Bryn Abbott of Voight-Kampff Solutions tells Sam Hawcroft of his passion for helping small businesses be safe, smart and secure when it comes to all things digital.
You either get the name of Bryn Abbott’s business… or you don’t.
Fans of Blade Runner will nod sagely, whereas others might look a little nonplussed – but it’s a conversation-starter, and it’s different, which is why Bryn has stuck with it.
“I didn’t want to be just Bryn Abbott IT Services,” he says, explaining that, in the 1982 Ridley Scott classic, the Voight-Kampff empathy test was used by the LAPD’s Blade Runners to help determine whether an individual was a “replicant” (a genetically engineered AI humanoid) or a human. “Yes, it is geeky, it is nerdy,” he says, “but to me it rang a bell, because I’m looking to be the human bit.”
Bryn’s career has been a testament to his dedication and passion for technology. He’s played in bands from the age of 15, performing in pubs and clubs even before he was legally allowed to drink, but alongside this grew a gradual fascination with technology and computers.
After finishing school, Bryn immersed himself in various technical qualifications, eventually completing a degree in business and IT. His academic journey included a year-out placement at Croda Chemicals, where he gained first-hand experience with IT in a corporate setting.
This placement proved to be pivotal, as it solidified his passion for understanding and troubleshooting technology. Bryn discovered a love for breaking and fixing things, wanting to know the inner workings of systems to truly master them.
On graduating, Bryn’s professional journey began at C:>Ways in Scarborough, where he worked in IT support. His technical expertise quickly became evident, and he soon found himself being poached by the Goodwin Development Trust in Hull, itself a client of C:>Ways.
At Goodwin, Bryn faced the significant challenge of expanding the IT infrastructure to support the charity’s rapid growth from 15 staff members to 150, spread across multiple sites. His responsibilities included ensuring seamless connectivity, managing security and maintaining all IT equipment and systems.
“It was there that I realised people can be quite anti-IT,” says Bryn, “because if they don’t understand it, they want to throw it out of the window! I realised that I was quite empathic to these people, because I understood how they felt. I wouldn’t speak to them in tech jargon or acronyms, I would explain things in a way that they would understand it. And generally this is how I like to build relationships.”
After a successful eight years at Goodwin, Bryn moved to Stonemere IT, where he took on the role of IT team leader – owing to his reluctance to be labelled as a “manager” – and further developed his mentoring and customer relationship skills.
Bryn’s next significant role was at The One Point, where he served as an IT solutions account manager for nearly 10 years. This role expanded his expertise far beyond IT, delving into sales and mobile device management (MDM). However, a significant personal challenge arose when his wife was diagnosed with cancer, and balancing a demanding sales role and his personal life became increasingly difficult. Bryn saw an opportunity to start his own business, driven by a desire for a more balanced life and leveraging his vast IT experience.
So, in January 2024, Bryn launched Voight-Kampff Solutions, focusing on providing ICT support to small businesses. As mentioned above, the name reflects his commitment to providing human-centric IT solutions with a strong emphasis on cybersecurity and MDM, ensuring clients’ systems are secure, reliable and user-friendly.
One of Bryn’s core values is empathy. He prides himself on being approachable and understanding the frustrations clients often face with technology. His goal is to leave a positive impact on their IT setup, ensuring it operates seamlessly and supports their business needs. He values building strong relationships, often going the extra mile by visiting clients regularly to ensure everything runs smoothly.
“People have always said I’m approachable,” he says. “They’ve said I’m empathetic because I can feel their pain, I can feel their angst. So I’m looking to focus on my value to people. Those I’m working with at the moment know that they can trust me and that I’m on the end of the phone. I’ll be there if they need me. I’m all about building – and keeping – those relationships. And if I’m passing by, I’ll often just pop in to see how things are.”
Bryn’s business philosophy is centred on being a “good middleman”, he adds. “I do feel like I’m an interface between the customer and what they’re trying to achieve – but they may not know how to explain it. So this is why I’m happy to just come in and speak to people and advise. I’ll do an initial consultation and audit, and then they can decide whether they would like to go ahead and take me on.”
Launching Voight-Kampff Solutions has come with various challenges, not least acquiring new customers. “I never believed in my first year I’d be buying a yacht, but I do need to buy some socks!” laughs Bryn. “I do have some more customers in the pipeline, but of course I need to build on this.”
Starting the business required an initial investment to set up a home office, acquire the necessary equipment and cover living expenses. Bryn has sought to manage his finances carefully, taking a modest salary to ensure sustainability, and he’s recently taken out a business development loan to provide additional cash flow.
