IT firm predicts growth as SMEs open purse strings

AN IT company which provides software and support to SMEs is predicting a 10% rise in sales to £8.6m in the year to June 30.

JMC.IT, which is run by a management team led by managing director Andrew Burgess, said that after experiencing a couple of years worth of turnover declines from a peak of £10m in June 2008, the expected sales increase was a result of returning confidence among its SME customer base.

“We’ve found the difference this year is that confidence has returned to the private sector of the economy which means that people will then take decisions to replace their IT equipment,” he said.

“Quite often, they’ll struggle along with something that they know needs replacing and try to squeeze another year out of it.”

Burgess said that orders at the company, which is based at Agecroft in Salford, have improved across the board. JMC.IT originally started life as a software developer creating accounting platforms for small businesses 30 years ago.

However, it now earns more than half of its revenues from annual support contracts for SMEs across the north of England.

“Most of our clients are in an area 50 miles north and south of the M62,” he said.

“We’re a lot more confident about the future of our business and we have a more positive view of the market.

Burgess added that the firm plans to recruit a further 10-15 staff members by the end of the calendar year. It currently employs around 75 people. many of whom have been with the firm for years.

“I’ve been here for 21 years and I’m only the tenth-longest serving member of staff.”
Burgess joined two years after the company’s founders sold the business in 1987 to a management buy-in team.

He led a secondary buy-out of the company in 2003 and owns around half of the shares, with the remainder being split between the rest of the management team. He said that the company has an ethos of making all staff are looked after, though, and JMC.IT made the Sunday Times’ Best Companies To Work For list for the seventh year running earlier this year.

Burgess believes there are hard-nosed commercial reasons for pursuing such awards, rather than them just being something to have on the boardroom table.
“Customers can buy our products or services somewhere else, but they can’t buy from our people and they’re our unique product.

“If we create a nice place to work and the employees want to stick with us then the clients will also stick with us,” he said. “We’re obsessed about finding and keeping the right people.”