Unlocking £17,000 & a new way to pursue growth without penalty
With 200,000 customers and almost £10m in payments to process each month, having the right finance partner can mean the difference between frustrating roadblocks and relentless growth. Experiencing the former on an increasingly regular basis, Zen Internet went in search of a platform that would enable and empower them to scale.
About Zen Internet
Founded in 1995 by CEO Richard Tang, Zen Internet is an independent telecoms and connectivity provider based in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. With 30 years of steady growth, the company now employs over 600 people while serving 200,000+ home and business broadband customers nationwide. Zen also delivers complex network and cloud solutions for a wide range of large businesses and corporate customers through its strategic partnerships with AWS and Cisco.
Sarah Horsfall, Management Accountant at Zen and a 20+ year company veteran, leads the administration of all direct debits for the finance function. In early 2024, she spearheaded Zen’s move from their legacy payment provider to AccessPay.
The Challenge
Costly, inflexible and growth-limiting payment infrastructure
Zen had long relied on a legacy payment provider to handle its direct debits – but as the provider got bigger, the service and support began to deteriorate. Access to technical assistance became more difficult and Zen began to feel that they were no longer a priority.
“The bigger they got, the less important we became…
Technical support became difficult to get hold of. We were in long queues…”
Unscalable pricing
Zen also began to experience additional cost for transactions. As a steadily growing company, Zen would exceed the banded limits of their current agreement – and the jump to the next tier was significantly expensive.
As transaction volumes increased, so did the cost – in a manner that felt like it punished growth. When you’re processing more than 150,000 payments per month, with a value exceeding £8,000,000, transaction-based pricing models can quickly become prohibitively expensive.
It wasn’t uncommon to see overage charges of up to £4,000 per month, and moving to the next pricing tier would have cost an additional £17,000 annually.
“Each month, we would receive a statement indicating that we had exceeded our banding allowance, resulting in substantial additional fees, an outcome that posed challenges for effective financial planning.”
The unpredictability of monthly overage fees made financial planning difficult. For a business focused on strategic growth, this was holding them back.
The Solution
A seamless shift to AccessPay
When AccessPay reached out with a tailored proposal, Zen saw the opportunity to make a change, and remove those operational and financial frictions.
Transparent, growth-friendly pricing
AccessPay offered a flat-rate pricing model with no overage penalties.
“AccessPay said, we just don’t work like that. Even if you go over your banding, we’ll review it at contract renewal, you’ll never get additional costs mid-term.”
By avoiding the need to upgrade tiers, Zen saved £17,000 annually and dodged monthly overage fees – leaving them free to pursue growth without penalty.
This also aligned more closely with Zen’s own customer values and its contract price promise. For as long as a home broadband customer is in contract with Zen, their price will stay the same for the duration of the contract, avoiding additional mid-term costs.
Seamless migration, zero downtime
Once internal approvals were secured, the technical implementation took just four weeks. The migration required no development work or changes to existing systems.
“It was very seamless… just testing, lifting and shifting.”
Tailored support & account management
From initial contact to go-live, Zen had a dedicated account manager who understood their specific use case and stayed engaged throughout.
“Now we’ve got an account manager who listens to what we need. We still have regular catchups. That never happened with our previous provider.”
Smarter automation
AccessPay also introduced automated delivery of reports – eliminating the need for manual downloads and helping Zen meet compliance deadlines effortlessly.
“We don’t need to go in and put a date range in and manually download reports anymore, they just get delivered to our system. So that’s brilliant, because it means less manual intervention.”
The Impact
Savings, efficiency, and the freedom to grow
£17,000+ annual cost savings
Zen avoided a massive price jump by switching to AccessPay – and finally had confidence in their monthly costs.
“We strive to budget our expenses annually, and with AccessPay, we have clear visibility of our total costs for the year.”
Avoidance of extra salaries
Zen now processes 174,000 transactions monthly, valued at £9.6 million, in just 2 minutes per run – a massive improvement in efficiency.
“We’d run a file with 15,000 transactions worth £800,000 – it takes us two minutes. Without automation, we’d need a dedicated person just doing that job.”
No disruption, no service issues
Since implementation, Zen hasn’t experienced a single technical fault or disruption.
“We’ve had absolutely no problems at all with AccessPay.”
Better partnership, better support
AccessPay provides the responsive, human support Zen had been missing – resolving any queries in minutes.
“When I have had to contact technical support, it’s been a quick phone call and a two-minute question.”
Zen Internet now has a secure, cost-effective, and scalable payments platform that matches their ambitions – and their values. With AccessPay in place, the finance team has peace of mind, control over costs, and more time to focus on strategic priorities.
“AccessPay are working with us, not against us. That makes all the difference.”