Business partners first. Technology people second.

We started by building technology. We stayed to take responsibility for it.

Tristar didn't begin as an IT support company. In 1999, we started as a web development agency, building websites at a time when having a serious presence on the internet was still relatively new.

Then our own IT support company went out of business.

Suddenly, we were the client left wondering who was going to look after the technology we depended on. We didn't particularly enjoy being in that position, but the experience changed the direction of the business.

Around the same time, our web clients started asking us a surprisingly simple question: "Can you look after our IT as well?"

It sounds like an odd request now. We were a web agency. We designed websites. And yet clients were asking us to manage their IT.

Today, web development and IT support are obviously different businesses. Around 2000, they weren't necessarily seen that way. For many business owners, websites, email, the internet, networks and computers were all simply "computer stuff". The internet was something you dialled into, and the person who could get your website online was, understandably, the person you called when the office computer stopped working. If they already trusted us with their website, asking us to look after the rest didn't seem like such a strange leap.

So, in 2001, we launched Tristar Support alongside our web business.

That's when we discovered what IT support really means.

We quickly learned that looking after someone's IT is very different from building them a website.

A website is a project. You build it, launch it and continue to develop it as needed. But IT sits inside the business.

It affects how people work every day, how information is protected, whether employees can do their jobs and whether the business can keep operating when something goes wrong.

Looking after it isn't a project with an end date. It's an ongoing responsibility.

And we found that we liked that responsibility.

Over the following 25 years, technology changed enormously. But the underlying need has barely moved. Businesses still need somebody who will take responsibility for the technology they depend on.

That's the role we found in 2001, and it's the one we still play. It means understanding the business behind the technology, owning the systems people rely on rather than just fixing them when they break, and knowing what needs attention now, what can wait and where technology can genuinely help the business move forward.

Today, Tristar provides managed IT support, cyber security, cloud solutions, web development and managed hosting to businesses across the UK.

When our own IT company disappeared, we were left holding the problem. Tristar has been built around doing the opposite: understand the business, take responsibility for the technology it depends on, and be there for the long term.

“Values” is a word that gets used a lot. But what does it really mean?

For us, a value is a principle that shows in our work and it governs how we make decisions. It isn't something aspirational.

So we've tried to make ours as concrete as possible and included an example from our work.

Curious

We don't assume we understand something just because we're supposed to be the experts in the room. We'd rather ask questions, challenge our assumptions and understand how your business really works before deciding what the technology should do.

What this looks like in practice: Sometimes we'll ask questions that might seem obvious to you. We'd rather risk looking like we don't know something than pretend we do. Because quite often, the answer to the obvious question changes the problem we're trying to solve.

Problem Solvers

We don't believe in simply fixing the symptom and moving on. We look beyond the immediate issue to understand what's causing it, then find a practical solution that makes things better for the long term.

What this looks like in practice: If the same support ticket keeps coming back, closing it again isn't good enough. We investigate why it keeps happening and work to fix the underlying problem, even if it’s not primarily a technical cause.

Humbly Confident

Our experience gives us the confidence to make clear recommendations, but not to pretend we always have the answer. We listen to different perspectives and are honest about what we know and what we still need to find out.

What this looks like in practice: If we know the right course of action, we'll tell you clearly and explain why. If we're not sure, we'll say so, investigate it and come back with an answer rather than bluffing our way through it.

Responsible

Our clients trust us with systems their businesses depend on every day. We believe that means taking responsibility for the consequences of our advice, not simply whether the technology works.

What this looks like in practice: If your current systems can safely do the job for another year and cash flow is tight, we'll tell you to postpone or phase the upgrade, even if selling you everything now would mean more revenue for us.