THE stars of the Scottish digital technology industry were recognised at the annual digital technology awards, run by software and IT trade body, ScotlandIS at The Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
With over 250 guests, the event celebrated the very best in Scotland’s digital technology industries.
Polly Purvis, executive director of ScotlandIS, said:
“The technology sector, worth £4billion to the Scottish economy, is a key driver for growth and a jewel in Scotland’s economic crown. It’s an exciting and vibrant industry employing a very wide range of talented people and we are delighted to recognise the achievements of the industry’s leading lights.”
Two companies shared the Scottish Digital Technology Company of the Year Award – fantasy sports operator, FanDuel, picked up the award for smaller companies whilst Skyscanner, the flights comparison portal, won the larger company award.
Purvis added:
“Both are great examples of Scottish companies that have aggressively targeted international markets and achieved significant growth. FanDuel has broken into the highly competitive US market and is reaping huge rewards. They’ve carved out a niche in the fantasy sports market and increased their market share five-fold and now plan to double their workforce this year.
“Skyscanner have gone from strength to strength. Already the number one travel search site in Europe they are scaling up fast to cover a wide range of international markets and are on track to be one of the leading flight comparison businesses worldwide.
“Both Skyscanner and FanDuel, like all our award winners, recognise the secret to their success is a formula of investing in a fantastic staff team, using technology to deliver compelling products to customers, breaking into new markets and having a strong focus on growth.”
The winners were grouped into the following categories:
Award for best newcomer – Firefish Software
Glasgow-based Firefish Software provides specialist online recruitment software to the HR and recruitment industry. Their award recognises a very well executed product with a substantial potential market.
First runner up – miiCard
Second runner up – Taiga Technologies
Award for best new product or service. Winner – Procure Wizard
Procure Wizard offers an integrated online procurement solution geared to small and mid-sized companies in the hospitality industry. A great example of spotting a market opportunity and developing a technology solution that meets customers needs.
First runner up – miiCard
Second runner up – Virtual Interconnect
Award for outstanding performance in business growth (Small companies) – FanDuel
The Edinburgh-based company has offices in Edinburgh and New York. FanDuel is a leading one-day fantasy sports game for NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL in the US. Despite being a minnow in the North American market, Fanduel has taken on the likes of Yahoo ESPN and CBS, to gain a growing niche in the fantasy sports market and increasing their market share five-fold in 2011.
First runner up – Free Agent Central
Second runner up – Alienation Digital
Award for outstanding performance in business growth (Large companies) – Iomart
Glasgow-based iomart has transformed their business into one of the leading cloud computing and managed hosting companies in the UK. Over the last 12 months, they have increased turnover from £25 to £33 million, and more than doubled profits from just under £3million to over £6 million.
First runner up – Barrhead Travel, for their online business
Second runner up – Updata
Award for technology innovation within Financial Services– miiCard
miiCard provides an innovative online identity verification allowing customers to prove for the first time ‘they are who they say they are’ to bank regulation standards without the need for a physical ID check. MiiCard recently secured £1.6 million funding to accelerate the adoption of their ‘digital passport’ and support their expansion into the US market.
First runner up – RBS for Connections
Second runner up – RBS for Branch OMI App
Award for Best IT Project – brightsolid
Online publisher brightsolid’s award recognises their work with the British Library to deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen. This extremely complex IT project involves digitising up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.
First runner up – Edinburgh Napier University for Cloud4Health
Second runner up – RBS for Connections
Award for International growth – Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a leading travel search site providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines. Skyscanner opened its Singapore office in September 2011 and employ staff from several Asia Pacific countries. The company has witnessed a huge increase in international sales from 45 per cent of turnover in 2011 to 70 per cent this year. They now cover 40 countries and are ranked No 1 in UK, Italy and Russia.
First runner up – FanDuel
Second runner up – AMCS Group
Award for Public Sector – Scottish Government
The Scottish Government for its Cross Agency Information Sharing Hub allowing Courts, Prisons and Fiscals to share data securely. This complex pan Scotland project was undertaken with a relatively small budget and generated considerable savings.
First runner up – The Improvement Service for the ‘tellme’ portal
Second runner up – North Ayrshire Council’s ReportIT app
Scottish digital technology company of the year (Iarge company) – Skyscanner
Runners up – Iomart
Third Place : Lingo24
Scottish digital technology company of the year (small company) – Fanduel Plc
Runners Up – Scolocate
Third place Procure Wizard
Award for Exceptional Business Innovation Through Technology
This was a special award made to the RBS Group Technology team in recognition of the way in which they are harnessing their technology expertise with ideas from staff in a wide range of the bank’s business units, to develop new apps and new ways of working. RBS submitted six applications in total ranging from Connections and OMI through the network transformation programme to the truly outstanding mobile banking app, a world first which has been adopted by millions of customers since its launch last year.
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This event could not take place without the help of our sponsors, so thank you to: Head Resourcing, Hot Tin Roof, Enigma People, RBS, Bright Purple and NSDesign.
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For more information/interview arrangements please contact:
Lesley Ferguson, Perceptive Partners Communications, 07762 769 659
Julie Moulsdale, Perceptive Partners Communications, 07734 932 578
Notes to Editors
- The Technology Sector is estimated to be worth £4bn to the economy and its growth boosts the Scottish Economy by more than £30m annually.
- A recent report has shown that the continued adoption and use of ICT could generate an additional £5bn in productivity gains to the Scottish economy.
- The sector employs over 100,000 ICT professionals in Scotland and is a key driver of future economic growth
- Over the next five years, more than 40,000 new entrants are required to fill IT & Telecoms professional job roles in Scotland.
- Employment in the IT industry is predicted to grow at nearly nine times faster than the Scottish average, so it is an attractive option for the foreseeable future.
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Contact: Lesley Ferguson
Phone: 07762 769 659
Email: lesleyf@perceptivepartners.co.uk
Website: http://www.perceptivepartners.co.uk
