Persimmon homes
The search for a flexible solution led Persimmon to a partner who shared a common purpose - helping visions become reality.
Persimmon homes
Founded in 1972, and head-quartered in York, Persimmon Homes has grown to become one of the UK’s largest house builders. With an annual turnover of more than £3bn and operating through a national network of 30 offices throughout England Wales and Scotland, Persimmon delivered over 16,000 homes across approximately 400 developments in 2016 alone.
The challenge
Adapting to a changing world of technology is not always an easy task for huge businesses like Persimmon. For many years, Persimmon had partnered with large Tier 1 carriers, but they lacked the flexibility to support Persimmon in responding to a rapidly growing market and to help deliver its leading-edge technology strategy along the way.
In 2017, Persimmon embarked on a programme to improve the business’s communications infrastructure. As Liam Ronan, Persimmon’s IT Director, states: “The objective was to reinforce and strengthen the capability of our infra-structure to deliver new, innovative, business critical and customer facing IT services. This included our datacentres, UK-wide data connectivity, managed internet access, hosting and security services.”
Such a major project required a partner who could be trusted to deliver; who would provide the flexible, innovative service that Persimmon required. And that’s when Persimmon found Zen.
The solution
Understanding Persimmon’s requirement for a highly resilient and scalable network that spans the length and breadth of the UK, Zen set about delivering a WAN to securely connect each of the business’s regional offices.
And a cloud project was also initiated, the development of a CRM application allowing managers at site to communicate with the business more easily and efficiently than ever before. The application would also allow partners and clients to manage their interactions online, powered by a Zen Cloud solution.
Persimmon was clearly impressed by Zen’s decisive and innovative approach: “Zen’s commitment and determination for success was evident from the outset and its teams’ knowledge of the technology, business dynamics and challenges we face was nothing short of outstanding. Zen has been instrumental in delivering our key change programme – with precision, speed and control,” adds Liam.
The benefits
Persimmon’s goal was a modern infrastructure that would enable them to service their staff and customers in a streamlined way, and with Zen’s help they have delivered that solution. And that’s only the beginning. In Zen, Persimmon have found a partner they can trust to deliver when and where required, a partner with an impressive track record, who will put their business needs first. A partner to provide the personal and dedicated service Persimmon requires as it looks to build its business to even greater success in the future.
In all the years I have worked in IT and all the major infrastructure projects I have delivered, I never knew service could be so good. Zen’s capability and customer-oriented values bring a level of service that we didn’t think even existed. Zen is one of the most responsive, focused, passionate and accommodating services providers I have ever worked with. In fact, with the service received it is hard to believe that we are not Zen’s only customer - genuinely.
- Liam Ronan, Group IT Director, Persimmon
