At Gateway Systems it is all about customer service and coming up with new, innovative ways to solve computer and networking problems.

Providing a service to individuals, companies, corporations and government bodies is all part of the job for the Queen Street-based business.

And its retail outlet, the G-Wiz technology store, offers a tantalising selection of computer-related gadgets and home entertainment items, including top range Bang & Olufsen audio equipment.

Until the end of March the store is giving a 25 per cent discount on all purchases, excluding toner and ink, in celebration of Gateway Systems’ 25th anniversary.

For managing director John Kyle, who has headed the company since its formation in 1990, it has been an interesting and rewarding journey to reach the milestone.

He entered the world of computers in 1977. Back then even smaller scale mainframe computers could fill entire rooms. Mr Kyle started out in his native Scotland working for NCR, the US-based computer and electronics company.

His career led him to Bermuda, where he worked for NCR’s Bermuda Business Machine Company where he helped set up Gateway Systems. A year later he bought out his original partners and took control. In the early days Gateway was based at the Old Colony Club, in Trott Road, before moving to its Queen Street location.

It was a touch of serendipity that the company’s name was the same as that of a US computer hardware company called Gateway, which was just beginning to emerge in the early 1990s. Mr Kyle travelled to South Dakota to meet with the executives of the namesake firm and secured the first international rights to represent the company and distribute its computers. At the time big computers, such as IBMs, sold for $6,000, while the Gateway alternatives were only about a quarter of the price.

Gateway Systems has branched out into network designing and implementation, system analysis and development, licensing and training.

Among the innovations it has introduced is the Automated Bermuda Customs system and the Software as a Service model that allows businesses to do their own HM Customs clearance through an online route. Mr Kyle estimates that as a result, a company using the system will have slashed the Customs clearance process from something that once took a number of days to something that can be completed in a couple of hours.

Gateway Systems is responsible for setting up Table.bm, an award-winning one-stop website that allows customers to check what is available at restaurants across the Island and then make a booking online, 24 hours a day.

For restaurants it is now possible to send alerts to customers’ cell phones to tell them about special offers and events. Gateway Systems created a cloud computing network whereby restaurants send a message to the cloud, which is then translated so that it can be read by Apple, Android and Windows apps before being relayed to customers’ smartphones.

The company is also involved in coming up with Wi-Fi solutions for hotels on the Island and point-of-sale networks for retailers.

During his nearly 40 years in the sector, Mr Kyle has seen vast changes in the reduction in size of computers, which at the same time have becmoe much more powerful.

Coming up with solutions and innovations is one of the things that drives him. He said: “I love technology and solving problems, whether it is networking, designing or providing 24-hour support.

“I’ve enjoyed it and I still have the drive each morning to come and do a bit more.

He said Gateway’s staff were likewise engaged in seeking out the best solutions for customers.

“We are dedicated to service. Our whole thing is the customer comes first, second and third.”