roundtable
The Business Magazine hosted this roundtable event at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre at Reading’s Madejski Stadium. Tim Wickham reports on …
Growing a tech company Participants
Caroline Atkinson: Business development director, In Cloud Solutions
Lee Atkinson: Relationship director, Barclays
Andrew Barnett: Founder and joint managing director, FliteTrak
Jonathan Caswell: Origination director, LDC
Louize Clarke: Founder, ConnectTVT
Toby Crawford: CTO, Imaginera The Roundtable team
Roundtable chairman David Murray, publisher of The Business Magazine, opened proceedings by emphasising the importance of the tech sector. It is growing faster than the overall UK economy and investment in the sector is at record levels, especially from overseas. Digital technology turnover in the greater Reading area is estimated to be around £13.6 billion with the sector employing around 58,000 people locally.
Colin Hammond
Nevertheless, Thames Valley tech businesses face plenty of challenges as they grow. A group of The Business Magazine Tech Awards’ winners and finalists shared their experiences of building successful ventures with some of the Awards’ sponsors.
What has made you a winning company in your field?
Rob Hayes
In Cloud Solutions founder Caroline Atkinson said being customer centric was key to the success of the SAP platinum partner company. “It’s about creating trust and integrity as a software provider. It’s also about being able to say ‘no’ to customers if you need to. We offer Software as a Service (SaaS) so customers can always go elsewhere. Employing the right employees and consultants is also key.”
Laura-Jane Turner
Define your niche and dominate it is the approach of FISCAL Technologies, which develops forensic audit software. CEO David Griffiths explained: “We looked at how the market was segmented and aimed to be a world leader in what we do. We put customers at the heart of our business. For example, we hold an annual customer conference to learn from them and keep iterating our products based on their views.
Gareth Davies: Corporate finance, Grant Thornton
David Griffiths: CEO, FISCAL Technologies
Colin Hammond: CEO and founder, ScopeMaster
Rob Hayes: Partner, Penningtons Manches
Nick Holland: Founder, Limbick Labs
Nigel Honnor: Senior sales executive, Moore Stephens
Aleix Magias Homar: Director, head of missions, Open Cosmos
Simon Staples: Corporate partner, Blake Morgan
Laura-Jane Turner: Director, business development, Centerprise International
Rowan Turrall: Senior associate, Boyes Turner
Guy van der Knaap: Managing director, MCS Rental Software
David Murray: Founder and publisher of The Business Magazine, chaired the discussion
We’ve also done things our advisers said we shouldn’t do – like expanding in the US and offering customers a three-year upfront charge rather than charging annually. We’ve achieved 30% annual growth.”
ScopeMaster founder Colin Hammond said the tenacity to innovate is essential in building his business. The company has developed a cloud-based tool for improving the quality and delivery of software projects. “We are combining old
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
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