Slam dunkWhy FanDuel’s fantasy sport

is a big winner in the US

Well connectedSuperfast broadband boost

for Highlands and Islands

Business Insight

Tuesday December 2 2014

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight2

Digital connectivity

Accelerated approach will deliver £7 million boost

Aberdeen City Council, together with the UK and Scottish governments, are investing more than £7 million in the city’s

broadband infrastructure to deliver a number of key programmes under the Accelerate Aberdeen strategy.

Aberdeen has some of the highest broadband uptake rates in the UK, and with increasing internet demand from businesses, education and residents, this investment is needed to boost connection speeds within the city.

“Accelerate Aberdeen is an ambi-tious programme of work to provide Aberdeen with the world class infrastructure and business develop-ment platforms to secure the long term vibrancy of the city’s economy,” says Gordon Wright, senior project manager, Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure at Aberdeen City Council .

“The application of digital tech-nologies will be a key differentiator of successful energy cities in the future and with partners, Aberdeen

City Council is delivering a com-petitive advantage. The city has seen the announcement of significant investment plans in fibre and mobile solutions, utilising public and private sector assets for maximum effect.

“Accelerate Aberdeen goes beyond the provision of business infrastruc-ture, and is planning and delivering on projects that will support the social economy of our city, enhance learning opportunities and deliver effective and efficient public services.”

The UK government’s Super

Connected Cities Programme (SCCP) is investing more than £5.5 million in fixed and wifi infrastructure, includ-ing the Connection Voucher Scheme providing £2.5 million to encourage SME and third sector businesses to adopt Superfast broadband.

Homes are also benefiting from the Scottish government’s Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme.

More than 77 per cent of Aber-deen’s domestic premises are in reach of fibre based superfast broadband

services through DSSB and BT Open-reach’s own commercial programme, with a target of over 95 per cent fibre coverage by 2017.

SCCP funding has also allowed Aberdeen City Council to invest in the upgrading of connectivity and WiFi provision to 31 public buildings. In all, 2014 has seen announcements of more than £40 million investment into Aberdeen’s digital infrastructure from the UK and Scottish govern-ments, Aberdeen City Council and private business.

Digital connectivity, a fast and effective user-to-user path, has become essen-tial for growth and innovation. Break-ing down barriers, boosting accessibil-ity, linking commu-nities and enriching

education, high-speed digital connectiv-ity helps stimulate both economic and social development.

To achieve it, of course, investment in a fit for purpose digital infrastructure is key. Leading network infrastructure pro-vider CityFibre designs, builds, owns and operate gigabit speed fibre networks in around 57 cities and towns in the UK, for both the public and private sectors, roll-ing out more than 30,000 km of fibre op-

tics beneath our feet. Now the company has embarked on a series of projects, us-ing a shared fibre infrastructure model, to bring the benefits of transformational high-speed connectivity to entire com-munities, creating what are known as ‘Gigabit Cities’.

Three Gigabit City initiatives are now under way in York, Peterborough and Coventry, with city-wide pure fibre CORE networks providing the world-class internet connectivity and benefits of gigabit speeds (over 1000 megabits per second, which is up to 100 times faster than what is available now) to every as-pect of life.

York led the way, with the city coun-cil announcing CityFibre’s plans for its fast and affordable 103km pure fibre op-tic network almost two years ago. Part of this project is a joint venture with TalkTalk and Sky, with work ongoing to connect tens of thousands of homes and businesses in York to a future-proof Fibre-To-The-Premises modern digital infrastructure, the first time the two ma-jor service providers have collaborated with an alternative network provider.

After a £30 million raft of secondary fundraising in the summer, to add to

£16.5 million raised earlier in the year, CityFibre, citing significant interest from local authorities throughout the country, announced plans to deliver this cutting-edge connectivity to more than 20 new Gigabit Cities by 2016.

In September, CityFibre announced that Aberdeen would be Scotland’s first Gigabit City, through a collaboration with locally-based ICT service provider Inter-net For Business.

The potential benefits to the city are clear. As a global hub for the oil and gas industry, Aberdeen is an international centre of excellence for science and engi-neering, with growth across these sectors also fuelling the property sector.

The statistics tell the story. The city and shire’s GDP is estimated at more than £11.4 billion, which is 17 per cent of the overall Scottish GDP, and the area has the second highest employment rate, at 77.9 per cent, of UK cities. With one of the lowest unemployment rates in Scotland at 2.3 per cent, Aberdeen is also one of the top cities for highest earnings growth in recent years. It’s perhaps no surprise then, that at 74 per cent, it also has one of the highest rates of domestic broadband uptake.

