here tonight. Our partnership with NetApp has strengthened over the past year, we've become a Star Partner, our deal sizes have hugely increased and now our hard work has been recognised with this award. To go from Newcomer of the Year twelve months ago to Partner of the Year shows exactly how much progress we've made in building our relationship with NetApp.

"In addition to recently being named Cisco Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year, and the VMware Business Continuity Competency Partner of the Year, this accolade means that we have now won major recognition from each of the key technology partners involved in our Flexpod offering. Things are going from strength to strength at ANS at the moment and I am so excited about what the next couple of years have in store for us."

ANS Group is delighted to announce that the 2010 purchase of Alpha Business Computers Limited has been named the ‘PLUS-SX Transaction of the Year' at the PLUS Awards held at BAFTA on 12 May 2011.

Commenting on the award, Scott Fletcher, the Chairman and Founder of ANS, said, "We are delighted to have been honoured with this award. The acquisition of Alpha Business Computers Limited was a transformational deal for ANS, making us arguably the most capable independent mid-market IT solutions provider in the UK. The deal has seen our staff numbers grow by 30% and we are already seeing excellent results with the introduction of our award-winning Infrastructure 3.0 technology to Alpha's customer base."

ANS Group has announced that it has won a contract worth in excess of £1m to revolutionise the IT estate at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. The IT Solutions provider, recently named as Cisco's Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year 2010, will implement their ground-breaking Infrastructure 3.0 solution to virtualise the Trust's network, improving performance, reducing the carbon footprint and drastically cutting costs. It is estimated that the new solution will save the Trust a minimum of £200,000 over the life of the solution.

Salisbury District Hospital has long been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment that it provides for patients and for its innovation, commitment and professionalism. This has been recognised in a wide range of achievements and it is reflected in the award of NHS Foundation Trust status; this is afforded to a minority of hospitals that provide the highest standards of care. The Trust has a set of values and beliefs that show a commitment to provide the best possible care and treatment for its patients. These values and beliefs also influence thinking when planning services and highlight the positive way in which they view their staff, patients and the local community.

The Trust has decided to partner with ANS to drive a wholesale change to their IT strategy that will be based upon the award-winning Infrastructure 3.0 architecture. The entire estate will be virtualised using VMware, high-performance and data-efficient NetApp storage, and Cisco Unified Computing System and Nexus, leading to huge savings in Operational Expenditure due to the vast reduction in physical hardware, improved data-storage capacity and the elimination of costly annual maintenance bills, and a reduction in Capital Expenditure for future expansion.

The Trust will also experience significantly improved Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery capabilities as the solution designed by ANS will provide Salisbury with dual active/active Data Centres with Infrastructure 3.0 allowing full system restoration to take place within 15 minutes should there be a failure in one of the centres: this ensures the high availability all of the medical-grade applications. Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust also now has the ability to utilise applications seamlessly across the two Data Centres with complete transparency, no longer is an application tied to a single location.

Linda Dunham, Infrastructure Architect & System Support Manager, says, "We were concerned that our OPEX was continuing to rise as our IT infrastructure expanded, so when ANS were able to demonstrate that we would save money by investing in Infrastructure 3.0 it was the perfect fit for the Trust. The ROI for this solution is fantastic, and the huge savings that we have made are obviously hugely welcomed. We have also significantly improved our Disaster Recovery capabilities and that is very important to us."

Andy Barrow, Technical Director at ANS Group, says, "Once again we are seeing that by embracing the innovative, next-generation technology of Infrastructure 3.0, organisations such as Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust can make substantial cost savings while providing a markedly improved service. It sounds too good to be true, but time and time again ANS are proving the ROI within NHS organisations, and we proud to be able to help to improve the level of service that Salisbury can offer to its patients."

ANS Group Plc has announced that it has appointed Howard Johnson as Professional Services Director. Howard joined ANS from the board of Alpha Business Computers Limited in November and has been instrumental in the integration of Alpha's staff and customers over the past few months.

Howard's new role will see him responsible for the Professional Services department at ANS Group, encompassing the consultants and the project management department. Richard Gascoigne will take the role of Managed Services Director and will continue with his operational and internal systems responsibilities.

Howard has worked in IT since leaving school, including positions at Combro IBM, MBS Plc, ICL (now Fujitsu) and ITT Group where he won the Chairman's Award twice. He joined Alpha in 1993 and was appointed to the board as Technical Director in 1999, tasked with driving the services expansion and re-focussing the business around emerging SAN technologies.

Howard participated in the management buyout of Alpha in 2005 and, working with the Sales Director, was responsible for further re-focussing the business to drive all SAN work around NetApp unified storage and VMware virtualisation. This led to a rise in turnover by 66% from £6m to £10m in 2006 and then a further 50% to £15m in 2010. Howard was heavily involved with Alpha's Southern expansion in 2008, recruiting pre-sales and technical staff members, leading to Alpha winning NetApp's Services Partner of the Year award in 2010.

"I am delighted to be joining the board at ANS", Howard said. "Everything that I have seen since joining the company has convinced me that ANS will be an exciting and rewarding place to work. The results achieved over the past year have been outstanding and I look forward to contributing to the ongoing success story. The rapid growth at ANS Group has seen the Professional Services department expand greatly in the past few months, I will be making sure that we continue to provide the quality of service to all customers for which ANS has become well known."

