Established regional businesses
Turnover in the millions, a small internal team, and technology decisions that have been deferred because nobody senior owns them.
Northumberland and the North East
Senior digital and AI advice for North East organisations
I am based in Amble in Northumberland, thirty minutes from Newcastle, and I work across the North East. More than forty years in business and technology, more than thirty of them in digital, including a seat on the executive board of a £140m business. No juniors, no subcontractors, and no agency behind me with something to sell you.
The organisations I work with here
Less about postcode than about how the organisation buys. These five patterns cover almost all of it.
Family firms and second generation businesses
Where the systems grew with the business, the founder still has strong views, and the person taking over needs an independent read before changing anything.
Professional services
Law firms, accountants and financial advisers, where enquiry quality matters far more than volume and the regulatory constraints are real.
Charities and social enterprises
Where restricted funding shapes what is possible and trustees carry personal accountability for decisions they may not feel equipped to judge.
Housing associations and public bodies
Where procurement rules shape the options and the technology has to serve tenants and residents rather than a marketing objective.
Why regional organisations get worse technology advice
This is not a complaint about the region and it is not a criticism of anybody working in it. It is a structural observation, and it holds anywhere outside the largest cities.
Fewer independent advisors
Most of the digital expertise in the region sits inside suppliers, because that is where the work is. Genuinely independent senior advice, with nothing to sell at the end of it, is thin on the ground.
Heavy reliance on one local agency
Often a good agency, often a relationship of a decade or more. The problem is not competence, it is that a single supplier becomes the only source of advice about their own work.
Less internal capability to judge
A business of a hundred people rarely has anyone whose job is to tell a good technical answer from a plausible one. That is not a failing, it is an economic fact, and it makes the supplier effectively self-marking.
The same three names in every pitch
A small market means a small supplier pool. Competitive tension is limited, comparison is harder, and prices drift without anybody behaving badly.
If you are working through a supplier decision on your own, the guides cover most of it in writing, free, with nothing attached.
What working with somebody local actually changes
Honestly, less than location pages usually claim. Most of this work is not location-dependent. Reading a contract, assessing a system, writing a recommendation, none of that improves because I live an hour up the coast.
Three things do change, and they are worth having.
Being in the room for a board meeting
Board and trustee work is materially different in person. Reading a room, catching the objection nobody voiced, being available afterwards for the conversation that actually matters. A call does not do that.
Knowing the regional supplier landscape
I know who does good work here, who is expensive for what they deliver and who has changed since you last dealt with them. That saves a procurement exercise and it is not something you can research from a website.
Being reachable in person when something goes wrong
When a supplier relationship breaks down or a system fails badly, somebody an hour away who can be sitting with you tomorrow morning is worth more than the same advice on a screen next week.
The track record behind the advice
Being based here is not a differentiator. Plenty of people are based here. Having sat on an executive board and run a government programme is, and that is the whole argument for this page.
£140m
travel business where I sat on the executive board
£40m to £80m
online revenue growth over three years in that business
41 sites
government websites rationalised in a central programme
140+ SMEs
supported through DigitalCity in the North East
Where I work
Based in Amble, Northumberland, thirty minutes from Newcastle. I cover the North East regularly and work across the UK where the engagement warrants it.
Northumberland
Tyne and Wear
Newcastle
Gateshead
North Tyneside
Sunderland
Morpeth
Alnwick
No street address is published here, and the address on the Google Business Profile stays hidden. The structured data on this page carries the areas served without a street address, which is the correct configuration for a home-based service business.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch
Tell me what is in front of you and I will tell you whether it is worth looking at properly.
If it is not, I will say so, and that costs you half an hour.
Book a free 30-minute call