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Friday, 15th April 2011

Unicom achieves Carbon Trust Standard

Following independent assessment Unicom has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for its commitment to carbon reduction. Based on a rigorous, independent, assessment, the Carbon Trust Standard certifies that organisations have measured, managed and reduced their carbon emissions across their operations, and are committed to reducing further year-on-year.

Achieving the award for operations at its Manchester head office means out of the 1.5 million UK businesses Unicom has joined an elite number of just over 500 organisations who have not only met the stringent criteria required to attain certification but have committed to carbon reduction.

Chris Earle, Operations Director, explains “Unicom has pushed to minimise our carbon footprint. Since the introduction of email billing 44% of our customer base have chosen not to receive paper bills, saving 132,000 sheets of paper a month or 1.6 million sheets per annum. That’s enough to stretch from London to Newcastle. This equates to saving nearly 200 trees per year!”

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Tuesday, 29th March 2011

Unicom Fife office opens for business

Business communication specialist Unicom has opened a new office in Kirkcaldy, Fife, as part of their 2011 development plan.

The new office will be responsible for expanding the telecom customer base and Unicom aims to create at least 30 more jobs at the new office over the next 12 months.

“Unicom has weathered the troubled economic climate exceptionally well, posting record sales and profits in 2010. This success has allowed us to invest in further company development and the new Kirkcaldy office marks the start of a number of planned initiatives for 2011.” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

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Wednesday, 12th January 2011

Unicom staff celebrate apprenticeships while pregnant

Unicom is celebrating the achievements of two members of staff who have successfully completed apprenticeship qualifications while pregnant.

Customer Service Team Manager Jemma Galley, 22, from Macclesfield and Contract Enquiries Supervisor Helen Skinner, 29, from Wythenshawe have both successfully completed their Apprenticeships in Team Leading.

As part of its commitment to staff and the Investors in People standard, Manchester-based telecommunications company Unicom launched an apprenticeship programme last year in partnership with Stockport-based Damar Training.

Jemma and Helen are among the first members of staff to complete their Apprenticeships with Damar, with many more expected to follow in the coming months.

Charlotte McHale, Head of Training and Development at Unicom, said “I am very proud of both Jemma and Helen. As the first members of staff to complete the course they have not only shown their willingness to develop as key members of the team, but have also set an example for other staff members to follow.

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Friday, 10th December 2010

Unicom Appoints Carolyn Featherstone

Carolyn Featherstone has been appointed Customer Retentions Manager at business telecommunications provider Unicom.

Based in Manchester, Carolyn will manage Unicom’s advisors responsible for investigating why customers wish to leave Unicom.

Carolyn said “Retention is all about understanding people and I enjoy a challenge. Having not worked in the telecoms industry previously, this position brings both personal and professional challenges. A Retention team requires an adaptable approach and the ability to know not just when, but how to use the tools effectively. Any business with no effective way of retaining customers is a bit like a tyre with a slow puncture, eventually it will bring everything to a standstill.”

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Wednesday, 3rd November 2010

Unicom celebrations continue as awards maintained

After recently reporting a 13% increase in sales and a 14% rise in pre-tax profits, business telecommunications provider Unicom has further reasons to celebrate as it receives confirmation that both its ISO9001:2008 and Customer Service Excellence accreditation have been maintained.

ISO 9001:2008 relates to quality management systems and is so rigorous it has only been achieved by around 5% of UK businesses. Customer Service Excellence was developed as a tool for public services to drive customer-focused change within organisations and ensure customers were at the heart of public service provision. Last year Unicom was named the first utility company in the UK to achieve Customer Service Excellence status for exceeding customers’ needs.

As part of Unicom’s continued commitment to delivering high quality services to the UK business market it has been independently audited to ensure it continues to meet the demanding standards set out by both accreditations.

Operations Director Chris Earle said “Although we have had an extremely busy year launching our new mobile phone product we have not lost sight of what makes Unicom so attractive to UK businesses: providing the best possible customer service available in the UK. When customers call us they speak to a real UK based individual in less than 6 seconds and all new staff receive comprehensive training from their first day with Unicom.”

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Wednesday, 27th October 2010

Unicom reveals mobile product development plan

Following the successful launch of its mobile product business telecommunications provider Unicom has revealed plans to develop the product further.

Unicom, which recently signed up its 1000th mobile customer, has just launched a new voicemail platform to ensure people leaving messages for their customers receive a professional experience and appointed fellow Manchester based PH Audio to provide a customised set of voicemail prompts.

Chris Earle, Operations Director, explains “We wanted to ensure callers received the very best possible experience. As we have a long standing relationship with PH Audio they were the ideal company to provide us with the prompts required. Previously they have provided us with the on hold music for our head office which sound far better than the usual Greensleeves! We wanted to bring that professional feel to our mobile product so asked them if they would be interested in providing us with recordings for our voicemail prompts.”

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Monday, 18th October 2010

Unicom files record sales and profits

Unicom, the business-to-business telecoms provider, has today filed accounts showing a 13% increase in sales and a 14% rise in pre-tax profits to the end of April 2010, its eleventh trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £44.5 million in 2009 to £50.5 million in 2010, with pre-tax profits up from £11.2 million to £12.8 million.

“2009/10 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2010/11 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £55 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £15 million,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Tuesday, 12th October 2010

OMG! Unicom warning over txt spk job applications :-(

After launching a nationwide recruitment drive, Unicom warns job seekers are missing out on employment by using text speak (txt spk) in job applications and CVs.

Chris Earle, Operations Director at national business telecoms firm Unicom, says more and more young people are including the shortened “textese” in both their CVs and covering letters.

Textese is the use of slang or abbreviations commonly used when sending SMS messages, with pictures, single letters and numbers representing whole words.

“Following the launch of our recent nationwide recruitment drive, I’ve received feedback from our recruitment team that approximately one in ten job applications contains some form of ‘textese’. I warn against using this slang in job applications as even with the popularity of text messaging companies still want to see examples of good grammar and punctuation, the use of such terms risks losing out on already hard to find jobs.” explains Chris.

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Thursday, 7th October 2010

Unicom complete migration to WLR3

Unicom has completed the migration of its 90,000 customers from the Openreach WLR2 platform to the new Openreach WLR3 platform.

Working closely with BT Openreach Unicom played a key role in pilot testing WLR3, becoming the first UK company to reach ‘business as usual’ on the Equivalence Management Platform in 2009.

Commenting on the success was Matt Madden, Openreach General Manager - Wholesale Line Rental who said “This is a great achievement for the whole team involved in moving Unicom to WLR3. WLR3 ISDN2 is the final product to be delivered on our Equivalence Management Platform and forms the basis on which we will leverage the strengths of WLR3 to provide new benefits and features to customers like Unicom.”