A far-reaching collaboration is ensuring that digital connectivity in Aberdeen will ensure its position as a global hub, writes Ginny Clark

Rise of the Gigabit City is step-change in technology

Yet despite this, Aberdeen does not have any cable infrastructure, and by transforming this CityFibre say Aberdeen will become the best digitally connected city in Scotland. It’s time for the next gen-eration.

“The rise of the Gigabit City represents a step-change in the evolution of digital connectivity as significant as the shift from dial-up to broadband,” said Greg Mesch, chief executive of CityFibre. “As a Gigabit City, Aberdeen will be able to bet-ter position itself at the heart of the UK economy as the technological revolution continues to gather pace and to compete more effectively with other international energy cities in the oil and gas supply chain. CityFibre is dedicated to bringing world leading, lightning fast connectiv-ity to cities across the UK, boosting the economy and revolutionising online experience.”

For Aberdeen, the Gigabit City, these new transformational speeds will be ac-cessible to more than 6000 companies along with hundreds of public sector sites including schools, universities, libraries, hospitals and government agency build-ings. This will pave the way to increasing efficiency, supporting a new era of digital public services, educational capabilities and healthcare delivery.

CityFibre believe Gigabit Cities can be a catalyst to boosting the economy, while also unlocking access to new informa-tion and services for citizens, and when gigabit connectivity ultimately reaches people’s homes, everyone will have the potential to benefit from significantly im-proved broadband services that can en-rich their quality of life.

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 3

Businesses, organisa-tions and institutions across Aberdeen city and shire are being given the opportunity to shape the roll-out of a transformational pure fibre network which will make it Scotland’s first Gigabit City and

one of the best digitally connected cities in the world.

CityFibre, a builder, owner and op-erator of modern digital infrastructure across the UK will begin construc-tion of the new network, known as the Aberdeen CORE, in January 2015. In partnership with Aberdeen-based inter-net service provider Internet for Business (IFB), CityFibre will bring the benefits of affordable, gigabit speed connectivity within reach of the vast majority of busi-nesses, schools, universities, libraries and government buildings.

The project is strategically significant for Aberdeen as the city boasts one of the strongest regional economies in the UK, accounts for 28 per cent of Scotland’s GDP and is home to 30 per cent of the country’s top 100 businesses. It has the second high-est broadband take-up rate in the UK, but until now has lacked a modern network that can accommodate this demand.

Rejecting the ‘build it and they will come’ approach to many infrastructure deployments in the past, all CityFibre’s network roll-outs are demand-led. Only those areas which demonstrate sufficient demand will be addressed by the network. Through its ‘Gig Up Aberdeen’ campaign, CityFibre is currently allowing business and public sector sites to register their no-obligation interest online, in order to influence the network’s route and reach.

Unlike most infrastructure projects, the deployment of the Aberdeen CORE will be fast. Commencing in January 2015, the first businesses are expected to connect to the network as soon as March and the build should be approaching completion in early 2016. The project neatly compli-ments the government’s drive for better digital connectivity for business. The Su-per Connected City scheme launched by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport offers vouchers of up to £3,000 to businesses in order to access ultra-fast connectivity and these can be used to cover the cost of connection to the new fibre network.

CityFibre’s chief executive Greg Mesch said: “Aberdeen is poised to benefit from access to transformational gigabit speed connectivity. In such an influential city econo-my, the city’s businesses have a global reach and will now have world-class digital infra-structure to support them. The Aberdeen CORE will bring gi-gabit speed connectivity to thousands of businesses over a future-proof, pur-p o s e -b u i l t network. As we plan the

rollout it is essential that the private and public sectors in the city register their de-mand to ensure that the Aberdeen CORE delivers maximum value.

“We selected Aberdeen as it represents the perfect opportunity for a Gigabit City project. Its economic power, busi-ness makeup and absence of alternative network mean that Aberdeen will be in a position to take full advantage of this transformational digital infrastructure.”

Civic and business leaders in the city have been quick to recognise the signifi-cance of the project.

Aberdeen City Council leader Council-lor Jenny Laing said: “It is very exciting to see CityFibre and IFB bring forward this fast-track project, ensuring that Aberdeen city and shire have a next-generation digital infrastructure to boost economic growth over the coming years.

“It is essential that Aberdeen, as one of the foremost business hubs in the UK and Scotland, has the world-class con-nectivity necessary for continued growth. The new fibre network will also help us to lay the foundations for significant im-provements for residential customers in

the future.”The chief executive of industry

body Subsea UK, Neil Gordon said: “Just over 80 per cent of the UK’s £9 billion revenues from the subsea industry are generated in Aberdeen. With exports account-

ing for almost half of total output, global connectivity, particularly digi-

tal, is critical for Aberdeen to

maintain its position as a subsea centre of excellence. For too long, companies in the North-east of Scotland have had to make do with sub-standard digital connections. The investment by CityFibre presents an opportunity to transform Aberdeen into a world-class digitally connected city. Subsea companies must register their in-terest to ensure that they benefit from the ultra-fast speeds, improved choice and reliability that are on offer.”

