Our primary IT vendor has always been Microsoft. Over the years, this has proven a good strategic move, with Microsoft always being a front-runner in operating systems and business software. We won ‘Gold Partner’ status early on, and maintain it to this day.
Within two years, Nexus had over 20 staff and we’d moved to larger premises on the edge of Exeter.
We expanded into delivering software development services, providing intranet, helpdesk, website and CRM solutions, in addition to bespoke business software. As the office software market matured with Microsoft Office 365, we evolved this part of the business to focus on these solutions.
Teach and learn
In 2008 Nexus opened its doors, providing training services and an exam centre to deliver a range of technical and soft skills courses. We also became a Microsoft-certified training centre. Within a year we were providing training services to the likes of the Met Office. Today we continue to provide a broad range of over 1,000 training courses.
Nexus was rapidly confirming its reputation for technical excellence. Our investment in training for staff was evidenced by our level of accreditation with the major technology vendors. This technical expertise meant we were now working with prestige clients such as Yeo Valley, the Welsh Parliament and the British Film Institute.
Over this time Nexus has evolved to meet the changes in technology and client demands. We’ve said goodbye to some good people whilst welcoming new people to the team. Without the contribution of everyone, past and present, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We continue to be a technology-driven company; it is our collective skills at Nexus that make our solutions work. We’re particularly proud of our client retention, many of whom have been with us for many years, some since the beginning.
Twenty years later
In 2018, we celebrated our 20th year with a party. By this point, Nexus had established a reputation for specialising in ‘unified communications’ – a Microsoft product series ultimately branded ‘Skype for Business’. We were also early adopters ourselves of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint online to co-ordinate our business.
Also in 2018, the board was joined by John Brett who provided the catalyst to realign the business ready for its next stage in its journey to becoming more client-focused and improve the employee retention by making Nexus a better employer. This went hand-in-glove with the increase in our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity.
2019 saw us win the award for the Most Innovative Managed Service Solution category of the annual UK Managed Services Awards. This was for our Nexus Cloud Connect back service, and took our partnership with Veeam to the top tier.
Recent times
In 2020, Nexus has had to cope with the Covid crisis, along with the rest of country. Overnight all our staff started working from home whilst seamlessly managing to support our customers with their own demands and challenges caused by the introduction of home working. We continued to deliver complex technical projects, were able to introduce secure home working solutions and even in some instances, supply our customers with last minute emergency laptops to enable their organisations to keep functioning. All of this whilst adapting to working from home ourselves!
As the concept of home working has evolved into part of everyone’s normal working practices, we’ve been remodelling our office to reflect a more hybrid working approach. The office has now become an important social hub for our business.
Yes, we’ve still got desks and meeting rooms. But, now we’ve also got a pool table, table football, a retro arcade games machine, a new modern kitchen and a lot more social/collaboration areas. These allow staff to meet, discuss technical challenges and importantly, retain that sense of belonging to Nexus.
In 2021, we were audited and accredited in ISO27001 information security. This was the culmination of around a year of internal improvements, processes and training. This landmark achievement is rare amongst IT providers in the South West.
Today we are 45+ staff providing managed IT services, unified communications, IT solutions and training to a diverse range of organisations across the UK.