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Tuesday, 21st September 2010

Unicom mobile leads to 200 more job vacancies

Following the recent news that it has signed its 1000th mobile phone customer, business telecommunications provider Unicom has launched a nationwide recruitment drive for a wide range of positions.

The company, which supplies business telecoms, broadband and mobile phone services, is recruiting nationwide, with 20 more employees needed in each office and an additional 20 positions at its Manchester head office.

Chris Earle, Operations Director at Unicom, said: “Our mobile phone product launch has gone exceptionally well, far better than expected. To ensure we continue to deliver the excellent service our business customers have come to expect we are recruiting for all our key departments such as sales, customer service and customer relations.”

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Monday, 13th September 2010

Unicom receives big thumbs up from customers

As part of it’s commitment to delivering exceptional customer service, Manchester based business telecommunications provider Unicom has received overwhelmingly positive results following a customer satisfaction survey.

Over 150 customers out of Unicom’s 90,000 small business customers were contacted and asked a range of questions to assess how well Unicom was doing. 94% of customers said that the call answering time was good or very good; 91% were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of Unicom’s customer service and a massive 97% said Unicom’s staff are friendly or very friendly. 94% of customers were satisfied or very satisfied with the accuracy of their invoice and 96% rated the clarity and ease of understanding of correspondence as good or very good.

Operations Director Chris Earle said: “We have built our business on offering UK businesses the customer service they deserve. We have no automated messages or menus and when a customer contacts us their call is answered in less than 6 seconds by a UK based advisor.”

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Friday, 3rd September 2010

Unicom signs 1,000th mobile customer

Unicom, the Manchester based B2B telecom provider, this week reported that it had sold its new mobile offering to over 1,000 business customers, less than 4 months after the product was launched.

After exceeding initial mobile sales projections by 47 per cent in the first month, Unicom doubled the number of sales staff to meet the demand for their new product. With a recently increased range of handsets, including Apple’s iPhone, Unicom is selling its mobile offering to its 90,000 small business customers around the UK.

“During our two years of research and development it became clear that customers find the variety and complexity of mobile contracts bewildering and baffling. We launched with a very simple offering: customers pay line rental and then only for what they use. Our introductory offer is mobile calls at landline prices. Customers response has been incredibly positive and they have voted for a transparent, easy to understand package by switching to Unicom.” said Chris Earle, Operations Director for Unicom.

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Monday, 16th August 2010

Unicom graduates appointed to full time position

Following an intense 12 month graduate management programme, Unicom’s class of 2010 have been appointed into full time positions within the business.

Holly Almond, 23, from Bury, has been appointed Retentions Development Manager. Through extensive analysis of reports, call monitoring and working methods Holly is collaborating closely with management, the training and development team and the staff themselves to introduce a number of improvements to the performance of each team member. Holly is also responsible for the recruitment of new staff into the department.

“My new position allows me to draw on skills acquired throughout the graduate scheme. I have been pleasantly surprised at the seniority of the position I have now been given and the importance of my final project. The company has presented me with a wide range of opportunities but it is only through my determination to succeed and excel that I have been able to gain the exposure and role I desired.” said Holly.

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Monday, 2nd August 2010

Unicom extends mobile handset range; now offers iPhone

Following the successful launch of its mobile phone product, business telecoms firm Unicom has revamped the handsets available to customers and now offers the Apple iPhone.

After exceeding mobile sales projections by 47 per cent in its first month of trading in this market, Unicom decided to expand the handset range to meet the growing demand for a diverse range of mobile phones.

“Following consultation with our sales team we have increased the number of handsets available to customers from 6 handsets to 18 handsets. Our sales launch has gone exceptionally well and the volume of sales means we can support a much larger handset range. We have selected a range, from the basic Nokia 2730 and Doro 332 to the more feature packed HTC Desire and Apple iPhone, based on the features our customers have said they would like.” said Chris Earle, Operations Director for Unicom.

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Monday, 5th July 2010

Unicom loyalty levels stay high as BT implements another price increase

Fast-growing Manchester-based telecoms independent Unicom, which specialises in services for small business, says BT is failing to support UK small business customers both on competitive pricing and customer service.

BT will increase its charges to business customers on 23 July 2010.

“We keep a close eye on our main competitors and have tracked an 85% increase in BT call prices since April 2008. Since 2008 BTs connection charge has doubled from 4.5p to 9p. Local calls have increased from 4p per minute to 8p per minute, meaning we now offer a discount of 81% off all calls to a landline.” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom. The latest increase is a 7% increase on average, following on from 3 different increases in 2009.

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Monday, 28th June 2010

Unicom donates £5000 to NSPCC

Manchester based Unicom has donated £5000 to the NSPCC, helping to support the important work they carry out to prevent cruelty to children.

“This donation is the result of Unicom customers switching to email billing rather than receiving a paper bill.” explains Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

“Unicom customers have been asked to switch to the environmentally friendly email billing. We introduced this system to reduce our business costs, for example printing and postage costs, and to reduce our environmental costs, for example paper usage and the environmental impact of transporting bills across the UK.”

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Thursday, 17th June 2010

Putting faces behind the calls

STOCKPORT College photography student Katie Peach is revealing the personalities from the call centre industry by putting faces to the people behind the calls.

As part of her end of year project, Katie has worked in partnership with local telecoms provider Unicom to create a book giving an insight, through photography, to the call centre world and the people who work within it.

Recent reports estimate five per cent of the UK population work in call centres. Unicom employ 500 people throughout the UK, 250 of which are based at their head office in Manchester. Over the past few months Katie has regularly visited Unicom’s headquarters on Sharston Industrial Estate, interviewing and photographing staff from various customer servicing teams.

“I used to work in a call centre and thought it would be interesting to give an insight into what it is like in that environment. I wanted to give a personality to the people we speak to on the other end of the phone.” said Katie, who is working towards a degree in Documentary and Fine Art Photography.

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Thursday, 17th June 2010

20:20 Mobile Help Unicom Switch on to Mobiles

20:20 Mobile, Europe’s leading distributor of mobile phones and accessories, has signed an exclusive contract with unified telecommunications provider, Unicom. The new agreement will see 20:20 provide a range of business phones and accessories as well as a logistics support including distribution of handsets, repairs, returns and customer support.

Unicom will initially offer the range of business mobiles to existing customers which can be integrated into their existing communications infrastructure to provide mobile telephony, email and data transfer. Working with 20:20 they will also look to introduce a range of mobile applications to compliment existing services.

Chris Earle, Unicom Operations Director said: “Unicom has been looking for some time to provide a high quality business to business mobile offering. We know that working with 20:20 will allow our team to concentrate on offering the right solution for our customers.”

