IT
CIRCLE OF
Support – Circle Cloud sales director Andrew Ballantyne with AbacusBean MD Bev Goodall( left)
TRUST and HR2day MD Nicky Jolley.
WORDS: DAVE ROBSON
Clients praise IT firm’ s expertise
PICTURES: CHRIS BOOTH
From the very start, Stockton-based Circle Cloud has specialised in IT support for SMEs.
But when gauging its excellence, don’ t just take the firm’ s word for it – because its SME clients are happy to provide glowing testimonials.
Despite – or probably because of – a policy of only working with SMEs, Circle Cloud notched up an impressive 31 % growth rate last year, looking after more than 100 clients.
And the impressive progress has continued in 2025, allowing it to move into a larger space at its current base in Stockton’ s Fusion Hive complex and even consider purchasing its own office building.
Circle Cloud is currently recruiting for two additional roles so it can offer yet more support to the clients who trust it implicitly with their IT support and cybersecurity needs.
And as Tees Business chats to two of those clients, that trust is obvious – whether they’ re operating from Darlington, Stockton or even the Seychelles!
Bev Goodall is MD of AbacusBean, an award-winning accountancy firm based in Stockton with clients across the UK and further afield.
Since launching in 2018, Bev’ s company has become a trusted accountancy expert in several sectors, particularly tech, gaming and charity.
And since the start, it’ s had Circle Cloud right behind it for all its IT needs.
Bev – who won the Unsung Hero title at the latest Tees Tech Awards – explained how she first met Circle Cloud’ s founders, Tom Roberton and Michael Povey, when she helped mentor them during Teesside University’ s start-up incubator programme Launchpad in 2014.
She said:“ From the start, I could tell they were setting up a great business, so they’ ve looked after us since I set up AbacusBean in 2018.
“ They are user-friendly, they are human and they pick up the phone when we ring. And we don’ t get any,‘ Oh, we can’ t do that’ or‘ we can’ t help with that’ – they embrace whatever problem we throw at them and somebody fixes it, usually pretty quickly.
“ So that’ s what we really like about them – they’ re not robots, they are human, friendly people who really know their stuff.”
And even if that means contacting the Seychelles, Circle Cloud help is always at hand.
Bev explained:“ Our account senior, Maria Nichol, loves to travel, so she’ s worked remotely around the world since October 2023.
“ She’ s been all over – Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Australia – and is currently in
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