We spoke to CEO, Stuart Moseley about launching his business at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2021 to helping charitable organisations by donating refurbished IT equipment.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role
I’ve run IT companies since 1995 and been in the IT industry since I was 18 buying and selling all types of computer equipment, I remember when a 200MB (yes 200MB hard disk) cost £20k, I sold loads of them in the late 80’s, but bought more than I actually sold (other colleagues sold the rest), the art of being a good buyer has always stuck with me, if you can buy at the right price then you’ll always be able to sell your product, not quite the same with a service as you need to be at the top of your game in the IT industry to get repeat business, which we do. How times have changed when the 200MB disk cost more than £20k, now its more like 20TB for £20, not quite that cheep yet but in the not to distance future the cost per TB of disks will probably be far cheaper.
Fun stuff out of work, some people would say the words running and fun don’t belong in the same sentence, but each to their own I guess. I love pushing myself in ultra marathons I have 3 lined up for 2023, i’ll see if I can finish these! I can generally can be found at the back of the pack, but someone has to be their I guess, for me racing and training its about switching off from the hustle of life. I love running, cycling & swimming with my wife, we encourage each other, she’s signed us both up for a half ironman in July! So we have a busy 2023, with developing the business and the fun stuff we get up to.
Can you tell us more about what IT Hardware Services do?
We are a specialist IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) business providing end of life IT equipment disposal services, our Jersey warehouse is in St Ouen’s were we were fortunate to take on the Old telephone exchange in July last year, it’s the building with the 3 radio masts near to the hospice charity shop, this move has allowed us to grow the business with new services and ideas, plus it’s such a beautiful part of the island to work from whilst the occasional look out the window to the green fields is amazing, after all our business is about protecting the environment wherever possible. We have a small office in Guernsey servicing clients there manned by our Guernsey business development chap.
We work with Channel Island clients to remove their redundant IT assets, our main focus is on destruction of client’s data, specifically hard disk drives of various types, backup data tapes and any device that contains client’s data, we have a couple of shredders that destroy the data on the drives beyond recovery, these are like industrial paper shredders but specifically designed to shred drives rather than paper. As a business we refurbish as much IT equipment as possible, generally selling to our business partners in the UK and via our local e-shop selling refurbished products locally.
One great initiative we have launched late last year is identifying and donating refurbished equipment to local causes, as a company we just love helping charitable organisations with donations of refurbished equipment. We donated 11 refurbished Lenovo laptops to the Jersey Sea Cadets and Healing Waves received 3 laptops, it’s great knowing that we can help organisations in our own unique way.
How long have you been a member of Digital Jersey?
I moved to Jersey the week before lockdown in March 2020, from the other island, with the help of DJ I gained a business license that allowed me to settle. I then married a Jersey girl and bought a house so Jersey is now my home, which I love.
What do you like most about being a member Digital Jersey?
DJ is a community that can showcase members achievements and help businesses network and engage with each other. Plus they have useful contacts if your ever trying to find a solution to a problem that your struggling to solve. As a new business we entered a couple of categories in the Jersey Tech awards, despite not winning either of the categories we entered, the judges decided to award us a new category ‘Judges Choice’, we felt like we won the lottery that night, it’s certainly helped us get noticed.
What exciting projects or tasks has your team been working on recently, what do you have coming up in 2023?
Having launched our new business at the height of the pandemic in January 2021 to provide IT hardware services to businesses across the Channel Islands from large international financial houses to one off Mrs Jones buying a laptop, so we have developed our business into a great hardware company, the most exciting project that we have just launched is our e-shop aimed at supplying hardware locally. We kind of think of this e-shop as a UK shop with great prices but even better service as we are local, we don’t have a normal shop but the e-shop will soon be full of all sorts of new and used IT equipment, so were excited to launch this recently.
We hope to develop a charity portal where local charity organisations can request equipment and we then match their need with equipment coming out from our clients, once we have processed any data holding elements in the correct GDPR compliant manner. We are excited for the next 12 months, to just develop the business to the next stage.
How would you describe the company’s workplace culture? Is there anything the team do together outside of work?
I’d like to think we are an experienced fun to work with company, both Simon my fellow director and I cycle to work regularly so that’s a common interest we discuss. Here in Jersey we are a small but dynamic team of 4 including Devin our young apprentice whom joined us in November. Devin is learning the industry and more to the point enjoying the job and the variety of tasks he is learning, so that shows were doing something right with our culture. We are looking for a couple of additional people to help with our e-commerce sites as we have so much stock in parts/ components we just don’t get the time to get them sold. As a company we are expanding and will take time out to team build in the summer months.
What’s the go-to music you listen to in the office?
I listen to most types music, including Virgin Radio, however when I need to concentrate it always Ludovico Einaudi, his music lets me get in the zone.
What’s the go to office snack?
Every Monday morning one of us brings in the supplies of bread, milk, ham, cheese so we don’t need to leave the office at lunch time, being a little way out from the nearest shop it’s easier to make our own snacks. The item that never lasts any length of time is chocolate fingers, generally devoured by me!
What advice would you give to someone looking at starting their own IT business?
That’s a great question, if you have an idea that you want to launch don’t expect it to take off overnight, you may have so much enthusiasm for your idea but others may not so whilst a business can take off overnight it’s generally long hours and trial and error. I’ve been in business since 1995 and i’m still learning, so be prepared to learn and adapt to change, but above all enjoy what you are doing, after all you are in work for a huge amount of your life, if you’re not enjoying it, go do something else.
Each month, we will be selecting a member to showcase the amazing work they are doing in the digital industry.
If you are a member and would like to get involved please email [email protected]
