by LDeX Blogger | Dec 11, 2014 | Blog
Reflecting on the year gone by
So far this year, we have heard commentators give their views on everything from the regulation of drones to how companies can turn vast quantities of data into actionable insights through Big Data analysis. Technological forces such as the Internet of Things have caused major concern amongst IT executives with Gartner reporting that there will be over 40 billion connected devices in 2020. These forces will no doubt have a significant impact on the way that datacentres operate going forwards and providers will need to adequately prepare their networks and infrastructure.
It is clear to see that heightened awareness of these issues have set the wheels in motion as to what the key priorities will be for 2015. More corporate decisions will need to be made on whether or not to outsource company servers, systems and infrastructure to a trusted colocation provider.
With this in mind, it has also been a good year for the retail colocation industry with CBRE reporting that the highest take-up of colocation services was recorded in London, Europe’s largest market, with a total of 7.2MW being sold during the third quarter. This year, LDeX has experienced significant growth with more and more companies demanding flexible, scalable, bespoke and agile solutions which tailor to their needs. We decided to give you a taster of what have been the best moments for us over the past year!
Key highlights from LDeX Group
Over the past 12 months, LDeX Group has undergone a number of key changes in establishing itself as a London based colocation provider to a national datacentre operator in the United Kingdom.
Acquisition of Ping Networks Ltd
In November 2013, we acquired a successful managed communications services provider, Ping Networks, in order to enhance the group’s position as a colocation and network connectivity operator. Since then, the company has been able to leverage the expertise of staff qualified to CCIE level in managing and monitoring all network activity.
Formation of LDeX Group
Shortly after this announcement, the group was formed and both LDeX and LDeX Connect became subsidiaries of the group. Since then, we have attracted an array of tier 1 and tier 2 carriers and ISPs to the LDeX1 datacentre based in Staples Corner.
Increased focus on Marketing
In early February, we employed a Marketing Manager who has since enabled us to position ourselves as a national datacentre operator in the UK through a series of well thought integrated marketing, PR and social media campaigns, initiatives, press releases and thought leadership opinion pieces.
Deck the halls with racks and servers
With the increase in demand for colocation services, we managed to fill our second hall DC2A. We also built our third data hall DC2B to give existing and new clients the flexibility needed to scale operations according to customer demand.
Strong financials
We have again enjoyed a very good trading period with Group revenues having grown by 81%. As we have developed our media and streaming platform we have always been very focused on profitability and cash generation. In this period our overall group adjusted EBITDA percentage margin has grown to 42%.
Expansion news
We have been busy finalising arrangements to fit out our second datacentre in Manchester. There will be lots of exciting announcements leading up to the launch next year with lots of carriers coming on board. Stay tuned to find out more.
First ever award entry
This year, we put forward our very first LDeX Group award entry, which came runners-up for ‘Colocation services offering of the Year’ through a public vote. We were absolutely delighted to have done so well and we look forward to going on to enter and win lots more next year.
Investors in People Award
In November 2014, we were delighted to be awarded the Investors in People (IIP) accolade for best practice in employee engagement, having developed the company’s internal communications function over the last six months. Through best practice, we have aligned ourselves with Investors in People to ensure that LDeX Group is an attractive place to work for both existing and new employees.
Deloitte EMEA Fast 500
In November, we made an announcement that we were ranked number 189th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2014, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in EMEA. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years. As an expanding datacentre operator, our growth has come as a result of our acute focus on providing best in class customer service as well as the team’s commitment to operational excellence.
Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50
Being ranked as the 31st fastest growing technology company in the United Kingdom at this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 awards was a definite highlight for us. The prestigious accolade was awarded to our growing company having achieved an exponential revenue growth of 897% over the last five years.
With a busy year ahead, we would like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks to all of our customers who put their trust in us to deliver their mission critical services.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year!
All the best,
Rob Garbutt
by LDeX Blogger | Dec 2, 2014 | Group News
LDeX Group ranked the 189th fastest growing technology company in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2014
London, United Kingdom, 2nd December 2014:
Today, LDeX Group announced that it ranked number 189th on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2014, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over five years.
