News - Midlands
Fast and Furious
Insider is once again delighted to team up with business advisers Deloitte to profile the region's fastest growing technology companies
Putting together a table of the fastest growing technology companies, even in one region, is always something of a hair-raising balancing act. How do you make sure there are enough new entrants coming into the table to maintain interest - no one likes a league where the same old names are always at the top - and yet at the same time maintain the credibility of the list as a true indicator of businesses that are worth watching?
Further to that, how do you make sure the table continues to have authority - so that you don't look back at winners from years gone by and think: "Whatever happened to them?"
To that end, some of the developments at this year's Deloitte Fast 50 awards make for interesting reading. Jumar Solutions, a Solihull-based software consultancy, took top place for the second year in a row, with a mind-bogglingly high increase in turnover of 8095 per cent - albeit from £339,000 to £33.2m.
But a special award for sustained growth also went to Clinphone, provider of e-clinical services to a large section of the global pharmaceutical industry. The Nottingham-based company has been highly placed in the Fast 50 ranking for each of the past five years, coming ninth this year and eighth in 2003.
This year there was a significant change in criteria for gaining a place on the 50 hall of fame. In previous years a ranking has been based on turnover growth over the last three years, but this year the time frame was extended to five. Deloitte's Chris Robertson explains the reasoning for the changes below.
However, still keen to honour companies that are going places fast, a new Rising Star award was also introduced this year to recognise strong growth over a three-year period. The winner was June Reynolds-Lacey's Box Telematics company (see overleaf).
The companies listed here all deserve particular praise - they have continued to grow in a devilish market. As Robertson says: "All 50 companies have shown tremendous stamina, defied market conditions and continued to grow despite the turbulence of the market over the last three years. Achieving growth has remained the single biggest challenge faced by the technology sector and it is fantastic to see that the Midlands region is continuing to demonstrate such resilience."
strength in depth
Chris Robertson, Deloitte partner in charge of
technology, media and telecommunications in the Midlands, explains the changes to this year's awards.
"This year our criteria for entry changed to ensure that we celebrated not just short-term success but also growth in revenue on a more sustained basis. Sustained growth is something that the Midlands Fast 50 programme has emphasised in previous years and the award for that this year went to Clinphone Group, a company that has demonstrated clear year-on-year growth and has been highly placed in the ranking for each of the past five years.
Knowing that the programme was based on turnover growth for the period of 1999 to 2003, we expected the ranking to make interesting reading. We hoped to put pay to the most commonly laid accusation against our sector - that it was a bubble or flash in the pan - and I am delighted to say 2004's ranking has done so.
Once again we've seen a great spread of companies across the Midlands; 30 from the West; 20 from the East - and 35 of this year's have featured in previous rankings. These factors demonstrate the underlying endurance of the Midlands market place.
This year the Midlands ranking has seen a considerably larger number of software companies than hardware companies, and less than ten telecommunications businesses. It will be very interesting to see how these Midlands statistics compare to other regions once all the results are out. Deloitte created the Technology Fast 50 scheme to reach out to technology companies and champion innovation in the sector. Since its inception the scheme has consistently boasted a high calibre of entries. This, together with the 15 new entries that appeared in the main ranking, causes me to continue to be optimistic and excited about the future of the technology sector in the Midlands."
1 Jumar Solutions Europe
Growth: 8095% Location: Solihull
Ranked the region's fastest-growing technology company for the second consecutive year, Jumar is co-owned by Wendy Merricks and Dave Tomkins. The four-year-old consultancy services and software solutions provider's client list includes EDS, Cap Gemini, Barclays Bank and ING Bank.
"Winning the award last year has given us a much higher profile, as well as the credibility boost of being associated with awards organisers Deloitte, the Stock Exchange and Pinsents," says Merricks.
Jumar has found new success in the previously uncharted waters of legacy rejuvenation. Using automation software, the ground-breaking new process enables organisations with out-moded technology to convert it to new without the expense of completely replacing it.
Project Phoenix, as the new area of work has been titled, is expected to create growth that will exceed the £34.5m turnover that was forecast 12 months ago.
"We might not have had the confidence to go ahead with this new project if it hadn't been for winning the Fast 50 last year," says Merricks.
2 Softpoint Multimedia
Growth: 1910% Location: Burton
Established in 1996, Softpoint is a sales and marketing agency specialising in multimedia products, mainly for IT companies, internet service providers, and PC and DVD manufacturers.
