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GMCA and Manchester Digital launch programme to help people career switch into tech

Sam Whitear
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Manchester Digital has teamed up with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) for an initiative set to advise and inform anyone looking to switch to a digital career – whether they’re from the region or the rest of the UK.

The ‘Switch to Digital careers week’ will educate people who have been impacted by the 730,000+ UK-wide job cuts as a result of COVID-19 on how they can use their experience in other roles and sectors to secure a role in digital or technology.

The week-long, online event aims to encourage personal development around identifying and applying transferable skills, as well as building confidence to make the switch and will feature speakers and events from Microsoft, Code Nation, Co-op Digital and AutoTrader.

There are currently around 100,000 people employed in digital roles in Manchester and investors ploughed £600m into North West tech firms in 2019 – making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the region. Plus, latest figures from Tech Nation revealed that advertised vacancies in the UK’s digital sector grew by 36% from June – August 2020.

Coinciding with the end of the furlough scheme, the event will bring together individuals and businesses from across the sector to share information and actionable advice about the industry, pathways into it, available job roles and the skills employers are looking for.

It will also feature a speed mentoring event, giving attendees the opportunity to come face to face and ask advice from people of all levels already working within the industry.

Microsoft, which in June launched its initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire the digital skills needed in a COVID-19 recovery, will also be hosting a session on self-learning.

The event has been created in conjunction with the National Careers Service and Job Centre Plus and will run exclusively online from 5th – 9th October, with events running every afternoon. To make the event as accessible as possible, attendees will be able to join the sessions of their choosing – whether that’s just one, or all of them. To sign up for free, visit the website.

Katie Gallagher, managing director of Manchester Digital, said: “COVID-19 has permanently changed the way we do business and the impact on some industries will be permanent. Whilst this and the subsequent economic downturn will mean that many people lose their jobs it has also created further opportunities in the digital and tech sector. Whilst the picture is nuanced and not the case for every digital and tech business, there is still demand for people with strong digital skills. The sudden move to remote working and the need for companies to shift operations online will also add to that demand over the next few years.

“However, not many people know how their existing skills can transfer to a role in digital tech. For example, you might be interested in psychology and human behaviour, which could make you great for a UX role, or enjoy English and make a great digital copywriter. So, we’ll be shining a spotlight on some of these roles over the course of the week, with the ultimate aim of giving people the confidence to make the switch and build a successful career in digital tech.”

Sean Fielding, GMCA’s lead for employment, skills and digital, added: “In Greater Manchester we are working hard to address the immediate digital skills shortage and are working with employers to diversify and grow their workforce. The Switch to Digital careers week will be an excellent opportunity for people considering a career change to find out more about working in the digital sector and the career pathways available to them across Greater Manchester.”

The event is free and open to anybody. Visit the website to learn more and sign up.

ILFM hires CBN Expert to launches sustainability community for law firms

Sam Whitear
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The Institute of Legal Finance and Management (ILFM) is creating a low carbon community for its law firm members, thanks to a new partnership with Manchester’s CBN Expert, a firm dedicated to supporting businesses transition to low carbon.

The Target Net Zero Community will provide a range of insights, dedicated events & access to experts to support law firms across the UK, to help them meet government targets on carbon output. This will include webinars, a podcast series, articles and practical advice as well as a tailored dashboard which allows firms to track, reduce and prove their carbon footprint.

By 2050 it will be a legal requirement for the UK to be net zero. The UN has a target to be climate neutral, spearheaded by former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. As ILFM Chief Executive Tim Kidd advises: “Law firms of all sizes need to recognise the changing consumer and business landscape and be clearly defined as responsible suppliers and employers. They need to demonstrate their engagement to being more sustainable in order to be responsible to the planet in the first instance – but also to compete successfully on tenders, appeal to new, more eco-aware employees and clients and achieve funding and business support access. This new initiative is a further example of our commitment to provide our members with the best possible support in every area that’s is, or is going to be, important to their firm. It is often our members within firms that have, or will have responsibility for figures and carbon tracking, so we wanted to support them in this.”

