SSL – Back To The Future Gloucester-based IT specialists Severnside Software Ltd (SSL) are celebrating 30 years of keeping their eye on the future for their clients.
ceiling with computers in boxes. He even remembers one employee setting fire to a computer that had been placed too close to the cooker he was using to make lunch. He said: “Top of the range then was the 486 processor. We thought memory measured in megabytes was impressive and Windows 3.1 was the latest software available. Bill Gates has certainly made a lot of money in the years since then.We were virtually coming out of the green screen terminal stage and floppy disks were still used. “Now we employ around 12 people and, since 2007, we have been based out of Waterwells in Quedgeley.” The company’s latest offering is the Maximiser CRM system, which provides the client with software to keep in contact with customers and track their enquiry to sales pipeline and generally provide a central point of contact with clients, including recording complaints that need following up. Mr White said: “We have also developed a link from Maximiser to Eventbrite. We are doing a lot of work around connecting systems using technology called ‘APIs’. People buy their ‘best of breed’ system suited to their business needs and then we work on interfacing it with their other systems.” Looking into the future, without the aid of a DeLorean, Mr White says he believes AI will be the next big thing for businesses and that the mouse and the keyboard are becoming out-dated concepts and, while serving society well, will soon disappear l For more information visit www.ssl-uk.net or telephone 01452 720250
When managing director Roger White founded SSL back in 1989, he would have given anything to share the time-travelling experiences of Back To the Future character Marty McFly. He could never have predicted that his small one-man business would grow over the next three decades to not only encompass clients across the world, but technology that would make the popular 1980s film seem short-sighted.
Mr White launched the company with a £1100 sale of computer stock and now, he says, he can add several noughts to that figure when he bills clients for not only product, but also IT support, cybersecurity software and customisable CRM packages. And while early clients were based in the UK, SSL has since worked with companies on sites as far afield as Colombia and the US.
Mr White said: “Back in 1989 there was no internet.We worked with dial-up modems. Cyber crime didn’t exist. If a criminal wanted to hack into your system, then they had to dial in via a slow telephone line.They would have probably fallen asleep before they had successfully hacked into your computer network.” SSL began out of Mr White’s bijou cottage, which was often stacked floor to
February 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 39
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