Ian Armstrong, regional director for the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, said: “SCDI strongly wel-comes this major investment by CityFi-bre into the area’s connectivity, which will be critical to maintaining and growing investment and jobs in Aberdeen and the surrounding region.”

Bob Collier, chief executive of Aber-deen & Grampian Chamber of Com-merce, said: “Connectivity matters to every enterprise in the region. The energy sector needs global connectivity to remain a centre of excellence; the food and drink sectors need connections to markets; the service sector needs to con-nect to people and businesses; and con-nectivity is essential to growing visitor numbers to the region.

“Digital connectivity matters to secure our future prosperity, and the launch of Aberdeen CORE provides an opportu-nity for business to benefit from access to this high-speed connectivity.”More information on the Aberdeen CORE project can be found online at www.aberdeencore.com

Aberdeen at heart of a revolution

The city stands poised to take a transformational leap toward world-class digital connectivity. Ian Cameron looks to an exciting future

Promise of tomorrow is choice for todayCityFibre is the largest independent provider of pure fibre infrastructure in the UK. The company designs, builds, owns and operates gigabit speed fibre networks in mid-sized cities and major towns, for the public and private sectors. These networks empower data-hungry users, unleashing unlimited speeds on future-proofed technology and ensure that the UK’s regional centres remain open for business in a digital age.

Its Gigabit City projects accom-modate current and future capacity requirements from the public and private sectors, mobile operators and data centre providers. The net-works can also act as the backbone

for any future deployment of fibre to the home for the city’s residents.

CityFibre is also a proud member of a joint venture with TalkTalk and Sky. Established in early 2014, the collaboration aims to prove the viability of gigabit speed fibre networks and services for the home and business. Work is currently under way to make York the first of these cities, with more set to follow in the near future. At its comple-tion, tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the York will be connected directly to a future-proof modern digital infrastructure.

With plans to build a further 20 Gigabit Cities, CityFibre chief executive Greg Mesch said: “As a

nation we are at a critical moment in our economic evolution, faced with a choice between the technology of the past and the fibre promise of the future. The internet-enabled economy is responsible for a higher level of GDP contribution in the UK than in any G-20 country, but broadband infrastructure lags behind that of many others that have been faster to invest in pure fibre infrastructure.

“Amongst those early adopters, in almost every case, the key catalyst was the presence in the market of a new source of capital and vision. CityFibre is well positioned to occupy this role in the UK.”www.cityfibre.com

Connectivity matters to every enterprise in the region and to secure future prosperity

Greg Mesch says the city represents the perfect Gigabit City opportunity

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight4

At any time of day, on any day of the year, the world is doing business. So, with clients working around the globe, Inter-net for Business responds

to this. Its mission is to ensure that wher-ever and whenever a client needs to work, they can relax knowing that they have excellent digital connectivity, peerless security, and secure data storage.

The Aberdeen-headquartered Internet for Business is well named. Although technology and connecvity are part of all our lives, the distinction is an important one. The digital needs of a business are something that allows it to do more than simply function. It allows an ambitious company to reach out to the world and plan in a more expansive way.

One of the reasons that IFB under-stands this so well is that the company has shown that dynamic growth. “We recognise the need of being proactive in offering innovations to clients, as opposed to reacting once the technology is main-stream,” says IFB’s CEO Graeme Gordon.

IFB also works closely with clients to tailor services to particular ambitions. This is equally true whether the clients are on the doorstep or across the world. Location and reputation means IFB has many oil and gas clients. This has prompted the next stage of expansion plans – strategically placed bases in Norway and Houston, Texas. There’s now also a presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow, plus significant business with companies south of the border.

From its inception in 1996, IFB has offered services that mean companies can carry on with their day-to-day tasks without worrying about the digital aspect. Once IFB has delivered the right services and support, a company can be confi-dent that it can work efficiently until IFB identifies an upgrade will improve efficiency further.

Responding to the fact that we are increasingly working on the move, IFB’s Cloud can allow individuals to be productive when they are far from an office-based PC. It also provides greater flexibility so work can be done at home, on the move, or while away on business. “We recognise that some people have

Act, don’t react on the digital challengeAn Aberdeen-based company is committed to helping ambitious companies achieve an effective global reach, reports Carla Fox

concerns about cyber security and we’ve made this one of the cornerstones of our Cloud service, along with accessibility and reliability,” adds Mr Gordon.

