Steve Cullimore, President of CCS Group Ltd., sits amid the stacks of boxes and paper, the organised confusion of a company attempting to fit itself into new office space. His office is dimly illuminated by a couple of side table lamps because he doesn't like the main lighting system. He's going to have it changed. But not just now. In a few minutes he's about to rush off to another job as the company tries to cope with its rapidly expanding base of clients.

The computer cabling and networking company, the Island's largest, has just moved its main operations into the basement of Mintflower Place on Par-La-Ville Rd.

"Well I wouldn't call it posh,'' he said in reply to a comment. "We're not that kind of company.'' It's certainly an improvement on the warehouse at Pitts Bay Rd. where all the staff were previously located and where the company still has its engineers.

Three years before that the company operated out of his parents' house. It was Brian Cullimore, Steve's father, who started the company 16 years ago as a handyman business and who provided the technical expertise to launch it into the computer age.

His father Brian was a radio and radar engineer by trade. One day he decided he wanted his own company and in 1981 set up a sort of mobile workshop doing any odd jobs that came along.

Back then when father and son were splashing paint about, doing plumbing, and just about any job that came along, that's about all they thought the company would be. Steve helped out after school. When he went off to study economics and economics geography at university he worked with his father during the summer.

"You name it we did it,'' Steve Cullimore said.

The breakthrough came when Bermuda Computer Services, the IBM dealer on the island, asked them to do a job for the company.

"They knew my father was a fairly handy beast so they asked him to read the instructions and fit the plug and cables on a (computer) terminal,'' Mr.

Cullimore said. "We finished painting a roof and did the job in the afternoon and went back to painting a roof the next day. At the time nobody was doing networking. It was just another job in the myriad of jobs we did.'' Bigger is better for ex-handyman He added: "We did more of it and we got a reputation as being able to do it.

We devised some concepts and we started doing things here that are standard practice in the US today. It was an industry that didn't exist at the time.'' Eventually the Cullimores were doing so much cabling work they made it their full time business, incorporating Computer Cabling Systems in 1989. Gavin Dent was brought on board in 1992 as a part owner of the company because CCS needed his expertise to expand.

"He knew the network side of things,'' Mr. Cullimore said. "He did network hubs and routers and all the equipment that make the network hum.'' This year the company merged with Consulting Solutions and its owners, Greg Vasic and Holmes Williams & Purvey Ltd. Managing Director Don Mackenzie, were also brought in as partners. CCS founder Brian Cullimore retired from the business last year.

Most of the company's growth has occurred in the last two years as many of the large international companies realised that the talent they needed for their complex computer systems could be had on an ongoing basis here. It was better than paying to bring someone in from overseas when needed. Continuing support and service was key to the company's growth.

The name was changed to CCS Group to reflect the company's four business sectors. Cabling is still CCS's mainstay, but network designing and the telephone divisions are the company's fastest growing areas. Merging with Consulting Solutions brought in the applications development division which creates and adjusts software according to a client's needs.

"We customise software for big clients giving them specific powerful tools that puts them as leaders in their fields,'' Mr. Cullimore said.

In 1995 CCS set up a Bahamian subsidiary, Caribbean Network Solutions (Bahamas) Ltd. CCS is currently setting up another subsidiary in the Cayman Islands.

"We have been asked to look beyond Bermuda both by our customers and by the companies we represent,'' Steve said.

CCS now employs 40 staff here and two at its Bahamas subsidiary. It has a customer base of 400 companies. Recently CCS won the contract to do the internal building connections for the Bermuda Electric Light Co. Ltd. fibre optic telephone and data network in Hamilton.

"The company progressed just by natural growth as our abilities became known,'' Mr. Cullimore said. "We also have to attribute it to the growth of the industry. We were the right place at the right time.'' Now competitors at yapping at the door for a piece of CCS's business. Mr.

Cullimore, 31, plans to stay one step ahead of them.

"We just have to be better,'' he said. "We strive to stay on the cutting edge. Our engineers keep abreast of the latest and greatest technologies. We work hard with customers to explore potential uses of new technology. They are our partners.'' With that kind of attitude one can truly say of CCS "You've got a longer way to go, baby.'' Tech Tattle is a weekly column which focuses on technological developments and computer industry issues. If you have any ideas for topics or a business you would like to discuss, please call Mr. ElAmin at 295-5881, ext. 248, or at home 238-3854.

Steve Cullimore