Sony’s UK history began in 1968 when Sony UK was founded in London.  Six years later Sony became the first major Japanese company to open a factory in the UK.

Today there are two factories, both in Wales, at Bridgend and Pencoed, which between them manufacture broadcast cameras, television sets and components for the UK and export to other countries around the world.

Sony was awarded the prestigious Queens Award for Export on four occasions in the 80s and 90s.

Today Sony UK employs around 4,500 people in functions including Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing.

Since the first Dell PC was introduced in 1986, Dell has continued to shape the industry, breaking new ground and pioneering critical developments in home, small business and enterprise computing. Dell’s R&D efforts now span the globe, driven by some of the industry’s foremost product designers and engineers. At the core of Dell’s innovation approach, however, remains an unwavering commitment to delivering new and better solutions that directly address customer needs.

Fujitsu in the UK is a leading provider of IT systems, services and products, employing 14,000 people with an annual revenue of £2 billion. They help their customers to reduce costs, adapt to change and improve operational efficiencies through the use of IT. This includes consulting, applications, systems integration, managed services and product solutions that address real business problems for customers in the private and public sectors including retail, financial services, telecoms, government, defence and consumer sectors.

Fujitsu in the UK is part of the global Fujitsu Group, delivering IT-based business solutions to customers in 70 countries through a workforce of 175,000 employees. Their regional structure enables customers to share in best-practice approaches, knowledge and re-use from around the world whilst local operations ensure that solutions are delivered in line with local customer requirements.

A leased line is a symmetric connection connecting two or more locations. It is sometimes known as a ‘Private Circuit’ or ‘Data Line’ in the UK. Unlike traditional phone lines it does not have a telephone number, but rather each end of the leased line being permanently inter-connected to the other. Leased lines can be used for transit of Internet services, traditional data or telephone calls (VoIP).

Typically, leased lines are used by businesses to connect geographically distant offices. Unlike dial-up connections, a leased line is always active with the fee for the connection being at fixed monthly rate, therefore allowing a business to fix its costs and prepare accurate future budgets. The main factors affecting the monthly fee are distance between end points and the speed (bandwidth) of the leased line. Because the connection is for the sole use of the subscribing business a leased line can be delivered with an a guaranteed service level agreement as apposed to other types of connectivity, such as ADSL, which don’t offer this assured level of quality.

We have a range of diverse leased line products, the majority of which can not be matched with regard to price and service. Please click here to check availability and pricing.

Landlines are a pre-requisite for most businesses and attract costs associated with their line rental and usage in relation to the volume of telephone calls made to the outside world.

You can transfer your existing telephone lines and associated phone numbers to Digital Exchange and benefit from guaranteed cost savings without comprising service. Transferring your lines is quick, easy and completely free of charge, and during the transition process there is no disruption of service as all work is done at “network level” meaning no physical changes are needed to your telephone system.

Once transferred you will receive your regular bills from Digital, which will include all line rentals and call usage charges, and as part of our service commitment we will evaluate your call profile to ensure you are always kept on the most cost effective tariff.

All that’s required to provide a no obligation quotation is for you to provide copies of your existing telephone bills, following which we will perform the necessary analysis and revert back with an accurate proposal. Please send in your bills via fax to 0114 221 0768 or email via sales@thedigitalgroup.co.uk. Alternatively if you have any questions about this service and would like more information please call us on 0114 221 2000.

Firstly, the term VoIP stands for Voice over Internet protocol, and is a technology that eliminates the need for separate voice and data networks by converging all IP traffic into one network. Both voice and data traffic can be transmitted over a common IP network to provide companies with fully integrated communications.

Adopting VoIP can offer a variety of benefits such as improved communication between offices and remote locations, the ability to introduce new network applications, whilst making significant cost savings through more effective use of your company’s network.

An IP-based business telephone system is appropriate if you wish to network multiple offices together, however, the technology doesn’t necessarily mean that multiple telephone systems are required in each location as it’s possible to have a centrally-based system that controls telephone handsets throughout your organisation’s estate. The result of this is a single solution that allows users to operate as though they were all located in the same office.