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Thursday, 10th June 2010

Scouts to have warm roof over heads, thanks to Unicom

WINTER will be a whole lot warmer for Scouts in Ipswich thanks to a donation from telecoms firm Unicom.

The 1^st Ipswich Scout Group, which was established in 1927, contacted the business telecoms provider to ask for help with roof insulation after hearing about its community support scheme.

The group, which has 35 cubs, scouts and beavers, meets weekly at The Beacon on Beaconsfield Road.

Stephen Cawston, who has led the 1st Group for 33 years, said Unicom’s donation is a much needed lifeline. He added: “It was very cold last winter as we have no form of roof insulation. We tried to get by with electric heaters but it was hard to warm the hall.”

“We will be using this support to pay for insulation and will install it during the summer months. Finances are always difficult for us as we are self-funded so this support from Unicom is vital for us.”

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Friday, 4th June 2010

No penalties for England fans

England fans in South Africa will be able to share the euphoria of goals with friends and relatives free of charge thanks to telecoms provider Unicom.

Some moments are made to be shared so, in a bid to get behind the England football team, Unicom is giving calls and texts to and from South Africa free to its mobile phone customers during the World Cup.

South Africa has one of the highest international call and text charges to the UK making chats to your nearest and dearest an expensive luxury. A 10 minute chat home each evening during the World Cup could rack up a bill of more than £450. Or, if England got through to the final (resulting in seven matches), a quick five minute post-match report call after each game could cost a total of £51.

Chris Earle, dedicated England fan and operations director at Unicom, said: “There is nothing better than sharing a great goal with your mates or calling your family to give a blow by blow post-match report. We are making this possible for football fans out in South Africa this summer without incurring hefty international call charges.”

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Tuesday, 1st June 2010

Unicom mobile sales exceed projections by 47 per cent

BUSINESS telecoms firm Unicom has exceeded mobile sales projections by 47 per cent in its first month of trading in this market.

The outstanding take-up has further boosted the company’s UK growth strategy to be positioned as a total communications solutions provider.

Designed with simplicity in mind in an increasingly complex market, Unicom’s mobile customers only pay for the calls and services they actually use, rather than exposing themselves to additional bundle costs. Calls are charged per second at landline prices.

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Thursday, 27th May 2010

Small businesses vow to keep down costs

As UK inflation heads for an 18 month high, small UK businesses have vowed to keep costs down for customers.

A survey of SMEs by telecoms provider Unicom has found 45 per cent of small business owners are not going to increase prices in a bid to maintain profit margins. This is a stark contrast to many of the big UK companies as the nation faces rising food, clothing, travel and petrol costs.

Just over 18 per cent of owners surveyed said they were planning to increase their prices and 36 per cent were still unsure, opting to monitor the market over the next few months before making a decision.

Chris Earle, operations director at Unicom, said: “It’s encouraging to see the owners of SMEs are committed to providing best value for their customers, even during the credit squeeze. “In our own industry we have seen companies such as BT continue to hike up the costs of its services. Unicom has bucked this trend by providing our customers with competitive pricing and fixed rates for three years. We firmly believe this has contributed to our success, resulting in a 13.5 per cent rise in sales this year taking our annual turnover to more than £50 million.”

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Monday, 24th May 2010

Unicom sales up by 13.5% to over £50M

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has reported a 13.5% rise in sales and a 11.8% increase in profits to the end of April 2010, its eleventh trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £44.5 million to £50.5 million, with pre-tax profits at £12.7 million compared to £11.2 million to the end of April 2009.

“2009/10 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2010/11 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £55 million by increasing our market share and profits are projected to rise to well over £15 million. Our new mobile product will start to make an impact later in the year, but we will see the full benefit in terms of growth the year after” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Thursday, 20th May 2010

Birmingham St Mary’s hospice benefits from Unicom donation

BIRMINGHAM St Mary’s Hospice has been able to purchase much-needed overbed tables for its inpatient unit thanks to a donation from telecoms provider Unicom.

Birmingham St Mary’s is the only independent hospice serving adults in Birmingham and Sandwell and cares for 1,000 people each year suffering from life-limiting illnesses.

The hospice recently purchased new hydraulic beds but needed overbed tables to work alongside these to allow patients to dine or read on a stable surface without having to leave their beds. The new tables also adjust downwards and can be positioned at an angle, giving patients sitting in upright chairs greater comfort when eating or reading.

Unicom, the small business telecoms provider, granted the donation to Birmingham St Mary’s as part of its Community Support Scheme. The scheme offers funding for community groups around its 10 regional offices.

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Monday, 17th May 2010

100 months of continuous growth

THERE are a hundred good reasons for celebration at Unicom after the company marked 100 consecutive months of growth.

Since launching in 1998, Unicom has been recognised as the UK’s fastest growing telecom company appearing in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 in 2006 and 2007.

From a standing start, Unicom now supplies more than 80,000 customers and is now aiming for 100,000 customer by the end of 2011.

Operations director Chris Earle said: “We have recorded growth every month for 100 consecutive months, there will be very few companies that can boast that. We have continued to sign up new customers and grow our business through the economic downturn and recession.”

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Wednesday, 12th May 2010

Top five tips on how to motivate call centre staff

A happy workforce means a productive workforce. As the telecoms industry continues to grow and more call centres develop, it’s important to implement strategies to motivate and support call centre staff.

With the right support and motivation, call centre staff can be encouraged to excel, giving them a strong sense of achievement in their roles.

Business telecoms provider for SMEs, Unicom, has 10 call centres throughout the UK and has successfully implemented a number of tried and tested techniques to motivate its staff.

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Monday, 10th May 2010

Unicom develops bespoke CRM system

UK business telecoms provider Unicom has developed a bespoke CRM system to ensure business efficiency.

The in-house system has been developed with multi-functionality, including a ticketing system, document archive, report centre, direct debit and billing management system and lead generation tracking.

With one central system for all products and services, Unicom’s customer service staff has instant ‘touch of the button’ access to the company’s 80,000 strong client base.

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Tuesday, 4th May 2010

Unicom joins the mobile market

BUSINESS telecoms firm Unicom is continuing its growth strategy to become the UK’s total communications solutions provider by launching its mobile phone product.

From today, Unicom’s 80,000 existing customers will be able to benefit from its new simple mobile phone package, with one bill and one contact number for all telecoms services.

The mobile package is designed so users only pay for the calls and services they actually use, rather than paying for inclusive bundles that are rarely all used or paying for expensive out of bundle costs. Calls will be charged per second at landline prices.

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Tuesday, 27th April 2010

Unicom invests in its future with staff NVQ training scheme

EIGHT employees from Unicom are investing in their future by training to gain national vocational qualifications (NVQs), thanks to the company’s new training scheme.