Joining the ILFM Target Net Zero Community will be free for ILFM members and access to the CBN dashboard will cost from £15 +vat per month and take as little as five minutes a month to complete, thus providing the ideal solution, at a cost and resource point that allows law firms to fully commit to being low carbon. Once embedded within their business, it will minimise risk exposure as the wider supply chain increasingly, demands low carbon goods & services.

James Napier, founder of CBN Expert, adds: “We’re delighted to be creating a partnership with ILFM and support law firms as they move toward complete carbon neutrality. Being low or zero carbon is very quickly becoming a requirement to do business rather than a choice. Without that commitment, you are quite simply opting out of future commerce, so it’s vital that we make it as easy as possible for law firms of all sizes to actively commit to and embed low carbon within their firm.

“Almost all of the law firms we’ve spoken to have said that they have won or lost clients based on their sustainability credentials relative to their competitors.”

Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England says: “Companies that don’t adapt will go bankrupt, without question.”

Tim concludes: “Being low or zero carbon is very quickly becoming a requirement to do business rather than a choice. It’s important to us to keep our members ahead of the curve and we see this network as something that will add significant value to the firms we support. The ILFM will itself be Targeting Net Zero as part of this initiative.”

Beckham-backed esports team targets IPO

Sam Whitear
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Guild Esports, a global esports business co-owned by David Beckham, has announced its intention to float on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, in a deal led by Zeus Capital.

Launched in June 2020, the business has quickly established a management team of esports veterans with experience as professional players, coaches and the media. Guild executive chairman, Carleton Curtis, is an industry heavyweight and architect of the Overwatch League and Call of Duty Leagues, with previous roles at both Activision and Red Bull.

Esports benefits from a rapidly growing fan base worldwide with some tournaments attracting a bigger audience than the Wimbledon tennis championships, Tour de France and the US Open.

The firm expects to use the funds raised by the listing to scale into various esports disciplines over the course of the 2020/21 season, with players expected to compete in titles including Rocket League, FIFA, CS:Go and Fortnite, as well as investing in the Guild brand

A team at Zeus Capital, comprising John Goold, Benjamin Robertson, Jamie Peel and Richard Darlington, is acting as joint broker and joint bookrunner on the transaction.

Manchester tech firm SRO Solutions delivers major IBM Maximo digitisation upgrades for offshore specialist MODEC

Sam Whitear
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Manchester tech firm SRO Solutions delivers major IBM Maximo digitisation upgrades for offshore specialist MODEC

Eccles headquartered tech firm SRO Solutions has completed a major digitisation project for offshore giant MODEC at its operations in Ghana.

The project, part of a series of high value digitisation upgrades SRO has completed for the business since 2018, has resulted in a more efficient and accurate inventory for MODEC in Ghana streamlining its onshore headquarters in Accra with its vessels the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah (KNK) in the Jubilee Oil Field, and FPSO Professor John Evans Atta Mills (JAM) in the Tano Ennyera Ntomme (TEN) Oil Field.

The latest piece of work saw SRO improve MODEC’s current system, which was prone to ordering errors resulting in stock lying in storerooms for longer than necessary and purchasing orders being raised to order materials which were already held in stock.
SRO, appointed because of its status as a Gold Accredited IBM Business Partner, originally improved IBM’s Maximo asset management software by redeveloping all of the workflows in the system, including service requests, work orders, purchase requisitions, requests for quotations, purchase orders and deferrals. It also built in a feature to record shipping manifests to track outbound and inbound deliveries and a label printing function so that all items received are automatically given a barcode.
The projects for the Japan-headquartered business took more than 1,300 hours to implement and saw SRO delivering staff training on the new system.

SRO senior consultant Jonathan Ritchie, who led the projects, said: “The business processes MODEC was working under were not fit for purpose, with various records being work-flowed to the wrong people for approval and then having to be moved around, resulting in delays. After improving these areas using IBM’s Maximo, we implemented some additional features and functionalities to help with the inventory movements between the vessels and onshore storerooms feeding offshore storerooms, resulting in increased speed and accurate inventory usage and volumes.

