16th October 2008
Data Protection Firm Moves Forward With SWIG

A company that specialises in secure data protection and retrieval is expanding with the support of investment from SWIG (South West Investment Group).

Forward ITC was set up in October 2005 when Rojer and Wendy Isaacson moved from Kent to West Cornwall. The couple heard about SWIG which provides loans to small and medium sized businesses in the region which have viable plans but need to raise more than is possible from the banks and other traditional sources for start-up or growth. When a loan is repaid, SWIG re-invests it in the local economy by supporting other local businesses.

Forward ITC used a SWIG loan to buy essential items of IT hardware and software and to house the servers in a fireproof data centre. This meant that Forward ITC could offer a comprehensive and secure data back-up service to clients. To aid this expansion the company moved from a spare room in the Isaacon’s home in St Agnes to new office premises at Mount Hawke in 2007.

This expansion has already paid off for St Agnes parish Council, which lost essential records following an arson attack. But the Council had wisely decided to use the services of Forward ITC.

Sue Herman, Clerk to St Agnes Parish Council, explained: “The Council have long been aware of the possibility of losing data as the result of a computer crash, so we decided to prevent the situation arising by asking Forward ITC to provide a backup solution.

“Our decision paid almost instant dividends, when all of our equipment was severely damaged in an arson attack some two months later. With their help, we had our data on a loan laptop next morning which meant we suffered the minimum possible disruption to parish procedures.”

Rojer has a background in telecommunications and handling secure data and Wendy has a background in finance and administration so the pair have a wealth of experience to run different aspects of Forward ITC.

Rojer said: “We found a niche in the market which no one else specialises in down here. This niche – data back up - requires trust and confidentiality. I used to be assistant manager of the Whitehall telephone exchange so have security clearance and as we get to know businesses in Cornwall we are more or less doubling our turnover annually.”

John Peters, SWIG spokesperson said: “Rojer and Wendy clearly had excellent credentials for this venture and presented a very good case for support. As a new business, they needed additional finance to get off the ground which made them ideal candidates for SWIG.”