As part of its commitment to staff and the Investors in People standard gained last year, telecoms provider Unicom has launched its NVQ scheme in partnership with Damar Training.

Damar will be implementing one-to-one sessions with the eight Unicom staff who will be completing NVQs in customer service, team leadership and accounts.

Each training course will be tailored to the employee and will demonstrate how the skills learnt through the NVQ can be integrated into current roles.

Charlotte McHale, head of training and development at Unicom, said: “The qualifications gained not only enable staff to build competence in their current roles but also gives recognition and credit to the skills they already have.”

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Wednesday, 21st April 2010

PM reveals public service plans to Manchester company

IMPROVING public services is a priority for Gordon Brown as election day looms.

In a letter to Manchester telecoms company Unicom, the prime minister spoke of consultation and customer insight being ‘vitally important’ if improvements are to continue in public services.

Gordon Brown wrote to Unicom in recognition of the company achieving Customer Service Excellence standard following assessment of its customer insight, the culture of the organisation, information and access, delivery and timelines, and quality of service. Unicom was only the second private company to have achieved the standard, following rigorous assessment.

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Friday, 9th April 2010

Unicom launches Aspire to Inspire staff training programme

BUSINESS telecoms company Unicom is investing in its staff for the future by launching training support programme Aspire to Inspire.

The Manchester-based company, which has offices at Sharston Industrial Estate, has launched the programme to fund employees in study and qualifications outside of their normal work duties.

Employees are being encouraged to approach Unicom management and present a case for receiving external training which will have a direct and positive influence on their role at Unicom.

Operations director Chris Earle, who pioneered the Aspire to Inspire programme, said this gives staff the chance to realise their ambitions.

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Monday, 29th March 2010

Unicom moves into mobiles

MANCHESTER business telecoms firm Unicom is moving into the mobile market after signing a deal with European operator Transatel.

The company, which is based at Sharston Industrial Estate, supplies fixed lines and broadband to businesses nationwide and is now offering mobile packages to its 80,000 customers.

Unicom mobiles will operate on the Orange network.

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Monday, 15th March 2010

Unicom completes commercial property overhaul

BUSINESS telecoms firm Unicom will be moving some of its operations into new premises after completing major property renovations.

The company, which has its headquarters on Longley Lane, Manchester, bought the 507.97 m² space at Sharston Industrial Estate in October.

The space – which is split into three buildings – will now be used to house part of Unicom’s administrative operations.

Operations director Chris Earle said: “We bought Leestone Road at a time when businesses were shying away from investing in commercial property.

“We are determined to continue our expansion – both in terms of staff and customer numbers – and this commercial property purchase was a vital part of this process.”

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Monday, 8th March 2010

Unicom graduates raise over £5k for Children in Need

Jump, bake, wax and quiz; that’s what three Unicom staff did to raise an impressive £5,145 for BBC Children in Need.

As part of their graduate training scheme, which aims to develop innovative and creative managers over a 12 month scheme, the current graduates from Manchester-based business telecoms firm Unicom were set an Apprentice style challenge of raising as much money as they could, in as creative way as possible, for Children in Need. Unicom agreed to match every pound they raised.

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Friday, 19th February 2010

Unicom announces recruitment boost

Telecoms firm Unicom is launching a recruitment drive in its regional offices which will be a further boost to news the recession is officially over.

The company, which supplies business telecoms and broadband services, is recruiting 200 people nationwide, with 30 more employees needed in Manchester, Birmingham, Crawley, Ipswich, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on Trent.

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Monday, 18th January 2010

Management appointment rings changes at Unicom

Business to business telecoms firm Unicom has added to its senior management team with the appointment of Moira Robertson as head of regulatory affairs.

Robertson joins Manchester based Unicom with a brief to ensure the communication provider remains compliant with all the industry regulatory requirements.

The appointment will also see Unicom working more closely with Ofcom to help shape how the B2B telecoms industry is regulated in the future.

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Friday, 8th January 2010

Marple Athletic signs up Unicom as new sponsor

MARPLE Athletic Under 11s teams have completed a new signing for the New Year – with sponsor Unicom.

The Manchester-based business telecoms firm has agreed to sponsor two 11-a-side teams for the next two years, at a cost of £750.

Both teams are now boasting new kits, giving them a boost to their performance.

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Thursday, 7th January 2010

OMG! Warning over txt spk job applications :-(

Job seekers are missing out on employment by using text speak (txt spk) in job applications and CVs, according to a recruitment manager.

Aurelia Bowerbank, head of recruitment at national business telecoms firm Unicom, says more and more young people are including the shortened “textese” in both their CVs and covering letters.

Textese is the use of slang or abbreviations commonly used when sending SMS messages, with pictures, single letters and numbers representing whole words.

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Monday, 14th December 2009

Award hat trick for Unicom - Unicom ends the year on a high with multiple accreditations

TELECOMS company Unicom is raising a glass to a successful year after securing a clutch of service accreditations.

Last month, the business telecoms firm was named the first utility company in the UK to achieve Customer Service Excellence status for exceeding customers’ needs.

It has now achieved Customer First status after assessment of its ability to build customer relationships, to maximise on market awareness and to develop employees.

Unicom has also been awarded the Investors in People standard as a result of its dedication to staff training, development and company involvement.

Operations Director Chris Earle said: “We constantly strive to deliver the best possible service to customers by recruiting and developing our staff. We were confident that we would be awarded all three standards very quickly, and in achieving these awards the hard work we put into providing the best possible customer service has been recognised.”

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Thursday, 12th November 2009

Swapping telecoms for teaching in Nepal

Jayde Maguire, 23, spent three months in Nepal as part of the Platform2 programme –
a global volunteering scheme for 18 to 25 year olds to visit a developing country.

Jayde was given time off from her role as customer service agent at Unicom to pursue this dream. Peter White, Unicom’s Head of Customer Service said: “When Jayde approached us with her plans to visit Nepal, we were happy to support her.

“We pride ourselves on making corporate social responsibility a priority and encourage our employees to approach us with charitable pursuits they would like us to support. Jayde had been an inspiration to us all.”

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Monday, 9th November 2009

Unicom launches community support scheme

Community groups in Sheffield are being invited to apply for funding support at the launch of a new community support scheme in the city.

The scheme, organised by business telecoms firm Unicom, aims to reward community groups from across Sheffield which help local people.

Speaking at the launch of the initiative, Unicom Operations Director Chris Earle said: “Unicom is keen to play its part in recognising and rewarding some of the fantastic community groups and organisations which provide invaluable services and improve the quality of life for Sheffield people.”

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Monday, 2nd November 2009

Unicom recognised for Customer Service Excellence

TELECOMS company Unicom is the first utility company in the UK to be awarded Customer Service Excellence status for its dedication to exceeding customers’ needs.

