20 years ago, to the month, junior salesman Glen Jewell started working for George Troullis who had just taken the reins at a Southampton based business Software Company. The company, Gresham Business Computers, was in a dreadful state but with a combination of youthful ambition and hard work the business prospered.


Two decades on and the duo are managing the affairs of Blue Rock Systems, a relatively young but rapidly growing software house offering software solutions to the Building Supply Chain – from buying groups, through to manufacturers, merchants and retailers.


“I’ll always remember the first order we took in the merchants sector which was a pivotal point in our history”, recalls George. “It was for a 5 branch merchant based in Dorset and we’d competed against the leading competitors of the time, virtually all of whom have now ceased to exist. I’d like to think that the customer bought from us because of our professionalism, keen pricing and because we are likeable chaps but I have a nagging doubt that on the day we visited to negotiate and collect the order, the fact that Glen hobbled in with a leg injury with me bent double with back problems meant that the customer placed the order out of sympathy!”.


Interesting enough, some of the branch managers from that original installation have bought systems from Blue Rock and are now running successful enterprises in their own right.
“In 20 years we have worked through recession, Millennium upgrades, the birth and explosion of the Internet and Email and more recently E-Commerce and solutions for remote workers and salesmen. Innovative software and solutions has always been the key and we still firmly believe we have the edge”, continues George.


“Apart from a 2 year sabbatical, when Glen became involved with  Microsoft products , which now form a cornerstone of our business we have worked together in this field and guesstimate that over the time we have supplied some 470 mid range systems to distributors, merchants and more recently building product manufacturers. There was some inevitable pain along the way but the vast bulk of the installations were exceptionally successful and the team still maintain customers from the mid 80’s.”
“We’ll we’ve always gained a “buzz” from watching our customers prosper, in part, because of the work we do so we thought we take a few of these (including one of the original branch managers from the inaugural installation) for a few beers and some food at a forthcoming football match – I just hope that Glens leg and my back holds out!”.