If you wish to be considered as a potential supplier to System Three Business Solutions, please make sure you have read through these 3 Golden Rules before contacting us.

1. If you are already a current supplier or you wish to be considered as a supplier of goods or services to System Three Business Solutions DO NOT CONTACT US USING OUR FREEPHONE NUMBER OR HELPDESK NUMBER. The Freephone number is provided for the benefit of potential clients who wish to contact our sales team. You cannot and will not be transferred to anyone with purchasing authority if you use this number, and just as importantly you will irritate our receptionist and Managing Director which isn't a great way of starting a relationship!

Likewise the Telephone Support helpdesk number is there for a specific purpose, so don't use it unless you also happen to be a client as well as a supplier! If you abuse these lines you will be blacklisted.

If you want to call us by telephone then please use our main switchboard number, 01553 636792 but please understand we are busy people and your call may come at an inconvenient time so we may not be able to talk to you.

DO NOT try devious techniques to work around our receptionist, we've heard them all before. All it does is put our backs up and make your chances of success more remote. Simply state your name, full company name and business clearly and honestly and we'll try to direct you to the most appropriate person if they are available, or we'll politely tell you that we are not interested, so that we can both avoid wasting our time. Don't use initials instead of your full company name to try and 'blag' your way through.

If you don't want to tell us who you are and what the call is regarding then don't bother ringing. Saying it's a private call when it isn't will just mean we will terminate the call immediately without warning - don't do it.

On the subject of clarity, unfortunately we get far too many calls, (possibly from overseas call centres) from companies whose staff just cannot speak English clearly and/or who call in using poor quality phone lines. Please don't waste our time, if we can't understand what you are saying then we cannot buy from you, we just get frustrated.

Our preferred method of initial contact is email - but see below.


2. DO NOT SPAM US. If you believe you could be a potential useful new supplier and wish to contact us by email please use the email address newsupplier@s3bs.co.uk and email us no more than once a month. Emails sent to this email account are routinely monitored by our purchasing team, and if we are interested in what you have to offer we will contact you and give you an alternative email account to use. In accordance with current electronic marketing laws, you should also provide us with an easy method of unsubscribing from your mailings if we determine that we have no interest in what you are selling. If you misuse our sales enquiry email account then your domain name and company name will be added to our blacklist and your emails will be bounced.


3. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Before contacting us as a potential supplier please make sure you've at least read through our web site and got an understanding of what we do and what we don't do, and the type of companies we work with, so that you avoid wasting your and our time trying to sell us something we have no interest in.

Here's a list of some things we are definitely not interested in:

• Hospitality tickets for football, rugby, cricket, concerts, in fact anything, even if they are fantastic last minute bargains because "someone cancelled a table".
• Shares, Diamonds, Wine or any other similar "investments".
• Debt collection - we don't have bad debts.
• Overseas software development services - we are not a software developer and if we did wish to buy development expertise we would select and use an entirely UK based company.
• Recruitment agencies - our staff turnover is very low and we don't use agencies so don't waste your time on us.
• Mobile phone contracts - we normally agree contracts for 24 months so we don't need to be called every week. When we are ready to buy new mobile phones we will contact a local supplier.
• Charities - as part of our community relations programme we select local charities to support. We don't make donations as a result of email or telephone enquiries. Our current nominated local charities are Norfolk Hospice and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.
• Utilities - it is our company policy to carry out internal reviews of gas, oil, electricity and phone services in accordance with our environmental policy. We are therefore aware of the services available and will contact you should we wish.
• Car and car lease/rental - we have a very small fleet and when we do have a requirement to buy vehicles we prefer to buy "not quite new" vehicles outright from trusted local suppliers.

If after all this you are not put off from contacting us and still believe you can be of service to us, then please go ahead. If you are selected as a supplier we expect you to provide us with your best possible price at the outset and to honour your promises to us. The good news is that in return you will find us easy and pleasant to work with and someone who will pay your bills on time.