The business telecoms firm has achieved the Government standard following assessment of its customer insight, the culture of the organisation, information and access, delivery and timelines, and quality of service.

It is only the second private company to have achieved the standard, following rigorous assessment.

Peter White, Unicom’s Head of Customer Services, said: “Working towards Customer Service Excellence status was a useful and practical way of revisiting our core business objectives, ensuring we strive for continuous improvement and a way to enhance our skills.”

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Tuesday, 27th October 2009

Unicom calls up £10m deal

MANCHESTER telecoms firm Unicom is on target to top a £50m turnover after tying up major deal with international network operator Verizon.

The £10m deal will see Verizon continuing to supply Unicom with voice calls in the UK for the next 12 months. Verizon has 321 offices in 75 countries spanning 6 continents.

Chris Earle, Unicom operations director, said: “This deal means we can keep prices low for our business customers and avoid the price increases noticed by customers of our main competitor, BT. We work hard to make sure we’re sourcing deals with suppliers to pass on savings to our customers.”

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Friday, 16th October 2009

Unicom files record sales and profits

Unicom, the business-to-business telecoms provider, has today filed accounts showing a 7.0% increase in sales and a 14.3% rise in pre-tax profits to the end of April 2009, its tenth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £41.6 million in 2008 to £44.5 million in 2009, with pre-tax profits up from £9.8 million to £11.2 million.

“2008/09 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2009/10 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £48 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £12 million,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Wednesday, 14th October 2009

Commercial property investment part of Unicom’s expansion plans

MANCHESTER-based telecoms provider Unicom is bucking the trend by investing in commercial property as part of its continued expansion.

The business telecoms firm, based in Northenden, has bought premises on Leestone Road at Sharston Industrial Estate for £339,000 as it continues to increase staff and customer numbers.

The 507.97m² space – which is split into three buildings – will now be renovated to house part of Unicom’s administrative operations and a growing workforce.

Operations director Chris Earle said: “We see the downturn in the market as an opportunity to grow and diversify and this investment is testament to our determination to continue to expand.”

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Friday, 18th September 2009

Unicom helps Wythenshawe schoolchildren learn new skills

NORTHENDEN-based telecoms provider Unicom has helped children in Wythenshawe settle into school by funding an adventure trip to Wales.

Unicom has supported Manchester Enterprise Academy, formerly Parklands High School, for the past five years and this year donated £15,000 to ensure the whole of Year 7 could benefit from an educational and bonding break outside of school.

The donation paid for pupils to attend an adventure and challenge course at The Outward Bound Trust’s Aberdovey centre in North Wales.

Unicom operations director Chris Earle said: “We are proud of our Manchester roots at Unicom and wanted to make sure we could give something back to the community.”

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Tuesday, 15th September 2009

118 777 starts directory enquiry price war

Men with moustaches beware. A Manchester based competitor is going head to head with the market leaders and is slashing the cost of directory enquiry calls.

New figures released show 118 777, from Northenden telecoms firm Unicom, is on average 28 per cent cheaper than 118 118 and 53 per cent cheaper than BT’s 118 500.

Calls to 118 777 have trebled in the past three months as customers discover the huge savings they can make.

Chris Earle, Unicom operations director, said, “The success of 118 777 in the relatively short time it has been operational proves you can deliver a high quality directory service for a fraction of the cost of our competitors.”

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Tuesday, 8th September 2009

Unicom announce £10m deal

Unicom has tied up a £10 million pound deal with network operator Verizon to supply voice traffic in the UK for the next 12 months.

The new agreement consolidates a long standing relationship which will help maintain Unicom’s competitive pricing which has helped them win a customer from BT every three minutes.

Unicom operations director Chris Earle said: “We are continually assessing our call providers to ensure we continue to compete favourably on price with other fixed line suppliers.”

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Monday, 24th August 2009

Unicom recruits top graduates

MANCHESTER-based telecoms provider Unicom offers talented students the chance to excel in telecoms as BT closes its graduate scheme.

The telecoms giant announced on Sunday it will be closing its graduate recruitment programme in a bid to cut costs during the downturn.

Unicom is continuing to invest in young talent and is helping keep high-quality graduates in the city thanks to its 2009 graduate management scheme.

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Thursday, 13th August 2009

Unicom first to reach BAU on WLR3

UNICOM is the first UK company to reach ‘business as usual’ (BAU) on the Openreach Equivalence Management Platform for all three wholesale line rental products.

Unicom operations director Chris Earle said: “Being able to access the full WLR3 product range on Openreach is key to Unicom providing superior service and products to our customers in the fixed line marketplace.”

“We’re delighted to be the first communications provider to hit this milestone and are grateful to Singularity for helping us achieve this.”

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Wednesday, 22nd July 2009

Customer Focus pays dividends

The recession is proving beneficial to Manchester based telecoms firm, Unicom, with an announcement it is winning a new customer every three minutes.

Unicom, part of the Universal Utilities Group, calculated it signs up approximately 900 new business customers for telephone lines and calls every week. When broken down this equates to 20 new customers every hour, or put another way a new client every three minutes.

Unicom specialises in telecom, broadband and website services to the small business market and currently supplies 80,000 businesses throughout the UK.

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Tuesday, 9th June 2009

Profits up by 14%

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has reported a 14.3% increase in profits and a 7.0% rise in sales to the end of April 2009, its tenth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £41.6 million to £44.5 million, with pre-tax profits at £11.2 million compared to £9.8 million to the end of April 2008.

“2008/09 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2009/10 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £48 million and profits are projected to rise to well over £12 million,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Monday, 18th May 2009

Unicom donates £6000 to NSPCC

Manchester based Unicom has donated £6000 to the NSPCC, helping to support the important work they carry out to prevent cruelty to Children.

“This donation is the result of Unicom customers switching to email billing rather than receiving a paper bill.” explains Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

“Unicom customers have been asked to switch to the environmentally friendly email billing system launched in April 2008. We introduction this system to reduces our business costs, for example printing and postage costs, and to reduce our environmental costs, for example paper usage and the environmental impact of transporting bills across the UK.”

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Tuesday, 16th December 2008

Brown leaves small businesses feeling blue

The number of small businesses who believe they are better off today under Gordon Brown’s leadership than when he was appointed 18 months ago has plummeted by 69.8%.

This is the finding of a survey conducted by Unicom, a specialist in telecommunication services for small business, which this week asked 230 companies calling into its contact centre whether they felt better, worse or indifferent to Brown’s leadership since he came to office.

“Unicom’s customers are a good barometer of small businesses nationally. Gordon Brown’s time as Prime minister has been of mixed fortune, but it seems attempts to win back the confidence of small business owners have not been successful,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

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Monday, 24th November 2008

Unicom donates bursary to outward bound trust for fourth consecutive year.

