Celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, Jolly IT is involved in providing IT support and consultancy services to small and medium businesses around the UK. In its landmark year, we take a look at how Tom Jolly founded and grew the business to provide more than 200 companies with an exemplary service and great company values.
How it all began…
Jolly IT is a true family business. Following a long family tradition of working with technology, the natural progression was to provide a quality IT support business, and so it was that Tom founded the business in 2006.
In Tom’s own words:
“My grandfather was a mechanic in the war with a keen eye for fixing problems with motorcycles. He constantly regaled us with stories of making specialised custom tools on a lathe to fix machines. My father was an electrician who initially worked for Burroughs Corporation as a teenager before it became Unisys, the biggest IT Company after IBM in the 90’s. He described repairing adding machines at Peter Jones in the 70’s and often took me on tours of computer rooms the size of several tennis courts full of whirring cabinets and reel to reel tape!
There is a constant theme running through the generations to work with the latest technology and fix it! From an early age I wanted a trade I could earn money from. It didn’t have to be IT, but with a father and grandfather like mine it made it very easy to follow that path.
I grew up surrounded by circuit boards, cables and soldering irons. I studied computing and IT through school and University eventually taking and passing many Microsoft certifications to become an IT Assistant, IT Manager and then finally an IT Consultant running my own IT consultancy. ”
Tom was able to use his robust IT skills to kick start the business, source an office in Lambeth in South London, and begin attracting clients – some of which are still with Jolly IT today.
Jolly IT grew steadily via word of mouth referrals to acquire more clients and become a respected name in the London technology industry.
In 2011 Tom’s cousin Tony became a partner in the business.
Tony learned to code on the Sinclair ZX81 in 1978, gained an A-level and BSC (Hons) in Computer science and became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer in 1999. This year’s qualifications include a Microsoft Certified Professional in Windows Server 2012 installation.
In addition to formal education, Tony started working in small firms as a technical specialist and over the course of a 20 year career worked up to Board level.
After seeing the potential of Jolly IT and speaking to Tom over a few beers, the deal was done – Tony and Tom became business partners.
Jolly IT flourished with twice the experience available, with many new clients coming on board.
Expansion
In 2013 a second office was opened in Sheffield and Tom relocated to take advantage of the Northern Powerhouse servicing clients in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and York. As the company grew, key business and marketing strategies were reviewed and in 2015, the Jolly IT brand was relaunched to include a new logo and website with a modern and fresh feel. A web manager was employed to concentrate on external and internal web design and offering an online marketing function.
Tom and Tony combined have over 45 years of comprehensive experience in the IT support and services industry and this is applied to all Jolly IT clients – all for a fraction of the cost of an internal IT manager.
Offers, tips and news for our clients – new and existing, too!
To celebrate the business’ 10 year anniversary, we will be holding lots of offers and events for both existing and new clients. Keep checking our website or subscribe to our newsletter to be first to get our 10 year offers!
What the future holds
It’s been a successful 10 years as the company has gradually grown, employed new staff , provided training, sourced new clients and continually reviewed business strategies and clients’ needs. Jolly IT intends to be at the forefront of technology, embracing the advances as they happen, and be the IT support and consultancy business of choice around the UK.
Watch this space!
10 (+ 1) facts you might not know about Jolly IT and its staff
- The company is named Jolly IT because Tom and Tony’s grandfather had a shop called Jolly Motorcycles and Tom wanted to continue the theme
- Jolly IT’s first office was in Brixton, London. They now have offices in London and Yorkshire enabling them to cover the whole of the UK
- As children, Jolly IT’s Company Directors Tom and Tony used to fight over the chairs and cheat at Monopoly at Christmas and Easter
- Daniel is a whizz at web design if you haven’t seen some of his sites already!
- Tom was originally born in Enfield, London but moved north to Sheffield and loves it! He is even the proud owner of a flat cap!
- Tony Has a Pilot’s License and is rated to Fly single prop aircraft
- Casey left behind a life of fun and excitement playing in a local band in order to join the helpdesk. He is currently studying for his MCSA and was born and raised in Sheffield. Don’t try to reach him before his 9am coffee break…!
- Within our musically talented team, we also have Daniel who plays piano, guitar and drums
- Faisal has also recently taken up the harmonica, and he once had a drink with Andy Serkis (Gollum from Lord of the Rings)
- Lewis is a PC gamer through and through, having built a state of the art Virtual Reality unit for online gaming against players around the world
And finally, did you know…? Jolly IT offer generous referral packages for existing clients
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