IT firm opens second office in Hertfordshire

With a turnover of £3 million, Newport-headquartered Certus IT operates across a range of sectors, including professional services, finance, sports and education. Its consultancy services include virtualisation, advanced IT storage, backup and disaster recovery and managed IT support services.

It has taken an eight-year lease on a new 2,100 sq ft office in Hemel One, a four-storey office building situated close to junction eight of the M1. The building is also occupied by a number of blue chip firms including Kodak, Ericsson and BP.

The office houses a team of four sales and technical staff and there are already plans to more than double the workforce here in the next six months.

The Mayor of Dacorum, Councillor Herbert Chapman officially opened the new offices in a lunch celebration which was attended by customers and members of the local business community.

Hemel One also marks the beginning of a strategic alliance between Certus and London based software company Five Go Live who will share the office.

On the decision to open an office in Hemel Hempstead, Paul Brown, CEO of Certus IT, explained: “Certus IT has grown significantly over the last few years. Key to this has been a number of commissions via our preferred partner accreditation with industry leaders Dell and Virgin and the opening of our Data Centre division in 2011.

“The launch of our Hemel Hempstead office marks the beginning of a new era for Certus. Whereas our headquarters will remain in South Wales, we have built a strong portfolio in London and the South East, including Premier Global and we are already in talks with a number of key strategic clients in the area.

“The new office will enable us to better service our existing client base in the region, as well as building new relationships. It will also allow us to focus on targeting key clientele along the M4 corridor.

“We hope to grow and expand the team further over the next few months with plans to recruit up to seven new staff. We are liaising with local universities about setting up a graduate training scheme and are in discussions with Dacorum Borough Council who have been very supportive in helping us open at Hemel One.”

Certus IT’s aggressive growth plan includes ambitions to expand its 30 strong workforce to around 80 in the next three years.

Certus IT is housed in a 4,500 sq ft head office at the Celtic Springs Business Park in Newport, and - in addition to the new Hemel Hempstead office, also operates data centres in Newport and Bristol, currently serving over 200 customers across the UK and Europe.

Customers include Millennium Stadium, Go Compare, Freshwater, Broomfield & Alexander, Premier Global, Julian Hodge Bank, Tenovus and Watts Gregory LLP.