Hub helps tech firm boost its profile, leading to new jobs
An Altrincham-based provider of technology services attributes support from GC Business Growth Hub for winning several big contracts, which has led to an increase in its headcount.
Informed Solutions was already a long-established, successful business with other UK offices in London and Edinburgh, as well as Australian offices in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
The company won a Queen’s Award for Innovation in April, and an ICT Excellence Award for Emerging Platforms at the World IT Congress in India in February, having previously won multiple awards at the Australian itNews Benchmark Awards in recent years.
But group chief executive Elizabeth Vega realised that for the business’s continued development and to strengthen its brand, Informed Solutions needed to reflect this progress in its marketing strategy.
So, in early 2017, she sought the advice of GC Business Growth Hub, part of The Growth Company.
The Hub sent two of the firm’s leadership team on the Greater Connected programme, an intensive business accelerator initiative geared towards supporting the start-up and scale-up ambitions of digital, creative and technology SMEs.
The programme helped the leadership team to clearly define the scale-up plans for the business and take a more strategic approach to communications.
This resulted in Informed Solutions launching a new global website in October 2017 – coinciding with the company’s 25th anniversary – which Informed Solutions directly attributes the signing of several new high-profile clients to, including the NHS, Royal Mail and Ofsted in the UK, and National Archives Australia.
These new contracts have led to the recruitment of 15 full-time staff, four one-year student work placements, and 11 new contractor roles.
Ms Vega said: “Following the new website launch, we immediately saw an increase in visitors, including a 130% increase in traffic towards our ‘platforms and solutions’ page and a 110% increase in traffic towards our ‘industry capabilities’ page.
“Our upward trend in traffic has also continued across our social media channels.
“This is reflected in a 100% increase in page views in the space of a month on our company LinkedIn site, and a 190% increase in tweet impressions on Twitter and a 34% increase in profile visits.”
Richard Jeffery, director of business growth, GC Business Growth Hub, said: “Informed Solutions already had a long track record of success. Nonetheless, Elizabeth and the rest of the leadership still recognised that the company could achieve new levels of success.
“The Greater Connected programme is geared specifically to businesses in Informed Solutions’ sector, and it gives us great pride that Elizabeth and her team credit the changes made after going through the programme to the signing of multiple new clients.”
Businesses looking to access specialist support can visit www.businessgrowthhub.com for more information about the organisation’s extensive range of services.
