Some Top SMEs


Our research into the UK SME sector yields hundreds of new small companies and emerging businesses each month. For firms included within the database, we rate the future potential of these firms - from zero to a top rating of 10 - on the overall, cumulative potential on the basis of five principal factors:

  • the popularity of the product in its market;
     
  • the size of that future market;  
     
  • its fiscal strength (ie. its ability not to run out of money);
     
  • the strength of its existing links with big or medium-sized firms, which will form the core of the product’s future customer base;
     
  • and above, the enthusiasm, likeability, and level of determination possessed by the main founder.
     

Dotmatics Ltd


Started very recently in November 2005, the firm consists of two very experienced and skilled scientists. Both worked for Merck in the UK, and while there they developed data-mining-type software. They left to start their own company having agreed that Merck should give them the IP for the software. They owe no part of the revenues to Merck. But in return, they will give ‘favourable future terms’ to Merck – which is now a customer..

They have created a three-product suite of tools of scientific, text mining, handling scientific information, etc. The software is of real interest to thousands of firms, potentially, from small firms right up to big pharma. The first product is named ‘eye’, and it is a text mining tool, for competitor and business intelligence and analysing scientific information, (plus ‘eyeforscience’, a web-based service), the second is ‘browser’, a chemicals and bio-data tool (a rival to those produced by MDL Elsevier), and thirdly ‘gateway’, a collaborative tool.

Commercially, dotmatics has secured a contract to deliver eye to a major US pharmaceutical company. This is a US service provider, which already has close links to major US pharma. This company also wants to take advantage of its other products.. web-aggregation, text analysis and mining capabilities. Their first customer believes the solution ‘will change the way information is used for competitor intelligence and identification of licensing opportunities’. The software is applicable to small biotech and large pharmaceuticals companies alike.

Dr Stephen Gallagher and Alastair Hill incorporated dotmatics with the aim of delivering knowledge solutions to the life science industry. The company was founded on the basis of improving how companies in the industry store, manage, retrieve and analyse information.
www.dotmatics.com



3DiS Ltd


3DiS Ltd offers a state-of-the-art Vehicle Management System (VMS) called ‘Amicus VMS’. The system comprises a discreet, on-board vehicle data logger that records key operational data for both the vehicle and driver and delivers all the data cost-effectively over GSM, GPRS via the Internet for wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. M2M communication involves the direct mobile data exchange between a remote machine, such as a vehicle, and a control center for the purpose of monitoring and control.

John Bradshaw is one of three brothers in this company, and he is the commercial director. Amicus has unique product – primarily an asset management system, can uniquely identify driver to vehicle or piece of equipment – sets us apart, secondly, can offer GPS tracking. They integrate the Siemens wireless modems into their products.

The electronic asset management systems installed in every vehicle log comprehensive data about how they are used - from identifying speeds and locations to the nearest 10 metres down to minute details like measuring oil temperature. The system is so advanced it can even show who is driving using a special touch key issued to staff.

This data is then sent over a secure Internet link to the airport authorities that run the unit, who can use the information to work out how to reduce aircraft ‘down time’, boost security, improve productivity, maintenance and health and safety.

The Reading firm, whose state-of-the-art vehicle tracking system has bolstered airport security and cut maintenance bills around the world. It is set to make £600,000 overseas this year by selling its cutting-edge system to airports operating fleets of hundreds of vehicles across Europe and United States - from barely exporting three years ago.

3DiS Ltd is a privately owned company based in Reading UK providing a vehicle asset management system; utilizing latest technology to enhance productivity and utilization reports via an Internet browser. They own the IP to the software, hardware and middleware, and are majority stakeholders in the business. 3DiS Ltd is holding firm of Amicus VMS Ltd. They may go public in the not too distant future, but their plans are not decided.
www.amicusvms.com



Clove Business Systems


Run by the electronics entrepreneur Roger Eden, this London-based firm has been trialling a revolutionary device that scans passports and tickets at airport check-in desks. The majority of asylum seekers who arrive at airports claim not to have documents, even though these passengers must have had some documentation in order to leave the country of origin and to identify themselves when they boarded the aircraft. They do so to claim asylum in false names or nationalities, and to try to prevent the UK authorities from removing them.

The Clove device collects and stores data. The company has run trials of the units in South Africa at the request of the UK Home Office, which is responsible for immigration matters. Clove has begun working with the airline industry to establish how a scheme to copy passengers’ documents might work in practice. They intend to use the results of the six-month trial to introduce targeted schemes on routes where the airlines can provide the right copies of documentation whenever a loss is claimed by asylum seekers and other passengers offering questionable identities.
www.rogereden.com