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From a Computer Science and Unix background, Steve Marvell, the proprietor of Devon IT, left academia to join the world of professional IT. After three years working in development, support and systems administration, he joined the contracting market.

Working with the Post Office, who have some of the largest computer systems in the country, Steve brought his systems architecture and project management skills to bear on large scale, highly available systems for Parcel Force at the main data centre and the new National and International sorting hubs. He was given an award for his work.

Viacode required highly scalable and fault tolerant software for a pilot ecommerce project scaling to five million users. Astra Zeneca benefited from the ability to analyse large data sets and the FA Premier website (http://www.4thegame.com/) was made possible by quickly extracting data from five years of hand written match reports.

Steve Marvell then started an IT company in London with his good friend and business partner, Mike Ashton. With a mission to give clients what they wanted; high quality solutions, on time and at a sensible price. This company found success with clients such as Amstrad, Vizzavi, The Guardian, Credit Suisse First Boston, LIFFE, Ford, Siemens and BT.

After some time, and given the fact that Steve didn't want to live in London, the size of the company became such that a choice had to be made; move to London, or, as was the case, leave the company in the hands of Mike and move to Devon for a more peaceful and pleasant existence.

Devon IT was founded to house the desire to provide services in a region which lacks diversity in the IT sector. With local IT companies predominated by Web Designers of various quality, and systems and software engineering companies following narrow bands of technology, Devon IT quickly found its niche.

Local IT companies such as Applegate Media and Castle Links have benefited from IT and systems knowledge, and such clients as Saunton Sands Golf Club, Broomhill, the Theatres, and the North Devon Festival from software engineering and web technology skills.

By carefully selecting local, high quality IT companies to work with, such as graphic designer, hardware suppliers and marketing companies, Devon IT can offer a solutions complete package, whilst keeping the things local, an important aspect of local economic growth.

Steve still keeps his hand in the academic world, having close links with Exeter University and the Exeter Complexity Network. Continued study allows new techniques to be used in solutions, whilst keeping in touch with local IT users, such as the Linux User Group and Perl Mongers, keeps technology skills up to the minute.