A year of planned consolidation ended up as one of more than 40 per cent growth for the second consecutive year for Wiltshire IT services and solutions company Mintivo.
It means the Chippenham, Wiltshire, company continues on an upward trajectory that has seen its turnover rise by more than 300 per cent in four years. Managing Director Alex Jukes said: “We’ve had a really successful year and I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved, but the plan originally was one of sustainable growth because the previous years have been so successful.
“The goal of the year was ultimately reinvestment in systems, processes and our people but those foundations we put in place have obviously paid off.”
He said upgrading Mintivo’s IT Service Management system so that all of its helpdesk, sales and network engineering platforms were unified into a single platform has made its operation smoother and more flexible. “The goal of doing that was to allow us to scale the operation and also have more visibility over the business and we achieved that,” he said.
“We’ve also been investing more in our people in terms of learning and development, new benefits and really working on our culture – trying to promote our values.
“We wanted to make sure that as we were growing quickly we didn’t take our eye off the ball because we have got a team of ambitious, very talented people who want to develop, do training and take ownership of projects. It could have been quite easy to forget about that if we were solely focusing on growth.”
Mintivo offers IT support for a variety of sectors but the business’s expansion has come from customers who want to evolve and develop their environment through the use of Cloud technologies. “Our goal is to partner with organisations who want to leverage more from their IT, organisations who want to approach IT in a strategic way and see us as a valuable partner,” said Alex.
He said the stability of the business and attention to customer service has meant its attrition has been low. “We’re proud that we haven’t compromised on the customer experience,” he said. “Over the last six years we’ve lost on average 1.5 customers a year – and we’re bringing in close to 25 customers a year.”
New business has come in from a range of sectors but the most prominent have been defence, manufacturing, professional services and charities. “The voluntary sector has been a key growth area for us and I’m really proud of the reputation we have built with charities,” said Alex.
He said Mintivo’s appreciation of the unique challenges faced by Third Sector organisations makes it a supportive and innovative partner. It already has a key strategic IT role with Dorothy House Hospice and Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance.
“Charities are being squeezed because donations are challenging, their costs are rising and the demand for their services is increasing, so they are being asked to do more with less,” he said.
“Supporting and navigating that is part of what we do and we’ve got really good relations with vendors, particularly ones who support charities as well, which helps us support them meaningfully. I think we add a lot of value as a partner with them.”
In the past year the company, which has 38 staff, has developed a new senior leadership team and has empowered leaders to be more autonomous in their own areas. “We want them to own their budgets and make decisions that will change the course of those departments,” said Alex.
“We have come to appreciate that we have some brilliant people guiding the business, which is great. It’s for them to lead the business from here.”
He believes everything is in place for the company to continue its growth. “We pride ourselves on acting as a strategic partner, guiding our customers from where they are today to where they want to be,” he said. “Our clients see us as a valuable partner because of the impact we deliver and we’re focused on continuing that smart, sustainable growth.”
