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PROUD DIVA- 20/02/12
Northside MagazineRead about our MD the proud Diva and her success story on page 56 of the Northside magazine: Diva in frame for big contract as telecoms firm looks to grow - Yorkshire Post Business Thursday:BUSINESS-to-business telecommunications provider Diva Telecom is looking to make an acquisition as part of its growth plans, which also include recruiting new staff and re-launching one of its products. Erica Lewis, managing director of Diva Telecom, who founded the Leeds-based company in 2006 from her home in Roundhay, said the firm is also bidding for “a very significant contract”, which would add about £350,000 to its turnover. Bradford-born Miss Lewis has quadrupled the headcount of the company in the last two years, from two to eight staff members. For the year to the end of July 2011, turnover was at £2.4m, 40 per cent up on the previous year, and pre-tax profit was £430,000. When Miss Lewis started Diva Telecom it was a one-woman team. She said: “It was literally a case of me having to make phone calls but I did have some customers who came with me straight away. Initially, we only sold UK inbound numbers [0800 and 0844 numbers for example] and their equivalent across the globe.” Miss Lewis said: “Very, very early on I won a company called Conference Genie and they are now one of the UK’s leading audio conferencing companies. “They took up the UK initially and now they offer their services all across the globe via our international numbers.” She explained that a company with aspirations to expand its market into another country but doesn’t want to risk the cost of taking on local staff and an office might take up an international number. Miss Lewis said: “We can give them a number, and a presence in that country but we can bring those calls into the UK for them.” After two years, Miss Lewis recruited two people and moved to a larger office at Thorpe Park in Leeds. The company then developed an SMS platform, which allows companies to send out texts to a list of contacts. Later, the business, which is now based in Mortec Office Park, in Leeds, as the result of a move in May 2010, expanded its offering by providing more traditional services such as business lines, telephone calls, broadband, telephone systems and mobile telephones. Miss Lewis said: “We deliberately took on an office which was much larger than we needed which will accommodate growth up to about 16-18 people.” Diva Telecom is currently recruiting for two sales people to join the team. Miss Lewis added: “In the next three months, we will also be looking at creating an additional support role.” She added: “We’ve shown a growth of more than 30 per cent each year in terms of turnover. For the next financial year, we look to see that figure reach £3m.” The company hopes to achieve this by means of selling additional products to the firm’s current customer base as well as bringing in additional customers, said Miss Lewis. She added: “The other thing we are looking at doing is a re-launch of our SMS platform. It’s been redeveloped completely and utterly. We are also talking about an acquisition if we can find the right fit. We are very cash rich and the money isn’t earning anything being sat in the bank. The aim of [an acquisition] is to increase the customer base more quickly than we can by growing organically.” Meanwhile, the international numbers side of the business is “growing disproportionately” as businesses look to expand into new markets, said Miss Lewis. She said the company has managed to grow despite the tough economic climate “by offering a fairly unique product set”, but also as the result of excellent customer service and competitive pricing. Miss Lewis said the economic climate is a challenge, especially for the more traditional services, adding: “It just seems that people are taking much longer in the decision process.” Another key challenge is finding the right skills set, said Miss Lewis, adding: “It’s a challenge finding sales people with the skills set to sell and who have the knowledge of telecommunications.” Diva Telecom offers services in over 100 countries and its customer base includes both channel partners and direct clients, including American pharmaceutical companies, software companies and audio conferencing firms. Ninety five per cent of the firm’s customers are UK based, said Miss Lewis. Christmas Opening HoursDear Customers and Colleagues, Introducing our new Email 2 Fax platformEmail2Fax enables you to send a document by email which is then delivered to a fax machine. The service uses your normal email application, no special software is needed.
The fax we send is the document attached to your email.
To enable the service you must have a registered Email address. Individuals or a group of individuals can be registered to use the service.
Additional Benefits:
Fax header message
This enables you to word your own personalised fax header message to be displayed at the very top of the page when your fax is delivered.
Delivery confirmation
We will send you an email to confirm the delivery of the fax along with the subject in the email header.