He continues: “Ensuring that data is backed up is vital and IFB is responding to the increased focus on protection of that data and making sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Our backup and recovery services are built to deal with those challenges but a balance has been

achieved, ensuring that the flexibility is retained and data is accessible when it is needed.”

This element of accessibility and reli-ability is vital as global businesses operate in several time zones. Keeping commu-nication running smoothly is something that no business can take for granted. IFB can work with a business to create a recovery plan. This links into the 52-seat Workspace Recovery Suite, which works

around the clock to make sure that in the event of a crisis, it will have the business running again quickly, with access to all critical IT systems and data.

The importance that IFB places on data has prompted substantial investment in another data storage facility in Aber-deen. This is forward thinking, knowing that the demand from clients can only increase.

This global reach also means providing a strong networking service to connect multiple offices. Every business has specific needs but IFB can discuss those and design a network that will best serve the requirements. It can then deliver that network, allowing multiple sites to access files over high-speed connections.

Along with internet connectivity, IFB can also design an individual telephony system, with a choice of services to suit particular business needs.

Its impressive track record on innova-tion in internet services has resulted in high-profile partnerships.

As well as being selected as a preferred supplier for the government’s SuperCon-nected Cities initiative, it has gone a step further, offering a unique package that makes application simple for the client, with the background forms already completed.

IFB is also working with CityFibre to make Aberdeen Scotland’s only Gigabit City. This is part of a UK-wide Gigabit City programme that includes Coventry, York and Peterborough and will establish Aberdeen as Scotland’s best digitally connected city.

“The pure fibre optic infrastructure will transform the city’s connectivity and allow businesses to function and work more productively, stimulate growth and inward investment.” anticipates Mr Gordon.

The digital world is ever-changing and shifting and will continue to do so. Busi-ness need a level of stability, however, and IFB provides that. “More than three-quarters of our clients have been with us for more than five years,” Graeme Gordon reports.

This retention rate becomes more impressive when that number of clients is in excess of 1000 in the UK alone. The top 20 clients have a global turnover of more than $30 billion.

There are also many SMEs, many of which have chosen the IFB package to help growth and ensure that as they expand, the digital services can expand with minimal disruption.

IFB knows that having its own people to design the services, put those into practice and provide the support is crucial to clients, with an impressive aim is to respond to all queries within four working hours and resolve within one working day.

IFB continues to identify, create, deliver and support the digital solutions that allow businesses to thrive rather than just survive.

COMMERCIAL FEATURE: INTERNET FOR BUSINESS

Graeme Gordon emphasises accessibility and reliability

We recognise the concerns about cyber security and have made this one of the cornerstones of our Cloud service

A passion for the possibleThere is no doubt that Scotland is a mainstay in the world of digital innovation. Internet for Business has become an increasingly important collabora-tor in this, pushing the bounda-ries of how technology can help a business to stay ahead of its competitors.

One thing these forward-think-ing companies have in common is a chief executive officer who exhibits passion for the possibili-ties of digital.

Graeme Gordon has been CEO of IFB since January 2013.

Following 16 years with the business, he was seen as the natural choice to take the busi-ness forward in a period of rapid expansion.

With offices now in Edinburgh and Glasgow, his success was recognised with a nomination in that year’s Digital Technology CEO of the year award.

Always programmed to create, Graeme trained in electronic engineering and worked in the oil and gas industry on projects such as ROVs (remotely oper-ated vehicles), which have

become vital in offshore material maintenance. However, when he recognised the potential of mobile telephony and computer networking technology in the early 1990s, he wanted to know more. He joined IFB in its forma-tive years and became a key player in its growth.

For Graeme , who is also deputy chair of ScotlandIS, the trade orgainsation for IT and digital, working with the client on technologies to benefit their specific needs of a business is fundamental.

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 5

Feature

Bright new prospect for Europe’s energy capital

Aew state-of-the-art data centre in Aberdeen will provide the city’s energy sector with the scale of tech-nological asset required to work across the globe and help position

Aberdeen as a global tech hub.Dundee-based cloud computing spe-

cialists brightsolid, part of the DC Thom-son group, has invested £5 million in the new centre which will be based at the Aberdeen Journals’ Lang Stracht site and will open in April 2015.

Brightsolid’s 2200 sq m Aberdeen facil-ity is designed to run a secure and energy efficient environment. The site will initial-ly comprise 200 high density racks with a second phase build doubling the facility to 400 racks. The site, at capacity, will hold the equivalent computer power of 100,000 MacBooks and will have the ability to store the same amount of data that Face-book currently holds on a global scale.

CEO Richard Higgs said: “Aberdeen is the energy capital of Europe and as such requires a global technology link for the market.

