Exeter-based DestiNet is fast becoming one of the country's rising stars in the provision of advanced online business solutions. From a standing start just three years ago, the company has established a client list that includes blue-chip consumer, industrial and public sector organisations on both sides of the Atlantic. These include The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (Lombard), IDN Telecom Plc, English Regional Arts Board, Nationwide Access, Alpha Telecom Plc, BBA Group plc and North Star Gifts Inc and MyCallSavings.com, which was recently awarded Site of the Day status by BBC Radio.
Founded by Managing Director, Trevor Munday and Technical Director, David Hazzard, much of the company's success - it has doubled its workforce in the past 12 months - is attributed to it being a software led, rather than the more common graphics-based, business that produces fully integrated e-commerce solutions.
According to Trevor Munday, the company is constantly striving to find new ways in which delivering a service online will profitably benefit the client. "We then design and develop the application software and interface to enable that service to be delivered," he says. Web design and development is, he claims, just the starting point. Web hosting, co-location and the provision of dedicated servers and an ISP service are also part of the package on offer.
"At a personal level it galls me to see graphic design companies purporting to be experts in providing Internet solutions," says Trevor. "Many have considerable graphic talent, but the majority have little expertise in Internet technologies, hosting, back-office integration and technical support, and no ability to deliver that service." He continues, "From a business perspective, what concerns me is the number of website owners that are simply not getting enough value from their investment."
DestiNet places particular emphasis on consultation and the adoption of professional project management practices. Considerable time and effort goes into establishing each client's needs and keeping them in the communications loop at every stage.
The same attention is paid to selecting the most appropriate hosting platform for each client, which is either shared or, where specific software demands its own server, on a dedicated server. DestiNet's servers are housed in the company's high resilience Network Operating Centre, and are maintained with the latest service packs and fixes. Each is held in a secure environment behind a firewall, providing protection for clients' online solutions and the data they hold. The servers are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and are located in an air-conditioned environment and have UPS and generator power backup.
In the past year DestiNet has boosted every part of the organisation, from designers and programmers to project management, administration and sales and marketing specialists. The business has recently relocated to larger premises that, Trevor Munday predicts, the company will have outgrown within the next two years. DestiNet has also just reached another landmark, with the introduction of its first software product - a newsletter package called NewZapp that is available on annual licence.
