Top business leaders from across the country recently gathered at Glasgow’s DoubleTree by Hilton for a glittering awards ceremony organised by the Institute of Directors. A wide variety of sectors, industries and businesses were represented, but what united them all was the talented, innovative and passionate driving forces behind each one – the company directors that are moving Scotland forward.

incovo’s CEO, Chris Thomas, was delighted to be amongst them, having been nominated and shortlisted for the Young Director of the Year award. Although he was pipped at the final post and missed out on the title, the judges were full of praise for Chris’s approach to leadership.

Commenting on his track record of success, they highlighted Chris’s ‘Impressive growth and expansion evidence. Strong evidence presented. Innovative approaches demonstrated. Good clear statements on skills. Strong evidence of knowledge development. An outstanding application’.

In addition, the awards ceremony host, Grant Stott, noted, ‘What’s exciting is the fantastic number and calibre of entries received, particularly in the Inclusivity, Young Director and Start-Up Director categories – if these folk are the future, then we’re in safe hands’.

This is incredible feedback, especially given the fact Chris took on the role of CEO just two years ago.
Reflecting on the night Chris said, ‘Being nominated and shortlisted for an Institute of Directors award has been an amazing experience. To see the outstanding talent this country is producing, and to be included amongst such high calibre candidates means so much to me’.

Of course, this is just the start for Chris – he believes he’s got what it takes to develop incovo into Scotland’s leading business telecommunications and imaging solutions provider. And with the recognition he is now receiving for his tireless hard work, there is no doubt that business leaders across the country will pay close attention to Chris to see how he continues to take incovo from strength to strength.

It is unquestionably one of the biggest names in technology and one of the most instantly-recognisable brands in the world – so this month we’re continuing to focus on the technology of tomorrow by turning the spotlight on Apple.

Each Apple product launch is hotly anticipated so it’s not unusual to see thousands of Apple fans queuing outside every store, ready to get their hands on the latest release. But this isn’t just the result of clever marketing – there is real substance to this brand’s products. Apple’s enduring appeal lies in the fact that in everything they create – from software to hardware – they strive to make things simple. Their products are intuitive and easy to use, and that’s exactly the sort of solution we at incovo strive to provide our customers with.

We’re also big fans of the fact that all Apple devices work together – you can sync your iPhone with your Mac, which you can sync with your Apple watch. And it’s this kind of collaborative technology we’re particularly passionate about at incovo. In fact, we specialise in a range of solutions that work on this principle, enabling your team to stay connected by collaborating via video, instant messaging, document sharing and audio conferencing.

Security is something we take seriously here at incovo, so we were excited to see the response to Apple’s Face ID. They effectively created the most secure facial authentication for smartphones ever, and in so doing, they reinvented the way we unlock, log in to apps and pay for things.

We also admire Apple’s courage to explore new markets. For example, this summer they’ll launch the Apple Card – a brand new kind of credit card designed to help customers lead a healthier financial life.

Here at incovo, we understand that making finances as easy to manage as possible is a number one priority for many businesses. That’s why all our solutions – from mobile solutions that integrate with office cloud phone systems, phone lines and broadband, printers and document management solutions, cabling and door entry solutions– can all be wrapped into one easy to track opex cost.

Of course, the key thing about Apple is that they keep moving forward and their dedication to innovation is unwavering. Here at incovo, we too believe in staying ahead of the curve, delivering the technology of the future to our customers.

Like Apple, we’re also committed to helping businesses get ahead. That’s why we’re not only proud to sell iPhones, we also provide some fantastic business mobile packages. Drop us an email at support@incovo.com or call 0345 450 8400 to find out more.

Got a passion for connecting with people? Fanatical about up-to-the-minute technology? incovo could be the perfect place for you to take your career to the next level.

incovo is Scotland’s leading business telecommunications and imaging solutions provider. Demand for our services is growing all the time, so we’re now on the look-out for a Client Engagement Executive, working from home on either a full-time or part-time basis.

The position is ideal for someone with experience in a similar role, even better if it’s within our sector, however most importantly we’re looking for someone that’s just as driven and enthusiastic as we are. We’ve got big plans for the future of our company!

What we’re looking for:

• A genuine people person. We need someone with the confidence to make connections with people over the phone, generate sales and maintain customer relations.
• An excellent communicator. We need someone who is comfortable presenting products or services over the phone.
• Someone with vision. We’re looking for someone that will help to grow the company by securing new clients and developing business.

What you can expect from us:

• An amazing salary and bonus based on performance.
• The opportunity to work with a range of great clients.
• On-going training to further your skills and professional development

Interested? Email support@incovo.com with a CV and cover letter explaining why you’re right for the role.

Here at incovo, we believe that little changes can have a big impact. That’s why as a team we’ve made a commitment to go green in a bid to reduce our company’s energy consumption. In an ideal world, we’d be a completely paperless organisation, but the reality is we still have a real need for some paper documents, so instead we’ve worked hard to reduce our paper output where and whenever possible, and ensure our digital and paper documents work together as efficiently as possible.

