At Joe Davies, technology sits at the heart of the business. As a long-established importer of giftware and distributor to independent retailers across the UK, the company relies on its IT infrastructure to keep everything moving efficiently. After struggling with inconsistent support and slow response times from previous providers, Joe Davies needed a partner it could trust. In this case study, the team explains how working with Apex brought the consistency, reliability and peace of mind they had been missing.
Paul Hooker (Managing Director at Joe Davies)
Joe Davies is a importer of giftware and a distributor to the independent retail trades throughout the UK. We've been going for about 100 years and we're now in our third year as 100% employee owned business. Whilst our business is simple, we buy and sell product, it's enabled by our IT infrastructure. Everything in our business is connected so it needs to function like a well oiled machine. Technology moves so quickly these days and our old supplier was slow to react. Getting anything implemented was always a pain point for our business.
Neil Halliday (IT Director at Joe Davies)
The IT support was split between a service provider and a couple of external contractors and what that actually meant for us is that we had no consistency in the support that we were having and it usually took days and days for a simple query to be resolved. As a growing business, Joe Davies had IT requirements that were revolving and we needed a partner that would actually work with us to achieve what we wanted to achieve and make the journey with us.
Paul Hooker
I think the biggest thing for us moving to Apex was the Peace of Mind. You need a consistent, reliable supplier and Apex fill that in space for us. Without their support, we wouldn't be anywhere close to achieving what we want to achieve with our IT objectives.
Neil Halliday
Daryl and the team absolutely smashed it out of the park for us. We couldn't be more happy with the way that everything went and that allowed us to then take a step back and let Apex get on with it. It was just brilliant.
Paul Hooker
Simply, Apex is one of our most trusted suppliers. Without their support, we wouldn't be able to function as we do. I get to go home at night, sleep comfortably and know the business is in safe hands.
Neil Halliday
To give a a great example, just before Christmas, one of our busiest times, we actually had a server outage. I was on the phone with the support team past midnight while the server was rebuilt fixed and it was just a fantastic experience. The team are fantastic to work with and always there when we need them, whether that's via e-mail, at the end of the phone or even in the middle of the night.
Paul Hooker
So, if you're looking for a supplier that can deliver consistency, great service and understand your business, then Apex is a great solution.