Telecoms firm grows after answering call for flexible working

Five years after completing a management buy-out of telecoms firm Xi Comms, directors Martin Taylor and Tony Mellor are benefiting from a demand for phone systems that allow staff to work more flexibly.

The business relocated to Harrogate from Wetherby after the buy-out and now counts well-known local names like Roosters brewery, Ripon City Council, Disability Action Yorkshire and Harrogate Steel among its clients.

Taylor had been working with Xi Comms for over five years before buying the business with Mellor. Since taking over, their client portfolio has more than trebled with 2019 seeing the strongest growth yet.

And the pair said one of the drivers for business success has been an increasing call for cloud telephony that enables flexible working and allows staff to work effectively from their home office or even when they’re on the move.

Taylor said: “We took over Xi Comms at a time when employers were starting to rethink their operational strategy, workers were demanding better work life balance and new technology was coming onto the market that made all this possible. It was a perfect storm.

“Our strategy has been to use our knowledge of telecoms to provide tailored telecoms solutions for each business, whether they have one user or dozens, so that workers can be based anywhere and still operate as if they were in the office.”

The firm has focused heavily on its local market, often taking on new clients when they are expanding or moving premises.

“Small businesses in particular often don’t realise how much their telecoms are holding them back and if they never move office or review things, they don’t know how much things have moved on,” said Taylor.

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