Balcombe IT company that houses countryside critters celebrates 25 years in business: Interfuture Systems Ltd in Mid Sussex launches new website

Interfuture Systems Ltd was founded in 1997 and provides IT solutions for businesses in Sussex, Kent, Surrey, South London and Hampshire.

It is at The Balcombe Estate Forestry and Sawmill and operates out of a barn conversion that accommodates countryside animals.

Marketing manager Deborah Webb said the staff are ‘thrilled’ the company has hit this milestone.

“It’s gone from strength to strength,” said Deborah, adding that the company offers a ‘friendly, personal service’ and employs people from Sussex.

She explained that computers, which are now essential for businesses, have become more complex since the late ’90s.

“There was an ever-growing need for smaller and medium sized businesses to have access to the sort of help and skills they couldn’t afford to have in-house,” said Deborah.

“We knew from the start that with our support we could enable our clients to operate more effectively.”

Deborah said Interfuture can set up whole infrastructures for companies and take care of their everyday needs, but they also provide support for one-off projects, as well as cyber security options.

“It’s a bit of everything, we’re here to provide any IT system needs,” she said.

On top of its IT expertise, Interfuture also strives to improve its ‘green’ credentials.

The company’s expansion saw it move into its current barn in 2005, creating a base where high-tech operations live ‘harmoniously and sustainably’ alongside nature.

A colony of bats are lodge in the rafters while a family of field mice live under the barn.

Deborah said: “In early summer, we carefully directed a stream of newly hatched bumbling hornets out of the building, while continuing to monitor for cybercrime.”

She said: “There must have been a nest of hornets in the rafters somewhere and every day a couple seemed to hatch. We’d have these huge hornets – they were very docile – fluttering out and it was quite an endeavour to hook them on the end of a broom and direct them out.”

The company cars are all electric and the building is heated by a biomass boiler fuelled by woodchip. Interfuture also recycles paper, card, plastic, batteries and toner cartridges, and adheres to EU rules on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment.