Seminar Overview
Theodore Levitt argued that the best strategy for long-term growth in the private sector is to serve the customer. This argument is equally applicable to the public sector, where providing consistent high levels of service, is the key to persuading many citizens to move their interaction with government to alternative lower cost channels. Delivering higher levels of service require a greater consistency across the processes and data, which must be shared between government and the citizen, across an ever increasing set of channels. Asidua will demonstrate how it has transformed the customer experience across both the public and private sectors using process automation solutions built using the principles of Service Oriented Architecture.

Presented By - Derek Clydesdale

Location - The Studio Seminar Room, Waterfront, Belfast
Date - 11th November
Time - 12:20pm & 2:20pm

Win £200 Vouchers with Aisdua!
Delegates at the GovNet 08 conference will have the chance to enter a the Asidua draw to win £200 worth of gift vouchers for the Hasting Hotels group.  Further information on the prize and details on how to enter, will be given during the Asidua seminar on the 11th of November.

Further Information
Additional information on the GovNet 2008 Conference can be found here

With over 100 companies in attendance and more than 1,500 students, the one day event proved to be successful once again.  Asidua’s presence at the event proved very popular, with students showing a high level of interest in the opportunities available. Click here for career opportunities at Asidua

About Asidua’s Graduate Programme:
Due to our on-going success, Asidua seek to attract motivated, high-calibre graduates to join our expanding teams.  Graduates joining Asidua can expect the following: a competitive remuneration package; access to our Continuous Professional Development programme; small-team working under the mentorship of an experienced engineer; training in soft skills including a team-building weekend with other newly appointed graduates.  In 2008 Asidua have employed 15 graduates and 5 placement students and we hope to continue this recruitment next year, taking on 10+ graduates and 8 placement students.

Recently Asidua have launched a new scholarship program in conjunction with Queens University offering £25,000 for the successful scholar entering first year at Queen’s University, Belfast.  For more information on the Asidua Scholarship scheme click here

For further information please visit our scholarship page

As well as announcing the arrangement with Wintegra, Eddie Millsopp, Head of Device Services at Asidua added “At the sales conference we were able to market our Wintegra WDDI and DPS offerings to a global audience.  Asidua is in a unique position -  our experience, understanding and capabilities,  from the customer application right down to the microcode, allows our clients to truly unlock the potential of the Wintegra processor.  We have crafted this offering in conjunction with Wintegra, and have developed a model which means we can deliver much of the effort from our offices in Belfast.”

Steve Brankin, CEO of Asidua commented “In building a service to develop and customise software for one of the leading network processor manufacturers in the world, Asidua has gained customers in the UK, USA, Finland and Sweden.  We are delighted with the market reach this relationship has already given us, and we look forward to extending this even further.” 

About Wintegra:
Wintegra is a fabless semiconductor company enabling the next generation of access networks with its best-in-class family of richly specified access processors, which may be found at the heart of the telecommunications access equipment, network switches and DSLAMs.” 

About Asidua:
Asidua’s Device Services division provides a unique, world-class capability in Embedded Telecoms Integration (ETI). Our ETI service offering comprises key differentiators including handling complexity, dealing with a mix of  Hardware and Software issues to allow our clients to  reduce costs, by leveraging knowledge gained from previous projects to get it "right first time".  Asidua specialise in working with the Wintegra WDDI software suite to design advanced inter-working and switching configurations for modern network-edge devices.

Further Information:
Click here for further information on the capabilities offered by Asidua for Wintegra® WinPath™ solutions

Asidua Limited today announced that the company has been awarded a contract to assist NI Water with the implementation of Project DIAMOND - Delivering Integration & Management of NIW Data

Asidua will use their Application & Data Integration (ADI) services to assist NI Water in building a Service Oriented Architecture, as well as developing a data integration spine and data warehouse. The engagement, which will stretch into 2009, will see Asidua use their ADI methodology and toolset to implement end to end automated processes across, and develop interfaces, into existing NI Water applications.

This will allow NI Water to leverage their current ICT assets to improve the availability of information with which to control the operation of the business, so providing more timely business insight, performance management capability and more agility in meeting the needs of customers and other parties.

Bob McClean, Sales and Marketing Director for Asidua commented, “Asidua’s ADI offering is allowing our clients to meet their business targets of being more customer centric by having better data, while reducing costs and ensuring their systems are fit for purpose well into the future. This contract with NI Water is another important customer win, and we look forward to working with them in the coming months.”

Colin Daysh, NI Water ICT Strategy and Project Planning Manager added, “Asidua were able to propose a solution based on Microsoft technology which will assist NI Water in meeting our strategic targets.”
 

Further information:
www.niwater.com

For further information on the conference or to make a booking, please visit the Business in the Community website: http://www.bitc.org.uk/events/health_wellbeing.html

Taking Pole Position: Asidua rides the hi-tech wave

Northern Ireland’s fast-growing IT industry is in debt to the extraordinary talent, vision and commitment of a small but highly motivated army of technical and business pioneers – and few could argue that the brains behind Belfast-based software firm Asidua are leading the way.

The company, which Asidua Chief Executive Steve Brankin and Chief Operating Officer Angela Canavan helped to set up after a management buy-out of Fujitsu’s local research and development arm in 2002 – a fearless move considering the global dot.com bubble was starting to burst – was recently named as Northern Ireland’s fastest-growing business at the prestigious all-island Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards in Dublin. It was also the only local company to make it onto the UK-wide Deloitte Fast 50 list of entrepreneurial hi-tech firms.
The Deloitte award in particular demonstrates not only Asidua’s revenue growth but also highlights the company’s continued expansion – its head count has leapt from less than 60 to 120 in only three years and there are plans under way to push that closer towards 200 within 18 months through an expansion plan that takes in Birmingham and Dublin.

