Our company began as a small part time enterprise, with the aim of teaching the elderly basic IT skills. Working with the elderly gave us a lot of insight into the importance of making a website easy to navigate and was of course personally rewarding. However, the market was somewhat limited, so after some time we decided to move on and explore the exciting world of VR; switching from the basics, straight to the state of the art!

We worked on a number of VR projects, one of the most noted being historic virtual tours of a nuclear power station. These tours are still available and on display for public use in the Devil’s Porridge Museum based in Eastriggs, near Annan. The VR tours have become a main attraction at the museum and have helped achieve some national awards including the coveted Scottish Thistle Award.

As exciting as VR is, we began to realise that it is most definitely a luxury item for large businesses as opposed to a must have service. To cater for everyday businesses we would have to consider their everyday needs. Thankfully, with VR came the discovery of google integration. We began to immerse ourselves in the world of SEO, discovering the secrets behind the optimisation of websites to increase foot traffic.

We realised that optimisation was an essential in today’s climate and so we began to focus more and more on this, discovering the latest tools and tricks of the trade. As useful as SEO is, we also began to see that the backbone of a successful business has many parts to it, certainly too many for one company to cover alone; but what if we worked together?

One of the things every business appreciates is simplicity. By combining forces, we would be able to provide expert digital services and advice without excessive admin or the hassle of communication. We approached some of our friends in the field and initially, 5 businesses offering specialist services decided to collaborate with us, adding print, graphics, legal and videography to our repertoire.

We are now home to 16 specialist businesses, offering a grand total of 97 different services to our clients. Our team effort means that we can offer everything from web design and copywriting, to social media management and app development, all taken care of by specialists.

Our current aim is to perfect our business model. We want to ensure that the process each client goes through is both comfortable and efficient. At the ITO we believe change should be embraced; we will adapt and perfect our service as we learn.

Alongside this, we strive to constantly explore and stay up to date with the latest technology and tools. This is partly of course so that our clients can get the best out of their investment, but also simply to feed a natural curiosity and urge to develop our skills. We invest time and money into exploring the best development options so that you don’t have to, and we have fun doing it.

From the very beginning we have gleaned something valuable from each experience we have had and we are excited to see what the future holds!