IT consultancy celebrates 10 years of successful trading...

Article by Son Barry - Wales on Line / Western Mail

A Welsh IT consultancy is celebrating 10 years in business, and is ‘busier than ever’ despite the economic downturn.

The company, Certus IT, was founded by Managing Director Lynne Fodor and Business Development Director Paul Brown in 2001 with just four employees. Since then, it has diversified into a £2.5m business, employing 30 staff members and serving approximately 200 customers across Europe and the UK.

From its current home in Celtic Springs, Newport, Certus IT now specialises in IT consultancy, infrastructure design and implementation, information back-up and disaster recovery, providing services to clients such as Premier Global, Wilmott Dixon and Freshwater.  

Ms Fodor and Mr Brown began the company from £150,000 venture capital after working together for 5 years at software giant, Sega. Speaking of their decision to launch the business, Ms Fodor said: “we knew we had an opportunity to deliver high quality, cost effective and efficient IT systems that were affordable to the SME sector”.

In its first year, the company turned over £350,000, which more than doubled to £800,000 by the end of its second year. This success was due to a number of large contract wins, including its first major client, 118 118 – the directory enquiries company.

Other large projects such as the Millennium Stadium and Woodhead Connectivity - which was worth £200,000, have meant that the company’s turnover has continued to grow over the years to more than £2m – where it stands today.

Ms Fodor continued: “The last few years has seen a dramatic slow down in the market due to the economic climate and businesses’ general need to cut back on out-sourcing costs, which has driven some IT providers out of the marketplace.

“However, our turnover has remained relatively constant over the last few years, which we feel is an exceptional achievement all things considered.”

“We put our success down to our focus on creating a recurring revenue model early on in the businesses development and the restructuring of our executive team with the introduction of the Sales and Marketing Director role.

“We’re also dependant upon our excellent team who continue to deliver professional and superior services to our customers, meaning that many of our clients, such as Watts Gregory and M&A Solicitors, have stayed with us since the very beginning.

“This is in addition to our industry accreditations from market leaders such as Microsoft, Citrix, Cisco and VMware, which reassure customers that we can, and do, provide a quality service that reaches the highest industry standards.”

The company’s growth took another step up at the end of 2010 with the announcement of a strategic partnership with UK software provider Fifth Dimensions Systems. The partnership has seen Certus IT become a preferred supplier for the £15 million firm and has enabled it to open regional offices in Southampton, Leeds and Surrey to support its large UK wide client base.

Lynne said: “Our recent successes have mean that Certus IT continues to perform well and we really are busier than ever. We are now actively recruiting for a number of positions to ensure that our customers continue to benefit from the high level of service we provide, and that we continue to grow.

 “10 years is a great milestone for any business, never more so than in the current economic climate, and would like to thank our customers and staff for their continued and loyal support.”

Certus IT is one of the largest specialist IT consultancies in South Wales, supplying a range of IT services including consultancy, infrastructure design and implementation, information back-up and disaster recovery, to clients across the UK. 

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