Paul Sweeney, Managing Director at ANS Group, said, "ANS is growing through a mixture of organic expansion and the purchase of Alpha. The back-end operations have more than doubled in size since we appointed Richard Gascoigne as Operations Director and so Howard's arrival has been perfectly timed to ensure that we are able to comfortably manage our growth. In the few months that he has been with ANS, Howard has proved himself to be extremely capable and fully on-board with the unique ANS message and we are delighted to welcome him on to the board."

Chairman and Founder of ANS Group Plc Scott Fletcher has been appointed to the board of the newly formed Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The appointment is the latest achievement in a business career that has already seen Scott grow ANS Group from his back bedroom in 1996 to a £40m turnover, Plus listed, IT service provider that employs over 120 people, and win the North West Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009.

The LEP has been established by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) to help drive economic growth and to ensure that the region's residents will be able to contribute to, and benefit from, business success. The board of the LEP will be made up of a combination of local business leaders and council members, including the leader of Manchester City Council Sir Richard Leese, Peter Marks the Group Chief Executive of the Co-operative group, Neil McArthur the Chairman of Talk Talk.

Scott Fletcher is one of the country's leading entrepreneurs, heading up companies with a total valuation in excess of £30m. Scott founded what is now his largest business, Manchester Evening News Business of the Year, ANS Group, from his back bedroom in 1996 at the young age of 22 and recently led a £4.85m purchase of Alpha Business Computers Limited. Scott is also Chairman and lead investor in Gödel Technologies and Viapost.

Recently, Scott was named Entrepreneur of the Year for the North West at the National Business Awards; he was also named the IOD Young Director of the Year and the PLUS Market's Chairman of the Year. Scott is also an elected board member of community football team FC United of Manchester.

 

Commenting on his appointment to the board of the LEP, Scott said, "This is a fantastic opportunity for Greater Manchester, allowing business leaders and council leaders to work together to drive investment and growth across the region. I look forward to working with all the board members and cannot wait to get started."

Staff at ANS Group have been celebrating once again the company was announced as the Cisco Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year. This award follows the recent accolades of VMware Business Continuity Competency Partner of the Year and NetApp Newcomer of the Year, a unique hat-trick with the company's three major partners.

ANS' ground-breaking Data Centre solution ‘Infrastructure 3.0', which has massively contributed to the company's growth over the past twelve months, is primarily based on a combination of Cisco, VMware and NetApp technology and its success has clearly not gone unnoticed with the partners.

The award was presented to Chairman Scott Fletcher, and Managing Director Paul Sweeney, at the Cisco Partners Summit in New Orleans. Cisco's Vice President and Chief Executive for UK & Ireland, Phil Smith said in a congratulatory message on the Cisco website, "You have been a great champion of Cisco's Data Centre/Virtualisation architecture...You have won every UCS deal you have gone after, closing several market-shaping wins by planning the right strategy to beat the competition...Your dedication to Cisco and our solutions is unrivalled and you continue to help us grow our UCS business. We thank you and congratulate you on winning this deserved award for Data Centre and Virtualisation Partner of the Year."

A delighted Scott Fletcher said, "We have worked very hard to ensure that our strategy for the next-generation Data Centre is one that will prove attractive to our customers. The growth that we have experienced in the past year has shown that we have been successful in doing so, awards such as these are a massive reinforcement of this and we are delighted that our efforts have been noticed and rewarded by Cisco. Their technology continues to lead the way in Unified Computing and we look forward to winning many more successful deals together."

Paul Sweeney said, "To have now been handed major awards from all three of our top strategic partners shows just how much success ANS have had with Infrastructure 3.0. Cisco is integral to our ability to offer a solution that is equally attractive to our customers in financial and business benefit terms, and their recognition with this award is very exciting and is a testament to the hard work put in by every member of staff."

ANS Group Plc has announced that it expects its total staff numbers to have grown by 50% in twelve months as it advertises 20 new positions at the company.

In news that will no doubt cheer embattled Chancellor George Osborne, the Manchester-based IT business solutions company has announced the vacancies as it continues to experience rapid growth in sales, and looks to further expand its operations in London.

The available positions, based in both Manchester and London, range from Technical Consultants and Pre-Sales Consultants to Account Managers and Telemarketers.

Chairman and Founder of ANS Group, Scott Fletcher, said, "The Government is on record with its expectation that Private Sector growth will compensate for the cuts in public expenditure. We hope that this news will help to drive confidence in the private sector and show that, despite the often doom-laden economic predictions, private enterprise can continue to flourish and spearhead economic growth."

Paul Sweeney, MD, said, "This is more exciting news for ANS Group. Since the start of the year we have already employed 9 people, and with these further positions filled we will have grown our workforce from 80 to 120 in the past twelve months. This expansion shows the positive effect that our new Infrastructure 3.0 technology is having upon the business; we look forward to welcoming more capable and hard-working staff members to the ANS family."

Any job enquiries should be directed to jobs@ansgroup.co.uk