Originally set up as a small distributor of computer software, the company changed tack to focus on sales and marketing for high-volume technology customers, a very competitive market. One of the main products in this drive is its internet business. Online loyalty and incentives business Surfextra provides clients with the opportunity to use DVD and software promotions to acquire new clients, build loyalty with existing customers and collect marketing data. Savapoint offers clients website design and e-commerce.
Satisified customers include the Sunday Times, which gave away a two-part Journey into Space CD-ROM to coincide with the BBC documentary of the same name.
5 Griffin Internet
Growth: 710% Location: Derby
Wholesale internet service provider (ISP) Griffin was formed in 1993 as a software house and general IT services company and in early 1995 launched one of the country's first ISPs. It now boasts 35,000 dial-up internet customers, and 10,000 broadband customers, of which half are for partners. Its biggest partners include BT and Vodafone.
The 16-strong team provides services based on its network and servers to small ISPs that can't afford their own infrastructure or to other businesses that then sell on to an end-user.
Adrian Sunderland, founder and technical director, who runs the business with managing director James Willis, says: "BT saw an opportunity in the market to provide broadband internet but felt that it would take them three years to develop; we developed it for them in six months."
6 BMS
Growth: 613% Location: Nottingham
Founded in 1992 by Matina Tsoukatos, BMS supplies technology solutions to the NHS across the UK and to commercial organisations. Turnover last year reached £312.16m.
"In the last week we have acquired another company, ISL, which has the leading product in biometric fingerprint log-on, used throughout the NHS as a means of securely accessing information such as patient records," says Tsoukatos.
Does Tsoukatos have concerns about potential cuts in government spending on health? Tsoukatos believes that there is little truth behind the hype and that the future lies firmly in technology.
"There is a massive need to bring our country in line with the rest of Europe in terms of the services that the NHS provides and if we are going to do a good job, the way forward is by using technology," she says. "What is being rolled out now is part of a plan drawn up in 1998 and it's the most humungous task. The average man on the street will start to see a real impact as of 2007."
36 Romax Technology
Growth: 125% Location: Nottingham
Opinion remains divided on whether windfarms are the perfect solution for providing renewable energy, or yet another hulking mass of iron on the British landscape. Nottingham-based Romax Technology, however, sees them as a potentially lucrative new market to break into.
The company, which has been designing software for gearbox manufacturing and simulation since 1989, already has an impressive range of clients in both the automotive and aerospace industries, including Ford, Jaguar and Subaru. But as the company focuses on reducing a gearbox's noise, vibration and harshness level, operations manager Andy Poon is particularly keen to start marketing the technology to the windfarm industry, which also relies on gearboxes and clearly wants to minimise noise nuisance to people enjoying the countryside.
"Windfarm gearboxes are amazingly poorly designed," he says. "So I think we could capitalise on this as the technology is very similar to automotive technology."
Still boxing clever
Coleshill-based Box Telematics continues to capitalise on the limitless possibilities of its technology
Rising Star winner Box Telematics is a classic example of how small companies that are relatively new to the scene can still have a sizeable impact on the market. It also shows that if you're a proven and successful entrepreneur, then anything you touch tends to turn to gold. The brains behind Box is none other than one of the richest self-made women in the Midlands, June Reynolds-Lacey, who made her name with the Mobilefone group back in the 1990s.
Insider interviewed Reynolds-Lacey three years ago when she had just founded Box Telematics, a business essentially based upon telemetry - the science that allows you to send and receive data from machines and vehicles via remote control.
At the time Reynolds-Lacey said the possibilities from the technology were limitless - and it is quite clear that she is continuing to capitalise on them. Today, the company is already supplying its wire-free machine-to-machine technology to a huge range of sectors. This includes transport companies, the pub industry, outdoor advertising, utilities and refrigeration. And for all sizes of companies too, from huge manufacturers like Bombardier Transportation to public bodies like the North Staffordshire NHS trust and a small transportation company with a fleet of just six vehicles.
It even supplies its technology to the end user - one koi carp enthusiast can change the controls on his fish tanks with his mobile phone thanks to Box Telematics technology. And it has developed the
technology for special situations, developing panic alarms designed to reassure lone workers.
Sales and marketing director Mike Langley says this policy of aiming at all sectors rather than just one is deliberate. "We initially started looking at the vehicle sector," he says. "But we soon realised we could and should look at many other areas too. So we decided to focus our efforts on understanding how to collect and integrate information, and then looked for appropriate partners in the industry sectors who we could help."
Partners include Severn Trent and mobile phone giant Orange. Although Box favours the Orange network, it can work on the other three GPRS networks and soon hopes to hook up with mobile phone group Hutchison 3G UK.
