We’re growing – and so is our service management team

As we reported in our last blog, Datum Datacentres is expanding, and because excellent client service has always been at the heart of everything we do, we’ve increased the size of the client management team too. This client service expansion reflects what our clients can expect from us – complete commitment to developing smooth, productive and fruitful client and partner relationships.

As Datum expands, so should our service management provision -  our pervasive service culture (the ‘Datum difference’) is an integral part of our ethos and is at the core of what differentiates Datum from other colo providers.

Until the beginning of 2022, our service management function was delivered by Melissa Munday who became Datum’s Client Service Manager in January 2020 (and is now heading up the service management team). To ensure that we can offer the same high levels of client service to our growing client base, Aanisa Allali-Williams has now joined the service management team as Datum’s new Client Service Manager. Aanisa had already been supporting Melissa in some aspects of service management and felt that client service was something she was strongly drawn to, so she jumped at the opportunity to join Melissa on the service management team on a permanent basis:

I was keen to move over to service management because Datum has a reputation for delivering excellent client service and the role of Client Service Manager is an integral part of that. I was particularly drawn to the role because it allows for continued professional development – Datum focuses heavily on ongoing training, something that’s imperative in this role to ensure the delivery of top quality service to our clients. I am excited about putting the skills, knowledge and training from the past two years into practice.

On the face of it, very little will change, except that that there will be more service management resource to go around. Aanisa will generally be the first point of contact and will be more involved in dealing with queries and service reviews, so our clients will ‘see’ more of her.

In the words of Melissa Munday:

Our top priority is to continue offering excellent service as our business grows. As we grow, our clients should feel confident that they will receive the same level of client service they have become accustomed to. We pride ourselves on our service levels, and we go out of our way to be transparent and open, so having Aanisa on board means that our service management capacity can grow in line with our ongoing expansion.

Our service management team is central to our service-enhanced colocation provision; a colocation solution that is uniquely aligned to the requirements of individual clients. These bespoke solutions mean that each client has different requirements, so Melissa and Aanisa will collaborate with clients and partners to meet these needs through a whole host of service management activities:

• Onboarding clients and partners to ensure that everything is in place and that their interactions with Datum are positive and productive
• Working alongside the operations team in service delivery to ensure that all deadlines are met, feeding back any relevant information to clients, and handling any issues as they arise
• Managing new client relationships. Managing contract information, welcome packs and all the documentation required to make the ongoing relationship with Datum a smooth one
• Being the first point of contact for all clients and providing support in all its forms. This includes:
  • accountability for all services delivered to clients (Datum’s colo and services provided by third party providers)
  • client communication (such as pre-planned maintenance and general service updates)
  • creation and delivery of monthly service review reports and presenting these in regular service review meetings
  • approving all client charges and monitoring client overages
  • managing the administration of contract renewals
  • involvement on the crisis management team in the event of any major incidents
  • working with the data centre manager on prioritising engineer resources

If you think that moving your IT estate and workloads to a successful and growing service-based colocation data centre is the right thing for your business, please get in touch or arrange a tour of our Farnborough facility.