With my office based colleague taking a well deserved two week break beginning this Friday, this week will be my last visiting sites until late March. I decided I would complete summer and September planning for as many sites in the midlands area as possible, so I meandered through Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Nottingham and Leicester. Monday morning I descended upon Wolverhampton, and a site just up the road from fortress Molineux. Unfortunately, being an avid Sheffield Wednesday supporter I have to settle for the occasional drive by of such fantastic stadia.

Hi, on the 18th of March ask4 will be raising funds for comic relief by having a work pyjama day. Everyone in the office will be wearing their best PJ’s all day. We will be posting photos throughout the day here on Facebook. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause please follow this link http://s.hrtn.me/1t you can sponsor us as a team or sponsor an individual for the best set of PJ’s on the day!! Thanks

After a nice relaxing weekend my Monday began like the majority of other Monday mornings, cruising down the M1 southbound in the still nameless car, with my Starbucks latte perched imperially in the cup holder, like a newly crowned monarch settling into the throne. The impending weeks are centered on meeting with clients and planning for the September intake, so my first stop of the week took me into the Midlands. Over the last few years ask4 has become more and more prominent in the area and we now provide broadband to over 40 sites in the Midlands region, which will be increasing with the addition of The Cube in Loughborough in the upcoming weeks.

This week has been slightly different to my previous trips, as I was supplied with a travelling companion, Client Relations Manager, Chris Ellis. With ask4 recently signing a contract to supply broadband to a new American owned client, the client relations team visited the capital to introduce ourselves and discuss relevant operational procedures. The client currently has two sites in London, Spitalfields (which is the tallest student accommodation in the world with 33 floors) and Kings Cross, with another development in Notting Hill planned for the very near future. It’s proving to be an extremely exciting time as both companies are market leaders in their respective industries, and are prospering in the current climate.

Another purpose of our visit was to host a stand at a student fair so we could engage with current students and advertise the incredible new packages they will have access to, with this in mind we utilised the extra space in Chris’s car to store the entirety of our luggage.

ask4 are pleased to announce the appointment of Oliver Riddle as Business Development Director. Oliver recently came to ask4 as Business Development Director to kick start ask4′s partnership with the South Yorkshire Digital Region and was tasked with adding student homes across the Sheffield area to ask4′s VDSL service; Oliver stated; “Once properties are enabled, students will have immediate access to super-fast broadband from the start of their house contract period. No provisioning delay, calls to suppliers or checks with landlords. Like gas, phone and electricity, this utility will be available from day one”.

ask4 has a desire to expand further into the residential market on the back of our highly regarded internet services in halls of residences. The South Yorkshire Digital Region offers the perfect platform in which to do this and allows ask4 to fulfill the requests of student landlords within Sheffield for a fast managed internet service for their properties.

Oliver, originally from Sheffield, was educated at Northumbria University. In addition to working in telecommunications in London for 12 years, he most recently held a position as Sales Manager for the North of England for ANT Telecom, who like ask4, provide converged Telecoms’ solutions.

After another fun filled weekend on the Lemsip Max Strength, my severe bout of Man Flu was beginning to dissipate. One of the known side effects of the disease is hitting the snooze button until it eventually submits and refrains from bothering you anymore. Most things get the hint after a couple of punches, but the snooze facility is the personification of irritating and persistent. I do realize my alarm clock is not a person, however, I regularly hurl verbal abuse at her, so to keep me sane, she is a person (please note how I refer to the alarm clock as a she!) As I digress, with my health improving I was feeling spritely, I leapt out of my slumber-some state, politely asked Margaret to leave me alone before switching her off and preparing for my trip up north.