“As an example, before implementing these changes in Maximo, if MODEC needed ten of a particular item and there were five in stock, the old system would just reorder ten and the five would remain in stock instead of being used. The new system would just order five.”

The latest piece of work is just one of a package of improvements SRO has made for MODEC, which employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. The client, recognised as a leader in floating production vessels for the oil and gas industry, was already using IBM’s Maximo, but an audit carried out by SRO revealed the software was not being used to its full potential. SRO’s first job was to optimise the Maximo system as well as installing its own SDR data replication software, which synchronises data across the business.
Since then, the Manchester IT expert has carried out a number of projects and developed a close relationship with MODEC.

Part of SRO’s work has involved training MODEC’s workforce in the software and helping change behaviours.

Ritchie said: “Just prior to the latest project, we created a document that MODEC could share with employees to enable them to get buy-in for the improved system, which provided a number of tips for rolling out new functionality to the users, such as ensuring they’re involved as early as possible in the project during the requirements gathering phase and user acceptance testing.
“Because the system was not fit for purpose originally, the level of trust in Maximo when we first started working with them was low, so the challenge has been in building up that trust. The work we’ve done with MODEC has been transformational for the business in saving time and money and improving accuracy in an industry that demands the highest standards.”

Fafa Buama, the computerized maintenance management system administrator for MODEC, has worked closely with SRO over the past two years.

She said: “SRO has assisted MODEC in developing our Maximo system for best use throughout the business. Their expertise, both in the product and our industry, have allowed them to help us define our Maximo strategy, and refine the system to meet our exact business need, whether this is through the extensive planning and workshopping for projects with our key stakeholders, or the ongoing flexible implementation of required changes and fixes.
“Rather than just delivering to our requirements during projects, they scrutinise and challenge them to ensure that our business processes are always best practice, due to their agile approach. With such practices is in place, focus on business value and stakeholder engagement is key, and project results to date have often resulted in quality but early and under-budget successfully implemented results.
“The recent Inventory Reorder and Expediting project has helped improve upon the core Maximo purchasing and inventory functionality to better suit our business which should lead to direct savings in inventory costs.”

CreationADM aiming for growth with new dual role appointment

Sam Whitear
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Manchester-based creative agency, CreationADM, are pleased to welcome Peter Walker to the fold as Marketing Manager.

An experienced marketer with 14 years experience, Peter joins the company with a dual role. He will support the existing marketing team in looking after its current client base, assisting them in website management, SEO, blogging, email marketing and social media management activities. On the flip side, Peter has also been tasked with winning new business for the agency.

Having worked client-side since 2006, Peter has a unique skill set that Creation’s directors are keen to harness. Peter’s most recent role as a Marketing Manager working in the foodservice and catering sector ties in nicely with a number of Creation’s current clients, and it is hoped Peter can use his connections within that sector to grow the agency’s portfolio. Creative Director at CreationADM, Gary Young says, “We’re slowly starting to emerge from what’s universally accepted as having been a devastating period for businesses of all sizes. But even through that period we were always keen to grow certain areas of our own organisation. With Peter on board we’re better equipped than ever to do just that. It’s a positive move for us on every level.”

Peter himself is delighted to make the transition to an agency environment. Commenting on his new role Peter says, “I have always felt working agency-side would be a good fit for my broad marketing skill set. We shall find out if this is the case in the next few months!”

Peter is also keen to develop Creation’s green initiative, A Better Planet, which provides branding, communications and creative services to grassroots campaigns, charities, NGOs, businesses pioneering sustainable products and practices, and everything in between. “Having instigated, built and grown various green initiatives within the catering industry, I’m keen to expand upon that thinking and experience and help to implement it across a wide range of sectors through our A Better Planet offering.”

Aberla Utilities inks partnership with Spanish Telecoms experts for UK FTTP delivery

Sam Whitear
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North West based Aberla Utilities, part of the Aberla Group, has formed a partnership with Spanish telecommunications experts, Gabitel Ingenieros, to undertake the design, surveying and installation of fibre network infrastructure across the UK.