“We see our new state-of-the-art, Tier III Aberdeen data centre, as an opportu-nity to help position the city as a global tech hub by contributing to, and provid-ing the means for, a growing digital econ-omy across all sectors in the North-east of Scotland ensuring continued growth in the region.”

The data centre will provide a large-scale digital asset compatible with a va-riety of business sizes in both the public and private sector in Aberdeen. It will allow for local and international connec-tivity. For the energy industry, the centre will link Aberdeen to the world’s other major energy cities.

Mr Higgs added: “For the past 18 months we have been expanding our cus-tomers and knowledge in this vital sec-tor. The new facility must and will enable outstanding operational excellence whilst driving down cost. We will also be bring-ing our full innovation and cloud range directly into Aberdeen, so this commit-ment is significant.”

He admitted there was a touch of serendipity in the siting of the new data centre. “We used to print newspapers in Aberdeen and had a perfect building for a data centre, with a huge amount of power going into the location because printing paper uses the same amount of power as a medium-sized data centre.”

There is clearly a market in Aberdeen for such a facility. Brightsolid’s own re-search discovered there were 3000 racks of data space located in the central belt, yet only a tenth of that capacity in the city. “Which is a strange anomaly, given the city is 12 per cent of the Scottish economy. Stranger still, more than 50 per cent of Aberdeen’s data processing is lo-cated down south within the M25.”

Mr Higgs said: “This isn’t just for the energy sector because other sectors, in-cluding the public sector in Aberdeen also require this capability. We’re seeing more

demand than we were expecting from our cloud capabilities. We have clouds in Dundee and Edinburgh and we’ll be put-ting one in the Aberdeen facility.”

For the past 20 years, brightsolid has been delivering technical innovation with personal service and the business has been working with some of the country’s most successful organisations in the UK’s energy, government and financial sectors. It’s a combination which has led to huge successes.

Richard Higgs explained: “Our model is: ‘why don’t you try something new?’ Technical innovation with personal ser-vice is what sets us apart.

“People find it refreshing that we’re giving them new concepts. It links to one of our core values which is sharing knowledge, we share our intellectual property openly with the market because it moves so quickly and you learn new stuff anyway.”

He argued that Aberdeen needs to develop a new “digital heartbeat” and brightsolid is there to support its develop-ment. “We’ll be providing space and our own team to support new start-ups in the area. “We think there are opportunities to develop new applications which meet the energy industry needs and we can be at the forefront partnering new start-ups in Aberdeen.

A £5m data centre is set to be an important asset for Aberdeen’s world-leading energy sector, discovers Barry McDonald

On a mission to teach next generation of digital leaders

Brightsolid’s CSR pro-gramme has supported the development and roll-out of Code Club, a national, non-profit, network of tech

enthusiasts lead by volunteers to inspire and encourage kids to dive into digital. The courses are free for all, funded by donations, and teach kids how to program using innova-tive and challenging projects held after school.

The company has been involved in Code Club for nearly two years with head of emerging technology Kenny Lowe teaching classes at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre for the second year running.

Kenny said: “Code Club is teach-ing children the fundamentals of programming. It turns computers from being a mystical black box into something they can understand and create with. It also helps children with logic problems. No matter what

path their lives take they’re going to be exposed to technology so the more they can understand the bet-ter. I got my first computer when I was four years old and it was playing around with that that really gave me my love of technology.”

Two years ago there were no Code Clubs in Scotland and Mr Lowe set about establishing the first at the Dundee Contemporary Arts

Centre. Now, after working closely with Dundee City Council, more than 80 per cent of the city’s primary schools host their own Code Clubs. He added: “A couple of months ago I delivered a CPD session to around 20 teachers on how to teach the Code Club curriculum from within local schools with the aim being to help start new clubs and give more kids the opportunity to learn some-thing about programming.

“The demand for code clubs has since been phenomenal, with a num-ber of of new clubs having sprung up and being run throughout the city, with dozens of kids involved from different schools.

“A lot of people, especially younger children, use computers but would have no idea how to fix it or create things. Code Club is pull-ing back the veil and taking away any fear factor children have of computers.”

The team at brightsolid’s Aberdeen facility, which is to be augmented in April with a new data centre to support the digital economy of the North-east

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight6

Feature

As the biggest op-erator in the one-day fantasy sports sector, FanDuel’s leagues for foot-ball, baseball, bas-ketball and hockey are now used by millions of play-ers in America

and Canada. The venture-backed gam-ing company has taken its product from launch, in Edinburgh, in 2009, to paying out more than £6.5 million in prizes each week — and growing.

Now based in New York City, FanDuel began five years ago, as a spin-off from the news prediction game HubDub, the high-growth start-up founded two years before by five friends — Nigel Eccles, Tom Griffiths, Lesley Eccles, Rob Jones and Chris Stafford — and nurtured at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics.

