Reseller Profile - Andrew Parsonage - Mican, Chester
December 2008
Mican was formed in 1984 to supply computer solutions to businesses in Chester, North Wales and Shropshire. Following development of software for dental practices as part of a final-year Computer Science project, co-founder Andrew Parsonage was chosen to be part of the inaugural Graduate Enterprise Programme at Cranfield Business School. This scheme selected 40 of the most promising graduate enterprise ideas and provided a “fast-track MBA” to help the graduates set up their own business.
During the late 1990s Mican assisted a New Zealand company to expand into Europe, helping them to set up and subsequently supporting their offices in Chester, Oxford, Milan, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Zurich and Frankfurt. When the New Zealand owners decided to sell the company Andrew took the opportunity to study for an MBA at Warwick Business School, which included extensive research into IT within the SME sector.
Whilst working with several local accounting practices to provide accounting solutions for their clients, Mican became aware of the growing dissatisfaction with some of the leading brands and identified Diamond as an excellent alternative and became an Authorised Distributor for Diamond Business Management Systems in 2001. As well as promoting the system locally Mican has also assisted with development, feeding back many ideas for new features.
As a result of this research Mican created Virtual IT Manager – a service designed to provide all of the benefits of an IT Manager but without the costs and commitment of a full-time employee. This has now been successfully delivered to a number of local businesses, helping them to realise the benefits of IT.
Return to category: Newsletter: Brilliant News - December 2008