“The growth in revenue, headcount and margin is underpinned by a sound business model, set to deliver the right services and managed by a strong team,” said Steve, a former finalist in the Ernst & Young Ireland Entrepreneur of the Year. “Although all of these awards have come along at around the same time, they are the product of the hard work and preparation of the whole company.”

“When we carried out the MBO, we thought we would have a 20-30 per cent chance of success,” said Steve, who, along with a senior team of eight, became instantly responsible for a staff of 55. “We didn’t really have a service offering. We had no customers either. What we had was a bunch of smart people.”

Angela said that while that challenge was daunting, they were always confident about their plans: “If we couldn’t make a business out of this highly-talented, motivated group of people, then there was no hope for anybody.”

Asidua, which provides world-leading software consultancy services across a broad spectrum of business sectors, with clients in both the public and private sectors, has recently acquired an additional 6,000 sq ft of office space near its 12,000 sq ft headquarters in Belfast to enable further growth.

“It’s been a whirlwind year,” Asidua Sales & Marketing Director Bob McClean tells Ulster Business. “We’ve grown the company here quite significantly. We’ve recently opened an office in Birmingham with a staff of nine and we’re preparing to open in Dublin in the New Year. We expanded here in Belfast because we were simply running out of space.”

Bob said the company was keen to take its highly-successful model to new territories for several reasons. “Our application and data integration service is quite client-intensive – it’s not something you can do completely remotely. You need to be close to your customers. This way, public and corporate sector clients in both the UK and Ireland can be more easily addressed.”

Asidua has two key divisions - Business Services, which provides Application and Data Integration (ADI) services, which allows customers to streamline and automate business processes, and Device Services, which supplies Embedded Telecoms Integration (ETI) capabilities. This division designs and writes the software that provides network equipment makers the flexibility to integrate the latest offerings from hardware component manufacturers – it is this type of development and integration activity that delivers the dramatic changes everyone has witnessed in telecommunications services available today .

“A particular market of interest for Asidua Device Services is the DSL or broadband sector,” said Bob. “In fact, millions of broadband lines right across the UK are run across programme code that was developed by us for a key client. Our services are also supporting clients in Finland, Germany, China and the US – key export markets for us.”

Asidua reaches this global market through a range of leading device providers, including Austin, Texas-based Wintegra, which produces specialised network processor technology used in many modern telecommunications systems, and the giant German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon.

Partnering Strategy

Expanding globally can be a challenge for any fast-growing firm, particularly when it comes to language and culture, but Asidua said it has developed a model that sees most of the work for these international clients being carried out at its Belfast base.

The ability to develop and nurture strategic partnerships can make the difference between success and failure in the high-tech industry, a fact Asidua recognised right from the start.

“We only look for business in the two areas we are expert in,” said Bob. “We don’t try to be jack of all trades and a master of none. It also means we can easily fit in with other organisations such as industry heavyweights Hewlett Packard (HP), BT Global Services or Steria. They can see that we will add to their offering and expertise and not compete directly.

“Working with your partners, you have the stamina and flexibility of a full-service team. You can offer a broader range of IT solutions, maximize the value of your customers’ investments, and help ensure market success.”

Public Sector Focus

Public sector reforms are also creating opportunities for Asidua both at home and abroad. “Asidua has developed expertise and methodologies through our extensive work in the private sector, which if brought to bear, can assist the public sector in Northern Ireland as it improves,” Bob said.

Northern Ireland’s Review of Public Administration (RPA), established to “rebalance the economy to be less dependent on the public sector” is helping to underpin that local growth for Asidua and the experience it is gaining locally is helping it to make a similarly strong business case for its services elsewhere.

“We, along with our partner HP, have recently been appointed the preferred bidder on the innovative eSchools project for Northern Ireland – a solution that will see the information held about pupils put to more effective use,” said Bob. “It’s a five year contract and really what it means is it’s just another validation that our ADI offering has a direct applicability to the public sector and the corporate sector.

Bob said that in terms of public sector reform, the Republic of Ireland is starting to think along similar lines and that the company is hopeful of the opportunities that this might bring. “Public sector organisations tend to look at what their peers are doing in other territories,” he said. “All public sector bodies are facing reform agendas in each of their territories because there’s a desire to drive efficiency and become more citizen-centric.”

The NI Direct initiative, which will see all central government departments and many agencies become available via one point of contact, is a case in point. Asidua has joined BT and Capita in a joint bid for the multi-million pound contract which is expected to be announced next year.

Essential training

Steve Brankin said he recognises that the quality of Asidua’s staff has helped it to build its solid reputation and how its investment in training has helped ensure this remains intact.

“We set targets for every manager across the company to ensure that their people are expertly trained. Training is what gives us our depth and capability. Of course, it’s a big cost, but it gives us the flexibility and confidence to get on with it.”

Bob is in complete agreement. “As a service provider, all you really have is your staff and the only proof of how good you are is your track record,” he says. “These are two things that a company like ours should live by and it’s why we have put such a focus on investment into it.”

Indeed, the company was recognised for these efforts earlier this year, when Angela took delivery of a special award in recognition for the company’s programme to promote a culture of understanding and importance of employee health. In addition, at the same event, Asidua was short-listed for the ‘Innovation’ award and received formal accreditation for attaining ‘Employer of Choice’ status earlier this year.

“The work we do is interesting, challenging and varied,” said Bob. “We’re not a software factory. We’re a much more dynamic organisation than that. It’s why we attract top technical staff.” 

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