An IT entrepreneur who sold his company three years ago for an undisclosed sum is back with a new venture.

Chris Howard is Director and CEO of Arrival Consulting Ltd, trading under the name Arrival.

Describing himself as “a natural sort of geek, techie person”, the 41-year-old said Arrival aimed to be very different to other IT businesses.

He said: “We are an IT company but IT support is not our focus.

“We want to take it up a notch, focusing on consultancy rather than the typical IT support where you’ve got people crawling around under desks installing computers.

“We want to be working more closely with companies, more of a partnership and more of a strategy partner.”

One stand-out service offered by Arrival will be providing clients with their own Virtual Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Chris Howard.

Chris, who lives in Bournemouth, said: “It’s for companies who want a CIO but don’t want to pay an £80,000 salary to have somebody looking after their technical stuff.

“It’s the way forward.

“Rather than having somebody sitting in an office in your own building who goes off sick, has holidays or is limited in their skillset, you’re paying a much cheaper price for a whole pool of resources.

“Instead of one person you get a bunch of ideas.”

David Coleman, Arrival’s Chairman, added: “Our Virtual CIO means that the company gets support that is up to the minute and is knowledgeable about current and future trends.

“We see this as the main part of the job.

“To be right at the edge of what’s happening in terms of IT development.

“When you have employees it’s harder for them to stay as current as Arrival will be.”

Other services offered by Lymington-based Arrival include:

• Process automation and improvement.
• Data visualisation and utilisation.
• IT relocation management.
• Vendor selection and management.
• Hyper-cyber security package.

Chris said Arrival’s five-strong team were highly experienced in the IT sector.

He said: “Our Account Managers are relationship builders.

“They’re responsible for looking after the client, building relationships and making sure they have everything they need.

“They have a good baseline of technical knowledge and then they lean on the technical guys here to expand that knowledge.

“The rest of us are techies.

“I’m not going to be running the business as such but trying to do what I actually enjoy which is the techie side.

“We will look after people exceptionally well and we will hand-hold.

“We understand that clients are using our services because they can’t do it for themselves.

“There are a lot of IT companies that don’t have respect for the customer.

“We will be very different.”

David Coleman.

David, 61, whose other business interests include finance technology (fintec) specialist DAL Strategy Ltd, said he had known Chris for several years and was “bubbling” with excitement.

He said: “The role of Chair has a lot of fun in it.

“You can see what the opportunities are and can support the business and the people in it.

“I can see the fantastic opportunities ahead for Arrival.

“I’m very used to the world that Chris lives in and it’s a great fit.

“I hope to be able to support Arrival on the strategies of delivering extreme high growth with great customer satisfaction.”

Arrival’s launch comes three years after Amica Technology was acquired by Telappliant.

Co-founded by Chris, and Shaun White, in 2013, the Ferndown-based IT services provider had grown to 25 staff and a £2.5m annual turnover.

It was the second company Chris had created and sold after founding Rejuvenate Group in 2009 and selling his share in the business four years later.

The former student at Bournemouth School for Boys started his IT career in 1997.

Chris said: “Arrival is a fresh start for me.

“I’m a natural sort of geek, techie person and I like all of that stuff.

“This time I will be leaning on a lot more outside help to run the business.

“We’re building clients from scratch.

“People have heard that we’re starting again and been in touch to say that they’d like to be included on our client list at some point.

“A typical client for us can be any size really.

“They tell us what their problems are and we recommend solutions.”

• arrival.co.uk