Levett Consultancy - Digital Transformation Specialist
IT specialists and a founding tenant of Ongar Business Centre, Paul and Joanne Levett of Levett Consultancy speak about their growth from a small company to a renowned organisation for public sector tech
How It Started
Prior to the beginnings of Levett Consultancy, Paul and Joanne Levett both had extensive experience working in the public sector; Joanne as a teacher, and Paul as head of IT for local authorities – working on projects spanning introducing Oyster cards for TfL, to rolling out IT infrastructure in schools under an initiative from the Labour government. Their experience created a want to bring solutions to problems they had seen time and time again in the public sector – organisations weren’t getting enough out of their investment in technology, and there was a better way.
By the time 2009 rolled around, Paul and Joanne decided to make the jump to consultancy work – and created Levett Consultancy, a Digital Transformation business.
To make their new venture official, they needed an official space for Levett to operate from – and at this time, the Business Technology Centre was in the works (later to be renamed Ongar Business Centre). Still being a small business, leasing an office wasn’t quite yet feasible, but a virtual office was the perfect solution for Paul and Joanne. An official business address, a place for their post and deliveries, but small enough to work with their costs.
Why We Do What We Do
Since day one of Levett Consultancy, Paul and Joanne’s mission was to bring the Cloud to the masses. Still a new and little known tool, they knew that the Cloud would allow for organisations to maximise their investments in technology while simplifying their practices – but the challenge was getting people to listen.
“There’s a lot of waste in schools and the public sector with technology, so the idea was to create a business that would help them get the most out of their spend on IT” - Paul Levett
Founding Google UK Partner
With a wealth of experience under their belt in both the technology and the understanding of working with the public sector, the business quickly began acquiring big name partnerships and contracts. Levett Consultancy partnered with Google in 2010 and subsequently became one of the first Google partners in the UK – becoming the first company to start supplying Chromebooks, and implementing them in schools in 2011. This led to an eventual partnership with Samsung to supply Chromebooks too – packing a big punch for a what was still a small and growing business.
Although Levett Consultancy was a small business compared to other IT companies, they were still able to provide full support and a comprehensive product offering to their customers. Setting them apart was their ability to offer bespoke training, and not just offering a one-size-fits-all package - as schools and public sector organisations adopted more technology in their day to day, everyone had different requirements. The team at Levett created a free reference site for potential customers to try out the Cloud to see how it could work for them, and have the best of both worlds by integrating systems like Google and Microsoft 365.
To keep up with their rapid growth, the business acquired a small office in Ongar Business Centre in 2011, until they secured their current space in 2015 – where they’ve remained ever since. The business is located in one of the largest suites on offer in Ongar Business Centre, and has allowed them to have the flexibility and room for more staff as they’ve grown.
“Let’s Do Business Group and the move into the Ongar Business Centre has been key to us, providing us a stable place to operate efficiently from. One big benefit we have is that they allow us to have our own internet connection. That was the reason we decided to have the office, as we could choose our own internet connection to ensure we had the best connectivity to deliver our services to our customers.”
COVID19 and the Cloud
Fast forward to the COVID19 pandemic, Levett Consultancy saw a huge increase in their customer base. With schools, doctors surgeries and public sector offices all turning to virtual operations, the Cloud was the clear way forward to keep up – and Levett had already had their share of experience working with them previously. Already having been on government frameworks, Levett Consultancy was selected to be part of the scheme rolling out Google across education establishments to help schools with learning from home during lockdowns.
They were one of only 39 partners selected by the government nationwide to deliver the scheme, and by the end, only 15 delivery partners were still standing – of which Levett was one.
“We’re really used to working with schools and public sector so knew how it worked with all the contracts and seeing the projects through.”
As their business during this period was 90% public sector work, Levett secured a special commission during the pandemic to work from the office in Ongar Business Centre – essentially now being key workers, their service was now keeping teachers, doctors and nurses online.
Prior to 2019, 20% of Levett Consultancy’s customers were running on full Cloud technology – with this number jumping to 97% post March 2022, and the remaining 3% changing to fully Cloud from 1st April 2023. The pandemic had enabled the team to get the message across about the Cloud – that they could work seamlessly on this new platform, anytime, anywhere – and it was the direction that technology in the public and private sector was heading.
With the Cloud having made a huge difference to their customers, it made a large operational difference to the team at Levett, too. With their mission to roll out the Cloud to customers becoming a reality, this had allowed them to internalise operations further – running almost everything from their head office based at Ongar, freeing up time that would have been on-site to offering support and training instead, and ultimately making the business more profitable and efficient.
“Our customers experience is sharp because of that, because we’re not relying on site engineers, they have the service from a company instead, and can have any issues dealt with quickly.”
Future Looking - A Greener Future
The movement to the Cloud and their base at Ongar Business Centre meant that Levett Consultancy could work on their next goal – becoming even more energy efficient for their own operations, and their customers.
With Net Zero on everyone’s minds, it became a new requirement for businesses working under government contracts to display a clear plan of how they were going to reduce their emissions and operate more efficiently before 2030, to achieve it by 2050. Well on their way and with years of experience working on government contracts, Levett was already ahead in this respect – the Cloud way of working reducing their staff and logistics emissions, and cutting energy costs. They secured their PPN Notice certifying them as a business committed to reducing their carbon footprint, and in doing so, their future as a government supplier.
“The centre was really helpful with helping us get certified and showing how we’re going to reduce our carbon footprint for our plan”
Still Prominent Google Partners
Present day in 2023, Levett Consultancy is still one of the most prominent Google partners in the UK, providing full Google-to-Google systems, consultancy, digital transformations and Cloud migrations. Sticking to their original ethos of making technology simple and working better for everyone, they carry out training sessions to make sure that organisations and schools get the best out of their investment in their technology, and provide on-hand support from their head office in Ongar Business Centre whenever their customers need it.
Working on diversifying the business by branching out and working with more smaller businesses in the future, Levett Consultancy has sought support from Let’s Do Business Group and the Federation of Small Businesses to help them on their way to further growth.
“FSB has been good for us, as we can ask about anything we’re not sure about and use them as a ‘sounding board’ to bounce off.”
“One of the benefits of being at Ongar Business Centre which is managed by Let’s Do Business Group is that where LDBG are linked with local authorities like Essex County Council, we can get the help and find out about any initiatives that can help us.”
“We can talk to Let’s Do Business about anything before making decisions on grants etc – it’s about utilising what you’ve got, and you’re not alone, if you’re just renting office space from a landlord you might not get that additional support, but being here provides an additional safety net.”
Want to know more about Levett Consultancy? See their website at https://levettconsultancy.co.uk/
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