Did you know for example that in the average office, 30% of documents are printed then thrown in the bin, and 50% of all print jobs remain unclaimed at the printer? This is a huge amount of waste, so before you print anything, stop and ask yourself if it’s absolutely necessary. If it’s not, the amount you’ll save in terms of paper, ink and energy will soon add up.

If you want to take your sustainability efforts one step further, it’s worth considering looking into setting up an electronic document management system (DMS). Instead of printing emails, invoices and purchase orders for example, the DMS can check and store documents. And adding optical character recognition (OCR) features to your DMS is a fantastic way to transform your scanned documents into searchable, editable (and more workable!) documents.

Here’s how it works – if an invoice matches a purchase order, a notification will automatically be sent and the invoice can then be marked to show it’s ready for payment. An email will then be sent to say it’s ready for payment and another when it has been paid. Here at incovo, we have access to the biggest names and can provide you with OCR software from the likes of PaperCut, Docuware and FileStream. As well as saving paper, this kind of workflow automation can work wonders in saving your team’s valuable time.

Or how about upgrading your printing equipment to the latest energy-efficient model? incovo is a 5-star accredited partner of Konica Minolta and we’re also a UTAX partner, which means we can offer you the most up-to-the-minute software solutions – from document management and cloud-based solutions, to franking machines and folding machines – we can help your business save a significant amount of energy and money.

If you want to find out more, our Print Presales Consultant Andy Taylor is the number one man to speak to. With 20 years of experience, including a role as Managing Director of Simple Digital, Andy has a huge amount of knowledge when it comes to helping businesses reduce their energy and paper consumption. Drop him an email at andy.taylor@incovo.com or call 0345 450 8400 and he’ll be happy to discuss ways your business could achieve a more sustainable and cost-effective way to work. Less paper wasted. Less money wasted. It’s as simple as that.

If this has spurred you on to go green, we’ve put together five more ways to help you reduce your energy consumption in the office. Incorporate them into your daily routine to help save the environment and no doubt you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the money you save too.

1. Sort and separate
   It takes just a few minutes each day to sort and separate paper, plastic, glass and food waste into the relevant recycling receptacles, which can significantly reduce landfill. Encourage your team members to reduce, recycle and reuse where possible.
2. Dial it down
   Turn down the dial on the office thermostat by just 1°C and you could reduce your annual fuel bill by as much as 10%.
3. Turn it off
   Electrical appliances in ‘stand-by’ mode account for 5% of our total energy consumption, so make an effort to turn off and unplug equipment before you leave the office.
4. Lights out
   Change to modern, energy-efficient lightbulbs – they use just a quarter of the electricity that traditional incandescents do and they can last up to 10 times longer than.
5. Switch it up
   Make the switch to a greener energy supplier – some suppliers offer 100% renewable electricity and frack-free green gas.

We’re only a couple of weeks into the New Year but the incovo team are already cracking open the Champagne and celebrating success! We’ve just been awarded with the Avaya Sapphire Partnership status which is a HUGE achievement in the world of telecommunications – just a handful of UK companies have been awarded this exclusive status.

To achieve this impressive milestone, incovo faced rigorous assessments on a variety of factors, including our volume of Avaya customers, their spend, and our customer retention. We’re delighted to announce we came out on top right across the board; our spend with Avaya broke the £400,000 mark in 2018 and we achieved our highest level of customer retention to date.

Our customer feedback was also judged to be excellent, thanks to our speedy response times and knowledgeable team members. And the level of technical qualifications achieved by our engineers was also deemed to be outstanding, thanks to incovo’s ongoing commitment to investing in the team’s professional progression. In fact, we now have six fully trained Avaya engineers based in Scotland, with further support in England and Brussels.

Our new Avaya Sapphire Partnership status will enable us to offer our customers even more competitive prices on Avaya systems and equipment, and we can now provide increasingly complex solutions to suit more specific business requirements.

Following the announcement, Alison Hastings, Head of Avaya UK Channels said, ‘I am delighted to see incovo have been awarded Sapphire Status within the Avaya Partner Program. This is well deserved and testament to their commitment and investment in Avaya solutions, increasing their Avaya revenue by over 160% in the last 12 months. We look forward to seeing more success from incovo and I wish to extend my congratulations to them’.

Reacting to the news, Chris Thomas, CEO of incovo said, ‘We’re so proud of our team’s effort over the past year. To achieve the Avaya Sapphire Partner status demonstrates our award-winning service and dedication to the industry. I’m delighted’.

We’ve worked hard to achieve this status and our expert engineers and dedicated sales team have done a fantastic job. Thank you to all of our customers who continue to trust incovo to provide the solutions and service we do.

With 2019 off to such a promising start, we’re now well on our way to achieving Avaya Diamond Partnership status, which we believe we can achieve by 2020. We’ll make sure the Champagne is on ice for then!