We all like to know a bit more about the companies we do business with. This is what the purpose of our email newsletters to you are; to demonstrate our openness and transparency and let you know a bit about what has been going on behind the scenes.

So without further ado let’s forget the small talk and get straight into it!

Going for gold in our industry awards

Who?
With April now here and Easter having been and gone already, our annual industry awards season for Soho66 is fast approaching.
Like previous years, we have entered two major industry awards: the ITSPA awards and ISPA awards. The names look similar all but for a rogue ‘T’ in there, but it’s an important ‘T’ as they are in fact completely different organisations.
What?
The ITSPA awards is the industry awards of the Internet Telephony Services Providers’ Association – a membership-based organisation representing communications companies who provide or resell VoIP services to businesses or consumers. We entered the Best Business ITSP (Small Enterprise) and Best Business ITSP (Medium Enterprise) categories.
The ISPA awards is the industry awards of the Internet Services Providers’ Association – a trade association for providers of Internet services acting as a representative on behalf of the industry to Government bodies such as the Home Office, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Ofcom. For this we entered the Best VoIP provider category.
Both organisations’ awards consisted of almost identical entry processes: technical testing of our system conducted by a third-party organisation, on top of a detailed written entry submission covering a vast array of business areas from how we guarantee good customer service to our business performance.
When?
Entries were submitted for the ITSPA awards by mid-late March and finalists are set to be announced on 27th April. We’ve enjoyed success at the ITSPA awards in recent years. Last year we won the Best Business ITSP (Medium Enterprise), while in 2014 we were ‘Highly Commended’ in the Best VoIP Innovation and Best Business ITSP (Small Enterprise) categories, narrowly missing out on the top prizes.
Similarly our ISPA award entry was submitted by late March, with finalists being announced sometime in April. Success at these awards is also not unfamiliar to us. In 2014 we scooped the Best VoIP provider award, with variety and scope of packages, time from order to delivery, customer care, number options and contract options being among some of the judging criteria.
Where?
The ITSPA awards will be held on 11th May at The Deck in the National Theatre, London and are now into their eighth year.
Meanwhile, the ISPA awards ceremony – always a lavish affair with no expense spared – is now into its 18th year and is always held at the height of summer, with this year’s being held on 7th July at The Brewery in London.
One more thing! We’d like to invite you to join us in crossing our fingers that we make the final shortlists in all of our entered categories once again!

Meeting our 10-year anniversary cruise competition winners

We recently revealed the winner of our special 10-year anniversary cruise competition, Mr Richard Pierpoint of Lymington, Hampshire.
As the prize was a cruise for two, Mr Pierpoint will be taking along his wife, Sue, on the 13-night cruise and we went along to meet them to gather their thoughts on winning this incredible cruise courtesy of yours truly.
Two of our team travelled to Lymington to meet Mr and Mrs Pierpoint, equipped with a video camera, an array of questions, a camera and a large cheque.
Instead of reading about it you can simply watch how their day went in the video below.

Driving employee engagement and productivity through theme days

A lot of you will be aware of our quirkiness as a company and the way we make our environment a fun one to work in for our staff.
One of the ways in which we do this is through quarterly theme days, a one-off event we encourage all staff to get involved in and usually held on a Friday.
Our theme days are all about staff engagement and keeping our workforce a happy one. It’s widely accepted that a happier workforce is a more productive one, and the more productive our staff are, the better the service you get from us.
Staff are randomly put into teams, with a leader assigned for each. Each team must come up with a theme and name, and are given a budget to spend on decorations and food for the day. In the past we have had Harry Potter themes, Hawaiian themes and Halloween themes, while the rest of this year includes an 80s theme and 1920s theme.
The theme days are held quarterly, usually on a Friday as mentioned above. Let’s be honest, who wants to come into work dressed up on a Monday?
The teams are chosen well in advance, so all staff are aware of dates and which themes are going to be making an appearance.
The “Top Gun” 80s theme day has just took place in March, with double denim, leather jackets and big hair all the rage. Meanwhile, our remaining theme days will take place in June, September and December.
That’s it for now. There are other things we could mention but that’s for another time on another day!