DON'T be surprised on a visit to leading Gwent company Gamma Projects to find one or all of its four founding fathers out and about doing business.

The company, which provides software and consultancy to telecommunications companies for running the technical side of their businesses, is doing famously well. Since starting from scratch in 1998, Magor-based Gamma has increased turnover by a whopping 500% and now employs almost 100.

It all began when that original foursome - chief technical officer Julian Ryan, Ian Louden, Simon Wood And Steve Ledger - spotted a huge gap in the market and went for it at full tilt. Arthur Llewellyn is the chief financial officer.

Its runaway success, particularly in overseas markets with its flagship product Gamma NetOne, earned it the Exporter of the Year award at the inaugural ICT02 Wales Cymru awards in New-port just over a week ago. The event was a celebration of achie-vements in information and communication technology in Wales, and Gamma's achievement set a high standard.

"Winning the award was fantastic," said Gamma's marketing communications executive Sabiha Shah. "It was really great recognition for Gamma because we have been doing so well over the last few years."

Gamma stepped in when it realised that the deployment of IT systems by telecommunications operators could be controlled by an integrated software programme. These companies are involved in site acquisition, asset and workforce management, fault detection and upgrading, to name just a few functions, each being catered for separate control mechanisms.

Gamma realised that this lack of integration wasted time, effort and money, so came up with Gamma NetOne, based on Oracle technology, which enables telecommunications operators to manage all phases of its network life cycle.

By focusing its work on a niche market, Gamma is able to develop knowledge of the market, competitive trends and any other underlying issues that affect the industry. It tailors NetOne to individual customer requirements and offers virtually unending back-up and consultancy once the system has been sold.

A consequence of this is that word-of-mouth testimony to its success is travelling around the world. Customers such as Orange and Voda-phone in countries as far apart as New Zealand, Thailand and the Czech Republic now mean that Gamma is a major exporter. Testimonies to the company's expertise abound. Dr Uwe Rott-mann, of Germany's MobilCom GmbH, said: "The telecommunications sector in Germany is a very competitive marketplace. Only cutting-edge contenders will succeed and Gamma NetOne enables us to have absolute control over our network infrastructure, which will allow a faster and more effective network rollout."

Sabiha Shah said Gamma's customer base was still expanding - which accounted for the absence now and then of the four founding company executives. "We have customers all over the world and we are attending exhibitions where one of our main functions is to wave the Gamma flag so that lots of people know what it is we are doing," she said.

Gamma's office is in the grounds of Magor Brewery. You could miss it if you blinked while driving past. And that about sums it up - under our very noses, IT companies are going great guns without making too much fuss. Until they are up for an award, that is.

*PICTURED: Sabiha Shah with the trophy.