LDeX Group grew 897% percent during this period.
LDeX Group’s CEO, Rob Garbutt, credits 897% percent revenue growth over the past five years to its focus on providing best in class customer service as well as the team’s commitment to operational excellence.
Commenting on the news, Rob Garbutt said, “We are very proud to be recognised as the 189th fastest growing technology company in EMEA. As an expanding datacentre operator, our growth has come as a result of our acute focus on providing best in class customer service as well as the team’s commitment to operational excellence.”
David Halstead, Deloitte UK and partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme added “Achieving such a high sustained revenue growth of 897% over five years is a tremendous achievement. It is a delight to honour LDeX Group for this by naming them in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500” In addition to ranking in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, LDeX Group ranked 31st in the UK Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which is a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology firms in the United Kingdom.
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About LDeX Group
LDeX Group is an independent national datacentre and colocation operator providing best in class colocation, network connectivity and satellite services to an array of customers across the globe.
LDeX own, operate and manage their facilities, providing London and Manchester colocation services to a range of industry sectors to protect the availability of data, applications, ecommerce and online presence.
For further information, please visit the website: www.ldexgroup.co.uk
About Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ EMEA The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme is the region’s most objective industry-ranking to focus on the technology field, recognising technology companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past five years. Combining technological innovation, entrepreneurship and rapid growth, Fast 500 companies – large, small, public and private – span a variety of industry sectors, and are leaders in hardware, software, telecom, semiconductors, internet, media, life sciences and emerging areas, such as clean technology.
The programme is supported by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 initiatives, which rank high growth technology companies by location or specifically defined geographic area and is run by the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) global industry group. Co-sponsors include Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, a venture and growth capital investor which backs entrepreneurs with aspiration for greatness in the IT and clean technology sectors across Europe, Silicon Valley Bank, the premier bank for technology, life science, private equity and premium wine businesses and Taylor Wessing, a leading International law firm with a focus on the industries of tomorrow. More information on the programme and prior year winners is available on www.deloitte.com/fast500emea.
About Deloitte In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, which is among the country’s leading professional services firms. Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms. The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.
by LDeX Blogger | Nov 26, 2014 | Blog
The Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 winners: What makes these companies special?
Last Thursday, tech visionaries from across the UK gathered to celebrate the growing success of their respective organisations, both large and small, in the Montcalm Hotel for the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 awards. It ranks the 50 fastest growing companies in the UK based on their revenue growth rate over the last five years. Having guided companies through the harshest economic recession to date, it was remarkably evident that these leaders could not have succeeded without bold and flexible strategies, talented people that enable growth and having access to suitable sources of finance.
At this year’s awards, the winning company, Switch Concepts achieved a remarkable five year growth rate of 10,477%*, leading the pack in showing businesses how to succeed in a difficult tumultuous financial climate. The average five year growth rate across all the companies reported on the night was 1,695%*.
These numbers emphasise the importance of having a Chief Executive Officer who has a clear vision for the organisation and a team behind him/her which is focused on driving the company to succeed through hard work. Most importantly, having a CEO who has the ability to foresee demand, knows which geographical markets to target and who also has the capacity to build a strong target customer base is key to organisational success as it inspires staff to do likewise and build connections (formal and informal) in the industry.
Bold and flexible business strategy
According to the Deloitte CEO Fast 50 entrants survey, 60%* of respondents claimed that a sound business strategy was the primary factor in determining a company’s success. This includes having the ambition to succeed and the foresight about knowing where to play, how to win and when to tailor strategies when needed. 56%* of CEOs at this year’s Fast 50 had businesses with headquarters in London, which shows that there is a tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs, looking to set up a business in the technological hub of Europe. However, there was also substantial growth from regions in the UK such as Scotland (12%)* and the South East (10%)* with businesses such as Switch Concepts and Skyscanner doing particularly well.
Over the next three years, it is expected that the biggest opportunities for growth will be Western Europe (50%)* and North America (69%). In the UK, this growth is not exclusive to any one sector, with 52% of growth expected in Software, 30%* expected in Internet, 8%* in Telecoms, 4%* in electronics, 4%* Media and Entertainment and 2%* in Green Tech.
