Intouch Advance - Celebrating 10 Years Meeting the Mobile Communications Needs of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance
Delivering 80% savings, providing products and services at cost and going beyond the call of duty in support of one of Yorkshire’s most important charities
Saltaire, 9 November, 2015 – Yorkshire's leading business telecoms provider, Intouch Advance, today celebrates the 10th anniversary of its longstanding relationship supplying the mobile communications and data requirements for one of Yorkshire’s most essential charities, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA).
The rapid response air emergency service relies on Intouch Advance for the provision of 4G wireless products, as well as mobile voice and data services delivering superfast broadband capabilities for its aircrew, ground staff and fundraising team.
Intouch Advance first began supplying YAA’s mobile communications on 9th November 2005, when it provided the charity with 17 mobile connections. Since then, with technology changing rapidly, the telecoms experts have identified new solutions, products and services to support the YAA’s own changing operational needs, and kept costs down by taking advantage of better tariffs. Today, Intouch Advance provides the YAA with 32 mobile voice and 16 mobile data connections to suit their demanding needs along with the range of hardware devices.
Adapting to change over this period, Intouch Advance helped move the YAA from the use of BlackBerry handsets to Windows Phones and iPhones, which complement the YAA’s office IT environment. The telecoms providers have also moved the charity from 3G to 4G services to handle the ever-increasing data needs of the air ambulance. This has included the move from using 3G dongles to 4G MiFi devices and tablets and the YAA now experiences, as a result, major bandwidth and data speed improvements.
Bruce Burns, Vice Chairman of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said of this 10-year anniversary, “Intouch Advance is an official member of the YAA’s Business Supporters Network and is named on our Roll of Honour. That’s not surprising, considering this 10-year milestone. During our relationship, not only have they delivered us products and services at cost price, but they’ve also provided expertise in telecommunications that has helped reduce our mobile communications costs even further over that period by around an incredible 80%!
“And their support doesn’t end there,” Burns continued. “Intouch Advance also helps the charity through supporting various fundraising events. That’s crucial to us, because such activities play a big part in keeping both our helicopters in the air; £12,000 per day, equivalent to £4.4 million per year, is what it costs to keep both YAA aircraft flying. And considering we’ll be replacing one of our older aircraft with a new one in September next year – that’s an expensive development for which donations are absolutely vital!”
Throughout the ten-year relationship, Intouch Advance has conducted quarterly audits, checking YAA’s ongoing costs are correct and highlighting any avoidable increases that may have arisen, so that further savings could be made along the way. Overcharges from the network have, occasionally, been identified during these audits and these have been reclaimed by the company on YAA’s behalf.
Bruce Burns again, “The benefits of working with Intouch Advance have been enormous to us. In addition to cost savings, their attention to detail and customer service have been first class. From time to time, we actually make benchmark checks against other providers and suppliers and, as yet, Intouch Advance has always been ahead of the game.”
Simon Pollard, CEO Intouch Advance, said, “For 10 years we’ve been supplying the YAA with a range of mobile communications products and services that meet their requirements and are at cost, making no profit from the charity and helping to keep a tight rein on their telecoms spend via monthly audits.
“The charity provide a vital service to Yorkshire and we want to do our bit by providing a vital service for them. We look forward to offering our full and ongoing support to YAA for a second decade and beyond!”
