Company background

The UK’s premier managed service provider to the corporate mid-market

SAS Global Communications is a major UK and international provider of managed and professional network services for customers in the corporate mid-market. We build, manage and support converged IP networks for on-premises and cloud based computing.

Our managed and professional network services deliver 24/7/365 support, administration, monitoring and management for networks, servers, systems, applications WANs, Internet circuits, public VPNs, private circuits, wireless networks, remote users and mobile workers. From our UK network operating centre (NOC), near London in the South East, we can remotely manage all voice and data infrastructure equipment and services, including public, hybrid and private cloud solutions.

Since our founding in 1989, we have successfully completed more than 2000 highly commended infrastructure projects for business customers around the world – many of whom we still support through our managed services arm today.

We have also achieved consistent growth in spite of volatile markets, and whilst we continue to operate from our West Sussex headquarters, we now service more than 250 customers across the UK and internationally.

The business challenges faced today

Enterprises today are faced with rapid technological change, which brings new competitive threats, as well as significant opportunities for growth. They need to launch new services, increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs and improve efficiency, all at an unprecedented rate. This requires rapid innovation, which poses considerable challenges.

The SAS solution

To help customers respond to these challenges, we have developed a complete set of services that focus on the delivery and management of converged IP networks, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

Starting with our innovative professional services portfolio, we guide customers through the implementation of large mission-critical WAN projects, providing expert consultancy for the design, provisioning and installation of all network components and devices.

Our professional services are then reinforced by a comprehensive portfolio of managed services, which deliver in-life support and management of customer network infrastructures, applications and services, allowing us to support the entire applications path under one SLA.

Exceptional service delivery

SAS has a track record of extremely high service delivery; we are also ISO 9001 and 27001 accredited, as well as holding major partner accreditations with BT, Microsoft and Cisco.

Investment in our services
Over the last five years alone, we have invested more than £11 million in our managed services division in order to extend and enhance our capabilities. As part of our managed service strategy we have built particular expertise across a range of new technologies that are currently or about to experience very rapid growth. For example we are fully conversant with solutions based around 21CN connectivity, such as Ethernet and VPLS, as well as next generation routing hardware and virtualised applications.

Robust and growing financial position

Over the last three years, despite challenging market conditions for IT service companies, SAS has been consistently profitable, with EBITDA margins averaging 16% and year on year revenues at 23%; the outlook for revenues and EBITDA over the next 3 years is also looking extremely promising.

Strong competitive position

A major differentiator for SAS is our ability to combine agility and quality assured processes with leading-edge technology. Smaller competitors may have leading-edge technology but rarely the processes, whereas for larger competitors, the opposite is generally the case. Ultimately, we believe we have a winning combination that allows us to deliver An Enterprise service at an SME price.

Statistics for SAS

85% of our new managed services business comes via existing customer or partner recommendation
70% of our customers have worked with SAS for five or more years
90% of our managed services customers are willing to act as references on new business opportunities
In an average customer solution, we provide the support and account management for at least 10 different vendor products or services
75% of our customer support issues are resolved on the first call
Only 30% of all our support calls are inbound; pre-emptive support by our helpdesk team accounts for the rest
95% of our managed services customers annually renew or upgrade their maintenance agreement with us

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“I immediately felt comfortable with SAS. The company has a good mix of customers, including several large organisations, some with far more complex requirements than ours, which was particularly important as it demonstrated the company’s ability to support and service our needs. ”

Peter McDermott

IT Director - Hyde Housing Group

“With SAS's managed communications services, we have proactive support in place for the whole of our infrastructure so I can now rest easy and know that if a fault occurs, I’ll be told about it before any users know, and that’s quite important. With SAS’s managed communications services, we have proactive support in place for the whole of our infrastructure so I can now rest easy and know that if a fault occurs, I’ll be told about it before any users know, and that’s quite important. ”

Mike Fitzgerald

CIO - The Carlisle Group

“Working with SAS allows us to manage our own infrastructure without putting the network at risk and without feeling like we’re abusing our supplier relationship, and if we don’t have the skills to do a job in-house, we know there’s always going to be someone at the end of the phone to fix the problem. ”

Felix Clarke-Wills

IT manager - ATP