How LDeX Group has succeeded
Having sold off a successful Manchester based datacentre to Telecity Group PLC in 2011, the founders of LDeX Group had a clear vision that they would like to replicate the success of the company and become a national datacentre operator based in London with an acute focus on customer service and operational excellence. The company has since gone from strength to strength as a colocation and network connectivity operator, having acquired managed communication services provider, Ping Networks, in 2013.
In recent years, the company has grown at an exponential rate of 897% and are a leading name in their sector. Rob Garbutt (CEO), Paddy Doyle (COO) and Simon Chamberlain (CTO) attribute growth to having a clear vision as to how to succeed in the market and develop the business going forward. It is also highly focused on taking care of customers and employing high calibre staff, which possess a mixture of both technical and commercial expertise, who have a keen desire to learn and be part of the company’s success. At this year’s awards, the company was ranked 31st fastest growing company overall and 12th in the UK Internet sector.*
Talented people
In today’s fast paced technological environment, it’s not only about finding the technical talent who are able to perform the day to day technical tasks, it is about sourcing people who can be developed and have the skillset to translate the worlds of business and technology to stakeholder groups. People want to be able to feel that they are making a difference in their role and add value to the organisation, giving them ample opportunity for career progression.
Inspiring success and knowing what makes people tick
The key to being a successful leader is showing others in the organisation how to succeed in their role and how to get to where they want to be in their career. It was clear to see at the Deloitte UK Fast 50 awards that there were many inspirational leaders in the room, with a clear focus on attracting the right staff and in turn have promoted them through the ranks to career success.
Each of the CEOs started off their businesses with a certain amount of capital, staff and resources. Through determination, hard work and strong leadership skills, these companies have grown at an exponential rate over the past five years. This has been as a result of recruiting key staff that have grown with the business and built relationships with stakeholders and customers. It is these people who have created exciting new solutions and markets for businesses.
Fostering innovation
Employees want to be able to feel that the organisation fosters a culture of innovation enabling staff to carry out their jobs and report back with progress updates. These Fast 50 leaders understand people’s motivations and help them get to where they want to be in their career through additional training (external or internal) and/or giving them challenging and rewarding tasks where they can prove their success in the organisation.
Traditionally in the technology SME sector, there has been a shortfall in skills with CEOs identifying a lack of new talent with relevant skills as the greatest threat to growth over the short and longer term (19% in the next 12 months, 24% in five to ten years’ time)*. However, with programmes such as STEM amongst others in place, this should hopefully be addressed in the future and help organisations in finding the right people with the right skills through adequate awareness of how these jobs can make a difference to the economy.
The Deloitte Fast 50 CEO survey reflected this with 41% of CEOs identifying employee talent, having a culture of innovation (41%)* and strong leadership skills (26%)* as the key factors of success. What is fantastic to see is that all of these companies are based in the UK.
Suitable Sources of Finance
The Fast 50 companies had a clear understanding of the financing options which were available to them and how they could ensure cash flow and continued revenue growth over the next 12 months. Similar to LDeX Group and detailed in the Deloitte survey, eight of the top 10 would classify themselves as owner funded. Other companies are expecting to access venture capital or private equity funding in the next 12 months.*
Over the past 17 years, the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 programme has been dedicated to recognising those businesses that have defied the odds and entered a phase of vigorous and sustained growth over the last five years.
Final thoughts
Start-ups in the United Kingdom should look to emulate the success of the Fast 50 companies by looking into their common characteristics as outlined above. Recruiting the right people to take your business forward, sourcing the capital to make it happen, looking after your customers as your business grows and having the right leaders on board will hopefully enable your business to be a Deloitte Fast 50 winner in the coming years.
As a manager at LDeX Group, it was my absolute pleasure to be in the presence of these technology leaders on Thursday and I’m looking forward to seeing these organisations thrive and succeed going forward.
