And so ends another year at Turnkey. A success? I think so.

In a year when the doom mongers were talking down the industry, we've just had our best year ever.

New customer adds well up on last year. Revenues up, margins up and levels of optimism well up. And looking forward, we've a steady order book which takes us well past Christmas.

So why are we doing so well when others in the IT industry all around are muttering darkly, tightening belts and predicting the end of the world?

If pushed to give a one word answer, I'd say 'care'. We might not get it right every time but customers, both old and new, know that we care and we want to do the right thing by them. So, even when we hit a blip which is invariably caused by work arriving in the occasional deluge rather than an easily-managed steady stream (chance would be a fine thing) they stay resolutely supportive.

Thus as new sites come on board, upgrades are requested, support calls and development requests arrive by phone, fax, email and the web support portal, we can find ourselves apologising as we seek to re-schedule. But as long as we show we do care about getting it right and communicate that sense of caring, customers are very forgiving people.

Ups and downs in service are tolerated and even recognised as inevitable to some degree, but any sense that nobody cares is not.

The proof of the pudding? In the last 5 years, I can recall only one site that felt moved to take its support elsewhere and 10 times that who have moved to Turnkey. In this industry, these are exceptional statistics.