VoIP also allows remote workers to connect to the company’s core telephone system as if they were in the office, and is therefore a valuable tool for individuals who don’t have a static office location or are constantly on the move.

There are many other benefits of VoIP, and the alternate ways in which it can be designed are equally comprehensive. To learn more about the technology please call us on 0114 221 2000 or send an email to sales@thedigitalgroup.co.uk.

Digital Exchange is delighted to announce the attainment of Microsoft Gold Partner accreditation.

As of October 2009 we progressed our accredited status with Microsoft from Certified Partner to Gold Partner, a status that has taken months of effort and commitment to obtain.

Microsoft do not hand out Gold Partner status to all, and as a result we have had to prove without doubt our ability to consistently and competently consult, design, deploy and support technically complex networked IT solutions to business in varying sectors.

We are absolutely delighted to finally achieve this accolade which cements our ongoing relationship with Microsoft whilst also confirming to our customers our ability to deliver a broad ranging IT service.

Swyx, a market-leading vendor of Unified Communications has been selected by Raleys Solicitors to replace a Centrex-based outsourced telephone system. The new software IP based Swyxware solution that will be supplied and installed by Digital Exchange, means that Raleys can integrate ‘voice’ in to its IT infrastructure and make significant annual cost savings.

Raleys, based in Barnsley is one of the region’s largest legal firms. For the last 7 years the firm have relied on an outsourced managed telephony solution, however the running costs were very high, and in total the firm were incurring fees of up to £64,000 per year. The company reviewed a large number of solutions including Panasonic, Samsung and Cisco but none of these gave the flexibility and cost savings they were looking for.

Raleys’ Chief Technology Officer Richard Hilton says: “Finally Digital Exchange (Yorkshire) Ltd and Swyx Silver Partner recommended SwyxWare which ticked all the boxes. It has a user friendly web interface that was easy to understand and because is it software and is IP based we had the additional advantages of an affordable licence module and the ability to integrate into our other IT systems”.

“Using Swyx’s functionality, it is possible to route calls dependant on someone’s diary movements and secretaries now have the ability to pick up group calls so we can reduce the number of times the phone rings before the caller can speak to someone. Therefore if a customer calls a direct number to one of the partners but they are unavailable, then a secretary can pick up the call instead.”

Partners within the firm are using SwyxMobile so that they have all the same benefits and functionality remotely as they would in the office. The Swyx solution fits well with the company’s virtualised IT infrastructure. As Swyx is a software application it can be managed centrally along with the rest of the IT.

WinScribe welcomes Digital Exchange as its newest authorised sales partner enabling the delivery and fulfilment of Digital Dictation-based solutions and service. “Digital Exchange offers high standards of IT products and services and we are pleased to be included in their Professional Solutions portfolio. We are confident that this new partnership will generate opportunities for both companies” says Philip Vian, Chief Executive Officer, WinScribe Europe.

Digital Exchange (Yorkshire) Ltd has diversified their already extensive portfolio of telecommunications and I.T products and services via the addition of dictation-based solutions, and in doing so has strengthened their team by recruiting two seasoned dictation professionals. Andrew Roberts has been appointed UK Account Manager, whilst David Parsons joins Digital as Field Engineer which goes to further strengthen Digital’s technical resource. This latest development adds 25 years of collective experience from the dictation industry, therefore enabling Digital Exchange to develop the sales and service of said solutions to new and existing clients throughout the UK.

Dictation-based products and services have traditionally been utilised by organisations within the legal and medical sectors via stand-alone products that sit on customer premises. However, as the technology continues to evolve so does its target market, meaning that web and mobile-based dictation solutions are being adopted by new sectors such as surveying and professional services.

Of this development, Nick Cotton of Digital Exchange commented “Andrew and David’s knowledge of this area of technology is second-to-none and we are currently working on servicing existing client accounts, whilst developing future opportunities with dictation-based systems that relate to conference and evidential recording. These are exciting times for Digital what with this and the addition of a strong voice & data connectivity offering we have a unique proposition for throughout the Sheffield area”.