Ouseburn Valley firm delivers green solutions to creative industries

DOWN in the Ouseburn Valley, EastQuay IT is benefiting from rubbing shoulders with the area’s creative companies.

The Newcastle firm offers a number of services including website hosting and cloud services, but it’s also attracted a bit of attention for offering green IT solutions that can reduce the amount of energy companies use.

“It’s usually not about the big things,” said EastQuay IT partner Ian Fraser. “It can be something like buying lower power consumption computers instead of the normal Dell and HPs.

“It could be using the cloud and allowing us to host rather than buying a lot of servers.”
EastQuay says some clients have even managed to cut energy costs by up to 80%, and the eco-friendly approach appeals to a number of clients in the creative industries.

The creative sector is a big part of EastQuay’s client base, and it works with many of the largest advertising and design agencies in the region.

“It helps that we support both Apples and PCs and tablets, but creative companies are also interested in pushing boundaries,” said Fraser. “Our customers like us to be quite proactive and to ask them if they want to do this or if they’ve seen that.”

The company opened an office in Leeds around six months ago, and says business across the UK has exceeded its expectations in its first year. It is looking to expand its client base into other industries such as engineering and industrial in the upcoming year.

It recently worked with North Tyneside’s Learning Disabilities Federation to develop its new “GreenHive” system, which saves power consumption by centralising most processes on a server. This approach is being developed by Sheffield’s VeryPC. EastQuay IT partner Giles Wright, a former Canary Wharf analyst said: “As we are now one of the only firms in the region that specialise in working with PC and Mac systems, which creative agencies use day in and day out, this has helped us clear up this market and is something we are focussing on to help take us into different parts of the UK.”

The firm is hosting a free event at noon next Thursday June 28 in Ouseburn’s Toffee Factory to showcase new software. It will feature a prize draw.

Email info@eastquayit.com  to confirm attendance.