GREAT Yarmouth is a great place to do business according to the man behind a successful computer company in the town which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

GREAT Yarmouth is a great place to do business according to the man behind a successful computer company in the town which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Peter Green of CSS Computers said business in the town was buoyant and people only had to drive along the seafront to witness the big investment that has and still is being put in the town.

Peter said while there had been some down-turn over the last 10 to 15 years both in the holiday industry and commercially with the loss of key industrial players, there was a general “good feeling” in the town.

He said: “The inward investment going on at the moment makes Yarmouth a very exciting place to be. Most noticeably and most talked about is obviously the outer harbour development, you only have to drive along the seafront to see the amount of money invested there along with many other areas in Yarmouth which are being turned around back to the high quality that Yarmouth people knew and were proud of.”

CSS Computers installs networks and PCs for local businesses, and then takes on a full IT support and management role, in effect offering a full out sourced IT department.

Peter added: “The general talk that I have is that the experience in business is still good, business is still buoyant despite the surrounding factors of the general depressed economy. Yarmouth has always been a local place to do business and although Yarmouth companies clearly trade with and supply companies all over East Anglia, the UK and even the world it is always nice to do business with a local company.

“ The feeling of trust and mutual support amongst local companies, many of whom who have dealt with or known each other for many, many years brings a strength which is missing in less integrated communities.”

Peter was born in Yarmouth and is a former pupil of North Denes Junior School. He went to Norwich High School before completing a technology course at Yarmouth College and then went on to do a three-year HND computer studies course at Norwich City College.

Aged in his early 20s, Peter set up his own business mainly supporting Sage software, which is used by businesses to run their accounts.

He said: “The situation at the time was that there were a large number of accountants who did not understand PCs, and a large number of computer companies who did not understand accountants.”

CSS was one of the very first authorised Sage Resellers in the area and has now grown to be the largest independent supplier of Line 50 Software in the area.

Peter worked from home initially before moving into offices in Yarmouth. He started working alongside accountant Michael Cole, who is still his business partner today.

By 1998 the business had split into two halves, the Sage side run by Michael and the IT side run by Peter. In 2005 the Sage division re-located to Lowestoft to the Riverside Business Centre and last year the IT department took moved into offices at North Quay in Yarmouth.

CSS main customer bases are in Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Norwich and areas in between and Peter said one of the strengths of the company is local knowledge about businesses and trends.

CSS has worked hard to achieve qualifications and accreditations over the years which include Sage Authorised Reseller, Sage Business Partner, Sage Solutions Centre and winners of the highly prestigious Sage Circle of Excellence Award given by Sage themselves to a handful of resellers who are judged to have given exceptional customer service.

And to celebrate its 20th year in business the company is to donate £5 to the Palliative Care East appeal for every PC sold.