HubDub’s news slant was already very much US-focused, and the group’s expe-rience with this start-up soon opened the route to a new level of opportunity, with a burgeoning fantasy sports industry in North America, yet almost a clear path in terms of online innovation and develop-ment. With FanDuel in the ascendancy, HubDub was set aside in 2010, and the team directed their full attention to a market of 41 million-plus fantasy sports players. Venture backing now totals more than £56 million from investors including Shamrock Capital, NBC Sports Ventures, KKR, Comcast Ventures, Pentech Ven-tures, Piton Capital, Bullpen Capital and Scottish Enterprise (through the Scottish Investment Bank).

Now chief executive and marketing di-rector respectively, FanDuel’s formidable husband and wife team Nigel and Lesley Eccles readily acknowledge the degree of support they received at the School of Informatics was instrumental in their ultimate success. Not least because of the university’s hosting of showcase investor events that brought the venture capital-ists to their front door. Investors who, five years down the line with FanDuel, must be grinning from ear to ear.

Among a raft of awards, ScotlandIS has twice named them Company of the Year, Mashable declared them Sports Innova-tion Index Winner, and they have also been the British Private Equity and Ven-ture Capital Association’s Management Team of the year. It seems incredible the team’s vision for creating a fan-friendly product has seen them through such a remarkable five straight years of growth. Had the group any real idea in 2009 just how much of a winner FanDuel would turn out to be?

“I definitely thought it was a good op-portunity,” says Nigel Eccles. “We proba-bly didn’t envisage then how big it would

become, but we believed the sports mar-ket was ready for technology innovation, and nobody else was really doing it. A lot of the success of FanDuel is simply down to the fact it’s a phenomenal product that meets user need, people love sports and are really passionate about them, and we’ve developed a product that enhances their engagement and experience of it.”

What made FanDuel so different from any other fantasy sport league game, is the one-day element, the “instant grati-fication”, as Lesley Eccles once described it, together with its hi-tech, friendly ease of use, and also its range of affordabil-ity. Most specifically though, while other games might involve players participating in leagues that build up points or levels of achievement over the whole season, FanDuel allows entrants to pay a fee for a one-day or one-week game. Also crucial to FanDuel’s business model, however, is the fact it avoids issues surrounding un-lawful online gambling regulations, as it is not considered a game of chance. Play-ers use their knowledge gained through stats and results, and are informed by their understanding of the sport itself, to make their decisions, thereby fulfilling the important distinction of skill.

Having founded its now huge billion

dollar technology business in Edinburgh, the game they developed was always destined for the US. FanDuel touched down in North America with this win-ning game plan, a whole new category of one-day leagues, and a ready-made mar-ket just waiting for the referee’s whistle, in a booming fantasy sports market. It has since established partnerships with NBC Universal, ESPN, CBS Interactive, and Yahoo among others, and will take in around £385 million in game entry fees over 2014, reflecting their dominance in this sector, with a 75 per cent share of the one-day fantasy market.

What has also been absolutely key to FanDuel’s achievement, however, is not just its appeal to sports fans who reckon they know better than the professional coaches, and aims to prove it by earning some cash, but the perceived ‘added-val-ue’ it demonstrates to the sports industry itself. From governing bodies to media outlets, FanDuel can be a high-powered addition to their armoury in terms of building consumer relationships.

Fantasy sport coming into league of its ownFounded in Edinburgh and now also in New York, FanDuel has become the biggest operator in the sector. Ginny Clark examines a start-up that quickly found the route to opportunity in the US

Team tacticsFanDuel’s Founders met through a series of personal and professional relationships, becoming a group of friends with a shared vision for a user engagement platform, initially in the business of news prediction.Lessons were quickly learned at HubDub. The venture had been designed to increase traffic to their partner newspaper sites, but it proved to have a limited appeal, with media organisations desperately looking for new ways to create revenue directly, rather than attempt to sell more advertising on the back of increased users.With their spin-off site FanDuel already proving more successful with some of their clients, the group closed down HubDub, and transformed their vision into one destined for the lucrative North

American market of sports fantasy leagues.Nigel Eccles, chief executive, was an early employee at two previously successful start-ups. He was also a consultant with American global man-agement consulting firm McKinsey & Co in London, for four years, and formerly on the management board of Johnston Press.Lesley Eccles, marketing director, (pictured above) heads up the customer acquisition team. A former management consultant in London, she holds an MA in Modern Languages from her time at St Andrews University. Tom Griffiths, CPO is an experienced

product guy with a background in social products and statistics who studied Computer Science at Cambridge and then Informatics at Edinburgh.Chris Stafford, technical director, moved to Edin-burgh to get his masters in artificial intelligence following five years in

development for a UK bank. Here he met Tom and Chris joined him and Rob in a start-up.Rob Jones, creative director, spent his younger years as a semi-profes-sional football player in the League of Wales. After graduating in product design in 2003, he set up his first business in 2004 with Tom.

