Creed Communications

Creed Communications is an award-winning digital marketing consultancy that helps organisations attract and retain the talent they need to succeed. Based in Altrincham near Manchester, Creed is a trusted partner for global brands like Fujitsu and Jaguar Land Rover, as well as many other organisations large and small, across multiple business sectors.

It deploys creative thinking, insights and innovation to develop distinctive employer brands, smart talent attraction strategies, compelling media campaigns and inspiring employee communications. In combination these deliver outstanding results for its clients in one of the most competitive markets in today’s economy – people.

And because Creed knows that it is talented and inspired people that deliver business success, the company is 100% employee owned. Every member of staff is a co-owner, dedicated to delivering great work for clients, and nurturing a collaborative culture in which colleagues are supported and encouraged to achieve their potential.

“The PC Support Group is always on the ball, knowledgeable, professional, and responsive, providing sound advice and an excellent service. They made the Cyber Essentials certification process easy, helping me sleep at night, in the knowledge that the risks to our business are greatly minimised, enabling us to trade confidently with all our business partners.”

Simon McLoughlin, Founder/Director, Creed Communications

The impacts of COVID-19, combined with ongoing economic challenges for national Governments and businesses alike, has resulted in seismic shifts in the jobs market.

In the UK alone, although the number of jobs stands at a record high, filling vacancies has never been more challenging. In this new environment, Creed’s proven ability to make clients’ brands stand out from the competition, and to create compelling, cost-effective campaigns that grab candidates’ attention and inspire action, is more valuable than ever.

Creed prides itself on its ability to build close working relationships with its clients, with multiple communications channels enabling project teams to work collaboratively at speed. To do this Creed needs its IT to be robust and reliable, enabling its people to work flexibly, productively, and securely at all times, whether in the office, on the move or at clients’ premises.

They need instant access to data, documents, video and digital media, and to be able to share those with colleagues and clients at workstations and using laptops and mobile devices. The company’s IT infrastructure must empower its creatives and enable the execution of large-scale campaigns with seamless integration between its Apple and Microsoft technologies.

And with data protection now an essential prerequisite for all, the company must have proven, best practice cybersecurity protocols in place. IT and telecoms must be a business asset, not a burden, empowering Creed to grow and expand at pace and ease, taking advantage of opportunities and staying ahead of the competition, while keeping IT capital and operating costs as low as possible.

The PC Support Group’s initial task when Creed first engaged them was to handle all the IT elements of the company’s move to its current headquarters in Altrincham. This included building a bespoke server for the new office, later replaced when The PC Support Group managed a seamless migration to the cloud. The partnership also enabled Creed to execute a smooth transition to remote working when the impacts of COVID-19 became clear.

At the heart of the PC Support Group’s service for Creed is an award-winning managed support and maintenance programme. Sophisticated cyber-security services, monitoring and pro-active management are combined with highly trained, friendly experts that resolve issues and provide in-person guidance and solutions, keeping Creed and its teams connected and productive, whether they’re working on PCs or Apple Macs. The service also includes a Client Success Manager who works closely with Creed to plan their IT strategy, maximising their use of IT to run and grow their business.

To improve efficiency through remote and collaborative working, The PC Support Group also recommended and managed a move to the stable, secure and controllable SharePoint Cloud filesharing environment.

A dedicated project manager from The PC Support Group was assigned to the task of assessing, categorising, and migrating a decade’s worth of business-critical documents and digital media to the cloud, where they are readily and easily accessed by approved team members and clients, wherever they’re working.

Next, The PC Support Group guided Creed through Cyber Essentials certification, the Government programme that promotes cybersecurity awareness, secure working practices and is increasingly becoming a pre-requisite between stakeholders and in tendering processes.

Once again, The PC Suport Group's project manager led the process expertly, following a proven methodology featuring prompts and checklists that minimised the involvement of Creed personnel, and took just a week and a half to complete.

“The move to SharePoint was handled and executed perfectly by The PC Support Group’s project manager and her colleagues – it was absolutely seamless and was an important landmark on our journey to become a digitally-integrated, cloud-based business. We’ve saved money, and more importantly, given the team the tools to work quickly, flexibly and securely.” 
Simon McLoughlin, Founder/Director, Creed Communications

Creed’s long-standing partnership with The PC Support Group means that its teams can focus all of their energies on delivering great work – and great results – for their clients, while helping to maximise productivity and profitability, and driving business growth.

The move to SharePoint was a gamechanger, enabling Creed’s teams to seamlessly collaborate with clients and partners at speed, and with peace of mind too, with access control and security built in, with everyone confident that they’re accessing the latest versions of documentation, designs and campaigns. And the use of SharePoint has also saved money for Creed, as the company already owned SharePoint licences, enabling the cancellation of licences for its previous solution in addition to the efficiencies gained through easier remote working and collaboration.

The PC Support Group’s team of engineers are on hand to resolve issues and provide advice and guidance. Commercially valuable company and client data and documents are automatically and securely backed-up off-site, ensuring business continuity and peace of mind.

Accreditation on the UK Government’s Cyber Essentials programme is not just a demonstration of Creed’s commitment to data security. It has also helped its teams to adopt secure business processes and safe day-to-day working practices, and builds trust and confidence amongst its business partners.

Importantly for Creed, Cyber Essentials certification provides instant assurance for existing clients and new business prospects, that it has robust cybersecurity systems and protocols in place, that are reviewed and recertified every 12 months. According to UK Government research, Cyber Essentials certification improves protection against 98.5% of the most common cyberattacks.

For its business development activities, certification means that Creed automatically meets baseline security requirements, enabling the discussion to move to the project at hand and the value Creed can deliver, reducing the length of the procurement process.

Prior to achieving Cyber Essentials accreditation, Creed would routinely spend two days completing security questionnaires and risk assessment documentation to pre-qualify for the next stage. And with The PC Support Group at its side, Creed Communications knows that it has a dedicated, trusted adviser looking after their interests, providing its teams with the freedom and confidence to focus on providing great service for their clients.