January 23, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – e-know.net (http://www.e-know.net) has announced that ESOS - a specialist back-office recruitment and payroll processing provider - has expanded their use of e-know.net hosted services, marking e-know.net’s biggest UK hosting desktop contract to date. The agreement will provide ESOS with a fully managed Terminal Services desktop environment, delivering e-mail, Microsoft Office-based and Microsoft SQL Server-based recruitment packages to their customer base. These services will be hosted and managed by e-know.net from their two leading-edge server farms offering greater continuity and resiliency to ESOS's 180 customer locations and 1,350 thin client end users.
“Our central goal is to significantly grow our customer base over a short space of time,” says John Smith, Chairman of ESOS. “To achieve this goal, we need to focus our efforts on developing software applications and outsourcing services that will be attractive to small and medium enterprises and recruitment agencies alike. Using hosted services enables ESOS to concentrate its efforts on growth through new sales while ensuring our existing customers are well supported.”
By using a hosted application model, rather than traditional on-site or remotely managed servers, ESOS will significantly reduce its administrative and IT support burden, allowing it to concentrate resources on its core business of developing innovative payroll and back-office processing applications. The project is expected to provide a return on investment in less than two years and is central to ESOS’s strategy of diversifying its customer base.
“The ability to deliver a number of applications across multiple locations both securely and reliably was the primary requirement,” explains Nigel Redwood, Managing Director of e-know.net. “ESOS now provides its customers a completely flexible solution, which allows seamless access to both popular desktop applications and its bespoke payroll and other back-office systems regardless of location. The hosted model provides round-the-clock customer support, freeing up valuable resources within ESOS that can be assigned to development projects that will allow the company to grow.”
ESOS ran several ‘live’ pilot studies in the lead-up to a phased roll out which began in November 2007. These pilots saw 23 high street sites and 80 users go live on the hosted platform during September and October 2007, with great success. The success of these pilots led to the roll out across all 180 sites starting in November 2007, with the roll-out expected to be fully completed in August 2008.
e-know.net was chosen in a competitive bid against several larger, multi-national competitors due to its understanding of ESOS’s needs for total customer reliability and providing a platform that will scale as the company expands its business. e-know.net’s extensive experience in delivering hosted payroll and back-office recruitment solutions was also crucial.
“Hosted services offer a cost-effective and scalable way of accessing the latest applications in a secure environment,” adds Michael Korbacher, director of Web & Application Hosting for the Communications Sector at Microsoft. “Partnering with e-know.net frees up valuable resources within ESOS, allowing the company to concentrate on delivering innovative services, while providing the world-class support its customers demand.”
