Adopting the Modern Workplace | Pugh Computers

Author: Mark Price

Last month, we heard about Pugh’s journey over the past 40 years and how they transitioned through all the various technology eras. This month, we find out how they are adapting to the current environment and adopting the modern workplace, including the very latest cutting-edge hardware and cloud technologies.

Pugh were already using Microsoft Office 365 cloud apps and OneDrive cloud storage and were seeing some great benefits from their availability and flexibility. However, it wasn’t until Virgin made available an affordable dedicated high-speed broadband service that Pugh could truly use the cloud to its full potential. This investment saw a ten-fold increase in Pugh’s broadband speed, and this really opened new opportunities for them to migrate even their most critical business systems to the cloud. Previously, the broadband speed, quality of service, and consequently the performance, simply wouldn’t have been adequate.

Pugh have adopted Microsoft Teams as their hub for collaboration and productivity. Staff use it for chat, virtual meetings with customers and suppliers, collaborating on documents in real time and file sharing. Teams is a cloud application, meaning staff can continue to access it even during the temporary work from home directive. Staff have been provided with Microsoft Surface devices and Jabra headsets to optimise their remote working environments.

However, there was one aspect of the work from home setup that wasn’t quite right, and that was the telephony side of things. Work calls were being redirected to staff mobile phones, and while this was working as a temporary measure, Pugh were after a better, more long-term solution. They had already been making plans to migrate their telephony system to Teams, but the unexpected and sudden move to home working saw their plans for migration accelerated.

Pugh’s implementation of their cloud telephony system is now complete, and everything is running smoothly, however, in the fast-paced world of IT, there is no time to stand still. For Pugh to continue to grow and prosper, it’s vital for them to constantly reassess and develop their processes and infrastructure. Now, their attention immediately turns to their next major projects; migrating their CRM system to the cloud, soon followed by their ERP system. Pugh’s vision of becoming a true modern workplace is quickly becoming a reality.

Dylan Davies

Pugh Computers Ltd Sales & Operations Director

I started off at Pugh back in 2001 as a Sales Administrator, progressing to Assistant Sales Director and finally to my current role as Sales & Operations Director. As I approach 20 years at Pugh, it’s good to look back and reflect on how much my role and the company’s processes have developed over these years.

Many of our typical day-to-day sales tasks are manual in nature and given how crucial sales are to Pugh, attention to detail is key, with double and triple checking details a regular occurrence. Adopting these new modern workplace cloud systems has enabled us to automate a lot of the repetitive manual tasks that were taking up so much time. This has allowed me to refocus my efforts on other sales and operations areas, such as improved management of the sales pipeline, achieving sales and vendor targets and developing effective objectives to drive key results (OKR’s) and our sales strategies.

Outside of work, as well as helping on the family farm, I am an active member of the local community, taking pride in my roles as School Governor for Ysgol Gynradd Llangwyryfon and Community Councillor. Having been born and raised just down the road from the Pugh office, I am very grateful to have been given the chance to stay and work locally. I therefore like to give as much back to the local community whenever I can, including creating quality career opportunities.

This article was first published by EGO Magazine June 2020. 

The EGO® in “Aberystwyth & Aberaeron EGO®” stands for Economic Growth Opportunity and we believe that the magazine helps stimulate economic growth in both towns and their surrounding areas by encouraging people to spend their money locally. We also hope our name suggests that Aberystwyth and Aberaeron should have more of an ego and shout a lot louder about what they have to offer! At the EGO® we believe that Aberystwyth and Aberaeron punch well above their weight, and should be proud of doing so. 

Useful Links

EGO December 2020 – Pugh’s Worldwide Partners

EGO November 2020 – Technical Team, Elfed Jenkins and Mark Price

EGO October 2020 – Relationship Director, Barry Lewis and Sales Team

EGO August 2020 – Marketing Team, Chris Jones and Jamie Owen

EGO July 2020 – Technical Director, Eifion Evans

EGO June 2020 – Sales and Operations Director, Dylan Davies

EGO May 2020 – Managing Director, Jeffrey Pugh