His main focus is helping small businesses boost their cybersecurity. “I’ve become a Microsoft and VoIP reseller,” he says, “so I’m looking at migrating people to VoIP as well as MDM. This can sound a bit niche, but really it’s centralised management of all your mobile phones. And this comes into play with the cybersecurity aspect, especially if companies are looking to get their cybersecurity certificate. Because there are questions in there that ask, if you give your staff mobile phones, how are you securing them? If they’ve got MDM, then that’s a huge checkbox done.”
With the ever-increasing threats in the digital landscape, Bryn can ensure that his clients’ systems are robust and secure. His services include antivirus, encryption, disaster recovery plans and multifactor authentication (MFA). Bryn explains technical concepts in simple terms: “Imagine your house is your email, and your password is your front door. Well, the MFA is the key that locks it. If you don’t have MFA, you’re leaving your front door open.”
Despite the initial challenges, Bryn’s business has started gaining traction in just the first six months. His first customer, a care provider, benefited significantly from his expertise. When the previous tenant of its new premises failed to leave the promised phone system and internet connection, Bryn stepped in. As a VoIP reseller, he managed to set up a new phone system the next day and swiftly upgraded the infrastructure, ensuring secure and efficient operations.
Bryn aims to be as flexible and comprehensive as possible, offering his core IT services as a one-stop-shop, as well as what he calls “edge” services (such as electrical testing, structured cabling and web design) carried out in partnership with trusted external providers. “My services page on my website is extensive,” he says.
He credits two mentors with providing invaluable help while he began setting out on his own – Steve Axiotes, CEO of Fluid Media UK, and Deborah Stock, who runs Care Connection Partners. “We meet once every week or once every two weeks, and they guide me,” says Bryn. “I’ve had a lot of advice from them, from finding accountants to setting up my business banking.”
Networking has also played a crucial role. Bryn actively participates in various events at least once a week – but he prefers the more informal gatherings such as supper clubs and curry events, rather than those that require referrals and end up becoming an exercise in collecting business cards. “You’re just meeting people, and it’s not about trying to get a sale. It’s just about building relationships.”
The threat of emerging AI to security as well as people’s jobs is an ever-present subject for debate in the media nowadays, and, like many in the industry, Bryn has mixed feelings, seeing the benefits as well as the downsides.
“I do get concerned about companies when I hear they’re going to lay off a load of staff and have AI do the jobs,” he says. “But what I think could be a far more pragmatic approach would be for them to invest in AI training. I’ve been asked to take part in an AI steering group at Hull College by Deb Millar [its executive director of digital transformation] and we’ve just held our first meeting. We talked about the challenges and benefits, and obviously one of the main benefits everybody talked about is that you can do things a lot quicker. So far, I have only really used it to create my company logo which I’m really happy with, but am looking at and trying out just about any new application that I read about.
“What worries me, though, is how criminals are going use it, such as things like deepfake technology or image manipulation. They can even mimic voices now, too. I’m not surprised at the way things are moving, but it is scary.”
Outside work, Bryn is continuing his passion for music and still plays in local bands, including The Skylarks with Martin Lauer, founder of The One Point, The Merrymen acoustic duo with Tony Grimes of Think 360 and, more recently, an 80s tribute band called The Manic Mondays with Gemma Wardell of Human Brilliance – who featured in the previous BW magazine. Bryn’s son, Freddie, has followed in his footsteps, becoming a talented musician himself.
However, Bryn’s days of touring up and down the country (he used to be in the UK’s No.1 comedy showband, Housequake) are behind him.
“It got to be too much,” he says. “They’d pick me up from work and we’d head straight out of town and practically every night we’d hit a massive pile-up. I’ve been a passenger in five write-offs, and three of those were in the band. I was thinking there was going to be a time when we might get into something that we don’t walk away from, so nowadays I’m a lot happier just to play locally.”
In terms of his business it’s early days yet, so Bryn is far from thinking about growth trajectories. “I don’t have a plan to take over the world,” he says. “I just have a plan to build a business that’s sustainable. People have said, are you going to build it up and sell it on? But I really haven’t thought that far.”
He is aware that he needs to “put himself about a bit more” – hence this feature and a recently launched blog, alongside an increased social media presence. He admits he “probably has too much free time on his hands” as he seeks to build up his customer base, but quickly qualifies this by saying it’s never time spent wasted as he’s been taking a variety of courses to ensure he always stays ahead of the game.
“In my previous roles it was less about fully understanding the tech and more about selling the solution, but I’m somebody who likes to know things inside out, upside down and back to front,” says Bryn. “All those years I was advising on products, but now I’m back on my tools – and I really like that.”