Chief executive Nigel Eccles believed sport was ripe for technology innovation

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 7

says Eccles. “This is all about our prod-uct, and although it can be challenging, we have been very selective, and we have built one of the best technology teams, not just in Scotland, but probably even in the rest of the world. So absolutely, we are hiring very quickly more people, who will be focused on creating our product in the US. The people who are already working with us have had an amazing experience, building a product that is used, not just by thousands but millions of people. Our customers are so passionate about our product, it sometimes seems they know it better than we do — it can be alarming how knowledgeable and expert some of them can be! However, this is so reward-ing for our software engineers, to be part of the technical challenge of building a product that attracts hundreds of entries per second, and our engineers can meet that technical challenge.”

With FanDuel’s phenome-nal growth looking set to continue, it plans to dou-ble the current number of employees by the end

of 2015. One of the biggest challenges for the company, recruitment is needed in every area of the business. The majority of the roles are technical as the company are dedicated to the continued expansion of a world class engineering team.

“We look for exceptionally talented developers who love challenges and problem solving; that is the common de-nominator,” says Kelli Buchan, FanDuel’s head of recruitment. “Although we need people immediately, the foundation of our company is based on hiring talented people who are an excellent cultural fit and we will not compromise on this.”

FanDuel’s Edinburgh office is a custom built premises at Quartermile, alongside another Scottish tech success story, Sky-scanner. Eccles acknowledges the impor-tant role Edinburgh has played, not just in the education and training of computer science talent, but now in encouraging those talented people to stay in the capi-tal.

“Edinburgh has got a lot going for it,” he says. “It’s a great place to live, and to be based as a company, and the Univer-sity of Edinburgh has a fantastic com-puter science department. They have had an outflow of phenomenal engineering talent, but historically, all of these highly qualified people then had to leave and go to London or even further afield to find the right opportunities. However, these are very exciting times, and the right business culture has been created which

means there are now opportunities to stay and work in Edinburgh. In addition to what we have been able to achieve, there are other good examples such as Skyscanner, the leading global travel search engine. Now Edinburgh really is a great destination for anyone involved in this kind of technology development, you don’t just go there to learn computer science, and then leave.”

If 2014 marks a dynamic first five years for FanDuel, then the next five are going to be highly significant too, not least in terms of managing that rapid rise. Their nearest competitor is DraftKings, who recently acquired the smaller company DraftStreet, and although FanDuel re-main the main player, there is no chance

of them becoming complacent about that fact. There may be time, too, to eye op-portunities back on their home patch.

“Obviously, dealing with and handling the company’s growth is a huge chal-lenge,” says Eccles.

“However, we’re also continuing to develop onto other platforms, in other sports, and we’re constantly reviewing how we deliver that live sports experi-ence.

“As for the UK market, it is something we tend to think about. With such focus on growing our business in North Amer-ica we didn’t want to divert our attention from it. However, we know there is a big sports market in the UK, and ultimately, we’re going to look at that.”

Your game, your team and your imagination

The leading one-day fantasy league sports company has transformed the world of fantasy sports in North America by offering their

online customers an exciting new way to play. FanDuel forms new public and private leagues every day, and these can range in size from just two players to thousands of participants. The buy-in, or entrance fees, start at just $1 (equivalent to around 63 pence), and the pay-outs are distributed immedi-ately after the games are finished.

Players can set up their own private leagues with friends, or they can choose to enter the public leagues with what may be thousands of other fantasy players. In addition to the paid contests, of course, they can also enter the free leagues. For instance, in its newly launched One-Day Fantasy Basketball Game in partnership with the NBA, fans will compete against each other for daily NBA prizes that will include regular-season tickets, stadium visits and other NBA “experi-ences”, plus team merchandise and memorabilia.

Players start at the ‘lobby’ page, where they choose a contest to enter or create their own contest to play against friends. They then have the

option to select an entry fee or try out a free practice contest — and they can enter as many games and teams as they like.

Once a contest is picked, it’s down to team selection, limited by an overall salary cap, and these selected athletes build up points that are dependent on how they actu-ally perform in the real-time sports competitions. At the end of the day or week’s competition, the competitor who has the most points overall, takes the prize, and they don’t have to wait six months to do that. For the player, and for FanDuel: result.

For many players, sites such as FanDuel are a fun addition to their enjoyment of following a particular sport, however, some players take fantasy sports leagues very seriously indeed, amassing vast portfolios of information and stats, and playing bigger games, in pursuit of higher earnings.

