Interview with Cloud9 Insight

Catch up with Cloud9 Insight, who are sponsoring our Chamber Breakfasts for October, November and December.

Tell me a bit about Cloud9 Insight, how did it start?

Cloud9 Insight was founded 7 years ago to support Microsoft’s UK launch of CRM in the Cloud. We were one of the first ‘born in the cloud’ Microsoft Partners, exclusively deploying Cloud solutions, hence the name Cloud9. I was the General Manager at Sage for the CRM division before that and saw a dramatic increase in the adoption of cloud technologies by clients, but a slow uptake at the time by partners to sell cloud based subscription based licences (SaaS). Projects typically cover sales, marketing and customer service and finance but could cover HR Employee Management and management of projects. Conceptually, anything which has a process and data, alongside associated reporting needs can benefit from a CRM instead of just managing these in Excel.

How has the business grown over the years?

Early on in the company’s life (the first 4 years) I moved to the French Alps and ‘lived the cloud dream’. Working anywhere is one of the great benefits cloud technologies brings, and my team at the time were all home-based consultants.  As Microsoft’s reputation for having a great cloud based CRM solution grew, the business also grew and we were recognised for our client project success and business growth by being awarded Microsoft Dynamics Presidents Club status in 2015. Soon after that, I returned to the UK to accelerate the business growth and recruitment demands in setting up a Brighton based office as I was keen to avoid the London Commute.

What differentiates Cloud9 Insight from other businesses?

Cloud9 are 100% focused on supporting the needs of small businesses. Typically, our clients are experiencing growing pains and want help building a vision for how modern technology will support and accelerate their profitable growth. Cloud9 see all projects as business projects enabled by technology and hire consultants that support clients in defining a vision and executing this to achieve business goals. We are pragmatic in approach and appreciate small businesses don’t have the resources their enterprise competitors may have. Therefore, our projects are designed to minimise upfront costs. What’s more, we offer on-going support that includes tweaks and changes as well as unlimited training to ensure clients’ long-term maturity in using their new solutions.  

What has been your experience with recruiting Apprentices?

Apprentices can be a huge asset to your business, as they are usually ambitious, energetic and from experience, technologically minded.  Sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference so why not give a young person a chance to learn, and give you a little bit more capacity to do those little things that will help you improve customer experiences and accelerate business growth. Hiring apprentices is a low-cost way to increase your capacity and it can have hidden advantages in that it gives a great leadership opportunity to other people in your team that may not have had experience in directing, coaching or managing others. Cloud9 have had remarkable success working with 3AAA and QA who are both based in Brighton. Read our blog championing the value apprentices can bring to your business.

What are the key benefits that Cloud9 Insight offers its customers?

The majority of our clients are looking to use cloud based technology to support streamlining and automation of business processes such as those in sales or customer service. Other common drives for investment in CRM technology are to increase customer experience levels across the business to ensure clients have a consistent experience by coordinating departments such as accounts and sales so they do not contradict each other. Clients that manage the customer lifecycle well will have more loyal customers and higher levels of profits as well as happier employee’s due to fewer dissatisfied customers.

How do you inspire your team?

My team inspire me as they bring a lot of positive energy and have a love of learning that drives us all as a team to be the best we can be and as a result, our customer references excellent. Of course, it helps that we recruit with these desirable traits in mind, and we ensure that leaders in the business adopt a coaching style to support everyone in taking their own initiative and working constructively. I believe in everyone and their potential, setting myself the goal to help them achieve their ambitions as part of a high- performance team which realises everyone’s strengths and grow from our weaknesses.

What are your top 4 tips for success?

Hire great people, fire quickly, measure and celebrate success and put customers at the centre of what you do as a business to ensure everything you do and everyone adds customer value – or it’s a cost to your business.

Do you find it hard to achieve a healthy work/life balance?

That’s a good one! I am a natural workaholic and adore what I do. I have spent most of my life working for American companies where individualism is more the culture, (‘you’re only as good as your last success’), unlike a typical British Culture of collectivism which is more the norm ‘let’s work on that together’. The time zone of working with American boss’s over the years hasn’t helped keep to normal working hours.  Having a young family has grounded me and made me realise the things that really matter and the enjoyment of laughing lots! I’ve learnt that spending time with the people you enjoy working with can make for a happy professional and sociable work-life balance and ensures there is lots of fun time! 

What’s your favourite thing about doing business in Brighton?

There’s a great sense of individuality throughout the city. Typically, people may dress more eccentrically and casually but there is an inspiring atmosphere of creativity and confidence than isn’t usually seen in the big smoke!

Why did you decide to sponsor the Chamber Breakfasts?

Cloud9 work with clients all around the UK and have only been based in Brighton for 2 years. We think this will be a great way to meet more like-minded entrepreneurs and be inspired and hopefully inspire too.

What is your top tip for getting the most out of networking?

Think first about what you can learn from others and use that as a springboard to get to meet new people. As networking is all about building relationships, make sure you plan a follow up to get to know them better. In short, you’ll get the most out of networking if you put in the effort the meet new contacts, gaining credibility from demonstrations of reliability, loyalty and personable interactions.

What else keeps you busy?

Cloud9 recently co-founded a new business called Aluminar Ltd which is a sales and marketing training business. So far Microsoft has been our biggest customer to help them train up partners on new CRM products. I have a passion for learning and knowledge transfer and am keen to support small business owners as well as sales and marketing professionals to become more successful in adopting modern customer- centric approaches.  We are launching our web-based training e-learning platform in the new year and before that are offering tailored sales and marketing training. We have been invited by Microsoft to support their partners and clients globally with their Dynamics learning so that is keeping us busy too!

Thanks to Cloud9 Insight for writing this blog. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk