Driving change at razorblue: Interview with Mark Wilkinson
That’s no small task. Economic shifts, evolving technology, and the changing needs of clients all demand constant adaptation. But that’s exactly what razorblue does – leading the way as part of The Northern Echo’s Impact campaign and ensuring businesses across the region can thrive in an increasingly complex digital world.
razorblue isn’t just responding to change, it’s driving it. From humble beginnings as a small IT provider to a trusted technology partner, the company has grown alongside its clients, providing proactive IT management, 24/7 support, and tailored solutions that prevent issues before they arise.
As the North East moves forward at pace, razorblue is a pacesetter, continuously evolving its services to keep businesses secure, agile, and always ahead of the curve.
Mark obviously sees something very special in this company, having stayed there for more than 12 years, rising through seven different positions, playing an increasingly influential role each time.
Now it is time for him to lead a new phase for razorblue, as their flagship IT services grow to challenge the best in the market.
Mark tells me: ‘What prompted us to enhance our service offerings is the growth of our customers, and our business. Many of our longstanding clients have been with us since the very beginning, giving us the unique ability to track how our service offerings have evolved over the years, even without an official product launch.
‘This highlighted the pace at which we’ve progressed. We started in 2006 as a break-fix, reactive IT provider, and today we are a strategic IT partner, delivering proactive solutions across IT support, data, cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, and IT strategy – the list goes on.
‘Alongside this, our team has grown significantly, with solutions architects operating at the highest level of IT, a dedicated internal cybersecurity division, a 24-hour service desk, and much more.
‘Our goal is to set the benchmark for IT excellence in the North East, and while we may be a little biased, we believe we’re achieving exactly that.
‘At razorblue, we’ve gone to our clients for their feedback and have made significant investments to enhance and expand our service and technology offerings.
‘We spent a long time evaluating the evolving and future needs of the market. Businesses today require not just responsive support, but also strategic guidance from a modern IT partner.
‘The culmination of all that hard work is that we are proud to introduce Complete and Complete 24.7 – a feature-rich, future-ready service designed to meet the demands of modern businesses – and still at a competitive price point.
‘We need to make sure our customers are fit for the future and that means offering a complete package in partnership with them and we also need to be confident that we will come out on top under the closest scrutiny of what we offer and what we charge.
‘We’re repositioning, relaunching and revitalising what we do.’
As well as adding to the razorblue mix, a lot of effort is going into simplifying package structures so that there is clarity from the first day of a new relationship. This is a company confident enough in its own skills to open the books and stand behind every element on which they have worked so hard.
‘You’ve got to be agile in this business, tech is changing, and customers are changing, so you’ve got to respond to that. No business across the whole North East can just offer the same thing and presume it will keep being enough.
‘With so many service options needed to perfectly fit every client, different offerings have evolved over the years. We want to simplify that and lead with our Complete IT solutions – Complete and Complete 24.7,’ said Mark.
‘Alongside these, we also offer Complete Security, which covers all of our clients’ cybersecurity prevention and detection needs, ensuring they have both comprehensive IT support and robust security protection.
‘The journey and the messaging here is around change – just as it is across the region. Our first customers – and the businesses who we might consider our rivals – wouldn’t recognise us from 20 years ago, and we want that to keep happening as part of a continuous evolution of the brand we are so proud of.
‘We have dedicated account managers, problem management teams, major incident managers and even a head of customer experience to make sure what our clients find here is exceptional.
‘We’ve also brought in dedicated solution architects, who can be personally assigned to your account. All of that comes at a cost to us – but it brings a lot of value for the customer.’
Their own technology is central to their offering, ensuring the best tools and solutions are continually invested in to deliver the strongest results. That’s simple logic for razorblue.’
Already working with some of the UK’s biggest brands, including Sports Direct, Total Fitness, Stiller, and Nadine Merabi, razorblue continues to enhance IT processes by developing systems that provide real-time visibility, security, and control – all within a single management platform that allows customers to have their own access.
With a commitment to innovation and service excellence, razorblue is driving forward IT solutions that elevate customer performance and response times to the highest standards.
‘The other big advance our customers benefit from is that we developed our own customer-built ERP, which sits behind our Client Supportal. This gives us full control, and plays a crucial role in managing tickets, service desk operations, project management, and more, giving our team the flexibility to focus on delivering the best possible service.
‘Through the Client Supportal, customers can raise tickets, manage their own licenses, invoicing, and users if they choose to. Very soon, they’ll also be able to track engineers in real time as they head to their site and use live chat for direct support.
‘We have a dedicated development team continuously improving this system, ensuring our systems evolve in line with our clients’ needs.
‘But we know we always have to do more, because IT is always changing, and so are our customers!
‘By working closely with them from the earliest stages of their projects, we help reduce unexpected costs and ensure smoother transitions. Whether they’re moving offices, investing in new applications, or upgrading hardware, we’re there to provide guidance and a clear roadmap, helping them navigate an increasingly complex IT landscape with confidence.
Mark knows that in business, what is completed today may well need to change tomorrow to reflect whatever the market is calling for. In the last 12 months alone, advances on the service side speak volumes for the investment they are making.
And it is very much a team effort as innovations follow conversations between all the skillsets razorblue has across different departments, where every team member will turn their chairs together and answer the question ‘What are we going to do to make us unique?’
He says: ‘The whole team will work together to track key metrics very closely – not only the financials and a commercial point of view but also asking what the market feel like out there so we know what we can do next.
‘Then each time we win new business we will analyse the feedback and push that back into our own system so that we are learning all the time.
‘That collaborative approach also means we don’t delay. We meet every week to catch up and implement changes that keep the service and culture of razorblue as strong as possible, as well as being an enjoyable place to work.
‘When our people feel valued, they are proud about what they’re working on, and they have confidence in it and they sell it well and it performs well for the business.
‘I’ve been here 13 years now and was the ninth employee when turnover was a fraction of today’s. For me, that’s just a really simple sign that we should keep doing what we’re doing because we’re clearly doing something really well.’
Like many businesses in the region, Artificial Intelligence has become one of the newest additions to the team. As the team grows, Mark and CEO Dan Kitchen ensure it is built with the best talent and expertise.
If a customer is leaving a reply to a ticket over the phone and perhaps sounds upset, the AI the company has in place reads that sentiment by the way it was put across and then alerts the team leaders that this customer was concerned. That then gives them a starting point when the call is picked up – another enhancement to the customer’s experience.
While AI is a shared advance among many businesses, the economy is a shared challenge, says Mark.
‘It is not where any of us want it right now. I’m very happy with where razorblue is today, but not as happy as I would be if we had a better economy which enables businesses to thrive.
‘I think what we’ve noticed is some customers are holding on because there was the change of government and they were understandably nervous about what that would mean, and then there was the budget which is enough to make most people nervous.
‘Now we know that businesses are going to be hit with the NI and minimum wage increase. So each decision a business makes may not be as free-flowing as it once was, and I think we’re going to see the effects of this budget for years to come.
‘But we have been bold and have decided that we can still invest to gain more of a share of the market and help more businesses through a very difficult time.
‘We are ready to fight harder to work with new businesses, by evolving and growing – that’s what we are all about – by developing our service desk offering, enhancing our account management and having the benefit of solutions architects to help build strategies with our business partners”
‘We’ve also noticed an increase in leads, which could be a sign of what’s to come as competitors raise their prices, prompting businesses to go out and benchmark.
‘So delivering a great service becomes even more pivotal for all IT businesses’
It’s that level of bold innovation and forward thinking that has kept razorblue at the top of the tree. I’ve seen enough IT systems in my time to know that one thing that can be lacking is a lack of focus on the end user.
Putting yourself in the client’s viewpoint is at the core of razorblue’s success. The first idea, the first note and the first drawing all come from what the client needs. The razorblue team are putting the end user at the beginning for a change.
W: www.razorblue.com
