Staff incentives including trips to Las Vegas and tech gifts such as iPads has contributed to making the telecommunications supplier for Southampton FC one of the best places to work in the UK.

NIX Communications Group was the highest ranked telecommunications company in the Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For 2017. The company was placed 29th.

 Nick Zammit, who started the company in 2009, said the team of 55 staff working at the firm’s Winchester Hill headquarters, and its subsidiary offices in Newport on the Isle of Wight and in Manchester, were the key to success.

 “Hard work and dedication of our staff are greatly rewarded,” said Nick. “Top performers in all departments can win a free four-night trip to Las Vegas.

 “The office is equipped with a massage chair, music system, snooker table, televisions and arcade games – and to keep activity levels up we have exercise sessions from a personal trainer on the staff.”

NIX Communications Group provides business telephone systems, fibre broadband, voice recording and call management services to small, medium and large companies across the UK. Last August, it took over Opus Telecom and subsidiary Phipps Communications, potentially doubling its turnover.

The company manages the phone lines and calls for Southampton Football Club and other clients include Costa, Malibu and Help For Heroes as well as a host of other businesses throughout the UK.

In their feedback for the award staff at NIX Communications Group said they enjoyed a good balance between work and home life and their jobs did not interfere with other responsibilities.

All of the firm’s staff are encouraged to take part in charitable activities. Successes include staff members climbing Kilimanjaro, completing Tough Mudder and receiving awards for charitable efforts and fundraising days within the office.

Nick added: “Exceptional customer service is something that we pride ourselves on and every team member is aware of how important this is to the company. We always go the extra mile to ensure that the customer is happy with the products and services we provide.

“A lot of our business is generated form customer referrals and recommendations. This is how every business should operate, and is more powerful than any marketing campaign.”

Photo attached - NIX Communications Group founder Nick Zammit holding the Sunday Times trophy at the award ceremony with colleagues (left to right) Victoria Hayes, Trevor Wood, Emma Davis, Trish Taylor, Mark Brown, Sophie Stiles, Rachel Thorne and Andy Fung.

Nix are proud to announce that we have now been fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

By conforming to the strict regulations of the FCA, Nix Communications Group continue to prove that we are an honest and trustworthy provider for telecommunication services across the UK.

At NIX, we feel we have always put customer care and fair practice at the heart of what we do.  Now we are authorised and regulated by the FCA, you can be confident this is the case.

We're currently offering free calls and lines for 3 months for any new customers. Not only that, we can upgrade your businesses telephone system within your current expenditure!

To find out more, simply call 08000 308 000 or fill out the form below, and we'll give you a call back!

Alternatively, Click Here to view some of our recent customer testimonials or Click Here to see more about our services. We look forward to hearing from you!

Every year BlackBerry, Apple, Samsung and other large brands come up with bigger and better ways to improve our smartphones. Given how powerful these software updates can be, it’s no wonder that battery life (or lack of) is a widely talked about topic globally.

While we’re all waiting for the hardware to catch up with the software, the only alternative is to be Battery savvy and here are our top 5 tips to give you a head start.

1. Shorten your screen timeout

We’ve all done it. You pick up your phone, do what you need to do and forget to lock it. Although most screens will eventually power down, some don’t. Either way, it’s wasting battery time that you could be using to make a call, send an email or google funny cat pictures. By making your screen timeout shorter you’ll get some battery time straight in your back pocket.

Iphone: Settings > General > Auto-Lock

Galaxy: Settings > Display > Screen Timeout

2.    Charging your battery – The right way

So without getting too technical, there are generally two types of rechargeable batteries in smartphones. First one is Nickel-based batteries and the second is Lithium-ion based.

Every time you plug in your charger to a Nickel-based battery, the amount of power it can hold is reduced slightly and eventually after enough charges, you’ll have a dead phone on your hands. However, out of the two this one actually takes the most charges. So If you want get the most out of your Nickel-based battery, you’re best off waiting till the bitter end before giving it some juice!

Lithium-ion Batteries are slightly different. They have the longest life expectancy which is good news, but they’re also slightly needy. You’ll need to charge this more often as they typically tend to run out quicker. Even if your still at 50% give it quick blast and you’re on your way to a long lasting device.

To conclude, find out which battery your phone has and you’re on to a winner.

3. Keep cool

Not many people know this but the cooler your phone, the better your phone will perform therefore using less battery. We’re not suggesting you go stand in the fridge whilst sending a text, keeping it out of the sun will do.

4. Switch off animations.

If your phone isn’t 4 or 5 years old, you may have notice that your background wallpaper moves when your phone is moving too? It’s an animation that uses battery and can be switched off. If you’re not emotionally attached to the feature already, we recommend turning it off and saving some battery.

Iphone: Settings > Wallpaper > tap current wallpaper > still
Galaxy: Settings > Wallpaper > Wallpaper motion effect > Off

While we’re on the topic of animation, if you have an iPhone, your device will automatically make opening an app look cool. It sort of fades/zooms in and out. Not only does it use extra battery, it can slow down your phone in general. If you fancy making things faster and staying battery savvy, here’s how to turn it off:

Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase contrast > Reduce Transparency > On.

Then also – Accessibility > reduce Motion > On

5. Stop Force closing apps

A lot of people are guilty of this, including myself. People automatically think force closing all open apps saves battery, It doesn’t. What actually drains the battery is your apps automatically updating content when you’re not using them. It’s basically so you can read a tweet or a Facebook update quicker. If you don’t mind waiting the extra second when you re-open the app. Turn it off, it will save you battery and increase the speed of your phone.

Settings > General > Background app refresh > Off

So there you have it, short and sweet but put the above into action and you’re on your way to an endless stream of cat pictures.

Here at NIX our speciality is providing bespoke business telephone systems to the SME markets.

Whether you’re looking for business telephone systems, competitive rate on your calls and lines or even a company who can provide a reliable business broadband connection NIX Communications can help.

Along with our recognised Siemens Accredited Partnership, NIX specialises in providing the Siemens HiPath and Siemens OpenScape Office solutions.

Here at NIX we completely tailor make our solutions based on your industry and your individual requirements. Technology is growing every day however, it’s only useful if it enhances what people do. This is why our entire focus is on you, your business and your staff.

If you decide to come on board with NIX you will receive your very own dedicated account manager, Competitive pricing, latest reliable solutions and UK based customer support.

Using our competitive rates on line rental & calls the majority of our clients enjoy a feature heavy system upgrade at no additional cost to what you’re currently spending, some will even save money. Not only that we could also potentially upgrade your business telephone system within your existing telecoms expenditure.

We currently supply business telephone systems all over the UK including major cities such as Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Bristol.
To enquire about a telephone system for your business fill out our simple online quote form or give us a call on 08000 308 000

If you’re anything like us here at NIX, your iPhone is full of stuff you don’t really need. In 2014 a lawsuit against apple actually revealed that even if you buy yourself a 16 GB iPhone, you physically can't use all 16 GB of storage.

So we want to show you how to make the most of what you have. Below we have searched the World Wide Web for the top 5 ways to easily manage and clear up what’s on your iPhone and free up some space.

1. Find the offender!

First you’ll want to take a look at exactly what is taking up the most space on your iPhone.

Tap the setting icon then head to General > Storage > Manage Storage.

Above is a list of all your apps which will also tell you (Largest first) exactly what is hogging the most memory. You’ll notice at the top how much memory you have used & what is remaining...

2. Program your messages to expire automatically

If your using  iOS 9 you can set your Iphone to automatically delete your old messages. If you like reminiscing back through texts you received two years ago from a distant relative who you only hear from at Christmas, skip this tip. If you’re happy to get rid of them, this option is much easier than manually deleting old threads.

Head to Settings > Messages. Find Keep Message, choose your option.

You can also decide how long your media messages are Kept. You can set them to expire after two minutes or never!

3. Ditch Photo Stream

So if you didn't know, Photo Stream automatically syncs the last 1,000 photos to all of your iOS devices. Basically, it stores a GB worth of photos and videos, twice. So unless you frequently sit down in the evenings sharing photos from your iPad to your iPhone, turn it off...

Settings > scroll down to Photos & Camera > My Photo Stream

4. Only keep the good photos! (HDR…)

You may have noticed that your iPhone randomly stores two images of the same photo? It’s your phone using something called HDR (High Dynamic Range). Essentially with HDR on, your iPhone will take 3 images, take the best bits from each one and makes one pretty good photo. See the difference here -- HDR is on the right:

This will only happen if HDR is on. HDR is best used in low lights or a shadowy backdrop! So long story short, If you choose to use HDR then you don't need to keep the normal photo too. Head to Settings > Photo & Camera and swipe Keep Normal Photo to off.

5. Use Google to store photos

It can be a difficult task deciding which videos/photos to keep and which ones to delete off your iPhone but using Google+ you don’t have to.
Google+ will automatically back up your videos and photos to the cloud storage system, inevitability saving you space.

As long as your photos are 16 megapixels or under you have access to unlimited storage and catalogue your photos in a pretty cool way. You can easily search all your photos by date, time and even where you were when you took the photo.

All you have to do is download Google photos from your iPhone, head into the apps setting and select Back up & sync.

(You may want to select ‘Over Wi-Fi Only’ so it doesn't rinse your data!)