Success Stories

Few start-up companies achieve the phenomenal rate of growth experienced by Knowledge Dock Business Centre (KDBC) licensee, Computer Technicians Ltd. Since starting-up in May 2006, the company has grown from being a one-man outfit to a dynamic organisation that now employs over fifty IT engineers.

The driving force behind the company is UEL BSc Computing graduate, Michael Worgs. Michael first dreamed up the idea of starting up his own company whilst working for BT as an Analyst Programmer during his placement year.

“Whist I learned a lot during my placement year, I quickly realised that I wanted to work for myself one day. The whole 9-5 culture did not appeal to me. I wanted to construct a working environment where I could dictate my own working patterns and work on projects that were of interest to me; it soon became apparent that self-employment was the only route that would enable me to achieve this” explains Michael.

Upon graduating in the summer of 2006, Michael quickly set about achieving his ambition by starting out as a freelance IT engineer working for SMEs and charities on web-design and IT support projects. To his delight clients kept coming back for more support and word quickly grew about the excellent service Michael was providing. 

It was at this point that Michael realised he needed to expand his business if he was to maintain the high-level of service that he was providing to his clients. In need of support to develop his business model, Michael turned to the Knowledge Dock HotHatch.

“The HotHatch provided me with a foundation to build my business upon. I received a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from the business support team there and their programme of workshops are highly informative and practical – just what you need when you are starting out. In addition, through the HotHatch, I was also able to access a considerable amount of market research which helped to define my business model.”

Whilst conducting his research Michael discovered that his former employer BT was looking for IT companies to provide engineering support for their home and business markets. Keen not to miss out on this opportunity, Michael met up with his former employers to discuss their needs and subsequently submitted a bid for the contract.

Computer Technicians ended up winning a contract from BT to provide IT support to their customers, initially covering a patch of 50 postcodes within London . Since then the company has gone from strength to strength. On the back of their performance BT has awarded the company a number of new contracts and the company now covers a territory spanning over 700+ postcodes which extends to the outskirts of Birmingham . At the same time Michael has also seen his company grow from three engineers at the beginning of the contract to an impressive fifty plus engineers - all achieved within a six-month time frame.

This impressive performance has also seen Computer Technicians Ltd move from the HotHatch to one of KDBC’s Incubator units in order to accommodate the company’s expanding workforce.

“I was very keen locate my business within the Knowledge Dock Business Centre because I still wanted to be linked to UEL. At the same time I also wanted to give something back to the institution that has given me so much”.

In fact the company is currently in the process of launching a new training school that will help students gain vital work experience out in industry and at the same time help them to obtain professional IT qualifications such as Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP). What’s more the company intends to offer these courses to UEL students for free.

“One of the biggest problems faced by graduates now-a-days is that what they are taught in the lecture room is not necessarily the skills and knowledge that employers seek in IT graduates. The vision for the training school is to help graduates become more employable by equipping them with the skills and knowledge that companies look for when recruiting IT staff”.

On his future plans for Computer Technicians, Michael is already busy putting the final touches to his 5 year-strategic plan.

“Within the next 5 years I envisage Computer Technicians being a national company, either by organic growth or via a franchising system. I am also looking to make our service more accessible and we are planning to launch a new membership scheme that is based on the Friends & Family model…..In addition, the growth we will experience over the next few years will hopefully provide us with the funds to invest in R&D to develop new products and services”.

For further information about Computer Technicians Ltd, please visit www.computer-technicians.co.uk