Better Business / dial a geek
Dial A Geek marks 18-year anniversary
The Bristol-based tech cyber support company Dial A Geek has celebrated its 18th anniversary.
Dial A Geek started its journey in the kitchen of the founder Gildas Jones, who wanted to bring accessible and friendly IT support to small businesses in Bristol.
The business began with just Gildas and his laptop; a customer would dial a geek, let them know what malfunctioned, and the geek would solve the issue.
Since then Dial A Geek have come far with several changes to the business including the signature scooter logo, hiring employees, moving to an office at the Fire Station and offering the first apprenticeship.
Dial A Geek have come a long way since it was founded in the Kitchen of the founder Gildas Jones 18 years ago
The next big milestone came when Dial A Geek hired Yusra Shaeik as their second apprentice Since accidentally wiping a PC clean in her job interview, Yusra has come a long way, including a whole range of positions at Dial A Geek, two apprenticeship awards (apprentice of the year in technology and an overall apprentice of 2020), and has become Dial A Geek’s technical director.
The next big step for Dial A Geek was moving away from the break-fix model and becoming a Manage Service Provider. They decided to offer a full, comprehensive, IT management plan called ‘Protect & Grow’ and completely give up on providing ad-hoc support. This decision allowed them to take full responsibility for our clients’ systems and security.
Another milestone was choosing a specialism in cyber security compliance and reworking Protect & Grow so that the three plans are centred around the different levels of cyber security compliance.
Rather than having cyber security as an optional add-on, like many other companies do, they wanted to offer transparent pricing and clearly state that security is crucial in the current climate.
The appointment of Yusra as a technical director has helped them reach multiple cyber-related goals; Dial A Geek became a Cyber Essentials Plus and IASME Cyber Assurance certification body and became National Cyber Security Centre’s Assured Provider.
For aligning itself with sustainability and social impact, Dial A Geek has received the B Corp accreditation in 2023
Recently they won the Best Cyber Company Award at SPARKies 2024, a major regional industry accolade beating several big names in the sector.
By aligning themselves with sustainable environmental and social impact and goals, the firm received the B Corp accreditation.
Speaking on the journey, Dial A Geek said: “Our journey up to date has been an exciting one, we have experience sustained growth, we have stayed on top of the newest tech trends, we have worked with over 1000 businesses in Bristol and across the UK, we worked with some fabulous people, including a whole range of apprentices and a great team of fully-grown IT technicians.
“We are excited for the future – all of our Geeks are constantly training up, the company is always pursuing a new cert, and we are getting to work with bigger and bigger clients.”
All photos: Dial A Geek
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