As the numbers of school trips are reported to be dropping because of overly bureaucratic health and safety rules, Unicom has partnered with Parklands High School, Wythenshawe, Manchester, to help provide ‘learning outside the classroom’.

Northenden-based Unicom, which specialises in telecoms for small business, has donated a £13,000 bursary to The Outward Bound Trust and has specifically identified Parklands High School in Wythenshawe as the recipient of the donation.

“Most adults have fond memories of the school trips they went on when they were kids, but sadly the numbers of school trips are falling due to health and safety regulations, and kids aren’t able to experience life away from home or school as readily,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

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Thursday, 20th November 2008

Unicom files record sales and profits.

Unicom, the business-to-business telecoms provider, has filed accounts showing a 12% increase in sales and a 29% rise in pre-tax profits to the end of April 2008, its ninth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £37.1 million in 2007 to £41.6 million in 2008, with pre-tax profits up from £7.6 million to £9.8 million.

“2007/08 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2008/09 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £45 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £11 million,” said Mark Whelton, Unicom’s Company Secretary.

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Tuesday, 18th November 2008

Emma Scullian promoted to customer services manager at Unicom.

Manchester-based Unicom has promoted Emma Scullian, 26 from Fallowfield, to Customer Services Manager.

Emma, who has a degree from Salford University in Business Studies, has worked for Unicom for 12 months and during that time has been promoted twice.

Emma previously worked at a legal advice bureau and had also spent six months in America traveling around.

“I love traveling – it’s a passion, and I’ve seen some lovely places – but there’s many more to see. I’d have to say that my six month stay in America was a big highlight though,” said Emma.

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Friday, 14th November 2008

£600,000 saved by Unicom 08 number customers.

Small business specialist telecoms provider Unicom has signed up its 5,000th customer for 0800, 0808 and 0845 numbers saving businesses £600,000 a year in rental alone.

“As soon as our customer service team clarifies and explains the difference and benefits of Unicom 08 number, businesses usually jump on the opportunity,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Friday, 3rd October 2008

Double success for Unicom.

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has gained the internationally recognised ISO 9001 certification days after being named as one of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies.

“ISO 9001 is an accreditation awarded to only five per cent of businesses – the perception is that that figure is much higher,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Thursday, 25th September 2008

Manchester based Unicom celebrates as makes it into Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 companies.

Manchester based telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-tobusiness connections, is celebrating this week as the company will be named in this weekend’s Sunday Times list of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies by turnover growth over a three year period – its fifth Sunday Times listing in three years.

In both 2006 and 2007 Unicom was ranked by both profit growth and turnover growth over a three year period – the only company nationwide to be ranked by both profit and turnover.

This weekend, Unicom is once again in the top 100 fastest growing companies, this time as one of the fastest growing tech companies by turnover growth over a 3 year period.

Unicom is one of only a handful of companies with offices in the region to make it into the top 100.

“Some companies may enjoy growth in terms of either profit or turnover, but it is unusual for companies to enjoy such growth in both profits and turnover at the same time,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

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Monday, 22nd September 2008

Unicom “Good”, “Very Good” or “Excellent”, say UK businesses.

More than 90% of customers surveyed by Unicom, the business telecoms service provider, say that the service, support and package they have received are “Good”, “Very Good” or “Excellent”.

The finding comes after Unicom surveyed 50 UK companies that subscribe to Unicom services as part of its ISO quality standard assessment programme.

Manchester-based Unicom, which has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, asked its customers ten questions in line with ISO guidelines.

Overall, 69.8% respondents answered “Excellent” or “Very Good” to the questions, 20.8% said “Good”, only 4.4% said “Satisfactory”, while 5% said “Poor”.

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Monday, 15th September 2008

Unicom chooses MediaVest as media partner for 118 777.

Unicom, the leading specialist business-to-business telecoms provider has chosen Manchester based MediaVest as its media partner for its 118 777 radio campaign.

The autumn radio advertising campaign was put together by MediaVest and is already delivering solid returns.

"Radio is a massively strong and effective media channel to promote a service such as 118 777 - we're delighted Unicom has agreed with that view, and chosen MediaVest as its media partner for the launch of its 118 777 service. The directory enquiry market has become very competitive but 118 777 has a very strong offer," said James Reddington, Strategy and Management Director, MediaVest.

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Wednesday, 10th September 2008

118 777 saves £77.7 million on directory enquiries calls.

If all directory enquiries calls went to just one single number, then costs to residential and business phone users would be cut by £77.7 million a year.

Unicom, the leading specialist business-to-business telecoms provider, says that if every call went to its recently launched directory enquiries number, 118 777, then the £249 million currently spent on such calls would shrink by 31% - the price by which it undercuts BT’s equivalent service.

“If everybody switched over to 118 777, then the cost of directory enquiries calls would be around about a collective £77.7 million less each year, which is a great result for the British public.”

118 777 from Unicom is available to both business and residential users. Priced at 49p connection charge and 14p per minute, 118 777 undercuts the three main current directory enquiry service providers – 118 118 by 34% and Yellow Pages’ 118 247 and BT’s 118 500 by 30% - for an average duration call.

“The price may be more than competitive, but it does not mean we provide a cut-price service,” said Chris Earle.

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Monday, 1st September 2008

Unicom launches 118 777 advertising campaign.

Unicom, the leading specialist business-to-business telecoms provider, begins a twelve week radio advertising campaign today to advertise its 118 777 directory enquiry service, which matches the service level but dramatically undercuts the price of the three biggest players in the market.

The catchy 30 second radio advert will initially be played 2,616 times across five key strategic regions: London (Magic 105.4); West Yorkshire (Aire FM and Magic 828); South Yorkshire (Hallam FM and Magic AM); East Yorkshire (Viking FM & Magic 1161); and Teeside / North Yorkshire (TFM & Magic 1170).

Priced at 49p connection charge and 14p per minute, it will mean 118 777 undercuts the three main current directory enquiry service providers – 118 118 by 34%, Yellow Pages’ 118 247 by 30% and BT’s 118 500 by 30% - for an average duration call.

“The price is more than competitive, but it does not mean we will be providing a cut-price service – we hope the radio adverts will put us firmly on the map, and the service and price will speak for themselves after that,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.

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Tuesday, 26th August 2008

Is your business using its phone to the max?

We may be a nation that thrives on new technology, but we still rely on our good old fashioned landline phone features to stay in touch.

That's the finding of Manchester-based Unicom, which has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, and which specialises in telecommunication services for small business.

There are five key network features that stand out as being the most used to help create time, breathing space and business opportunity for smaller companies - but not everyone fully exploits them.

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Monday, 18th August 2008

Unicom is shortlisted for september’s sunday times tech track 100 companies.

