Working with sister company Applegarth Communications Ltd, Applegarth IT provides integration in the supply and support of telephony and IT systems, typically to firms with more than 10 PC users and multiple off-site employees.
It has won contracts across the North East and North West of England and in numerous sectors, from small public relations companies to medium-sized hotel groups and large international shipping organisations.
Achieving Microsoft Gold status opens new opportunities to work for larger organisations who often specify gold status as a requirement in employing the services of IT consultants.
Joint managing director Roger Burgess said: “It’s great news for us because it recognises the real skills our team have in installing and maintaining Microsoft systems.
“The award relates to two special areas of expertise in particular at Applegarth, both of which are cornerstones for developing businesses. The first is messaging and collaboration – we are specialists in Exchange Server messaging and helping companies communicate better through electronic format, and the second is networking infrastructure – we design, build, configure and support network systems.
“To achieve the ranking, we had to provide six reference sites to highlight not only the skills of our installation engineers, but also their understanding of Microsoft products. The sites were then carefully assessed by Microsoft to confirm levels of expertise and client satisfaction.”
Applegarth IT, which also has offices in Darlington, has enjoyed success since being launched less than a year ago.
Recent projects include a £250,000 IT installation at a construction group headquarters, and a £75,000 contract to install a hotel booking system, IT systems and telephony for a national hotel group.
Having recently recruited three additional staff to work in technical support, sales and administration, Applegarth IT is projecting turnover of £1m in the next two years.