Our company history spans almost a quarter of a century. We hope it will last many more! The story begins in the West Midlands, at the very end of the previous millennium...
A company is born in the Midlands
1999
Google is one year old, we save our precious files on floppy discs, and mobile phones – which weigh the same as a bag of sugar and are almost as big – are only for “Yuppies”.
Electro Comm Digital Services is founded in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire to provide ICT services for business customers in the West Midlands. It will operate for many years as Electro Comm before its name changes to Flywheel IT Services.
2000
Microsoft develops the first tablet computer that’s light enough to hold with one hand.
2001
Apple releases the iPod and we’re all extremely excited. It’s the very beginning of a new era of handheld devices.
”Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Sir Winston Churchill
An IT consultancy opens in London
2004
Nexus Associates is founded in Winston Churchill’s former constituency of Woodford, Essex to provide consultancy and project management services to constructors in the education sector.
Somewhat less importantly, this is also the year Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook.
2005
In this big year for technology fans the world over, USB Flash drives replace floppy disks and both Google Analytics and YouTube are unleashed upon us.
2007
The first iPhone model is released, future Flywheel founder Matthew White buys one and he is never the same again.
”There are 1,000 reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.
Rudyard Kipling
Flywheel enters the story
2013
Nexus Associates ushers in a new chapter for ICT provision in schools. We completed the Whitmore Park project, which was the very first under the DfE’s new flagship Priority School Build Programme (PSPB). Through this collaboration we helped define the national approach to integrating ICT into school construction projects for the UK, making sure ICT is integrated from the outset instead of shoehorned in afterwards.
2016
Flywheel IT services is founded by our CEO, Australian tech-lover and expert Matthew White. It’s a British company with big ambitions.
Flywheel® is our trading name – the legally registered name with Companies House is Kookaburra Technologies Limited. A kookaburra is an Australian bird that looks like a kingfisher on steroids, and apparently Matthew loves them.
Kookaburra® is also registered as a trademark, so watch this space for new announcements about that!
2017
Flywheel acquires Electro Comm Digital Services, renaming it Flywheel IT Services (West Midlands) Limited. Thanks to hard work, coffee and biscuits, the company now takes care of several hundred small businesses in the Midlands. This subsidiary is headquartered in Bromsgrove, Birmingham and trades as Flywheel®.
”You can have anything you want if you first help enough other people get what they want.
Zig Zigglar
Coming together
2018
Flywheel acquires Nexus Associates, which has established a market-leading position providing school build ICT consultancy and delivery services to building contractors working on Department for Education projects. Nexus Associates (ICT) Limited has its head office in Nutfield, Surrey.
The same year, Flywheel acquires Tek Net, a managed IT services provider primarily to small business customers in the East Midlands. Headquartered in Northampton, Tek Net is renamed Flywheel IT Services (East Midlands) Limited and it trades as Flywheel®.
”Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom.
Jim Rohn
We're stronger united
2018
Flywheel acquires Shop 4 IT, Electro Comm’s sister company which sells security software. The company is absorbed into Flywheel IT Services (West Midlands) Limited.
2019
A new Flywheel subsidiary company is created, called Colwyn Technologies Limited. Its purpose is to provide managed IT support to schools in Britain. This subsidiary is headquartered in Colwyn Bay, Wales.
A company called Gaia, which provided IT support for schools, goes into liquidation and Colwyn Technologies adopts most of its support contracts, also hiring 55 of its former employees. Colwyn provides ICT support for these schools without any interruption to the service.
2020
The first COVID-19 national lockdown is announced in March, and Flywheel springs into action!
We helped over 100 companies continue working from home by setting them up for secure remote network access, in some cases carrying out significant rebuilds of their infrastructure.
We also enabled more than 30,000 British school pupils to continue all their lessons online.
”It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny.
Sir Winston Churchill