AVN: Nice to meet you Mike (MN) and Chris (CV). Can you tell me a little bit about your background before we talk about the business?
MN: I’ve been in and around the AV Industry for over 30 years. In 1991 my career started as a service engineer at Reflex Ltd. Servicing Electrohome and BARCO projectors was my bread and butter, traveling to sites around the UK. Before long I was offered the Service Manager role, with a brief to monetise our service offering. Creating Maintenance contracts and extended warranty was my strength and, have a firm belief in doing the right thing right, first time every time. I learnt with and from some of the best in the business enjoying 10 years with Reflex. Following that, I have run operations for few companies including delivering AV on the largest superyacht built in the Netherlands. Following a spell at PSCO, I joined Chris at Electrosonic, building the service delivery side of the business delivering to banks, legal companies, and well-established names across the City of London and further afield.
CB: I am, likewise, a veteran of AV and my journey started back in 1986 in a local authority Cinema as a projectionist, then moving to London for 10 years in the MOD, starting as a projectionist, with the end of film transitioning to AV Technician covering 30+ sites with a 3-man team. I finished working in a Video Production unit as an operator/broadcast engineer. On leaving the MOD, I spent a couple of years at WPP in broadcast engineering, leaving to work as an AV Engineer at the SI DRV. We initially provided onsite engineering and maintenance support to a couple of large canary wharf finance houses, starting with a staff of 3 and rapidly expanding our services, client base, and headcount globally to 80 plus. DRV was acquired by Electrosonic, where my focus was on the onsite support delivery teams, expanding to over 50 contracts and staff in excess of 160 globally. Following lockdown, and after leaving ES after a combined 18 years, I then spent a brief time with Snelling Business Systems managing their maintenance contracts and clients. After leaving, Mike and I started
Unified-Support, and the rest is history.
AVN: Your business is called Unified Support and so what is the background to Unified Support and what do you do?
CB: Service, support, and client focus is in my blood, and I have had the privilege to see and understand how this works from both SI, client, and delivery personnel perspectives. Along the way, I have picked up my ITIL cert, CTS, CTS-I, photographic, broadcast, and electronic qualifications and have had membership in various professional bodies. I’ve even had the chance to give back to the industry helping in the creation of the AV foundation degree.
MN: Both Chris and I have delivered service and projects to massive organisations taking clear briefs and delivering accurately to client specifications. We believe in clients making the most out of their purchases, so we provide services to help clients achieve this, be it staff, warranty services, installation, and particularly ongoing maintenance. We have been providing recruitment services to major clients over the last 18 months and our experience in all things delivery makes us a firm favourite for finding qualified, experienced, and suitable staff.
CB: That’s right, there was never a shortage of “Recruiters” e-mailing us piles of CVs, but their total lack of knowledge around the industry and specifically the “Technical” nature of the roles and the personalities required. To deliver the specifics to clients effectively meant wasting a huge amount of our time wading through CVs that were of absolutely no use to us. We realised that there was a massive opportunity to create a more “Qualified/Technical” Recruitment company for the AV & IT Industry, focussed on end user requirements.
AVN: How long has Unified Support been going then?
MN: We started in January of 2021. The main focus of the AV Industry is on hardware sales, and we saw the opportunity for supplying quality services that allow companies to expand and contract to support their workload. Soon enough people started asking us to find staff for both permanent and contract opportunities; to provide support for specific projects; to deliver whole projects and even ongoing manufacturer warranty services. The reason people came to us was because of our experience in delivering services. Look around the industry: See how many recruiters have practical experience in delivering onsite services, service engineering and installations?
AVN: There are lots of “Recruitment Companies” operating in the AV and IT markets – what makes Unified Support different?
CB: The main differences are, firstly, that we personally qualify all our candidates, not just in terms of their paper qualifications, but their “on site” experience. Because we have run both teams and projects, on behalf of clients and as SI/outsourced providers we know exactly what skills are required for the particular client. For installers there are huge experience and skill differences between installing a large LED wall, to simply whacking a TV on the wall with a Soundbar. This influences the cost and skills required for each project. Supplying onsite staff and support requirements, we understand both the technology and end client environments and so, we can perfectly match the skill sets to the individual project or role and the client’s budget.
MN: We differentiated ourselves on the basis of skills and price. Having worked with the people and the clients who are looking for staff, we are qualified to give real life advice based on experience. Our clients are talking a language we understand and have experienced. There is a particular difference for an Onsite technician who operates in a corporate or a legal environment and we know that. The same applies to Installation, Project managers, and Field Service staff. That means our clients get fully experienced and qualified candidates quickly. We also saw in our previous experience that the rates charged by recruitment companies were huge. Supporting big back-office machines and staff along with expensive offices. We keep or overheads to a minimum, passing that benefit directly to our clients.
AVN: What benefit does this differentiation offer the AV & IT Industry?
CB: The biggest benefits come in the form of saving an awful lot of time and money. With Unified Support, we have a large pool of technically qualified wide ranging AV specialists on our books. We know a vast proportion of them personally and when we do not, we get to know them. So, we save a huge amount of time matching the candidates perfectly to the role, project, or client. Our fees are also significantly less than those of a “normal recruiter” and so put those two factors together and there is a massive financial benefit to the Industry.
NM: I feel the other key factor is the ability for the industry to expand and contract when required. For integrators to be most effective on both service delivery and installation, it is vital to have the chance to call on resource as when they need it and not to be overburdened with unnecessary overheads for the rest of the time. This is where we step in to assist with contract staff over flexible periods from a few days to a few months. This removes the headache of searching for budget outside of projects to justify a hire. It’s about flexibility of thinking alongside the flexibility of staffing.
AVN: How do you ensure the reliability and safety of the candidates you put forward for these short and longer-term projects?
CB: As we like to know all our candidates personally, we are able to vouch for them and to expand on their experience and personalities above what is printed on their CV. Between us we have worked with many of them on previous projects or supporting different clients ourselves. However, all our staff are also certified to meet our clients’ needs.
AVN: Do you only supply staff into the UK or outside as well?
MN: Our business started with sole focus in the UK, but we recognise the reach of clients across Europe. As we expand, we are using our experience of delivering across Europe and even within the US to help our clients as required.
AVN: There are plenty of other companies “sub-contracting” in the AV Space, and so what makes Unified Support different to those other companies?
CB: The biggest difference is that we don’t deal with End Users directly. All the other companies we know in this industry who sub-contract, also deal with End Users. Therefore, there is always that concern that the sub-contractor could end up taking an End User direct. With Unified Support, you simply don’t have that concern.
AVN: If any of our readers want to know more about your services, how do they contact you?
MN: We have a freephone number 0800 107 4527 which is manned Monday-Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm UK time or simply contact us directly on info@unified-support.co.uk There is more information on what we do and some of the services we offer on our website https://unified-support.co.uk/. We are experienced and flexible to easily expand and contract to meet most clients’ needs.
AVN: What about any installers or AV professionals out there who are looking for work?
CB: We have expanded quickly the past 2-3 years and so definitely contact us whatever your level of AV experience or specialism if you are looking for either a short-term or long-term role. We have a number of full-time vacancies available right now and also some shorter-term projects.
AVN: Great to speak to you both and understand more about this fascinating business.
MN & CB: Many thanks!
