Business & Technology
Irish couple celebrate anniversary of Bicester business
Anatomy Arts Piercing, run by Dawn and Marcello, soon to be the McCormack family, offers a piercing experience specialising in solid gold and verified implant grade titanium jewellery.
The family-run studio opened its doors on May 10, 2025, with a fully booked launch day that saw the couple carry out piercings for more than nine hours without a break.
Mrs McCormack, said: “It’s incredibly difficult to put into words how grateful we are, without our clientele there is no Anatomy Arts Piercing.
“Our little family run studio is the centre point of our lives – it provides for our children, it keeps a roof over our heads, it allows us to live as our authentic selves.”
The biggest challenge the couple has faced was starting the business with a now five-year-old and an almost two-year-old.
She said: “When we opened, it was two days before our youngest’s first birthday and our eldest hadn’t even started school yet.
“For both of us to take the leap to be self employed was a massive risk so the anniversary will definitely be our ‘we made it’ moment.
READ MORE: Independent school in Bicester appoints new headteacher
“We are so thankful to not only be doing the jobs we both love and are incredibly passionate about; but to have the time to spend with our children is a blessing.”
To celebrate, there will be a shop discount on offer on their entire stock of jewellery.
The couple, who said they “tend to have expensive taste in jewellery”, will also pierce each other to mark the occasion, although they starting to run out of room.
Naturally grown diamonds will be added to Marcello while a solid gold chain or charm will be added to Dawn.
However, as the couple is getting married in June, they’re more focused on not burning themselves out and completing last minute wedding DIY bits.
On their return from their honeymoon, they plan to introduce an anodiser machine, which changes the colour of implant grade titanium jewellery for a low cost.
They also hope to introduce an IPad to make consent form processes more seamless.
She said: “There’s no other job that either of us could imagine doing that gives us the same fulfilling satisfaction or gives us the space to look the way we do.
“Piercing is an adrenaline rush for both clients and piercers alike, so when your piercer is just as passionate about the piercing they’re about to do as the client is who’s about to receive it.
“All in all, our clients give us our beautiful life and we honestly couldn’t be more grateful.
“We’re so ecstatic to see what the future holds.”
JOSEPH GABRIEL LAGONSIN
News Editor
Pulsant has completed a GBP £2 million investment programme across its UK data centre network, covering eight sites and focusing on upgraded facilities for customers, visitors and staff.
Delivered over the past two years, the programme covered sites in Croydon, Edinburgh, Maidenhead, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Reading and Rotherham. Further upgrades are under way at Pulsant’s recently acquired Birmingham and Fareham locations.
The refurbishment focused on customer-facing and operational areas inside the facilities. Changes included new layouts and signage, meeting rooms with AV technology and guest Wi-Fi, breakout areas, electric vehicle charging points, upgraded build rooms and revised access processes.
The work followed a pilot project at Pulsant’s Croydon site, where customer groups were used to assess how people use its data centres in practice. Feedback pointed to demand for more efficient and more welcoming on-site spaces for IT teams and technicians.
More than 500 UK businesses use Pulsant’s colocation services, placing their own servers and IT systems in the company’s facilities. Background information accompanying the announcement said Pulsant serves about 700 clients across its wider digital infrastructure estate.
Site changes
Pulsant introduced a zonal layout and updated signage to help engineers move around sites more quickly. It also created dedicated build bays with tools, test power distribution units and equipment so hardware can be prepared outside the data hall before installation.
Security and access were also part of the overhaul, with site access processes improved to reduce bottlenecks at busy periods while maintaining existing security standards.
Other additions included boardrooms, breakout rooms, rest areas and complimentary drinks. Post-upgrade feedback from clients and contractors highlighted those features alongside site security.
Customer feedback
Pulsant said client advocacy more than doubled after the changes, with a 33-point rise in Net Promoter Score among those who said they would recommend the company to industry peers looking for colocation services.
Ben Cranham, chief operating officer at Pulsant, said the project was designed to shift attention towards the people working in and visiting the facilities, alongside the underlying infrastructure.
“Data centres are often designed primarily around the infrastructure, rather than the people who work in them every day,” Cranham said.
He said the company used feedback from regular site users to guide the redesign.
“From the outset, our goal has been to create spaces where everyone – clients, partners, visitors and our team – feels welcome, supported and happy to be there. We’ve listened to the people who spend time in our data centres to shape environments that reflect how they work, now and in the future.
“By paying close attention to details, we’re delivering spaces that not only enhance wellbeing and productivity but also help us stand apart in the market,” Cranham said.
Pulsant operates 14 data centres around the UK and positions its network around regional connectivity and access to cloud, connectivity and compute services. The latest investment reflects a wider push by data centre operators to improve working environments at facilities regularly used by customer engineers, contractors, suppliers and in-house teams.
The British supermarket chain Iceland closed its high street shop in Sheep Street, Bicester, in 2024.
