A GLASGOW-based telecoms company has declared it is on track to nearly triple turnover to £3 million in its current financial year.

Exsel IT & Communications, the official telecoms supplier for the Scottish Football Association, has undergone rapid growth in recent years, with turnover leaping from £250,000 to just over £1m last year.

The firm's progress was underlined last month when it triumphed at the Comms Dealer Sales Awards, winning the UK reseller sales team of the year for firms turning over up to £2.5m.

This year it hopes to grow profit margin by the same multiple as it is projecting for turnover growth.

Asked to pinpoint the reasons behind the firm's growth, managing director Tom McDonald said it is focused on "trying to move people away from traditional

methods of telephony".

Among the products Exsel markets to clients, which are a mix of corporates and small and medium-

sized enterprises, include voice-over IP, hosted telephony and cloud-based services.

"Anything that's just that wee bit more modern and more flexible to allow people to grow as well in their own businesses," Mr McDonald said. "It's just about embracing the new technologies in the marketplace and getting people aware of them, educating them, and not being stuck in the old ways."

Mr McDonald said telecoms is a rapidly-changing market, as illustrated by the regular introduction of new phones and upgrades by companies such as Apple. But he noted that clients often do not have to invest too much to improve their systems.

Mr McDonald said: "It's sometimes just about the little tweaks and improvements, and having systems in place in their business that can change and improve without the need for complete change.

"It's about having systems that maybe just need slight alterations, or are already ready to go. When HD was coming into the marketplace, everyone was buying HD ready TVs, but they weren't quite getting HD. It's all about having the facilities on the equipment you sell them in the first place, then making sure it is ready as the marketplace grows and moves forward.

"A big thing that is really happening just now that people are embracing is the improvement in connectivity - the new broadband connectivity that is available [and] the government grants available for broadband. That is really seeing a lot of growth in the marketplace, where people move to IP telephony and get all the benefits of having a number in the cloud."

Exsel does not develop products, Mr McDonald said. Instead, it scours the ICT market for the most appropriate products to its customers. Those could be solutions to allow staff to work at home, or software that tracks employs on their mobile devices.

Mr McDonald said: "Nine out of 10 business owners don't have to research the best app to have on their mobile, or the best system to deploy a home worker. A lot of people don't know and they are just taking two or three quotes... but a lot of companies aren't really giving them the full spec of what actually can be done, or look into the needs and requirements of the business more than the needs and requirements of a phone system."

The growth experienced by Exsel has led to it move to a bigger, 5,500 square foot space at the City Building in Glasgow's east end.

It is the third office the firm, whose roster also includes Hibernian Football Club and Edinburgh Black Taxis, has occupied in the building with the latest move allowing it to accommodate eight new recruits. The change will see the firm's lead development team move in-house.

The latest hires mean Exsel's headcount is expected to reach 32 by the end of the month, just two and half years after standing at four. Mr McDonald is working with Glasgow City Council on schemes to get young people into work, including by using the graduate fund, as well as local training organisations. External trainers are also being used to train young recruits in the telecoms industry, with Mr McDonald eager to give people a similar start in the sector that he had.

"As an organisation we are all about giving an opportunity to everybody," he said. "As a business our recruitment policy is recruiting people on desire, their will and their attitude. Past experience plays a little bit on what we recruit on, but when we are looking people to join our team we are just looking for really motivated individuals who really want to get a job, who want to work and have a desire to do well. It is all about their attitude and how much they want to succeed."