Onyx Group, the North East’s leading technology solutions company, today announced that it is opening the North East’s largest Workplace Recovery Centre, following the acquisition of a property on Team Valley, Gateshead.
This £2m investment is a major move for the company, as well as the region, as it will strengthen its infrastructure and ability to provide resilience to businesses. With funding support provided by the Bank of Scotland, work will start immediately and once completed and it’s doors opened in late July 07, this new centre will provide managed workspace for up to 200 people and will create a total of 10 new jobs.
“We already have a significant Disaster and Workplace Recovery infrastructure with our data centres and workplace recovery facilities located in Newcastle and on Teesside,” said Neil Stephenson who was recently promoted to CEO, allowing predecessor Alastair Waite to focus on Acquisitions, financing and strategic development.
“This new facility follows on from our previous acquisition of DataBanx, our multi-million pound data centre on Tyneside, and will enable us to provide workplace recovery facilities to many more organisations from both the private and public sectors across the region.
“When the new centre is up and running, its website will feature an online database and a Business Continuity Planning Tool which will provide a step-by-step guide to the creation of an effective Business Continuity Plan which organisations can store securely via an on-line portal.”
This latest development builds on the Onyx Group’s acquisition of the Business Continuity Centres business in late 2006, strengthening further the Group’s strategic aim of offering true resilience to its core business areas of ICT managed connectivity, hosting and disaster recovery and enterprise network security.
“This acquisition is a significant step in our previously disclosed strategy of building Group revenues over the next three years prior to floatation,” added Neil.
“The relevance of Business Continuity and Workplace Recovery to both private and public sector organisations is growing significantly,” said Maitland Hyslop, Onyx’s Chief Operating Officer, who is also a member of the British Continuity Institute (BCI). The BCI promotes the highest standards of professional competence and commercial ethics in the provision and maintenance of business continuity planning and services.
“Having a credible disaster recovery plan is now an essential requirement of leading business accreditation organisations, regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the purchasing departments of a growing number of businesses.
“It is also a mandatory requirement for many public sector organisations following the passing of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004,” added Maitland. “Our new facility will be able to provide support to those who do not currently have a disaster recovery plan in place.”
