And after boosting the business by 50 per cent in 12 months, taking on a rival with operations in South Africa and winning a sheaf of industry accolades, who is to say PlusNet won't achieve its aim to become a major national brand, firmly rooted in the city?

A year ago, the Tenter Street business employed 200 people, had around 198,000 customers, and expansion had slowed dramatically, says Lay-cock.

Now, the company employs more than 240 people in Sheff-ield, is on target to reach 300,000 customers and runs fellow ISP Brightview, whose award-winning Madasafish brand has been rated as one of the best ISPs for people new to the Internet.

Brightview also brought PlusNet a call centre employing 125 people in South Africa, which continues to serve Madasafish customers, although the rest of Brightview's operations have been moved from London to Sheffield.

"We kept the call centre as it's a bit of a jewel in Brightview's crown and we are building tools to allow them to diagnose and solve problems more quickly than previously.

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"We are learning things from them and they are learning things from us, so we get the best of both worlds.

"From a development perspective, it's a great opportunity for our staff and for their staff, too," says Laycock.

PlusNet's new international connections don't end in South Africa, however.

The company, which pioneered the creation of a Polish language web portal for émigrés working and living in the UK, at the instigation of some of the Polish software developers it has recruited to fill local skills gaps, continues to develop its pioneering internet management software in Sheffield.

But, it is also making use of partners in the former Eastern Bloc state and India to provide additional development capacity, when needed.

"Sheffield is the hub of PlusNet and will remain the hub for our activities," says Laycock, "but there's lots of stress on the business to do things quite quickly.

"Recruitment remains our biggest challenge. The software engineering side is where we struggle to get the right calibre of people.

"We are talking to Leeds University and we have started a conversation with Sheffield.

"We are trying to get more graduates in and develop them. We continue to recruit in Sheffield where we can, but we can switch our partners abroad on and off whenever we need them.

"It allows us to focus our skills."

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