Member news: Managed Service Providers Network ROI become employee owned

EOA member Network ROI has become employee owned – one of the UK’s first fully employee-owned Managed Service Providers.

Major shareholder and Managing Director, Sean Elliot has signed over ownership of the business he formed in 2003 to all 32 employees.

Sean will remain as Managing Director and will continue working with and developing the leadership team to guide Network ROI towards “a prosperous and exciting future as an employee-owned business”.

Sean said: “In the technology industry, it is common for small and medium-sized companies with the regional expertise to be bought by larger organisations and then those operations are streamlined which means employees and also the quality of service is not protected for the future.

“I felt that employee ownership would allow the business to continue to offer continued high-quality service to a growing list of satisfied clients, which was at the top of the agenda when I was looking to find the best way to achieve a phased and planned exit from the business over a period of time.”

The company which has been run with values and culture that lend themselves to the transition to employee ownership.

Senior Projects Engineer, Alastair Hoey, who started work at Network ROI in 2011 as a help-desk engineer and is now responsible for delivering cutting-edge technology to more than 100 growing businesses throughout the UK, knows first-hand how important the employee-ownership model and the specific values of the company have been to his flourishing career.

He said: “I am passionate about technology, but I also have a firm grasp of the reason we are in business – to make life with technology easier for our valued clients.

“We don’t provide excellent customer service as a tick-box exercise, or to make us feel better about ourselves, we care about the outcomes of our actions and do everything we can to help our clients run efficient and profitable organisations.

“Employee ownership empowers the team at Network ROI to take ownership of technology problems on behalf of the people we are supporting.”

Deb Oxley, CEO of the EOA, said: “We congratulate Network ROI on its transition to employee ownership and it’s great to see them working with our members RM2 and Co-ownership Solutions to achieve this.

“The move to employee ownership will secure the future of the business, its employees and its contribution in the regions in which it bases itself, for many years to come.”