In a recent interview for Switch on to Swindon, CEO Mike Conner explained how Appsbroker started, its plans for growth, and how Swindon needs to adapt to the changing tech landscape to find the new workers of the future.
Business ambassador partnership Switch on to Swindon launched the TechSwindon campaign with over 400 business partners in June. Already reported as the UK’s third most productive tech sector, with impressive local talent such as Appsbroker; Swindon’s digi-tech cluster is set for impressive growth.
Mike has called on Swindon’s business community to embrace the future of tech collectively through projects like TechSwindon. He said:
“It’s easy to sit in a bubble of your own business, but it’s so important, especially for finding the right talent, that we are also shouting about why Swindon is a great place to live and work.”
One of the main reasons Mike chooses Swindon to launch and operate his business is financial.
“The economics of building a business is Swindon is compelling,” he explained. “You can buy a four-bed house here for £300K and be cycling in beautiful countryside within minutes – you can’t do that anywhere along the M4. It’s been a real driver for recruiting staff.”
Mike, who started his company in his garage in 2007, knew cloud-based technology was part of the future for companies’ IT solutions.
“Only 10 per cent of corporate IT service hosting is in the cloud at the moment, this is expected to grow to 70 per cent over the next five years. My hope is that as a company we can keep pace and grow with the market to a company of 1,000 overv that same period.”
With all this growth, recruitment could be a concern. Mike said:
“We are always hiring. Not only do we have to think of innovative ways to attract potential staff, but we have to create new avenues into employment for the younger generation. Swindon needs to develop more young people into software engineers so we have created an apprenticeship programme and we support Swindon’s Institute of Technology, to do just that.”
Mike, a keen cyclist and surfer, also believes in building a staff culture around opportunities.
“We listen to what our staff want to do, from pub quizzes; mountain cycling trips; away days on a private island; helicopter tours, it’s all vital in recognising our amazing staff and having fun with them,” he said.
Appsbroker became a Google Premier Partner in 2016 and is both the number one vendor of G-Suite licences in the UK and the highest driver of Google Cloud Platform revenue across Google Cloud’s partner base in the UK. They also work with a number of large global investment banks, specifically looking at regulatory compliance work, which is a big part of their growth plans.
“Appsbroker has always focused on Google Cloud as a technology leader,” said Mike. “The bit that really interests us is the use of data platforms and how machine learning is evolving. It’s an exciting time to be working in tech, especially in Swindon.”
To find opportunities at Appsbroker check out their website here.
