A SHIPLEY-based contact centre is gearing up for growth after becoming one of the latest of around 200 local companies to take advantage of government-backed funding to beef up its communications systems.

Answering4U has improved its customer service capability through connecting to high-speed internet services with a £3,000 funding through the government-backed Superconnected Leeds Bradford programme.

The move has more than doubled its internet speeds.

The company was founded 15 years ago, employs 30 people at Mercury Quays and has a £1 million turnover.

The upgrade has provided a dedicated 30 Mbps line, replacing a connection of up to 20 Mbps which at busy times was shared with other businesses nearby, leading to variable connection speeds.

Director and co-founder Robin Alderton , director and co-founder of Answering4U, which , said the upgrade has had a dramatic impact on the business.Mr Alderton said: “Now we can be sure of constant high speeds at all times, which is critical to maintaining and increasing the levels of service that we are committed to providing to our clients.

“We need fast and very resilient broadband. We provide a fully interactive service for most of our clients, whether that’s acting as a tenants’ helpline for Eddisons in Leeds, or as the front line for course enquiries from students at Barnet and Southgate College in North London.”

The new connection will also enable Answering4U to implement VoIP phone lines providing voice messaging to cope with a greater volume of calls during busy periods.

“One of our clients, Rolawn, supplies turf to landscapers, groundsmen and gardeners and they are phenomenally busy between March and July each year, which means we handle literally thousands of calls for them,” said Mr Alderton. “We now have the capacity to expand the service to Rolawn as well as to other customers, giving us the capability to take on more clients.“The new high speed connection will also allow us to have a much more resilient disaster recovery facility by allowing us to back up all our data to a remote site overnight, something we could never have done with the previous broadband speeds.”

Jon Duncan, of Superconnected Leeds Bradford, said: “ It’s great to see how this government programme has been such an effective catalyst for growth, in many cases transforming the future prospects of ambitious smaller companies like Answering4U and enabling them to punch above their weight.

“As the connection voucher programme closes in March, I would urge businesses to apply now before they miss the boat.”