For the full story read on...
For the fuller picture,
subscribe to Insider
every month.
Putting together a table of the fastest growing technology companies, even in one region, is always something of a hair-raising balancing act. How do you make sure there are enough new entrants coming into the table to maintain interest - no one likes a league where the same old names are always at the top - and yet at the same time maintain the credibility of the list as a true indicator of businesses that are worth watching?
Further to that, how do you make sure the table continues to have authority - so that you don't look back at winners from years gone by and think: "Whatever happened to them?"
To that end, some of the developments at this year's Deloitte Fast 50 awards make for interesting reading. Jumar Solutions, a Solihull-based software consultancy, took top place for the second year in a row, with a mind-bogglingly high increase in turnover of 8095 per cent - albeit from £339,000 to £33.2m.
But a special award for sustained growth also went to Clinphone, provider of e-clinical services to a large section of the global pharmaceutical industry. The Nottingham-based company has been highly placed in the Fast 50 ranking for each of the past five years, coming ninth this year and eighth in 2003.
This year there was a significant change in criteria for gaining a place on the 50 hall of fame. In previous years a ranking has been based on turnover growth over the last three years, but this year the time frame was extended to five. Deloitte's Chris Robertson explains the reasoning for the changes below.
However, still keen to honour companies that are going places fast, a new Rising Star award was also introduced this year to recognise strong growth over a three-year period. The winner was June Reynolds-Lacey's Box Telematics company (see overleaf).
The companies listed here all deserve particular praise - they have continued to grow in a devilish market. As Robertson says: "All 50 companies have shown tremendous stamina, defied market conditions and continued to grow despite the turbulence of the market over the last three years. Achieving growth has remained the single biggest challenge faced by the technology sector and it is fantastic to see that the Midlands region is continuing to demonstrate such resilience."
strength in depth
Chris Robertson, Deloitte partner in charge of
technology, media and telecommunications in the Midlands, explains the changes to this year's awards.
"This year our criteria for entry changed to ensure that we celebrated not just short-term success but also growth in revenue on a more sustained basis. Sustained growth is something that the Midlands Fast 50 programme has emphasised in previous years and the award for that this year went to Clinphone Group, a company that has demonstrated clear year-on-year growth and has been highly placed in the ranking for each of the past five years.
Knowing that the programme was based on turnover growth for the period of 1999 to 2003, we expected the ranking to make interesting reading. We hoped to put pay to the most commonly laid accusation against our sector - that it was a bubble or flash in the pan - and I am delighted to say 2004's ranking has done so.
Once again we've seen a great spread of companies across the Midlands; 30 from the West; 20 from the East - and 35 of this year's have featured in previous rankings. These factors demonstrate the underlying endurance of the Midlands market place.
This year the Midlands ranking has seen a considerably larger number of software companies than hardware companies, and less than ten telecommunications businesses. It will be very interesting to see how these Midlands statistics compare to other regions once all the results are out. Deloitte created the Technology Fast 50 scheme to reach out to technology companies and champion innovation in the sector. Since its inception the scheme has consistently boasted a high calibre of entries. This, together with the 15 new entries that appeared in the main ranking, causes me to continue to be optimistic and excited about the future of the technology sector in the Midlands."
1 Jumar Solutions Europe
Growth: 8095% Location: Solihull
Ranked the region's fastest-growing technology company for the second consecutive year, Jumar is co-owned by Wendy Merricks and Dave Tomkins. The four-year-old consultancy services and software solutions provider's client list includes EDS, Cap Gemini, Barclays Bank and ING Bank.
"Winning the award last year has given us a much higher profile, as well as the credibility boost of being associated with awards organisers Deloitte, the Stock Exchange and Pinsents," says Merricks.
Jumar has found new success in the previously uncharted waters of legacy rejuvenation. Using automation software, the ground-breaking new process enables organisations with out-moded technology to convert it to new without the expense of completely replacing it.
Project Phoenix, as the new area of work has been titled, is expected to create growth that will exceed the £34.5m turnover that was forecast 12 months ago.
"We might not have had the confidence to go ahead with this new project if it hadn't been for winning the Fast 50 last year," says Merricks.
2 Softpoint Multimedia
Growth: 1910% Location: Burton
Established in 1996, Softpoint is a sales and marketing agency specialising in multimedia products, mainly for IT companies, internet service providers, and PC and DVD manufacturers.
Originally set up as a small distributor of computer software, the company changed tack to focus on sales and marketing for high-volume technology customers, a very competitive market. One of the main products in this drive is its internet business. Online loyalty and incentives business Surfextra provides clients with the opportunity to use DVD and software promotions to acquire new clients, build loyalty with existing customers and collect marketing data. Savapoint offers clients website design and e-commerce.