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, is celebrating this week as the company has been shortlisted for this September’s Sunday Times list of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies by turnover growth over a three year period.

This will be Unicom’s 2nd time in the Tech Track 100 ranking having already been ranked in 2007 as well as two previous rankings in the Sunday Times Profit Track and one in the Sunday Times Fast Track.

“Some companies may enjoy growth in terms of either profit or turnover, but it is unusual for companies to enjoy sustained growth in both profits and turnover at the same time – especially in today’s economic climate,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director, Unicom.

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Monday, 18th August 2008

42% of small business owners say a summer holiday is out of the question in 2008.

Just 58% of small business owners believe they will be able to take a holiday this summer, while only 39% say they could take a holiday when they really wanted to.

That's the finding of Manchester-based Unicom, which has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, and which specialises in telecommunication services for small business.

Unicom asked 433 business owners whether they would be able to take a holiday at all this summer, and 183 (42%) said they would not be able to because of work pressures.

Meanwhile of 365 business owners who responded to the question of whether they could go on holiday at a time that suited themselves or their family - school holidays, for instance - only 142 (39%) said they could.

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Wednesday, 30th July 2008

Unicom staff get inflation-beating pay rise.

Head office staff at Northenden, Manchester, based Unicom have received a pay rise that defies the current economic downturn.

Unicom, which specialises in telecoms for small business, has been a rare growth and success story during the economic slowdown, and now most staff will receive a 4% pay rise from July 2008.

“We recognise the valuable contribution of our staff even in tough times – and the massive efforts made by the team at Unicom have paid off in many ways,” said Chris Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.

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Wednesday, 23rd July 2008

Unicom appoints Aurelia Bowerbank & Gareth Davison.

Manchester-based Unicom has formally appointed its July 2007 graduate trainees into permanent roles – Aurelia Bowerbank as HR & Recruitment Assistant and Gareth Davison as Billing & Revenue Assurance Assistant.

Aurelia, 23, originally from Grantham, Lincolnshire, came to the North West to study at Manchester University and graduated in 2006 with a degree in History and Philosophy.

Having spent 18 months in a retail position, she was recruited onto the Unicom graduate training scheme in 2007, and after completing the 12 month scheme which involved time in each of the company’s departments, Aurelia’s new full time position in the HR team means that she is responsible for the recruitment of new staff.

“My role has been specifically created to consolidate the recruitment of new staff into the business – where previously the job was done by the head of each team,” said Aurelia.

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Monday, 14th July 2008

Unicom appoints PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditors.

Northenden-based Universal Utilities PLC (UU), which trades as Unicom and specialises in telecoms for small business, has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its auditors.

The move to appoint a “big four” accountancy firm comes as Unicom continues its relentless growth having just posted 2007/2008 financial year sales of £41.6 million.

Unicom saw a 13.5% increase in sales and a 23.6% rise in profits to the end of April 2008, its ninth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £36.7 million to £41.6 million, with pre-tax profits at £9.5 million compared to £7.7 million to the end of April 2007.

“2007/08 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2008/09 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £45 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £11 million,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.

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Thursday, 12th June 2008

Record monthly sales for Unicom.

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, recorded its highest ever monthly billing figure in May 2008 – a fraction short of £3.5million.

The sales figure resulted from a record number of customers buying Unicom’s services - more than 68,000 invoices were issued in the month, almost 10,000 up on May 2007, reflecting industry-beating retention rates and a relentless demand for what the company provides.

Manchester-based Unicom, which has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, specialises in business-to-business connections.

“Consolidation in the telecoms marketplace has tempted some of our competitors to increase their prices but this merely assists both our new sales and our retention rate, each of which is heading in a favourable direction,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Monday, 2nd June 2008

Unicom reports another strong year of trading as profits continue to rise.

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has reported a 13.5% increase in sales and a 23.6% rise in profits to the end of April 2008, its ninth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £36.7 million to £41.6 million, with pre-tax profits at £9.5 million compared to £7.7 million to the end of April 2007.

“2007/08 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2008/09 are equally positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £45 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £11 million,” said Tony Eagleton, Unicom’s Finance Director.

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Thursday, 29th May 2008

Unicom creates 80 more jobs.

Manchester-based telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-tobusiness services, has completed the refurbishment of its headquarters enabling it to open a new floor and create up to 80 new jobs to meet the demand for its services.

Unicom, which has been named several times in the Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s fastest growing companies, is bucking the current economic trend; something it says is down to its careful pricing policy which is attracting business from its competitors.

The company now provides work for almost 600 people. It pledged to create 300 new jobs when it moved into its Northenden HQ in 2006, and achieved that figure. The new jobs will be primarily in sales but opportunities in credit control, customer service, IT and administration teams will follow.

“We’re well tuned-in to the small business sector, and we have taken on board what they need from their telecoms provider – a no-nonsense personal service, priced highly competitively and operated from a local base,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Wednesday, 28th May 2008

Call volumes plunge by 40% during champions league countdown.

Call volumes from small businesses in the 0161 area fell by almost 40% during the countdown to Manchester United’s Champion’s league showdown with Chelsea.

Unicom, which specialises in telecoms for small business, monitored call volumes during the build-up to the match – and call levels started to tail off by as early as 10am, with a 40% reduction in the last hour of the working day compared to a normal working day.

Overall, call volumes from small businesses in Manchester were down by 12.57% for the day.

“It’s rare that we see anything like that level of fall-off in calls from one day to the next, and this was one of the biggest drops offs we’ve seen in the Manchester area in the history of our business,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Monday, 28th April 2008

Go paperless phone bill - save half the local football ground's worth of trees.

Trees covering an area half the size of the local football ground could be saved from deforestation every year if a telecoms company succeeds in persuading its customers to switch to paperless billing.

Unicom, the small business specialist telecoms provider, which is based in Manchester and has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, is working on converting its 70,000 business customers to online billing.

“Currently Unicom provides telephone services for around 70,000 business customers, each one of which requires a monthly invoice detailing their service charges. For each of those customers an average of four pages will be used in a monthly invoice including the envelope,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Thursday, 24th April 2008

90% of small business says UK economic confidence has crashed in the past month.

Nine out of ten small businesses say their confidence in the state of the UK economy has crashed in the past four weeks.

Unicom, the small business specialist telecoms provider, has been asking small company owners and managers whether they feel more or less confident in the economy now than at the same time in March.

Of 154 companies surveyed, 140 said that they were less confident in the economy than at the same time the previous month.

Just 14 said they were more confident in the economy than a month ago, although Unicom itself is seeing fewer customers going out of business than at the same time in 2007.

