by Sali Earls
ChyGwyn Limited is a based consultancy that advises upon a variety of areas related to the Linux operating system and its applications. The company also sells a range of Linux related products under the banner of the Linux Emporium.
ChyGwyn Limited is an institutional member of the UKUUG and plays an active role in developing free (as in freedom) software. The company's website hosts the Linux DECnet Project kernel documentation which has been written by ChyGwyn staff along with much of the project codebase.
ChyGwyn is based in the Digital Technium at Swansea University, where Sali Earls spoke to company director, Dr Steven Whitehouse.
What's the history of your company?
ChyGwyn Limited started in late 1999 as a consultancy specialising in Linux, and kernel programming in particular.
In October 2003 we had the opportunity to buy
"The Linux Emporium" a business that was originally started as a seller of cheap CDs of Linux, but which has now extended its range to include
books, and commercial Linux distributions from boxed sets to enterprise solutions.
What unique products/services does your company provide?
We provide the widest range of Linux and similar software available in the UK. We also provide consultancy in the areas of infrastructure (e.g. networking and storage, servers and clusters) as well as
embedded applications - we understand hardware, including analogue electronics too!
What's been the key to your success?
Most of the work we do has come through word of mouth recommendation from our existing customers. Both ChyGwyn and the Linux Emporium started small and were slowly built up over time. At no
time did we use external funding, if we couldn't afford it, we didn't do it and this has allowed us to remain in total control.
What one piece of outside technology has benefited your company most?
It's a difficult question to answer. There is a huge range of open source software, and it all benefits our company in that we are able to both use it internally and sell it in the form of cheap CDs and/or
commercial packages.
What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
You need to stay in control of every aspect of your business as much as possible. You need to search out reliable suppliers and be prepared to give out free advice to potential customers as it almost
always will repay the effort in the end. We always try to ensure that every order which is placed is sent out the same day so far as is possible and that way we often outperform larger rivals. One
example of this is the SuSE Professional Update boxed sets (currently at version 9.3), of which (according to the UK distributor) we sell more than any other UK retailer, including some well known
names such as Dabs.com and Amazon.
We generate a large amount of repeat business by using the advantages of our flexibility to ensure that we give as good a service as possible.
Where do you see your company going in the future?
We hope to continue to expand the range of products on offer on our website. We are also continuing to build on the success of our consultancy business and have a number of new projects in the
pipeline at the moment.
Find out more about ChyGwyn Limited at www.chygwyn.com.