Re-try policy
Our service is set to try up to three times at varying intervals to ensure your fax is delivered, in case the fax machine you are sending to is busy on the first attempt.
Send up to 10 attachments on the same email.
In most cases there are no changes needed to enable your application - simply use the "faxnumber@email2fax.me" where you would normally put the recipients email address - that's it.
Furthermore, combined with our Fax to email service you can receive your faxes wherever you can access your email.
Fax to email is a service that allows incoming faxes to be received via email and stored as .pdf files.
The main benefit of using this service is the ability to preview emails as soft copies before printing, meaning no wasted paper and ink.
It also provides a cost effective facility for people who do not own a fax line with the associated line rentals and cost.
Moving Forward... With Strength In NumbersWe are proud to present the new Diva Telecom - Strength In Numbers brochure. Our brochure was designed to express Diva Telecoms core values. It is our aim to help you achieve success; adding value to your business and working with you to create a partnership you can trust and knowledge you can rely on. Click here to see the complete brochure £3m target for Erica's companyA telecoms business launched by Bradford-born business woman Erica Lewis has tripled in size in two years. Erica, who launched Leeds-based Diva Telecom five years ago, has overseen growth leading to a turnover of £2.4 million this financial year, 40 per cent up on the previous year and £200,000 ahead of target. The success was due to demand for international numbers and the expansion of Diva’s regional client base. She is forecasting further growth and job creation into 2012 and is confident Diva will hit £3 million turnover in the next 12 months. She said: "As well as securing some significant international freephone deals in July and August, we’re starting to see growth in our text messaging and teleconferencing business.” West Bowling-born Erica launched Diva Telecom following a career in the global telecoms industry, which began at British Telecom in Bradford.
Bank Holiday MondayOur office will be closed this Monday 29th August for the Summer Bank Holiday. If you have any urgent queries please email support@divatelecom.co.uk Our support staff will pick up any emails and endeavour to respond as quickly as possible. Hoping you all have a great bank holiday weekend. The Diva Telecom Team New China 400 Toll Free number range now available from Diva Telecom.We are pleased to announce availability of the new 400 Toll free number range; providing landline and mobile access across the whole of China. Unlike some providers who offer restrictive 800 numbers, our new 400 Toll Free numbers provide a single number for use in both northern and southern provinces as well as mobile phones. Visit the Diva Telecom stand at the Yorkshire Mafia conference.
The Royal Armouries, Leeds on the 15th March 2011Up to 24 Meg broadbandWe are pleased to announce the availablity of ADSL2+ products, which offer download speeds of up to 24Mbps and upload speeds of up to 1Mbps. The maximum connection speed is subject to the line quality and the distance from site to a local BT exchange. Please see our downloads section for full details. The new Diva Conferencing website is now live!Save TimeConferencing cuts business travel and the associated stress that can reduce performance. It enables you to be more effective and efficient with your time, enabling you and your team to concentrate on building your business. Save Money
Conferencing reduces travel budgets, fuel costs and staff costs. It means that meetings can happen as soon as they are needed, no matter where in the world the participants might be. Save Carbon
Conferencing significantly reduces CO2 emissions, slashing business miles. Across three US studies, estimated fuel savings per telecommuter range from 49 to 177 gallons per year. This converts to approx. 0.5 to 1.7 ton CO2 reduction per telecommuter. (Source) Why not check out our new Diva Conferencing website or call for a chat on 0808 129 32 32 to discuss how our conferencing solutions can help you and your business to work more effectively. The new Diva Txt website is liveHave you ever considered how SMS texting can help your business? With Simple SMS messaging you could improve your marketing, customer services, employee communications; the possibilities are endless. Why not check out our new Diva Txt website or call for a chat on 08000 12 63 63 to see how our SMS solutions can help you and your business. www.divatxt.co.uk The new Diva website is liveAfter months of development, we’re pleased to say that the new and improved Diva website is up and running. Recently, we have been working with on:fire communication, the creative design agency, to help us re-brand everything at Diva, from how we look to how we communicate with you. The new website is easier to read and navigate, and you should be able to find everything you need to know in just a few clicks. We hope you like it. |
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