The partnership agreement runs for four years and will be nationwide, reaching homes throughout the UK.

The Aberla Group, founded in 2015, is a Praetura and Northern Powerhouse backed business based in Warrington, which operates across the UK. Aberla provides telecoms, energy management, renewables and engineering services to many blue-chip companies, such as British Gas, Siemens, Eon and Domis.

Gabitel, founded in 2005, is very experienced in the fibre sector with a client portfolio boasting many multinational corporations, such as Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange, Nokia and Ezentis. With over 200 employees, Gabitel has been involved in connecting over 9 million homes to the fibre network across Europe and the Americas.

The telecommunications sector is growing exponentially. Investment is becoming more focused on projects designed to meet the government’s target of all homes having access to full fibre by 2025. According to the latest figures from Ofcom, existing fibre infrastructure only accommodates access for 10% of premises.

Paul McCarren, chief executive officer at the Aberla Group commented, “We are always looking to innovate and develop the services we provide for our clients. Our partnership with Gabitel complements the existing fibre installation activities we are currently undertaking for multiple clients across the North of England.”

Aberla is targeting 500,000 fibre surveys in the first year and is currently on track for completion.

Rodrigo Delgado Diez, chief executive officer at Gabitel affirmed, “Aberla has showcased a commitment to deliver on previous projects, and their desire to continuously innovate and develop their expertise outlines exactly why we were so keen to work with them. The injection of investment into the UK’s fibre network infrastructure, alongside our aspirations and Abela’s expertise, lays the groundwork for an incredible partnership between our businesses.”

The partnership has developed a class leading digital surveying/design tool, which enables the businesses to improve response times and ensure accuracy. Investment and collaboration are essential to achieving the government’s target of a full fibre infrastructure by 2025.

New independent food outlet opening Altrincham.

Sam Whitear
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A new letting has been completed at the iconic Stamford House, a Grade II Listed building, on behalf of its new owners Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust (PNFT).

Green & Co now occupies 384 sq ft of retail space at 5 Moss Lane, within the Stamford House complex.

This new food outlet, due to open on 9th September 2020, will offer a range of salads, juices, baked goods, smoothies, coffee’s and super bowls all prepared fresh on-site daily, offering a healthier food choice without sacrificing flavour quality or enjoyment.

Jake Bennett, proprietor, Green & Co, said: “Altrincham has undergone a renaissance over the last ten years; the town now has a strong ‘foodie’ reputation and we are we are proud to be part of this thriving gastronomic destination.”

Daniel Lee, director, Regional Property Solutions, who acted for the landlord, Pervaiz Naviede Family Trust (PNFT), said:

“The letting to Your Green & Co was agreed pre lockdown and completed after the retail restrictions lifted. There is a deal of negativity surrounding the retail sector currently but this letting reflects the strength of Altrincham town centre, its renowned Market and independent retailers”.

Lancashire Mind running the extra mile – all the way to Lapland!

Sam Whitear
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Santa may not need his sleigh to get back home from Lancashire this year, as the county’s residents are being encouraged to take part in a virtual fun run that will take them all the way to Lapland — just in time for Christmas.

Christmas is coming early for mental health charity Lancashire Mind, which is opening sign-ups for its annual Mental Elf race this year – but there’s a twist. Lancashire Mind is hosting the race online this year, with the purpose of accumulating enough collective miles to reach all the way from South Lancashire to Santa Claus’s front door – a grand total of 3226km.

This year’s challenge will run from Tuesday 1st December until Saturday 12th December, giving those taking part just under two weeks to walk, run or skip as many miles as possible whilst raising money for Lancashire Mind.

Emma Bateson, Fundraising Manager said: “We’re all really excited about having the Mental Elf event online this year. We’re asking participants to log as many kilometres as possible so that by the end date, we’ll have racked up enough to reach from Lancashire to Lapland!

