The 25th of March marks the 20th anniversary of Bluecube Technology Solutions.
Founded back in 2003 by CEO James Hawker as a two-man business, the IT solutions and Cyber Security provider had humble beginnings. Beginning in a small high street building in Newport Pagnell, to now having presences in Central Milton Keynes, London, Ireland, South Africa, America and more. Bluecube has gone from strength to strength.
The business has had a rich history of growth, as when James initially incorporated Bluecube, the world of technology was still in its infancy. Thinking back to the IT landscape of the early 2000s, a large majority of technology used then has now completely transformed. Evolving alongside the ever-changing and growing world of technology has allowed Bluecube to continue delivering a dynamic, high-level IT support service. By 2004, Bluecube was awarded Certified Microsoft Partner, a partnership that remains today 20 years later; this allowed Bluecube to become a Microsoft house and Tier 1 Cloud Solutions partner (once the cloud was eventually developed) and this long-standing relationship would later bring many opportunities.
By 2009, with around 17 employees, James was awarded ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’, and an expansion to the Wolverton Mill office on Blackhill Drive followed this. At this stage, the company had grown to 40 employees, but the culture and environment of the office stayed constant, people-focused, fun, and unapologetically human in a technical world – these values would later shape the rebrand.
The world of technology slowly began to incline over the following years, and this was not overlooked; our own developer, James Wilson, had created a brand-new software tool called Lighthouse by 2014, which transformed Bluecube's operations and innovated our systems further, allowing us to enhance our services and secure our first major clients with syndicated desks. From this, we could also begin delivering Disaster Recovery services, which enhanced our cyber security offering and by 2017, we were ISO27001 certified also.
As the pandemic struck in 2020, the need for technology and remote services caused business to boom, and being met with unprecedented demand, we’re pushed to take another step in their growth journey. To complement the growing need for remote solutions, Google Suite and Amazon Web Services were added to our cloud solutions offerings which allowed us to work with more clients and people. It was this surge in demand that acted as a catalyst to Bluecube's next stage of expansion as the need for both more workers and space grew. By the end of 2021, Bluecube made another office move after outgrowing the previous space, to Norfolk House in Central MK as there were over 150 team members by year-end.
2022 allowed things to balance out which presented a great time for the Bluecube rebrand in August. Carefully designed to represent the evolution, attitude and ethos of the business, Bluecube had a whole new look to help communicate how others perceive us, as well as how we do as individuals. Then in September, the Bluecube Academy apprenticeship scheme was launched as a way to open up opportunities within the local area for those who would like to break into the technology industry. This was received amazingly and the aim of starting the apprenticeship scheme was to provide a valuable entry to people wanting to enter the world of technology. At present, we have 37 apprentices in different areas of the business, some of which have gone on to permanent roles after learning the new skills needed for a successful career in technology. This year brought a lot of strength to the company, and by the end of the year, the organisation experienced a record 45% growth. The ongoing success did not go unnoticed, as they also won 3 awards at the 2022 MK & Bucks awards: MyMiltonKeynes Best Business in MK BID district, High Growth Business of the Year and Overall winner.
In the present day, Bluecube exists to be a well-accredited, evolved, and ever-growing IT and cyber security provider. 20 years on, Bluecube celebrates its 20th Anniversary on the 25th of March 2023 and as well as this, the organisation are now also celebrating reaching £20 million in 20 Years and having exceeded over 200 employees globally. Chief Executive Officer, James Hawker says:
"The completion of our 20th year is a milestone, one that is significant enough to take a step back for a moment and reflect on what we have built and the impact that we have had. I am proud to say that it is without doubt a team effort and I am very lucky to have a great team, a lot of whom have been with me from, almost, the beginning.
It is the impact that we have had, on a human level, that resonates with me the most. We have employed many hundreds of people over the years (the majority of whom will be local to Milton Keynes). We have genuinely helped hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of people rely on us every day. We have also donated over £2m to charity over the years.
These are the real aspects of our success that I value the most and the ones that we drive forward in the years to come are the ones that we will continue to focus on."
In this short video, James quite literally walks through our journey so far, visiting our previous office locations and we also hear from some long-standing team members who have been with us along the way. Take a look:
