Case studies: Multimedia specialist: Tom

Like many of his peers, Tom has combined his skills and experience in IT and multimedia design to ‘work his way up’ from a full-time web developer to a business owner with a growing staff.

Tom’s career in multimedia spans the public and private sectors. He has designed and developed websites, such as intranets and extranets, and deployed bespoke IT training systems for organisations in the UK and overseas.

In autumn 2008, Tom co-founded Diro Systems, a start-up company based in Greenwich, London. Diro Systems delivers managed IT support and consultancy services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK to enable them to run their IT systems more effectively and reduce their costs. Tom is responsible for driving many aspects of the business, including company branding and identity, media and communications, business development, client accounts and people strategies. Tom’s business ambitions have grown out of a passion for IT and multimedia design, particularly graphics.

Multimedia professionals need a range of skills and application knowledge to meet the demands of employers and clients, who commission creative work that must technically function. Like many of his peers, Tom has combined his skills and experience in IT and multimedia design to ‘work his way up’ from a full-time web developer to a business owner with a growing staff. With Diro Systems, Tom draws on his creative and technical skills to deliver powerful business outsourcing services to his clients, which revolutionise the way they manage their IT systems.

After graduating in 2003 with a degree in applied computer science and business management, Tom played professional basketball in Europe. During this two-year period, he also kick-started his freelance career. He achieved this by continuing to study and build upon his degree training, which had focused on both the technical and people-management aspects of succeeding in the IT industry and business. Tom’s initial management training proved invaluable in moving towards his professional and entrepreneurial goals.

In his first position after college, Tom worked as a web developer for an American company whose clients included manufacturers. He went on to secure a number of positions including systems analyst, service desk manager and IT systems manager, before launching his own business some three years later.

As an employee, Tom grasped the opportunity to learn as much as he could ‘on the job’, often picking the brains of colleagues and experimenting with new computer programmes to develop his design eye and technical expertise. These packages included Photoshop, Flash, Macromedia Suite and Microsoft Visual Studio. Additionally, Tom pursued various Microsoft-certified qualifications as well as ITIL and PRINCE2 courses, which consolidated his problem-solving, client service delivery and project management skills.
 
As Tom has developed his skills and gained more formal design credentials, he has earned promotion and secured positions with increased responsibility. This has involved recruiting and developing people. More recently, Tom has concentrated on service liaison to ensure that the Diro Systems team continues to meet the expectation of clients as the business grows. This requires Tom to coordinate the work of his engineers who are located in the back office and onsite.