Since the company’s Food Warehouse stores opened in the nearby Launton Road Retail Park, the site has remained vacant.
Now, Allen Planning Limited, acting on behalf of an applicant, wants to alter the front of the ground floor shop front to attract a new commercial tenant.
It submitted plans to Cherwell District Council, the planning authority seeking what it called the creation of ‘minor external alterations’ which would ‘not adversely impact the design of the building or the wider visual amenities of the area’.
READ MORE:
Amendments include a white render band in place of signage, slimline aluminium windows, a glazed fanlight, a new aluminium double door with fanlight, and a separate aluminium entrance door to the first floor, as previously approved under plans.
Changes to the two upper floors have already been approved, including installing replacement windows and five new infill panels.
The site sits within the Bicester Conservation Area, which is also within the newly pedestrianised ‘Sheep Street’ character area, which is characterised by predominantly three-storey buildings facing onto the main shopping street.
Comments are due until July 2 and the planning authority is set to make a decision by July 24.
SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO
News Editor
CyberCube has partnered with Affinity Marketplace to integrate cyber insurance quoting into a single broker workflow, targeting the SME cyber insurance market.
The partnership combines Affinity Marketplace’s quoting process with CyberCube’s Broking Manager software, which provides information on a client’s cyber risk profile. The integrated setup is designed to help brokers discuss financial exposure and compare risk transfer options without leaving the same system.
SME cyber insurance has been held back by a lack of specialist knowledge, the challenge of explaining technical risk to smaller businesses, and the time brokers need to place cover. The integrated process is intended to reduce those points of friction for generalist brokers and their clients.
CyberCube’s Broking Manager generates reports on company-specific financial exposure, along with benchmarking data on policy limits and cover structures. Affinity Marketplace provides the digital environment where brokers can obtain automated quotes.
Nate Brink, Head of Broker Sales & Account Management at CyberCube, said the model addresses both economic and training challenges in the market.
“This strategic relationship between CyberCube and Affinity Marketplace solves the margin and education crunch that has long plagued the SME cyber insurance sector. By automating the quoting process directly alongside actionable exposure data within the same workflow, brokers can instantly demonstrate real risk without using complex technical jargon,” Brink said.
The approach allows brokers to stay within one system from the initial client discussion through to quotation. It also presents cyber risk in business terms that smaller companies can relate to when deciding whether to buy insurance and how much cover to take.
Founded in 2023, Affinity Marketplace focuses on digital distribution for specialty insurance. Its platform connects brokers and agents with managing general agents, carriers, and technology providers across quoting, binding, renewals, and carrier connectivity.
Andrew Suesserman, Co-founder of Affinity Marketplace, said: “Affinity Marketplace is all about giving brokers the tools they need to scale efficiently, and this collaboration with CyberCube does exactly that. We’ve combined rapid, automated cyber quoting with clear risk diagnostics in a single environment. This removes the complex jargon that usually stalls SME sales and gives generalist brokers the confidence to advise on exposures and limits like seasoned cyber specialists. We can’t wait to see our brokers leverage this to unlock new, highly profitable growth.”
Broker response
Wholesure, which uses the combined setup, said the integration has changed how its brokers and retail agents handle SME cyber placements. The brokerage cited a shortage of cyber specialists across the market as a barrier to broader take-up among smaller businesses.
Kevin Merchant, National Cyber Practise Leader at Wholesure, said: “With too few cyber specialists in the market today, closing the critical SME protection gap has felt like an uphill battle. Combining Affinity Marketplace with CyberCube has been an absolute game changer for our brokers, retail agents, and the insureds we protect. By utilizing Affinity Marketplace, our brokers gain instant access to seamless, efficient cyber quotes, eliminating the traditional friction of the placement process. Coupled with CyberCube’s robust financial loss impact and benchmark reports, our retail agents are equipped with the exact data-driven storytelling tools they need to educate insureds. We can present small business owners with clear, quantified evidence of their true financial exposure and show them how their peers are structuring their risk transfer.”
CyberCube was established within Symantec in 2015 and has operated as an independent company since 2018. It provides cyber risk analytics software to insurance institutions and has offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, and Tallinn.
The partnership is available through the Affinity platform.
-
Crime & Safety4 weeks agoRyan Bridge speaks of London arrest after Oxford incident
-
Oxford News3 weeks agoOxfordshire families invited to free day of fun in Bicester
-
UK News4 weeks agoRussian threats against Baltics ‘unacceptable’ and danger to ‘our entire union’, EU’s von der Leyen says – Europe live | Europe
-
Crime & Safety3 weeks agoPhotos as 1979 Pontiac Firebird ‘bursts in flames’ at Tesco
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoNew ‘high-quality’ mushroom business launched in Oxford
-
Crime & Safety4 weeks agoNew video call system to help domestic abuse victims
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoNHS IT outages disrupt 274,620 patient interactions
-
Oxford News4 weeks agoOxfordshire Lib Dems lose another councillor amid ‘serious concerns’