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The 14th National Apprenticeship Week is held between 8-14 February this year. Paul Blore, Netmetix’s Managing Director, said “We see apprentices as our strategic path to building and developing our skilled team for the future.
“Our skills requirements aren’t readily available on the jobs market, so our best route is to develop it ourselves through apprentices. That way, we can train them in precisely what we need, whilst also instilling the right attitude and culture for Netmetix.”
To celebrate this week, we decided to ask our apprentice, Michael Gullick, a few questions about why he chose to do an apprenticeship and how he’s finding working at Netmetix during a pandemic!
Apprentice Infrastructure Technician
My main roles within the apprenticeship are; providing support to our customers through the helpdesk, working on a learning program with our apprentice training provider, studying and taking a range of exams to gain further IT related qualifications and working on a portfolio.
I started my apprenticeship with Netmetix in September 2020, and it lasts for 15 months.
I have always been a practical learner, therefore an apprenticeship was best suited for me as I could learn new things about IT whilst implementing it within a work environment. I believe putting the theory into practice this way is a more beneficial way of learning for me.
I would have to say how much I have learnt whilst being here. Everyone is incredibly knowledgeable and are always teaching me new things about IT. Besides the learning, the Netmetix team have made me feel very welcome since I started and have helped me settle.
We are required to work at home throughout lockdown and during the peak of the pandemic. This means I have had to adapt to working more independently from home rather than the office and learn everything remotely.
It’s difficult to try and look at the positives of a negative situation, but being able to stay at home more with family and having to travel less has been nice.
I would have to say not being able to live life as normal and not being able to see family members and go out with friends. From a work perspective, not being able to go into the office has been a disadvantage as working in the same space as my colleagues really helps keep me motivated, and I learn a lot from them.
“Sometimes you have to fail to learn”
As a young person failure is what often intimidates me, however, it needs to be looked at as a point of learning, reflection on how to improve.
If you’d like to find out more about becoming an apprentice take a look at the National Apprenticeship Week’s website here. Or, if you are interested in applying for an apprenticeship with Netmetix in the future please fill out the contact form here and one of our team will be in touch with you.
Despite a difficult year for many, Netmetix, a cloud-based technology specialist, based specialist, based in Allesley, Coventry, has recorded a year-on-year growth of over 20% as well as celebrating their 20th birthday this month.
During 2020 Netmetix successfully helped companies move their outdated computer systems to the cloud and have supported their existing clients in quickly switching to remote working at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. They have also worked with strategic partners to enable engineers and designers to use Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software remotely, which they were previously unable to do without moving expensive desktop computers from the office to their home.
Paul Blore, Managing Director of Netmetix, said “The past year has been challenging for all kinds of reasons associated with the global pandemic, but I think we have adapted extremely well and continued to grow despite adversity. Our growth this year is a great testament to all the team at Netmetix. The commitment, effort and dedication they have given to get us to this point has been outstanding, and I have every confidence that the coming years will see us all continue on our upward trajectory.
“I was once told that it takes 20 years to be an overnight success. Having adapted and evolved over the past 20 years we are now recognised as experts and leaders in our field, working with a fantastic range of clients, so I know we can now genuinely consider ourselves a successful company!”
Unfortunately, due to lockdown restrictions, Netmetix is unable to celebrate with a birthday party or birthday cake but a belated celebration when the team are back in the office is something that Paul and the team are looking forward to.
Netmetix is recognised as one of the leading UK specialists in Microsoft Azure cloud-based IT infrastructure services and believes that every organisation, no matter its size, deserves to have the best cloud technology at an affordable price. The company partnered with Microsoft Azure over ten years ago and has been awarded Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status in seven categories. These include Cloud Productivity, Cloud Platform and Small & Midmarket Cloud Solution, demonstrating their ability to design and deliver comprehensive technical solutions that meet their customers’ needs. Netmetix’s experienced service desk, who are on hand 24 hours a day, are a key component of the company’s success and a 100% client retention record over the past year.
To find out more about Netmetix’s services or products, please call 024 7640 8100 or email info@netmetix.net to speak with one of their specialists.
Next in the Employee Highlight Hot seat is Tony Caesar.