The great thing about doing it virtually is that anyone in Lancashire can take part at any time, any place – we’re not confined by the weather or by the distance. You can log five kilometres or fifty – it’s completely up to you”

The Christmas spirit will be kept alive as entrants will be encouraged to dress up for the challenge and share their ‘elfies’ with Lancashire Mind, with prizes being given for the best dressed and best picture locations.

Emma continued: “Mental Elf is so much fun to do every year, and I’m sure doing it online will be just as exciting. Christmas can be a stressful time for many people, so by having a collective goal for everyone to achieve, we’re able to bring the people of Lancashire together and give them something fun and positive to focus on after an incredibly challenging year.”

It isn’t just Mental Elf that COVID has affected. Unfortunately, Lancashire Mind has suffered significant loss this year, through both cancelled fundraising events and increased pressure due to the pandemic – meaning the charity needs more people than ever to take part in Mental Elf this year.

Not only will runners receive a Mental Elf welcome pack and a medal and certificate for taking part, but they’ll also have access to a private Facebook group which will include festive-themed warmups, exclusive entertainment from Lancashire musicians, ideas for Christmas-themed activities and games and a score tracker so everyone can see progress in real-time.

If that wasn’t enough, the charity is also bringing their Mental Elf market online – offering independent businesses the opportunity to have their business advertised on Lancashire Mind’s social media and the Mental Elf Facebook group.

If you’d like to take part, visit https://bit.ly/MentalElf2020Tickets – but be quick, as there is a 20% discount available as part of the Eager Elf offer until 20th October 2020. From there on in, sign up cost is £10 per person or £35 for a family of four.

Siemens sets the foundations for digital operations in upper tier COMAH site

Sam Whitear
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Siemens Digital Industries (Siemens DI) has helped Kemira, a global chemical manufacturer, achieve record breaking productivity levels at its Bradford plant.

By deploying an integrated solution, Siemens DI, which is based in Manchester, enabled Kemira to optimise how it makes its polyacrylamide products, which are used for the cleaning of municipal and industrial wastewater.

At the plant Kemira produces a range of polyacrylamide products. Polyacrylamides are powdered solid products that act as flocculating agents, binding with impurities and small particles to speed up the separation of solids and liquids in a multitude of industrial processes. Acrylamide is the essential raw material in the polymerisation process via which polyacrylamides are manufactured.

The biggest challenge the company had was that for many years the acrylamide was sourced from a Kemira plant in The Netherlands, with up to ten tanker loads per day making the journey across the North Sea to Bradford. To improve the use of resources and minimise waste the company set out to bring the manufacture of acrylamide on site.

Using Siemens’ technologies including the SIMATIC PCS 7 platform and digital instrumentation portfolio, Kemira is now producing the acrylamide on site and is also able to capture and analyse data to drive significant improvements in the efficiency of the process – achieving a near 50% increase in peak production rate.

The Siemens solution has allowed the Yorkshire factory to achieve its goal of becoming self-sufficient in the production of acrylamide rather than importing around 1,600 tankers from its sister plant in the Netherlands each year.

With a safe and efficient plant, Kemira is now using the data generated from the process to optimise the manufacturing process and further reducing batch cycle times achieving new weekly and monthly site production records, and the process runs at a lower temperature, which cuts energy consumption.

Currently running with three reactors the site has a designated space for future expansion within the new plant, with the potential to add a fourth reactor and additional processing equipment.

The chiller plant has also been designed with one eye on potential future demand and the scalable design of the control system means that any new instrumentation can quickly and easily be incorporated.

Steve Leech, Business Manager Process Control Systems, Siemens Great Britain & Ireland, said: “The successful deployment has enabled Kemira to take their first steps on their digitalisation journey.

“In the chemical sector, this is a significant move forward and sets them up to meet the challenges of the sector in areas such as flexibility, productivity, time to market and quality.”

Siemens’ solutions also supported Kemira’s responsibilities to optimise safety at the plant as the expansion resulted in a change in classification of the site from being Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) lower tier to upper tier.

