Northampton IT company that grew from an 'idea at the pub' celebrates 20 year anniversary

A Northampton-based IT company is celebrating their 20 year anniversary this week.

Adaptive IT is a global award-winning dynamic technology company specialising in the healthcare marketplace. It provides a range of state of the art technology to support the NHS, education, SME, not for profit and corporate clients.

The company, which is based in Moulton Park, is celebrating its 20 year anniversary on Friday, January 21 and - to celebrate - they have announced the two charities their team of 22 employees will be fundraising for this year: Stroke Association UK and the Gosset Ward at Northampton General Hospital.

Director of partnerships and programmes for the NHS at Adaptive IT, John Richardson, said: "The Stroke Association is very close to us. My colleague, our operations director, had a stroke in 2020. He was a fit healthy young man and had a nasty stroke, which he is still recovering from. He has since returned to work.

"The Gosset Ward was the suggestion of one colleague, whose daughters were in the special care baby unit when they were born.

"All staff voted on who they wanted to support this year. This is the first time we have done something like this and I am looking forward to getting involved in some daft things and raising money for charity."

Ideas for fundraising activities put forward by employees include activities such as abseiling and even keeping a swear jar in the office.

Adaptive IT was born out of a casual discussion at a Northampton pub 20 years ago when a group of friends decided they were not happy with their IT jobs.

John, who was one of the founding directors of the business, said: "Myself and my colleague, Ross, were working at an IT company in Wellingborough and that did not work out for us. We had friends working at an IT company in Northampton as well and that didn't work out for them either.

"One day, we all went for a drink in the Road to Morocco pub on Bridgewater Drive, we sat around a table and said we are all working in IT and it's not working out so let's give it a go.

"The following day, Adaptive IT solutions was born."

The team went from working from an outbuilding in a friend's garden to operating from their head office in Moulton Park and, just two years ago, being approached by a 'huge' supplier, CLB Acoustic Monitoring, which designs products to support care staff. This includes a device that monitors residents in a care home to alert staff if a resident has a fall in the night, is choking or having difficulty breathing, etcetera.

CLB Acoustic Monitoring have a presence across both Europe and the US but Adaptive IT are currently the only company in the UK, who stock the technology.

The Northampton business has continued to go from strength to strength, winning the 'broadband, internet, telecommunications and computers' category award at the Care Sector Suppliers Awards 2021 and becoming finalists at the 2021 AV Awards in the 'public sector project of the year' category.

John added: "We try to be a family to our businesses so not too corporate but understand we have got to get things done. We try to be a friendly and approachable company and we are looking to grow the team by six employees this year.

"We are looking forward to 2022. It's a great company with great people."

To find out more about Adaptive IT, visit https://www.adaptiveit.co.uk/