Dell tech suits prize winners well

The winners of Dell's Small Business Excellence Award were in London today speaking about they used tech to win.

In an interview with IT PRO Warren Bennett, director of winning company A Suit That Fits, told us about the business' humble beginnings and how Dell's technology is why his tailoring venture succeeded.

"I did a lot of gap years," said the very dapper Bennett, wearing one of his tailored suits.

"I travelled the world and had a thing about getting suits made for me. I kept in touch with my tailors and when I returned David [Hathiramani, co-founder of the company] asked me if he could have one."

From there the pair tried out selling these bespoke suits on a stall in Hampstead market. After selling two in the first 20 minutes they knew they were onto a good thing and this is where the tech got involved.

Both Warren and David had come from engineering and software backgrounds, so knew how to use it to their advantage.

"After that day [at the market] we thought we could put this online so we set up the website overnight, literally staying up all night to get it done Then it was ready to go."

The first server the company owned was a Dell and since then, as the business grew, they added two Dell servers, with one more for back up, and either a Dell laptop or desktop computer in all of its 16 tailoring studios.

"[Using these technologies] is the best way of reaching lots of people and was relatively cheap to set up," said Bennett. "It is the best way for a small business to start out."

So why did they decide to enter the competition?

Bennett said: "We knew Dell wanted to find someone who were their champions, especially who were dealing with the recession well the company has grown 100 per cent since its launch in June 2006 and we saw a good prize on offer."

And a good prize it was too with the winners receiving 15,000 of computers and mentoring by the founder of the computer giant, Michael Dell.

"We used their tech and showed them what we could do," said Bennett proudly.

"We may not be one of their significant [SMB] customers yet but this will help us to become one."

Click here for the story of how last year's winners used social networking to keep their business growing.