Head of Sales
My role is to create, develop and implement the company’s sales plans.
This includes identifying products and services for both our existing and also new clients as well as identifying new markets and creating services for these.
New business is the main challenge – but the most rewarding.
Since February 2020 – so just 6 weeks before lockdown #1!
Not knowing a lockdown was imminent, I was fortunate to have managed to visit our major partners (as well as a number of clients) before the 23rd March!
The brief to take our company from an outstanding supplier with 100+ SMEs, to a niche provider for mid-sized/Enterprise clients in both the public and private sector.
That we were able to immediately move all our clients to remote working at no cost. The spike in calls to our help desk in late March was for advice and guidance – not faults or issues. All our clients have had the capability of remote working using Microsoft Azure, but hadn’t moved their entire workforce to remote working.
Going back nearly 10 years, Netmetix were pioneers with cloud technologies when we implemented our first Azure solution. This deep knowledge has meant that lockdown allowed us to develop some outstanding services to match with the digital acceleration that COVID demanded. During lockdown we became Government G Cloud accredited, we revamped our website, launched our ‘CAD in the Cloud’ solution, helped migrate a significant number of large enterprises into Azure through our partner network – and still continued to provide an outstanding service to our existing direct clients.
There’s quite a long list, but from a professional perspective, it’s the restriction on travel and meetings. For decades my working life has been face-to-face client meetings – often 4 days a week. I miss the train trips to London – honest!
New business is all about trust – it’s been challenging to create this via Teams – but it is possible if not ideal. Whilst we have attracted new clients over the last 6 months or so, much of the growth in our services has been through our partners – where that trust already existed and has been built on. Significant new business from new clients really benefit from those face to face meetings I think.
Integrity is advice that was drummed into me early in my sales career. If that is your guiding principal, you won’t go far wrong… oh, and when things go wrong (and they will), the measure is how you react and fix it.
To contact Tony for all things sales related drop him an email at tony.caesar@netmetix.net
Our team have been working hard over lockdown, so now they’re allowed out of their houses and back into the office we would like to introduce you to them. Next in the chair is Simon Knapton
Service Delivery Manager.
I manage the technical support functions at Netmetix. I strive to ensure that the levels of technical services and support that customers receive are of the highest quality and delivered in a timely fashion.
I joined Netmetix in Feb 2013.
The team we have at Netmetix are fantastic. The breadth of skills, knowledge and experience really sets us apart.
As one of the people with the longest daily commute at Netmetix, working from home made a big difference to my work/life balance. Critically, our strength as experts in cloud technology allowed us to do so without impacting the service to our customers.
During lockdown, my immediate family contracted Covid-19, which was a worrying time. Still, we realised, more than anyone, the importance of taking all necessary precautions, especially with key workers as family members. Not seeing friends and colleagues was hard.
Listen. Think. Act. In that order.
Find out more about Netmetix and our employees here.
Our team have been working hard over lockdown, so now they’re allowed out of their houses and back into the office, we would like to introduce you to them. Our first employee we had a chat with was Greig Schofield.
Technical Director.
I am responsible for all technical output of the organisation and maintaining the highest quality of service and delivery for our client base. I also ensure we are innovative and strategic in our product and service selection and delivery.
I joined Netmetix in the summer of 2012.
We have a great team and work with great products. We also have the flexibility and mobility to choose the best of breed technologies and bring them to market quickly.
It hasn’t been a particularly positive experience for me, but it’s been nice to spend more time at home with less travelling and to have more contact with my family on a day to day basis. I’m also grateful for the opportunity to work from home, without losing money or fear of being furloughed. It’s definitely been a positive time for Netmetix as we have remained very productive whilst working very differently.
It was frustrating that there has been so much seemingly available time, but with very little to do. There was also the worry and concern over family members who are key workers and the general stress and fear of the pandemic. I was also concerned for the mental health and wellbeing of my children as they have been largely isolated over this time.
If its work related, allocate time accordingly and close Outlook! (now I’m also considering closing Teams too 😊 ) and also do not use Outlook like a task list. Doing those two simple things, makes me far more productive and organised during the day.
Find out more about Netmetix and our employees here.