Phoenix Software has been named one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development by Great Place to Work, ranking seventh in the large company category.

The result improves on Phoenix’s previous position of 11th and extends a run of workplace recognitions for the York-based technology reseller and services provider.

Great Place to Work bases the ranking on confidential employee feedback rather than external judging. To qualify, organisations must score at least 65% on a development index drawn from five employee measures: training, access to resources, fairness in promotion, the absence of managerial favouritism, and trust in management.

The responses test whether staff believe they have meaningful opportunities to progress and whether workplace systems support that progression.

Phoenix said its approach to employee development centres on regular manager contact and individual plans. All employees have monthly one-to-one meetings with line managers, alongside personal development plans to track training, goals and potential progression.

It added that promotion decisions are based on merit and potential rather than tenure. That reflects several of the survey statements used in the ranking, including whether promotions go to those who most deserve them and whether managers avoid favouritism.

Workplace ranking

The latest recognition adds to a broader set of workplace awards for Phoenix. Earlier this year, it placed fourth in the large company category on the UK’s Best Workplaces list, and it has also appeared in rankings focused on the technology sector and on women in the workplace.

Phoenix operates in software licensing, hardware, software asset management and managed IT services. It says it has more than 30 years of experience and works with customers on IT strategy, deployment, licence management, cost control, artificial intelligence and cyber security.

The ranking is significant in part because labour retention and skills development have become more prominent issues across the UK technology sector. Employers have faced pressure to show clear progression routes and stronger internal development as competition for experienced staff remains intense.

For companies in IT services and software sales, staff development can also affect customer relationships. Teams often need to keep pace with changing vendor programmes, compliance requirements and new technologies, meaning training and internal mobility have direct operational consequences.

Phoenix’s result suggests its workforce rated the company strongly on those development measures compared with peers in the large company category. Great Place to Work’s methodology puts employee perception at the centre of the ranking, making staff sentiment the deciding factor.

That distinguishes the list from honours based on written submissions or judging panels. In this case, the outcome depended on how Phoenix employees assessed day-to-day management practices and their own prospects for growth within the company.

In a statement accompanying the recognition, Clare Metcalfe, managing director of Phoenix, outlined the company’s view of development.

“We are immensely proud to be recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development for another year. But this is more than a badge; we see it as a baseline that we’re determined to keep building upon. We remain committed to creating an environment where everyone feels valued, supported and inspired to do their best work. We’re continuing to invest in the tools, structures and culture that make Phoenix a place where people can build careers, not just fill roles. This is because we believe that when our people thrive, the organisation thrives. The best outcomes for our customers come from a team that’s genuinely fulfilled, growing and proud of where they work,” Metcalfe said.

People in Banbury were shocked yesterday (Tuesday, May 26) as a burst main dramatically sprayed water high into the air and onto passing cars and local architecture.

The incident was first reported at around 8pm close to Banbury Cross, and next to the Fine Lady Statue, between South Bar Street and West Bar Street.

READ MORE: Videos show dramatic moment ‘water pipe bursts’ in Oxfordshire town

Photos and videos showed that the roundabout quickly became flooded with cracks appearing in the road around the shooting water.

A householder, who asked not to be named, said: “There was clearly a large water leak last night.

There was a major water leak in Banbury, Oxfordshire (Image: Contributed)

“This morning the leak itself seems to have been largely stemmed but there is no access from West Bar into the town centre as Thames Water has closed the road.

“You can’t turn from South Bar or Horsefair into West Bar and driving down West Bar itself you can only get as far as the Horse and Jockey pub.”

Thames Water confirmed the road was closed and the company was carrying out emergency repairs.

There was a major water leak in Banbury, Oxfordshire (Image: Contributed)

The company added that six customers are without water while repairs continue.

A spokesperson said: “We apologise for the disruption caused by a burst water main in Banbury last night.

READ MORE: Drag queens and town parade at ‘fantastic’ Oxfordshire Pride festival

“We stopped the flow of water from the burst pipe just after 10pm. 

“Six customers are temporarily without water while we continue to carry out our repair work, and a Customer Representative is in the area today to speak to anyone who has been affected. 