“Safety is paramount for any chemical manufacturing facility and the process control system plays a critical role in ensuring safe operation. The Safety Matrix solution for Process Safety provides the operators with clear visualisation of any safety related incidents or messages and allows appropriate action to be taken in an efficient and controlled manner. This is particularly true in the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) site to which Kemira’s Bradford site was raised whilst we were engaged in the project.”

Collaborative approach and technical excellence

A collaborative approach is key to a successful outcome. Together with the customer, the team identified three focus areas for this project: the use of standard functionality to aid in operations, an integrated solution based on the Distributed Control System (DCS) platform and digital, networked instrumentation to create the foundation and opportunity for future use of operation data in cloud based solutions.

The first covered full automation as the end goal. Easy operability is realised with the out of the box, standard Advanced Process Library (APL) and Industry Library (IL) functionality, that is at the core of the SIMATIC PCS 7 Process Safety functionality and visualisation is provided in the form of a cause and effects-based approach using SIMATIC Safety Matrix. Ultimately, a modular approach to hardware infrastructure based on the AS410 controller and the Intrinsically Safe Active Field Device (AFDiSD) Profibus PA solution, ensures that the process can easily be expanded as production requires.

The second area focused on the integrated solution achieved using the DCS platform (SIMATIC PCS 7), SIMATIC Maintenance Station, SITRANS and SIPART digital instruments. The use of Profibus PA based digital instruments and intelligent hazardous area distribution boxes gave the network a more robust structure. While this network layout reduced overall installation costs, it also enabled connectivity to the advanced diagnostics that are available within digital instruments – an area that is often neglected but is of great operational value to the end user.

And finally, the third area concentrated on the use of digital instrumentation and network-based connectivity to provide the foundation and the opportunity to develop transparent, data driven operational processes within the facility. Whilst the data is already being used to identify challenges, schedule maintenance tasks and impact on the process cycle time, there is also future opportunity for its use. The increased take up and acceptance of cloud-based solutions within the Chemical sector, that takes data and augments it against operations creates information that is actionable and impactful to operations. Example of this includes moving to operation driven maintenance regimes. It is based on the true usage of the smart instruments and compliance to the alarm management operational guidelines using event analytics approaches, ensuring that operators only have sight of what they need to see.

Leech concluded, “Our solutions are not one-size fits all, and we work with clients in the process industry in a collaborative manner, to create ideal platforms for streamlining methodologies in their plants and factories. Data creates an opportunity to do things differently. With an integrated solution, based on networked digital instruments, the foundation is set for taking advantage of this opportunity and driving the digital evolution within the Chemical sector.”

K2L back to business with office move

Sam Whitear
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Manchester marketing agency, K2L, has moved into new studio space close to Media City.

The creative and digital agency purchased new premises on Quay’s Reach a few months ago – and after carrying out a full renovation during lockdown, the building is finally ready for the team to return later this month.

The 4,000 sq ft space will be used by the full creative team and has been designed to encourage a healthier work-life environment.

Scott Kennedy, MD of K2L, says: “The new building is an exciting development for us – and as it’s the first time we’ve ever owned a building, we wanted to shape it in a way that would best serve our team and ethos. With more space, the premises allow us the capacity to expand and offer the possibility of partnering with other like-minded enterprises.

K2L is an award-winning creative agency focusing on brand differentiation, creative and digital performance for aspirational lifestyle brands. Clients include the Marriott Hotel Group, Cartime Motor Group, Doona, Bents Garden and Home and Go Nutrition. Set up by Scott in 2009, it was previously based in rented property on Exchange Quay, Salford Quays, where they have been for the last 10 years.

“Recent events have reinforced the importance of creating a positive space,” says Scott. “Our vision was an environment that sparks creativity, promotes collaboration, and one that encourages a positive mindset.

“To help pave the way for the next 10 years we knew the building had to become more than just offices or studio space, we want to provide a place that has a focus on wellbeing and work with partners that reflect that. It’s feels like it’s been a long wait, but the place looks fantastic and we can’t wait to all be together again, with the space and facilities to work safely.”

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