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CITY BASED COMPANY RANKED AMONGST COUNTRY’S BEST NEW BUSINESSES IN HSBC START-UP STARS AWARDS.

Intercept (formerly ADS Portal), based in the City, has outperformed hundreds of hopeful new businesses to reach the regional finals of the 2007 HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards.

The national contest, now in its seventh year, is designed to seek out the most promising new businesses in the UK and to recognise the entrepreneurs behind them.

Intercept (formerly ADS Portal) started three years ago, is now hoping to clinch one of the top titles and take a share of the Awards’ prizes, worth £85,000.

All companies know that to be competitive and agile, IT has to play a key part in their business structure.

But the founders of an innovative new service company, Intercept (formerly ADS Portal), recognised that many small to medium businesses were increasingly burdened by their IT infrastructure, or were unable to make the necessary capital expenditure.

Intercept (formerly ADS Portal) was established in June 2004 offering a service called OnlineDesktop, with the tagline: “The way IT should be”. The service provides hosted, subscription-based computing and IP telephony services, allowing smaller operations to outsource their communications and IT requirements. The system is managed by Intercept (formerly ADS Portal), who include service level guarantees, giving customers reliability and peace of mind.

The ethos of Intercept (formerly ADS Portal) is that accessing IT and telephony services should be as simple as any other utility – like turning on a light, it should just work!

It’s a concept that appeals to an increasing number of SMBs who are flocking to their door, contributing to a £900,000 turnover last year. But the company plans to grow substantially, aiming for a business in 2010 with revenues of between £25 and £30 million.

They will continue to expand their range of innovative, hosted subscription-based services to include video conferencing, individually branded access Portals and the creation of a ‘Customer Community’ and maintain their commitment to providing the highest possible levels of service across the data network.

Intercept (formerly ADS Portal) is one of 20 companies to secure a place in the London regional finals of the 2007 Start-Up Stars Awards. Their entry will now be considered by a panel of local business experts who will select 10 top new businesses to represent London in the national judging session.

This year there will be five heats, generating 50 regional winners from throughout the UK. From this pool of talent, the national judging panel will choose 10 National Finalists who will come to London to explain why their business deserves the top prize of £25,000 cash, plus the coveted title HSBC Start-Up Star 2007.

The winning business and runner-up will be revealed at a glittering gala dinner at London’s Dorchester Hotel on October 24, attended by more than 300 guests representing business, politics and the media.

During the evening the winner of the first Start-Up Stars Green Award, celebrating the start-up company demonstrating the best green credentials, will also be announced, receiving an HSBC cheque for £5,000.

Each National Finalist will also take away a prize package comprising the Quick Books Pro and Small Business Payroll, SimpleStart from Intuit, Google Awards credits and 30 days of dedicated account servicing from Google UK.

Simon Wainwright, Chief Operating Officer for HSBC Commercial Banking, described the 2007 Awards as “the biggest and best” yet. “Last year HSBC alone helped nearly 100,000 new ventures get off the ground,” he said. “This is representative of the huge pool of entrepreneurial talent that exists in Brittan today.

“Many are still only small businesses - but they have big ideas. We are proud Start-Up Stars can contribute to their aspirations and that the Awards play a pivotal role in identifying the business leaders of the future.”

Taking advice is the first step in getting a new business off the ground, and useful information is available in the free HSBC pack Starting a Business.