Cloud network could net Alchemy millions

Peter Swanson

ONE of the region’s leading businessmen is aiming for a £20 million turnover by 2016 after his IT company formally launched its “unique” product.

Peter Swanson’s Alchemy Plus is targeting small and medium size businesses with its cloud computing network Itsmydesktop. The service provides a wide range of products and avoids the need for customers to buy and maintain their own servers.

Already 50 companies in the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeen are signed up and executive chairman Mr Swanson predicts further rapid growth.

At a launch event for existing and potential customers in Inverness’ Kingsmills Hotel he said: “This is day one in the building of a service that will hopefully be sold nationally and internationally in the coming years.

“A lot of the big corporates only want to work with the big corporates, while we are unashamedly focusing on the SME market. I want to see us expand substantially in the Highlands and Aberdeen over the next 12 months then grow further afield by recruiting other firms to sell our product.

“I have great confidence this will become a substantial company because we have a good product and good people.”

Dingwall-based Alchemy currently employs 17 people has a £1 million turnover, but Mr Swanson’s business plan?envisages this hitting £20 million in year five.

“The economic situation has helped us,” he acknowledged. “People are looking for economies and we are getting through doors we would not have done a few years ago.”

Alchemy currently spends 5 per cent of its turnover on training and is attracting local staff who might otherwise have left the area.

“We are building a team and 70 per cent of our staff are local,” Mr Swanson added. “People in IT want to work in an exciting environment and what we are doing is quite ground breaking.”

Itsmydesktop’s existing custo-mers range from single person concerns to a firm with 32 computer users. They specify what level of service they need and choose individual software programmes, with a standard package costing about £60 per user a month.

Servers are currently located within Alchemy’s Dingwall offices but other sites will be sought as the business grows. However, previous plans for a 20,000 square foot ?data centre at Inverness Harbour are unlikely to go ahead. Alchemy still has planning permission ?for the development but advances in technology have removed the need for such large premises.

In the clouds

MECHANICAL and plumbing firm Korrie is one of the first customers to adopt Alchemy’s new network.

The company was established last year by Donnie Fraser, former MD of Tulloch’s Corrie subsidiary who transferred to Rok when the business was bought out.

He left to spend more time with his family, forming Korrie with several ex-colleagues. However, since Rok’s well publicised collapse, the work has flooded in and the company now has 54 employees in Wick, Inverness and Fort William, and is about to move into purpose built premises on Inverness’ Carse Industrial Estate.

“We had a growth plan but it has been accelerated by a year because of what happened to Rok,” Mr Fraser explained. “I was used to being part of a large company with a massive IT system and wanted to get as close as I could to that. Alchemy had pretty much everything ?I needed, but without any outlay. If had bought my own system at the outset I would already have had to change my server to cope with our expansion.”

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