“West Bar Street at the junction with the Banbury Cross roundabout will remain closed while our engineers work to repair the pipe as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any disruption this may cause.” 

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

e2e-assure and A&O Corsaire have formed a cybersecurity partnership aimed at UK organisations that need compliance evidence under domestic jurisdiction.

The arrangement combines e2e-assure’s security operations centre services with A&O Corsaire’s compliance assurance and testing, creating a single audit trail from assessments through to live monitoring and reporting.

The partnership targets sectors under close regulatory scrutiny, including critical national infrastructure, defence and other regulated industries. These organisations often rely on multiple suppliers for penetration testing, remediation, continuous monitoring and compliance reporting, leaving boards, auditors and regulators with fragmented evidence.

All processing and delivery will take place within the UK. The emphasis on sovereignty reflects growing concern among customers in sensitive sectors about where security data is handled, who can access it, and whether suppliers can meet procurement and certification requirements tied to UK jurisdiction.

The agreement comes as businesses prepare for tighter cyber oversight linked to planned resilience rules expected to broaden the scope of critical infrastructure. Companies in affected sectors are under pressure to demonstrate detailed control over security risks across their own operations and supply chains.

Combined model

A&O Corsaire provides penetration testing across web applications, APIs, networks, cloud and mobile environments, alongside hardware and IoT assessments, red team exercises and regulatory compliance reviews. It also works on remediation programmes, including cloud security, identity controls, zero trust architecture and compliance design.

e2e-assure operates a 24/7 UK security operations centre staffed by security-cleared professionals. Its CUMULO software integrates with existing security tools and produces reports mapped to frameworks including CAF, NIST CSF, NIS2 and IEC 62443, according to the companies.

Together, the services are intended to give clients a single evidence trail for regulatory submissions, board risk reporting and third-party audits. The aim is to place assurance work, remediation and operational monitoring within one process rather than assemble them from separate providers.

The issue has become more prominent as boards ask whether their cyber suppliers could themselves create risk. In sectors such as defence and financial services, procurement teams are increasingly examining not just a vendor’s technical service, but also its ownership, operating location and legal exposure.

Rob Domain, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, e2e-assure, said: “A CNI operator managing CAF, NIS2, and ISO 27001 shouldn’t have to stitch together outputs from separate providers and translate them for auditors. The partnership with A&O Corsaire means we can deliver that full stack, from gap assessment and penetration testing through to continuous monitoring and framework-mapped reporting. This shifts the compliance burden away from our client’s team, freeing them up for more impactful work. We’re excited that this is the first time organisations with overlapping, multi-framework obligations will be able to access that full capability from two providers whose delivery models have been explicitly designed to work as one. This will be a game-changer for sectors where compliance failures can result in operational disruption or loss of licence to operate. We’re proud to set a new standard for what a security partnership in a regulated environment should look like.”

Sovereign focus

The emphasis on UK-based operations reflects a wider shift in the cyber market. Buyers in regulated sectors have become more cautious about supply chain exposure, particularly where providers rely on offshore operations or cannot guarantee that client data remains under UK legal and regulatory oversight.

A&O Corsaire said its assurance practice is designed to feed findings into remediation and detection engineering, creating what it describes as a closed-loop approach. It also pointed to its CREST accreditation and long-standing work in cyber assurance and transformation.

For e2e-assure, the partnership broadens its offer beyond monitoring and detection into a fuller compliance package. For A&O Corsaire, it adds an operational security layer to support ongoing evidence gathering rather than point-in-time testing alone.

Tom McDowall, General Manager, A&O Corsaire, said: “Sovereign operations have moved from a procurement preference to a material risk question. Boards in financial services, CNI, and defence supply chains are now asking whether their security partners could themselves be a vector, and a partner that can’t answer that cleanly is a liability, not an asset. That’s the market reality this partnership was built to address. The regulatory direction of travel is unambiguous. As the UK’s NIS2-aligned legislation takes shape and procurement scrutiny of the entire security supply chain intensifies, the organisations that have already established sovereign, end-to-end security programmes will be ahead of requirements that others are still scrambling to meet. What we can now offer the market is a complete answer to that question, one that is auditable, accredited, and built entirely within the UK.”