Channel Computing

Peter Graves started out his career as a Grand Prix motorcycle racer. It was an exciting life, but he needed a predictable source of income when sponsorships revenues were low. Peter was based in London at the time and decided to hone up his IT skills. This led him to a career as an IT consultant, providing a steady financial foundation on which he based his racing success, and later became his full time occupation.

It was during a stint in New Zealand where he used his IT expertise working as a contractor for large New Zealand banks and insurance companies, that Peter met Cornish born Anna Barrington. In 2006 they decided to make the move back to the UK. Peter commented: ‘We chose Cornwall to come home to, not only because of Anna’s family connections, but also as we felt it is the only place in the UK that provides the same lifestyle and quality of life we had grown to love in New Zealand.’

And so Channel Computing was born, offering a variety of web marketing and IT services including: development of ecommerce and content managed web sites, search engine optimisation, social media and email marketing - all supported by Pete’s background in project management - plus software analysis, design and consultancy. They have even found the time to start a popular internet marketing course which has been completed by a large number of Cornish businesses.

In the past four years Channel have established a client base that is almost evenly split between customers both in and out of the county – including international clients such as Milan based fashion magazine Luxos.

When Channel first set up business in Cornwall they realised that one of the best ways to interact with the Cornish business community was through business networks, and they have continued to be active in a number of them including the Falmouth Business Club, and the Falmouth / Penryn Chambers of Commerce. Pete says ‘The business networks are a great way to do business in Cornwall. You get to know people and build up their trust and that ultimately leads to a good working relationship.’

The best part about working in Cornwall – people are so friendly. There is also a real sense of community – of being ‘involved’. In Cornwall word of mouth spreads like wildfire – a personal recommendation is always the best kind.’

Channel’s goal is to support businesses to become more entrepreneurial and successful on-line. They like customers to be afforded a large measure of control over their site’s content - Pete says this means that they are not ‘stuck’ with requesting Channel to make changes on their behalf. They can add to, delete and alter content as they please, and this is an important part of making web sites more search engine friendly. He feels that a website should not just look good, it should help a business to make money. He says: ‘The best way a business can make I.T. effectively contribute to their profitability is by viewing their Web development, online marketing, and internal systems holistically - as a single entity.’

When they first arrived in the county, Cornwall Pure Business provided Channel Computing with support with regard to networking and premises as well as marketing. Channel have taken advantage of several business support packages including UCP for recruitment and the Cornwall Business Collaboration Network (facilitated by YTKO).

Some of the web projects they have completed in recent years include the following:

Creating a website and working on the PR, social media and email marketing for the company ‘Steps to Wellness’ – a UK directory of trainers and therapists. Channel Computing created their site with the aim of increasing traffic, creating a comprehensive and manageable directory that can handle large numbers of entries from across the UK, and bringing together the fragmented content of their previous site called ‘Get Well Fit’ into one helpful and usable site. Channel also worked on a newsletter system in order to keep subscribers up to date and well informed.

Channel completed some work for Grow Cornwall - an initiative aimed at providing coaching and development programmes for high growth businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Channel transformed their original website into a user friendly, fully accessible site that supports event registrations, bookings, blogging and a secure information area as well as a system for project tracking and management.

Channel also worked with Cornish company Table B'hôte, helping them to build a new website to showcase and sell their healthy cooking sauces on-line.

To find out more about Channel Computing, visit their website at www.channelcomputing.co.uk