2005 finalists
Best
use of ICT |
Winner Dominion
Technology Gases What are your key business achievements to date? Our key business achievements include sustained growth in sales year on year since its establishment in 1987, leading to a core business growth of more than 40% in the last 12 months. In that period we have built up a list of major customers that includes 11 key companies forming the backbone of the North Sea oil and gas industry. Among our long-term contract clients are ChevronTexaco, Marathon Oil, Kerr-McGee, Subsea 7, Stolt Offshore, Halliburton and Schlumberger. This achievement has been all the more remarkable for the fact that we are a small, young Scottish company up against fierce competition in a field hitherto dominated by multi-national companies. Our technological innovation resulted this year in the winning of a contract to supply welding gases for the project to lay the world's longest undersea pipeline. Dominion will supply Stolt Offshore's LB200, one of the world's largest pipe-laying vessels as it works on the 1,200 kilometre Langeled gas pipeline running between Norway and the United Kingdom . Dominion commissioned the design of a tailor-made gas - mixing module so that argon and carbon dioxide- in 300-bar pressure cylinders - could be mixed into welding gas on board the vessel. This enhanced safety and efficiency by reducing the number of offshore lifts, as premixed welding gas is too unstable to transport at higher than 90-bar pressure. All these achievements rest on the creation a business system that offers our customers total transparency in everything from stock tracking and accounts to quality and safety controls.
What do you hope to achieve for your business in the year ahead? We hope to transfer our success to international markets. Demand for our products and services has been particularly strong in Norway and plans are underway for a £3m investment to replicate our production operation there. The Royal Bank of Scotland is supporting this new plant as one of its "Scotland Done Deals" to help business expansion. This project will include a new web-based system to allow administration and quality control to be handled by our experienced and highly qualified staff in Aberdeen . Dominion is also investing £1m in promoting and upgrading facilities in our Far East venture, which has been based in Singapore for the last 10 years. We are also looking to increase our market in the West Africa offshore oil and gas industry. Dominion will seek to continue its sustained growth, while achieving greater prominence in the offshore oil and gas market, and recognition of our unrivalled technological achievements. We predict this will lead to further employment opportunities for highly skilled and qualified staff at our Aberdeen headquarters.
What would winning the Best Use of ICT Award mean to you and your business? Dominion sees the award's greatest value in its recognition of the efforts and commitment of our 30 staff who have worked hard to underpin our accomplishments. Dominion Technology Gases is the only industrial cylinder gas specialist serving the offshore oil and gas industry that is based in Scotland and manufactures all its products in Aberdeen . This award would help prove that a small independent local company can win in a field where multi-national firms have hitherto prevailed. We would regard this as a tremendous morale booster for both our staff and other local companies in similar circumstances. Dominion would, of course, welcome the valuable market exposure that comes with such an award and hope that it would help raise our profile in a competitive industry. However, we would also regard it as proof that technology and innovation are not the preserve of a few well-resourced "big name" companies. The award would remind us that information and communication technology, when used effectively, can give a crucial competitive edge in a robust market.
Finalists Aberdeen
Business Computing What are your key business achievements to date? Aberdeen Business Computing was created to take advantage of a perceived niche in the market, which would supply low cost, high quality IT provision and support to the small / medium business enterprise. The company personnel consisted of three graduates from RGU, one being a mature student, each of whom brought a different aspect to the business, which it was felt gave the right blend of expertise to succeed in the chosen market. From a zero customer base, ABC has grown in the past 12 months at a steady rate. Our client list currently contains companies, which cover the full spectrum of industry in and around Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland, i.e. oil, paper, engineering, recruitment, accounting, marketing, shipping etc. The list grows ever longer. To date some of the major achievements have involved major server installations for high profile clients, which due to their requirements involved some cutting edge technology. The work was both challenging and rewarding as some equipment and software combinations had never previously been used.
What do you hope to achieve for your business in the year ahead? We hope to continue to grow the company at a steady but manageable rate. This we intend to do by expanding our customer base whilst continuing to give our existing customers the excellent levels of service they have come to expect. To this end, the company has enlisted the services of a financial consultant, who administers and manages the monitory aspects of the company on a day-to-day basis. This ensures that the cash flows are always in the right direction. This is a vital area of survival, where many small companies flounder and perish in the early years. The company is also working closely with a marketing consultant to assist and advise with the desired company growth and the brand image perceived by our potential clients. This involves the revision of the company website and a make over of the company image. Our main aim is to raise the profile of the company and have the name of Aberdeen Business Computing become the automatic first choice for IT support and provision. In essence, ABC would be the virtual IT department for those companies who cannot afford or are not large enough the have their own. It is also planned to employ up to two more technical personnel to cater for the expected company growth. Ideally these employees would be graduates that could be moulded to the company ethos of quality and value.
What would winning the Best use of ICT Award mean to you and your business? Winning the award for best use of ICT would mean so much to Aberdeen Business Computing. The publicity surrounding the award would immediately be a huge boost to one of the main company aims for the coming 12 months i.e. that of raising the company profile. The exposure from being a finalist immediately brings the company name to the attention of a far wider "audience". To win the award would lend credence and professionalism to the company name. We at the company would also mark this as recognition of how far we have come to date and the effort sustained over the last 12 months. It would also be regarded as a pointer to the future as to where the company wants to go. Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce is one of the prime promoters of business in Grampian and the North East. To be associated with such an organisation immediately gives an extra edge and advantage when approaching potential clients. This has the benefit of opening doors that may have otherwise been closed. To win the award would be a fitting end to a hectic 12 months and would give great pleasure to all at Aberdeen Business Computing.
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Skibo
Technologies What are your key business achievements to date? Skibo Technologies are Microsoft Certified Partners and Citrix Solutions Advisers, both of which are accreditations requiring a high level of expertise. They require a strong commitment to achieving a continuous high standard of work and training to ensure good customer satisfaction. Skibo Technologies have a number of customer references and case studies, which highlight the satisfaction which Skibo customers benefit from. Gaining the trust of several of our clients has been a key achievement to date. As a young company with no track record and no client base to start from, building relationships with clients has been challenging but rewarding. Skibo Technologies now enjoy a broad base of clients from major enterprises to businesses with 2 staff. This highlights the diverse abilities Skibo Technologies have. Skibo have launched a helpdesk in order to deal with technical queries received by clients. The launch of this helpdesk allows current staff to concentrate fully on providing the best service to current clients and will allow the business to develop further. What do you hope to achieve for your business in the year ahead? We hope to become the preferred adviser for ICT for businesses of all size and sector in the Aberdeen area and aim to increase our market share by becoming the preferred adviser for remote access technology. We have a medium term goal of employing a 10 strong workforce by the end of 2006. We will also work towards training more staff for Citrix products in the year ahead to enable Skibo to compete even more effectively in the market place.
What would winning the Best use of ICT Award mean to you and your business? By winning the award, this would be a clear recognition of the work and effort put into the business by the staff. The business has achieved so much since it was first set up, and this is due to the time and effort put into developing Skibo Technologies. Winning this award would also help to raise the profile of our business and increase awareness of the services we provide to a wide range of industry sectors. It will help to position us as one of the North East's leading providers of ICT infrastructure solutions and to increase recognition of the fact that we are one of the North East's few Microsoft Certified Partners and a Citrix Solutions Advisers, which underlines the high quality of service which we provide. |
