Pictured above: (l-r)  Susan Poynton from Earnest Machine Product with Will Copley from Armstrong Bell celebrate a decade of working together

Midland business telecoms company Armstrong Bell is celebrating ten years in business with a look back at some key numbers in its history.

In the same week in May 2001 that Steve Jobs opened the very first Apple Store in Washington, Stourbridge-born telecoms specialists William Copley and Jeremy Binns set up their business to supply, install and maintain telephone systems for businesses.

Since then, they have installed more than 500 telephone systems, varying in complexity from two lines with three extensions to large ISDN-based systems which can deal with 100s of simultaneous calls via a network of different sites.

One of Armstrong Bell's first customers was the European office of American fastenings company Earnest Machine Products, suppliers of nuts, bolts and fasteners to the engineering industry. The company, which is still a client of Armstrong Bell today, was planning to move to premises within the Pensnett Trading Estate in Kingswinford.

Susan Poynton, office manager at Ernest Machine Products, said: "Will and Jeremy were recommended to us by a neighbour on the trading estate, so we asked them in to quote. Although they were a new firm this recommendation made us confident they knew what they were doing, and they won the contract. We regularly monitor and evaluate the cost and effectiveness of various business systems, and Armstrong Bell continue to provide us with excellent service and value for money, which is why we've used them for 10 years.

"As well as the phone system set up, Armstrong Bell also set up our IT system, which had to be configured to connect with our USA based file servers.

"We use our telephones in a fairly traditional way, but have kept our telecoms updated as technology has developed. Recently we have added some useful accessories, including cordless headsets, which are a great help to some team members, particularly those in the warehouse who find them very useful given the nature of their job. In the office they come into their own on lengthy conference calls with our American head office."

Armstrong Bell managing director Will Copley said; "Start-ups need careful planning, hard graft and a stroke or two of good fortune. Earnest Machine Products came along at just the right time, giving us a flying start out of the blocks. We've always prided ourselves on developing long-lasting relationships with our clients, many of whom have been with us for some considerable time.

"We've always been focused on offering superlative service - making sure we're always contactable at any time. Systems have advanced significantly; functionalities today such as call recording and analysis come as standard, whereas they would have been prohibitively expensive ten years ago. We pride ourselves on being able to cut through technical jargon and explain, in plain English, exactly what type of system will work for a business, and why. It's simply making communications clear."