We started out fixing computers in a shop in Colindale. Today we're a small team looking after the IT, phones and internet for small businesses, so one team handles all of it.
Harvey and Alex Gordon have worked in IT together since 1999, starting with IF-Tech, a computer shop in Colindale. Plum Networks Ltd is their current company.
We started out fixing computers over a shop counter. The customers who kept coming back were businesses, so that's what we became.
Harvey and Alex opened IF-Tech, a computer repair shop in Colindale, north-west London. Before long most of the people coming through the door were businesses, and the work was more servers and networks than broken PCs.
We closed the shop to focus on business clients. Servers, networks and keeping offices running became the whole job.
For years we were the middle man between our clients and their phone and internet suppliers. Those suppliers aren't usually IT people, and things went wrong when they started changing the network. So we took phones and internet on ourselves. Problems are easier to fix when you look after both ends.
Plum Networks Ltd is a newer company, run by the same people. IT, networks, phones, internet and mobiles from one small team.
“We started in IT back in 1999, as a small shop in Colindale, north-west London. More and more business people started coming through the door, and one day that was our business. What they wanted wasn't more technical. It was someone who could deal with the technical side without making them feel out of their depth.
We've rebranded a couple of times since, but we're the same people at heart. It was never about billing minutes. It's about our customers being safe first, then getting the level of technology they're actually happy with. Some want to be led by IT and invest heavily in it; others just want to know they're protected. We do both well.”
These aren't a values poster. They're the bits we genuinely argue about in standups.
The job is for the phones to ring, the computers to start and the backups to be there when needed. Shiny stuff is a means, not an end.
If something breaks across two of our services, it's one call, one engineer, one fix. The joining-up is our problem, not yours.
You shouldn't have to re-explain your setup to a new person every time you call. We assign a primary and a backup, and they stay assigned.
30-day rolling on services where the market allows it. No long auto-renewals. The contract should be readable in ten minutes.
Light-touch by default, most smaller teams don't want constant meetings, they want IT that just works. When we do sit down it's a real conversation about what worked and what's next, not a PDF dashboard nobody opens.
Helpdesk, on-site visits and billing, all UK-based and handled by the same small team. You deal with the people who do the work, not a call centre or an offshore queue.
A small team. We've been doing this a long time between us, working inside small businesses and telecoms. We hire slowly on purpose, because the relationship is the whole point.
If you've read this far, the next step is genuinely just talking. We don't do high-pressure pitches; we do conversations.
A 30-minute call. Or we'll come to you, if you'd rather.
