Member Article

Behind the Business with Onyx Group

Onyx Group is a national technology provider specialising in data centres, cloud and business continuity. Neil Stephenson, Onyx Group CEO, takes Bdaily Behind the Business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

Technology is a real growth sector and one of the key challenges that we currently face is managing this rapid growth as we open new facilities and enter new markets. We recently opened a new data centre in Yorkshire, which involved a £2 million investment and means we now have five data centres across the UK.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Our greatest achievement over the past 12 months has most certainly been securing a five-year multi-million pound contract with Edinburgh Airport. The deal means that we operate and manage the airport’s mission critical IT infrastructure, acting as an extension of the airport’s own IT team.

We provide the full range of outsourced IT services including dual data centre services, high speed resilient connectivity, 24/7 IT support and cloud solutions. This reflects the increasing trend towards off-site data solutions as many organisations choose to outsource their IT.

The deal encapsulates the success Onyx has experienced over the past three years despite the difficult market and economic conditions. During this period, the Group has grown strongly through both acquisition and organic means, which have seen our customer base, revenues and profit all increase.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

Our biggest focus is to ensure that all businesses understand the benefits of off-premise solutions including data centre storage and cloud computing and to educate the industry about our compelling proposition. At Onyx, we own our cloud infrastructure which means we can offer a flexible and secure service.

We work with SMEs and larger national organisations on a daily basis and although they do understand the benefits of cloud, particularly how it can reduce the risk of data loss, over a quarter (26%) of companies are still storing data on-site despite the threat this poses to business continuity. Businesses are taking unnecessary risks which could potentially damage their growth and profit margins and our focus is to help them to capitalise on the benefits cloud technology and data centres bring.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

The most important piece of advice for anyone hoping to succeed in business is to love what you do. Success takes hard work and dedication and it certainly helps if you have a real interest in the industry you have chosen.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

In my view there is much more optimism and people doing well in business than what is in the news on a daily basis. We’re certainly doing well and there are many other companies who are succeeding, particular in growth sectors such as technology, finance, property and energy. The natural evolution towards private sector businesses is something that is driving growth in the North East and there has never been a better time to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to seize this opportunity.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .