Alan and Amanda Baker with Sahran Abeysundara run “the Silkroad” Interiors and Flooring in WeyHill, Haslemere. This local retailer offers a full interior design service for homes, hotels and even the occasional yacht!
Amanda Baker “Sahran and Linnet are our interior design team. They work with our customers to provide a complete turnkey approach to the design and delivery of the interior of your home”.
Alan has over 30 years of working within the flooring industry – often left to the end of an interior design – the flooring does in fact make a significant different to the ambience and feel of any space. Alan works closely with customers to select then install the most appropriate flooring to complete their designs.
We have recently brought the interior design and flooring businesses closer together enabling us to offer customers a more integrated experience. Our next step is to start offering some of our accessories online. An exciting development but with big IT and data privacy implications”.
Alan Baker of The Silkroad
Sahran Abeysundara of the Silkroad
All of our customers are looking for a quality approach to the interior of their homes and a proportion live in and around the Surrey area, however, we service a wider geographical area for our bespoke flooring products (such as Roger Oates stair runners) and travel internationally for our interior design clients.
“We pride ourselves on the careful selection of quality products and services we offer” says Amanda Baker. “Our commitment to quality extends to our carefully chosen sub-contractors.
We carry an extensive selection of samples in store, enabling our clients to really get a feel for the products they are selecting – be that curtains, wallpapers, carpets or wood and stone flooring. We have access to an extensive range of furnishings and fittings that make a home your own.”
We primarily use computers for email, writing proposals and back office functions such as finances and invoices. However, on the interior design part of the business, Sahran uses the Adobe Creative Suite and Autocad to visualize the designs he develops for customers.
Although our business would not stop if our IT went down for a few hours, it would be most inconvenient, but as we move to online sales, IT will become more critical to our business.
We have about 6 computers – a combination of PCs and Apple Macs.
Amanda Baker again “Sahran had used PAAC IT for some time on an adhoc break/fix arrangement while Alan and I used another IT firm. Over time, all of us increasingly used PAAC IT as they were more responsive to what we needed.
Bringing the two businesses closer together was the trigger to get our IT onto a more structured arrangement.
Given all the changes that were going on I needed someone to hold my hand and give me peace of mind that the IT would continue to work during the move”.
PAAC IT now:
We also provide Amanda with regular reviews and planning sessions to agree the evolution of her IT in line with business growth and change.
All the Silkroad’s computers have been equipped with ESET endpoint security which we continuously monitor from our offices. If anything goes wrong – we receive an alert and can take appropriate action.
“Our business now runs more efficiently – the IT works as it should, I know who to call when I need help and I’m getting prepared for the evolution to our online business” says Amanda.
“Richard provides simple and clear explanations of the relatively complex IT concepts I need to understand and helps me focus on the important things I need to get done.
With Richard’s guidance, we have improved our data security and protection of customer information”. Amanda Baker
