Kennedy Recruitment

You’re a fast-growing business. You know digital is the key to keeping pace with your own ambition and ability. But you’re forced to make-do with out-dated technology. What could be more frustrating? You know how to #VOOM. But the tech’s failing you. 

Kennedy Recruitment is one of Belfast’s most active recruiters. Based in the heart of the city, its 25-strong workforce places nearly 1,000 public sector positions a week. After a takeover of a fellow recruitment business, and a need to support mobility and collaboration over a growing number of locations, its current up to 15Mbps download and up to 1Mbps upload just didn’t cut it.

Managing Director Reggie Patel had been interested in increased capacity from 2013. But despite its office being located just 50 yards from Belfast’s largest exchange and the neighbouring businesses enjoying superfast speeds, Kennedy Recruitment just couldn’t find a partner or a solution to help. 

“Our business required modern systems and great bandwidth,” says Reggie. “We’ve got ambitions for growth and we needed to be moving to cloud and web-enabled systems to deliver that growth, providing the platform for a further business development spree following our recent acquisition.” 

The business was in fact paying for three broadband lines with its incumbent provider, just to prop up the bandwidth across the organisation. The net result was a stuttering website that provided a basic user experience, a near impossible remote-working capability, and the omission of a suitable risk management solution. 

Its existing supplier did make an offer to provide up to 60Mbps and upload speeds of up to 24Mbps. But there was a catch. There would be an annual cost of £5k a year on the proviso of a three-year contract. Reggie was less than impressed with the marketplace. 

“There is something problematic if your business operates 50 yards from Belfast’s largest exchange and your neighbours are able to take full advantage of faster speeds, and for you it is simply not an option. While the businesses across the street from us were paying £50 a month for the privilege and we were being asked to pay £5k a year. I refused to pay it,” he said. 

But the ability to #VOOM was closer than Kennedy Recruitment could have envisaged. As part of the business’ search for a partner that could help solve its great bandwidth problem, Reggie spoke to a Virgin Media Business partner Strata1 who indicated a resolution may be easier than initially thought. 

“I was introduced to the team at Virgin Media Business, and when I spoke to them, I was told that one of their cables ran down the side of my premises and, accepting the challenge, they said ‘I bet we can get that into your building. I bet we can get you ultrafast broadband’.” 

A 1333% increase in download speed along a single Virgin Media Business connection, Kennedy Recruitment at last had the capacity it had long-desired. 

With web-enabled systems in place and a now agile workforce, able to properly login from any location, the next item on the technology list was already in the shopping basket. 

This year, Kennedy Recruitment will replace its analogue lines and out-dated telephone system, with a hosted voice solution. Connecting its offices will enable disaster recovery across its communications and act as a springboard for growth. 

Poor bandwidth is so last century, and with ultrafast broadband now coursing through Belfast, Virgin Media Business has shown businesses it is ripe for the job. 

Virgin Media Business & Kennedy Recruitment – VOOMING TOGETHER.