Compare the Cloud has been interviewing cloud experts and learning about their companies, today the spotlight is on zsah, a London based MSP that prides itself on customer loyalty and satisfaction. Established in 2002, zsah provides cloud, software engineering and managed services; we sat down with three of zsah’s leading men to hear more about what their business is all about.
[easy-tweet tweet=”An introduction to #MSP @zsahLTD from @ComparetheCloud” hashtags=”cloud”]
Amir Hashmi, Managing Director & Founder
Being a techy by nature Amir had spent his early years refining his skills and helping a number of major corporations including Bertelsmann and BP with a wide variety of high profile projects. Amir is an Experienced technology and business process expert with significant exposure to both the Enterprise and SME spaces.
Fahd Khan, Business Development Manager
Fahd has been with zsah since 2015 as a Business Development Manager working with and helping develop business relationships with a number of new as well as existing clients. Fahd is a very hands-on and experienced Business Developer with an entrepreneurial streak.
Paul Hocking, Sales & Account Director
Paul joined zsah a little over two years ago, but has been selling outsourced IT services for over 20 years and was an early adopter of co-sourced IT delivery models, where an external services provider works hand in glove with a client’s own IT organisation to deliver an optimised and flexible IT solution to support the client’s business plan.
Can you tell us about zsah as a whole?
AH: Established in 2002, zsah provides cloud, software engineering and managed services. Their service offerings add value to your existing functions, or complement your IT operations, where and when you want.
Based in London, zsah’s teams consist of smart, driven, responsive people who deliver a personal, dedicated service. Together with our robust, reliable infrastructure, zsah’s people can support, develop and manage your technology needs so you can do what you do best. This combination of personal service, experience and strong architecture is rare, and having it yields potent capabilities, maintained and developed for you.
zsah’s teams consist of smart, driven, responsive people who deliver a personal, dedicated service
What do you think of the Cloud Industry at present:
AH: The industry at the moment is exciting, but getting crowded with people who don’t have the experience or credentials to do what they are promising.
FK: I think the cloud industry is seeing unprecedented growth but along with that growth the quality of service is being watered down. In my experience we have come across more and more customers who are experiencing poor levels of service; something which for us being in the managed services industry is an absolute priority and the founding aspect that zsah has built its success on.
PH: The delivery of services across the Cloud is here to stay; will continue to grow; and is the way in which most companies will get the majority of their IT services – just like buying in other “utility” services.
Can you tell us a little about zsah’s main strengths?
AH: Experience, expertise, flexibility and talent. We know what organisations require and we understand applications as well as infrastructure. Everything is in house and we don’t believe in outsourcing work, this helps us control the work we do and ensure standards of work are at its highest.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Everything is in house and we don’t believe in outsourcing work says Amir Hashmi, Founder of @zsahLTD”]
FK: The quality of service we offer. As zsah has grown we’ve ensured that our high standards remain the same and have hired effectively to maintain that. A lot of companies grow and start doubling the workload on their team and inevitably that then goes on to effect the service being offered and this in turn can affect the reputation of the company and considering the vast majority of zsah’s growth has been driven by our reputation this is something that is vitally important to us and a strength we always maintain and build on.
PH: One of zsah’s main strengths are that all services are provided from world leading data centres, but through technology wholly owned and managed directly by zsah – and with the support and back up of a strong and very experienced technical team that can support companies through advice, implementation and changes to their IT.
What do you think sets zsah apart in a competitive cloud marketplace?
AH: In our exact space we don’t have that much competition, so because of our commitment to delivering an exceptionally high level of service, we naturally stand out from our competitors.
we end up being a “one stop shop” for our customers for all their IT requirements
FK: The fact that aside from cloud services we also offer end user support and as well as development services. So in many ways we end up being a “one stop shop” for our customers for all their IT requirements.
Also everything we do is in house, secure and truly private, are a UK sovereign organisation, so we are not subject to the patriot act unlike the big three (Rackspace, AWS & Azure) amongst many other cloud companies.
PH: The ability to deliver the same level of services as the big players, but with a level of technical support and relationship with organisations that cannot be delivered by the commodity players or by cloud service brokers. We work very closely with our clients, acting as part of their own IT organisation – or in many cases as their end to end IT team.
[easy-tweet tweet=”We work very closely with our clients, acting as part of their own IT organisation says @zsahLTD”]
Can you describe the ideal client for zsah’s services?
AH: Our clients are often SME organisations or software re-sellers who use us as a technical support and infrastructure and platform provider. But we also have clients across the spectrum, from start-ups, to media companies and a range of public sector organisations requiring a private and secure cloud partner.
FK: I would say SaaS companies are an ideal customer as we have dealt with a good number of SaaS companies who have been supported by zsah’s cloud infrastructure and have gone on to successfully grow and flourish into a bigger business. Public sector organisations have also reaped huge benefits from our honest advice and efficiency savings.
PH: Any company or public sector organisation that requires general or specific IT infrastructure or platform services, but with a relationship where they can avail themselves of advice and additional support as and when required. In most cases, the key is the intimacy of the relationships we have with our clients and a level of personalised and technical support which they don;t feel they get from the larger, commodity, providers.
Could you tell us a bit about some of zsah’s current clients?
AH: They vary from SMEs to large multinational firms. The common thread between them is that they require the best solutions and a level of management that other firms do not offer. They choose us instead of choosing a combination of two or three other suppliers which complicates their service delivery landscape.
FK: We support and host infrastructure for a variety of different businesses. From small start-ups to large enterprises, the greatest benefit with this is we have a wide range of experience with all types of businesses and are often familiar with the requirements and solutions that most new customers require.
Where do you see zsah heading in the future?
AH: I see us as the leaders in private and hybrid, high performance, managed hosting. Our solutions are wholly scalable, proven for years and we expect our client base to grow both in number and in terms of the size of the organisations we serve.
FK: We see ourselves growing into leaders in truly private/hybrid and managed cloud services as well as providing some great startups of the future the platform to help grow and establish their businesses.
zsah will continue to grow, based on its unique positioning in the market
PH: zsah will continue to grow, based on its unique positioning in the market and its strengths as outlined above. Whilst we will expand into global markets, following the demands of some of our larger clients, our core strength will continue to be the UK market where our physical presence of both data centres and support offer a significant advantage to clients – whether for reasons of data privacy or for geographic support.