Page 4 - Merlin Evolve Winter 2020-2021

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Following the success of this we were asked to write a piece for a local business publication on how we had beaten lockdown. We wrote and submitted the piece and it was well received, so much so, it was suggested that it was worthy of an award. Having pondered this for a while it obviously made sense to pursue this as, if an outsider thought it worthy then maybe it was.
We contacted a local company, Pure Awards, and asked them about working with us to submit this achievement into the appropriate categories. Over the following days and weeks we honed our submissions and entered a number of award opportunities both regionally and nationally. Imagine our surprise then when we found out that we had made the short list in two major awards:
The Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Award and the UK Business Tech Award. In both cases we entered the Innovation Category, which seemed the most appropriate considering how innovative we had been to create a product which was not only the first of its kind but also met the need of a whole market sector looking to do something different to stay in business.
We’re ‘blowing our own trumpet’ here but I think we are justified in doing so. We have all gone through very tough times over the last six months I know and many of us have suffered as a result. Back in March we had the prospect of no income and all staff on furlough, however, we rallied and tried to find areas in which
we could deliver solutions. This was achieved with
our ‘Sitebuilder’ platform and the new PYO
Voucher Scheme.
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Staff Member Spotlight - Phil Jones Hello, I’m Phil. My role is Operations Support here at Merlinsoft Ltd.
I’ve been with Merlin now for 15 months and I can truly say they are a great group of people to work with.
My job involves obtaining ISO accreditation, for both 9001 & 27001, which means I look after
both the health & safety and processes side of our day to day operation both physically, and also in
the online world. I am also part of the marketing and sales team which involves networking with potential and existing customers and going out to events and exhibitions (when it’s safe again to do so).
In addition, I help out with customer support, dealing with the day to day calls we receive and passing them onto the relevant person.
In my spare time I like to watch and play darts and also spending time with my amazing wife and two boys (sadly they are not darts fans so I can’t combine the two!). I am also a lifelong Sheffield Wednesday fan.
My favourite food is anything my wife cooks, she really is the best. She has a new cookbook so I am getting lots of new yummy dinners at the minute!
My biggest pet hate has to be bad manners. It’s true what they say: please and thank you really do cost nothing and can make all the difference.
What would I save if my house was on fire? I hope I would never be unlucky enough to experience my house being on fire, but if it did ever happen the first things I would save would of course be my wife and boys and our daft Labrador, Holly. Without my little family I would be totally lost.
Thank you for taking the time to read about me.