Satisified customers include the Sunday Times, which gave away a two-part Journey into Space CD-ROM to coincide with the BBC documentary of the same name.
5 Griffin Internet
Growth: 710% Location: Derby
Wholesale internet service provider (ISP) Griffin was formed in 1993 as a software house and general IT services company and in early 1995 launched one of the country's first ISPs. It now boasts 35,000 dial-up internet customers, and 10,000 broadband customers, of which half are for partners. Its biggest partners include BT and Vodafone.
The 16-strong team provides services based on its network and servers to small ISPs that can't afford their own infrastructure or to other businesses that then sell on to an end-user.
Adrian Sunderland, founder and technical director, who runs the business with managing director James Willis, says: "BT saw an opportunity in the market to provide broadband internet but felt that it would take them three years to develop; we developed it for them in six months."
6 BMS
Growth: 613% Location: Nottingham
Founded in 1992 by Matina Tsoukatos, BMS supplies technology solutions to the NHS across the UK and to commercial organisations. Turnover last year reached £312.16m.
"In the last week we have acquired another company, ISL, which has the leading product in biometric fingerprint log-on, used throughout the NHS as a means of securely accessing information such as patient records," says Tsoukatos.
Does Tsoukatos have concerns about potential cuts in government spending on health? Tsoukatos believes that there is little truth behind the hype and that the future lies firmly in technology.
"There is a massive need to bring our country in line with the rest of Europe in terms of the services that the NHS provides and if we are going to do a good job, the way forward is by using technology," she says. "What is being rolled out now is part of a plan drawn up in 1998 and it's the most humungous task. The average man on the street will start to see a real impact as of 2007."
36 Romax Technology
Growth: 125% Location: Nottingham
Opinion remains divided on whether windfarms are the perfect solution for providing renewable energy, or yet another hulking mass of iron on the British landscape. Nottingham-based Romax Technology, however, sees them as a potentially lucrative new market to break into.
The company, which has been designing software for gearbox manufacturing and simulation since 1989, already has an impressive range of clients in both the automotive and aerospace industries, including Ford, Jaguar and Subaru. But as the company focuses on reducing a gearbox's noise, vibration and harshness level, operations manager Andy Poon is particularly keen to start marketing the technology to the windfarm industry, which also relies on gearboxes and clearly wants to minimise noise nuisance to people enjoying the countryside.
"Windfarm gearboxes are amazingly poorly designed," he says. "So I think we could capitalise on this as the technology is very similar to automotive technology."
Still boxing clever
Coleshill-based Box Telematics continues to capitalise on the limitless possibilities of its technology
Rising Star winner Box Telematics is a classic example of how small companies that are relatively new to the scene can still have a sizeable impact on the market. It also shows that if you're a proven and successful entrepreneur, then anything you touch tends to turn to gold. The brains behind Box is none other than one of the richest self-made women in the Midlands, June Reynolds-Lacey, who made her name with the Mobilefone group back in the 1990s.
Insider interviewed Reynolds-Lacey three years ago when she had just founded Box Telematics, a business essentially based upon telemetry - the science that allows you to send and receive data from machines and vehicles via remote control.
At the time Reynolds-Lacey said the possibilities from the technology were limitless - and it is quite clear that she is continuing to capitalise on them. Today, the company is already supplying its wire-free machine-to-machine technology to a huge range of sectors. This includes transport companies, the pub industry, outdoor advertising, utilities and refrigeration. And for all sizes of companies too, from huge manufacturers like Bombardier Transportation to public bodies like the North Staffordshire NHS trust and a small transportation company with a fleet of just six vehicles.
It even supplies its technology to the end user - one koi carp enthusiast can change the controls on his fish tanks with his mobile phone thanks to Box Telematics technology. And it has developed the
technology for special situations, developing panic alarms designed to reassure lone workers.
Sales and marketing director Mike Langley says this policy of aiming at all sectors rather than just one is deliberate. "We initially started looking at the vehicle sector," he says. "But we soon realised we could and should look at many other areas too. So we decided to focus our efforts on understanding how to collect and integrate information, and then looked for appropriate partners in the industry sectors who we could help."
Partners include Severn Trent and mobile phone giant Orange. Although Box favours the Orange network, it can work on the other three GPRS networks and soon hopes to hook up with mobile phone group Hutchison 3G UK.
For the full story read on...
For the fuller picture,
subscribe to Insider
every month.