MA Solutions

Services - Analogue line rental, VoIP, DSL and KeVault

Lincoln-based, MA Solutions, is an independent water treatment consultancy specialising in the design and provision of Water Treatment programmes and compliance with health and safety legislation for Legionella control.

At its inception in 2005 the company, like many start-ups, began trading from the home office of founder, Mark Agius, who decided to use BT and then BT Business for all his communications requirements.

"Like many people starting a business in the UK I trusted that I would be taken care of by BT. I even took their suggestion of signing up for their VoIP package as I wanted my business to benefit from using the latest technology solutions. Unfortunately my experience with BT was poor. Four faulty broadband routers, a day long visit from a BT engineer and many hours of wasted time prompted me to seek an alternative supplier," says Mark Agius.

Mr Agius called converged communications provider, Timico, and hasn't looked back. "It's such a relief to have a communications supplier that specializes in solutions specifically tailored for small and medium sized businesses," he says. "Timico took over responsibility for my all my needs and completely sorted out the problems left by BT."

Timico set MA Solutions up with one initial DSL connection together with a single VoIP for Business user account and inbound DDI numbers.

"For me, the main benefit of Timico VoIP for Business is not the cheaper calls, although that is, of course, welcome. More important is the flexibility the solution delivers. The great thing about Timico's offering is that it is totally scalable. As MA Solutions grows all I have to do is add users to my account and it doesn't cost me the earth. This kind of saving is very valuable for start-ups," said Agius.

Also important for MA Solutions is keeping its Lincoln geographic phone numbers. Mark Agius explains: "We didn't want to have to change our number and go to the expense of informing all our customers and suppliers as well as risk losing out on new business because our old number was no longer available. Unlike many other VoIP services, which insist on a non-geographic number, Timico VoIP for Business lets me keep my Lincoln number so when we moved offices I didn't have to worry about whether I could take my number with me. All I had to do was plug my VoIP phone into the router at the new office and my communications all followed automatically. Again, Timico project managed the whole move making it so easy for me. They even advised me on the communications requirements for the new building."

MA Solutions' business, with the help of Timico, is flourishing and the company was recently awarded ISO9001 quality and ISO14001 environmental accreditation for its management systems. An integral part of MA Solutions' ISO 9001 Quality Assurance procedures is the safe storage of customer and company information. MA Solutions takes advantage of Timico's KeVault online back-up service (available with a three month free trial) to facilitate this data storage.

"KeVault is perfect for our business. Using the service I automatically back up our company data to two secure remote locations. It is simple and very easy to use," says Cath, Office Administrator at MA Solutions.

"It gives me real peace of mind knowing that all our business data is up-to-date and off-site where it is safe from fire, flood, vandalism or burglary," adds Mark.