“The bottom line is that we had 263 customer insolvencies in the first 10 weeks of 2008 compared with 246 in the corresponding period in 2007 – a growth of 6.9% However, this compares with growth in invoiced customers from 56,189 at the end of March 2007 to 68,860 at the end of March 2008, i.e. 22.6%,” said Tony Eagleton, Finance Director of Unicom.

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Monday, 21st April 2008

Unicom loyalty levels stay high as BT hides another price increase.

Fast-growing Manchester-based telecoms independent Unicom, which specialises in services for small business, says BT is failing its small business customers both on competitive pricing and customer service – and continuing to hide price increases in the small print.

“Nobody likes a price increase but when the notification is hidden in the depths of BT’s website or in the small print of their marketing literature, their customers will inevitably think they’ve been hoodwinked,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Tuesday, 15th April 2008

Unicom throws redundant pipex staff a lifeline.

Fast-growing Manchester-based telecoms independent Unicom, which specialises in services for small business, is recruiting staff made redundant by neighbour Pipex.

Unicom has provided jobs for a number of former Pipex staff, and wants to talk to as many more as it practically can.

“We’re working hard, we’re enjoying strong growth and we are looking to recruit experienced telecoms professionals to ensure that we maintain and further improve our service levels as that growth continues,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.

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Thursday, 20th March 2008

What recession? Small business insolvencies down.

Small business, the barometer of the UK economy, appears to be shrugging off the doom and gloom surrounding the financial markets, according to business telephony provider Unicom.

“As a company reliant upon the performance of thousands of UK companies, we continuously monitor the usage levels and payment performance of our small business customers to ensure we spot any trends upon which we need to act,” said Tony Eagleton, Finance Director of Unicom.

“The bottom line is that we had 263 customer insolvencies in the first 10 weeks of 2008, compared with 246 in the corresponding period of 2007 – growth of 6.9%" said Tony.

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Wednesday, 12th March 2008

95% of small businesses say government doesn't understand their challenges.

An overwhelming majority of small business owners and operators say the government doesn’t understand the challenges facing them.

That is the key finding in a survey conducted by Unicom, which specialises in telecoms and telephony for small businesses.

Unicom asked a cross section of its customers ringing in to its call centre: “Do you believe that the current government understands the challenges that face small businesses today?”

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Tuesday, 11th March 2008

Numbers stack up as Unicom hits all the sixes.

A customer of telecoms provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business telecom services, has logged the company’s 666,666,666^th call.

Unicom, with regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, has been watching the numbers rack up as customers move over to it.

“We seem to have a great affinity with the small business community, and I think a great deal of the growth and success is down to nothing more complex than a nononsense personal service, priced highly competitively and operated from a local base." said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.

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Monday, 3rd March 2008

118777 undercuts competition with launch of new directory service.

Unicom, the leading specialist business-to-business telecoms provider, is launching a directory enquiries product, 118777, which will match the service level but undercut the price of the three biggest players in the market.

118777 from Unicom is be available to both business and residential users.

Priced at 49p connection charge and 14p per minute, it will mean 118777 undercuts the three main current directory enquiry service providers - 118118 by 28%, Yellow Pages’ 118247 by 30% and BT’s 118500 by 31% - for an average duration call.

View Press Release

Wednesday, 2nd January 2008

Unicom creates 100 more jobs for 2008.

Manchester-based telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business services, is planning to create 100 new jobs in 2008 to meet the demand for its services.

Unicom, which has been named several times in the Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s fastest growing companies, says it expects the majority of the new jobs to be in Manchester, but some will be in its other nine UK regional offices.

The company now employs 500 people. It pledged to create 300 new jobs when it moved into its Northenden HQ a year ago, and achieved that figure. The new jobs will be in sales, credit control, customer service, IT and administration teams.

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Thursday, 22nd November 2007

More than half of small businesses are a click away from disaster

The vast majority of small businesses may have binned their paper mountain by going digital, but more than half are failing to back-up their electronic files – and risking a complete loss of data.

Unicom asked customers ringing in to its call centre whether their business backed-up vital computer and business data.

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Wednesday, 17th October 2007

An all round record year for Unicom

Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has this week filed accounts for FY06 and reported record results with a 19% increase in sales and a 43% rise in profits to the end of April 2007, its eighth trading year.

The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £31.0 million to £37.1 million, with pre-tax profits at £7.6 million compared to £5.2 million to the end of April 2006.

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Thursday, 27th September 2007

Unicom celebrates Microsoft Tech Track 100 ranking

Unicom is celebrating this week as the company will be named in this weekend’s Sunday Times list of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies by turnover growth over a three year period.

This is Unicom’s second ranking in 2007 confirming its place as the fastest growing telecom company in the UK - having already been ranked in April this year as the 96th fastest growing company in the UK by profit growth over a three year period in the Sunday Times Profit Track, and appearing in both the Fast Track and Profit Track tables for 2006.

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Thursday, 2nd August 2007

Unicom appoints new financial director

The Board of Universal Utilities PLC, trading as Unicom, has appointment Tony Eagleton as Financial Director with immediate effect.

Tony has a wide variety of experience in the professional and commercial sectors. After graduating from Leeds University, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant during a 10 year spell with Deloitte & Touche, before becoming the first Executive Finance Director of the Rugby Football League.

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Thursday, 19th July 2007

Unicom hits 500 million calls, 1 billion minutes

Telecom service provider Unicom has hit a double milestone.

One of the company’s 60,000 customers has made the 500 millionth call routed by the company since it launched, and at around about the same time Unicom also completed 1 billion minutes of call time sold.

“We add around 20 million calls and something like 40 million minutes of talk time every month,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.

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Monday, 14th May 2007

Unicom launches second graduate training scheme

Unicom has launched its second graduate recruitment scheme, with the interview process starting in June.

Unicom - consistently ranks highly in the Fast Track family of lists of successful private businesses - provides telecom, broadband and website design packages to small business.

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Thursday, 3rd May 2007

Unicom looks to Europe for growth

Unicom is conducting a feasibility study into expansion into five new European markets.

The company, which has nine UK regional offices, recently made its third appearance in the Fast Track 100 family of lists of Britain's most successful private companies.

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Monday, 23rd April 2007

Small business want St. George's Day as Bank Holiday

Small businesses surveyed this week have voted in favour of making St George's Day a national bank holiday.

That was the finding of a survey conducted by Unicom, which specialises in telecoms and broadband services for small businesses, as Monday 23rd April passed by relatively unnoticed once again.

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Tuesday, 23rd January 2007

Something to shout about - and Peter has just what he needs

Audio and public address equipment supplier Peter Barnard has something to shout about – he’s won a new car.

Peter, who owns Sigma AV Ltd in Bourne, Lincolnshire, became the proud owner of a shiny new red Ford Ka having been entered into a prize draw when he signed up with Manchester based telecom service provider, Unicom.

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