Its been an exciting two years for expanding IT firm, Visdata, and with a number of awards under its belt and a growing team at its Burton-based head office, the companys success is showing no signs of slowing down.
Just twelve months ago, the business won the Burton Mails Most Promising Start Up award, coming just two years after it was established by MD Matt Benfield.
Matts ambition was to take an established software product and give it a new lease of life, using the expertise within his newly formed team of ex-colleagues. He wanted to create something different, but admits it was tough trying to balance his vision of a new, refreshing approach to business with the day-to-day running of it.
He said: Setting up any new business is a frantic time. I knew what I wanted to achieve and I knew I had the right people in place to deliver this with me, but its never easy and mistakes were made along the way. But, even being nominated for the Most Promising Start Up award was a sign we were on the right path and was truly testament to the commitment of my entire team to work towards a common objective and really make Visdata an exciting and progressive business.
But the success didnt end there, because in 2015, it was named Business of the Year. Matt admits it was an extremely competitive category, something which he states made winning all the more satisfying and impressive.
Visdata was up against Mercia Marina, a company thats created 150 new jobs in the last six months, and a production company called Iceni who have produced award-winning TV commercials for main stream TV and blue chip companies. Matt said: Given who we were up against, to even reach the finals was a huge boost. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to win the category it was definitely something we will always remember and something were extremely proud of.
The last 12 months have been especially busy for the company. Having been recognised for its innovation and growth with two regional awards, Matt felt the time was right to go into the market and invest in growth. He said of the decision: Some of our new clients can only be described as giants in the business world. Our philosophy for our software is to be innovate and challenge the norm, while building on trusted and proven technology. We really believe in our solutions, which are designed differently and from the bottom up to improve businesses efficiency without compromise.
Matt added: Behind every great company is a great team and at Visdata I am lucky to have found such a fantastic group of diverse and unique individuals. Ive worked in IT for over 30 years and have never witnessed such camaraderie the entire team really wants the business to be a success and theyre all playing a part in its journey.
Ive had praise heaped on me for the success of the business, but the truth is none of the awards would have been possible without the back-up of the rest of the team. Im looking forward to building the next chapter in the companys history reassured that I have a good team in place to face the challenges of the future head on.