Source: *Deloitte LLP – Defining fast tech growth – Fast 50 community – CEO survey
by LDeX Blogger | Nov 25, 2014 | Group News
LDeX Group awarded Investors in People accolade for best practice in employee engagement
London, United Kingdom – 25 November 2014:
LDeX Group has today announced that it has been awarded the Investors in People (IIP) accolade for best practice in employee engagement, having developed its internal communications function over the last six months and surpassed all 37 evidence based criterion associated with the prestigious people management standard.
The national datacentre and network connectivity provider has aligned itself to best practice in accordance with Investors in People and has placed a strong emphasis on developing its employee engagement strategy in order to ensure that LDeX Group is an attractive place to work for both existing and new employees.
Investors in People provides a best practice people management standard, offering accreditation to organisations that adhere to the Investors in People framework. Investors in People is owned by the UK government, managed nationally by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and supported by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Investors in People assessments are conducted locally through seven local Delivery Centres.
Rob Garbutt, CEO of LDeX Group commented: “We are very proud to be part of the Investors in People programme and we look forward to evolving our employee engagement and people management strategy over the coming years. With a view to expanding the business over the next decade, we want to enable our staff to feel valued and continue to put the resources in place for them to succeed and achieve the group’s organisational objectives.”
He added: “It is imperative for organisations such as ours to develop the skills, knowledge and expertise of their staff in order to enhance the levels of operational effectiveness and customer service within the business.”
David Umpleby, Head of Investors in People, said: “I would like to congratulate LDeX on achieving the Investors in People Standard, it is something that any organisation should be truly proud of. Achieving this standard clearly show’s LDeX’s commitment to its people but also an understanding of the value of employee engagement in the successful delivery of a wider strategy.”
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About LDeX Group
LDeX Group is an independent national datacentre and colocation operator providing best in class colocation, network connectivity and satellite services to an array of customers across the globe.
LDeX own, operate and manage their facilities, providing London and Manchester colocation services to a range of industry sectors to protect the availability of data, applications, ecommerce and online presence.
For further information, please visit the website: www.ldexgroup.co.uk
by LDeX Blogger | Nov 21, 2014 | Group News
LDeX Group announced as 31st fastest growing technology company in the UK at the Deloitte Fast 50 awards- UK colocation provider LDeX Group recognised for achieving 897% revenue growth over the last five years –
London, United Kingdom – 21st November 2014:
LDeX Group has today announced that it has been named as the 31st fastest growing technology company in the United Kingdom at this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 awards, which took place yesterday evening at the Montcalm Hotel in London.
The prestigious accolade was awarded to the independent datacentre and network connectivity provider having achieved an exponential revenue growth of 897% over the last five years. The award highlights the growing success of LDeX as a national datacentre operator in the United Kingdom.
Now in its seventeenth year, the Deloitte Fast 50 awards ranks the country’s 50 fastest growing technology companies, based on revenue growth over the last five years, and includes both public and private companies of all sizes in the technology arena, such as Skyscanner and Just Eat Plc.
Rob Garbutt, CEO at LDeX Group commented: “We are very proud to be recognised as the 31st fastest growing company in the UK. As an expanding datacentre operator, our growth has come as a result of our acute focus on providing best in class customer service as well as the team’s commitment to operational excellence.”
He added: “We believe that this award showcases to the industry how customer service is paramount to successful commercial growth in an otherwise difficult and competitive trading environment.”
David Halstead, Partner leading the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, said: “The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 gives great profile to technology companies and is internationally recognised as being one of the most important business awards in the sector.”
“The 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 shows that tremendous growth rates are still possible, with software sectors showing particular strength, they have had the greatest amount of entries in the past five years. This year’s ranking highlights the importance of being innovative and finding a niche product or service, to beat the recession.”
The colocation provider will automatically be entered in the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA programme, which ranks the 500 fastest growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
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About LDeX Group
LDeX Group is an independent national datacentre and colocation operator providing best in class colocation, network connectivity and satellite services to an array of customers across the globe.
LDeX own, operate and manage their facilities, providing London and Manchester colocation services to a range of industry sectors to protect the availability of data, applications, ecommerce and online presence.
For further information, please visit the website: www.ldexgroup.co.uk
