19
Technical Innovation
of the Year sponsored by University of Southampton
Above (from left): Awards presenter Sally Taylor, Don Spalinger of sponsor University of Southampton and Andrew Barnett of Barnbrook Systems with Lord Digby Jones
Top right: RFEL collects the award for second place Right: Vertical Leap celebrates in third
The first award of the first-ever Solent Business Awards (SBA) was recognising new technological and innovative ideas in their broadest sense and there were three finalists: Barnbrook Systems, RFEL, and VL Digital.
Awards host Sally Taylor invited the category sponsor Don Spalinger, director of research and innovation services at University of Southampton, and Lord Digby Jones to the stage to announce the results.
Spalinger revealed that the judges had singled out one company “as a clear winner for its ability to recognise a pressing gap in the market, and the ingenuity to develop a solution with far-reaching benefits. It had identified a critical market need within the aerospace industry and created an entirely new product, designed and manufactured in the Solent, which is revolutionising the use of remote technology worldwide.
“Through diversifying its business, the company has created new jobs and realised new revenue streams; repeat orders and increased profits; not just in the UK, but on a global basis.”
He then announced the Fareham family- owned business of Barnbrook Systems as the judges' SBA 2015 winner.
Formed in 1978, Barnbrook Systems produces a wide range of products from relays, flight and fire suppression actuators to data monitoring systems and vehicle braking controller systems.
Andrew Barnett, chief technical officer of Barnbrook Systems, received the award. He said: “The most important thing is that my father, who started the company, is here tonight and he is also the business ‘bank manager’, and to all the bank managers out there, I say, we need a bit of risk taking, because this was a bit of a risk. We had to develop the product and sell the idea before anyone would think about parting with money.
“This award is very important for us and represents thousands of hours of work, but to quote Lord Digby Jones, it is actually remarkable what you can achieve if no-one cares about who gets the credit. This was a team effort and we just wanted to deliver innovation and excellence.”
He added later: “What we try to do is not only be individually creative but also collectively creative, and you can’t always do that if there are ‘stripes’ in the room. All the egos have to be left outside; people need to be able to think outside the box, not afraid to speak and contribute.”
Barnett also mentioned that the THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – NOVEMBER 2015
company’s new product – remote ‘live’ sensing technology – is already being evaluated by leading rail companies, and the SBA recognition would now help make potential customer ‘door-opening’ a lot easier.
Second in this award category was RFEL, based at Newport on the Isle of Wight. It provides high-spec signal, image and video processing solutions to government, defence, security and industrial customers. RFEL’s unique, easy- to-integrate products and proven designs, developed for a technically-demanding environment, give customers a route to reliable product development at low-risk with short time to market.
Third-placed was VL Digital. Trading as Vertical Leap, this Portsmouth company, with 50 employees and a decade of experience, is one of the UK’s leading search and digital agencies combining its specialist experts with its own deep- data platform, Apollo Insights, to help marketing teams improve their sector intelligence.
www.businessmag.co.uk
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