For the month of December, we talk to Tim Mears, Managing Director of Axon IT and one of the partners of Macclesfield Means Business.

Tim is a proven manager with strong team skills and leadership qualities, driving growth through innovation and an open style whilst encouraging performance management and skills development.

Here, Tim gives us a little insight into Axon and his role.

Tell us a bit about your business?
Axon is what is known as a cloud managed service provider, which in English means our customers outsource their daily IT management for cloud-based services and technical support to automate and enhance their business operations.

We enable and evolve technology in businesses to make sure they make best use of technology to assist and improve their business operations. Our goal is to make technology invisible to ensure our customers are free to do what they do best …run their businesses.

We are now a band of 27 geeks, and support an array of business from a 2-person solicitor to a 900+ nationwide corporate. We also now support businesses in the USA, and across Europe.

Tell Us About Your Role Within The Business?
I hate the title of Managing Director, as I think CAO (Chief Amazement Officer) describes my role much better. I am very fortunate in having the best and easiest role in the business, as my role is to ensure our customers are getting the most benefit from technology, but also receiving the best customer experience possible.

I am lucky that I have a team around me who are far cleverer than me. The majority of my time is spent speaking with our customers, understanding their business pain points and getting the team to provide relevant technology solutions to these problems. I absolutely love my job.

In your opinion, what is the most interesting/high profile/exciting project you or your business has worked on?
We work in the technology sector- the market is so fluid that there is always something new and exciting on the horizon. The natural response to this question would be the digital transformation project of our largest client, which involved a total overhaul of a network supporting 900 users, but in truth due to the vast array of different business sectors we work in, it makes our lives constantly interesting.

To be honest the most exciting projects for me are the ones where we make a real difference. I recently had a business owner ring me to thank me for our team’s efforts and hard work and said that we had not just digitally transformed them but transformed their business – now that’s exciting!

How long has the business been operating and how long have you been based in Macclesfield?
The business was founded in 2001 and started right here in Macclesfield, and we have no plans in changing this. The town has been good to us.

What made you choose Macclesfield as a place to base your business?
Macclesfield was originally chosen as it was ideally located for both customer and employee catchment, and it has turned out to have been the right decision.

What’s the best thing about working in Macclesfield?
Macclesfield has allowed us to attract the best IT Talent from the local and surrounding areas, which is vital for our business. It also allows us to quickly get into Manchester and down to London.

Do You Have Any Specific Future Goals For The Business That You Would Like To Share?
We will continue to improve and we are very proud to be the only Microsoft Managed partner in the area. Microsoft see us as “one to watch”, which is testament to our team’s ability and vision- but we have to continue to improve. We have growth plans so watch this space….