- fellows.co.uk
- Approx. 70+ users
Located in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and London’s Mayfair
Founded in Birmingham in 1876, Fellows Auctioneers are a family-run firm of auctioneers and valuers. Fellows is one of the UK’s most established auction houses, with a focus on luxury watches, designer brands and unique pieces of jewellery.
Technology is critical to Fellows Auctioneers day-to-day operations, an online bidding service, complete with live audio and video, enables their clients to participate in live auctions wherever they are, so it’s imperative that their IT strategy works effectively for all employees across both locations.
Key Outcomes
- IT strategy aligned with business objectives
- Proactive advice to ensure IT is future-proofed & adds value to operations
- Ongoing Managed Support and projects
The Challenge
Fellows Auctioneers is totally reliant on IT, so finding a reliable IT provider who could proactively support their infrastructure and users was a huge priority for them.
As an auctioneer, Fellows have a massive priority on sale day, which is where they get the majority of their income, so it’s imperative that the company has working IT infrastructure to prevent downtime, and storage solutions so customers can view the sales.
Like any business, day-to-day and general IT problems occur, such as printers malfunctioning and laptops not working. Fellows needed an IT Provider that recognises the importance of their operational requirements when it comes to IT.
Working with Air IT has been a great partnership; they’ve allowed us to grow the business in line with our own sales. We started working with Concise back in 2011 with approximately 30 employees, and were now around 70, which has a big pressure on our IT framework and support. Air IT have come up with solutions for each of the problems thrown at them.
In terms of us as a business, Air IT recognise that we are in a niche market, and we have a very specific requirement in terms of the stress around our auction days. They recognise that this is only going to increase in the terms of frequency and in terms of the types of sales we’ll be holding.
They also recognise that as a business we are constantly striving to keep one step ahead of the competition and they respond accordingly. We have a positive working relationship with Air IT and we hope to continue that in the future.
Ben Griffiths
Former Operations Director, Fellows Auctioneers
The Air IT Approach
Air IT carried out an initial consultation to better understand and identify areas of immediate and future improvement based on Fellows Auctioneers requirements. A full report was then produced with detailed recommendations which aligned to the strategy of the client’s growth plans.
Air IT also recommended access to remote and onsite IT support for end users, with 24/7 network monitoring and management of their systems and infrastructure to take care of essential maintenance during the client’s operational schedule for live auctions, with a comprehensive security package that provide reassurance to the client due to their line of business.
The Outcome
Since partnering with Air IT, Fellows Auctioneers now benefits from 24/7 IT support, adding to internal resources and driving efficiencies on their most important sale days. Keeping in line with Fellows’ evolving needs, we provide ongoing strategic guidance and assists with setting up IT systems and provide full support during office expansions.
Furthermore, Fellows can rest assured knowing their network, data and users are best protected from outside threats. A new managed firewall package monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic, on site and for remote users, providing an important part of their security system.
In addition to this to safeguard data integrity we introduced managed backup solutions to support their growing needs for data protection and growing storage requirements. Migrating their existing email exchange to Microsoft 365 has improved end-user experience, security and compliance and scalability across office expansions.
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