With FanDuel, players can access their leagues, and draft their teams, from their phone, tablet or computer, allowing them to make last-minute adjustments to their line-ups or tactics, perhaps because of player injury or a recent bad performance, wherever they are.

Earlier this month, the National Bas-ketball Association (NBA) announced an exclusive multi-year deal with FanDuel, making them its official one-day fantasy partner, in a first for the NBA, which also secures an equity stake in the company. It’s also FanDuel’s first strategic part-nership with a major professional sports league. NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said it gave their fans “another way to connect with their favorite teams and players throughout the season”, while Eccles acknowledges its impact in terms of further accelerating their growth.

As a Transatlantic business, FanDuel already has more than 120 employees, with the technology team based in the UK and marketing, product and opera-tions and customer service in the New York office. This latest deal, and the con-tinuing commitment to innovation and user quality, means its workforce must also increase to match the rapid expan-sion, and they are looking to double that headcount in the next year.

“We can only grow as fast as our team,”

Fantasy sport coming into league of its own

FanDuel, based in New York, is offering its customers new ways to play

It can be challenging but we have built one of the best technology teams not just in Scotland but probably in the rest of the world

The FanDuel team at the Los Angeles Clippers v Orlando Magic game last month at Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

GARY BASSING/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight8

COMMERCIAL REPORT: LOGICNOW

On the journey towards be-coming the world’s lead-ing provider of integrated IT service ‘management’ platforms, LogicNow has also undergone its own

evolution. Created when GFI Software restructured to support rapid growth across its portfolio, LogicNow, which in-cludes MAXfocus (formerly GFI MAX), IASO cloud back-up and ControlNow (formerly GFI Cloud and MailEssentials Online), delivers software as a service (SaaS) technologies to managed service providers (MSP) and end-user businesses through a subscription model.

Alistair Forbes, the general manager at LogicNow, previously held the same posi-tion at the GFI MAX business unit of GFI Software, as the company’s solutions for MSP took the lead in the global market, with more than 10,000 of them around the world now entrusting their businesses to the company’s cloud-based monitoring and management platform.

Forbes joined GFI following the acqui-sition of HoundDog Technology, which he co-founded in 2004, and LogicNow remains headquartered in Dundee. “Along with my colleague, we established HoundDog 10 years ago, building it

up over five years, and expanding the company before it was acquired by GFI Software to form the basis on which the company’s cloud-based solutions portfolio has been built,” he says. “GFI Software made a number of other acquisitions of cloud-based technologies and also invested in new R&D centres to further the organic growth of the tools and services already built up.

“Now, however, we have reached a natural break point since the two divisions of GFI are operating more or less independently. This has triggered the re-organisation that will see us going forward as two separate companies, with LogicNow focused on cloud-based

solutions and GFI Software dedicated to its on-premise software solutions. As LogicNow, we have a team of around 170 staff in Dundee and Edinburgh, and 380 worldwide with offices in the USA, Netherlands, Belarus and Australia.”

What has fuelled the genesis, and growth, of LogicNow, are the integrated solutions it has handed to MSPs and end user companies, powerful, cloud-based tools. “There are a number of component parts to our product range,” says Forbes.

“The core elements are tools that allow visibility, the ability to see networks and individual computer systems remotely. These are all cloud based, provided to managed service providers who will use them in their contracts with clients and to companies that have their own internal IT staff, but who need the same visibility across their IT systems.

“The second part is a security element, which is designed to ensure that systems are secure, preventing viruses, stopping any unauthorised access and filtering web traffic. These aspects give the IT professional the ability to know what is there, and then to make sure what is there is secure. The third part is the manage-ment of all this, giving our clients the ability to take remote control of systems without going to site, to apply fixes and to automate their internal IT processes. A fourth part is about the reporting of this: ‘Here’s where you have had issues and why’, and the fifth and final part is the service desk, so our clients can track and manage the steps necessary to fix or resolve those issues.”

With such strong foundations in place, and a dominant portfolio, LogicNow is not just consolidating its position but is

A leading IT service managment firm is consolidating its strong position and extending its global ambitions, its general manager explains to Ian Cameron

also directing its attention to the next stage of growth.

“We are continuing to provide a tightly integrated support toolset to all of our customers,” says Forbes. “With almost 11,000 clients in the managed services space, from a start-up in 2004, we now have the largest world-wide customer base, putting us at the forefront in this field. However, we still have ambitious plans – we will be delivering numerous further enhancements going forward, including improving our service to customers, while we meet the evolving demands as we continue to grow our market share. The types of IT services used by modern businesses are changing,

and we need to expand both our products, and our horizons. In the past year, we have invested into Latin America, grow-ing particularly in Brazil, where we will be focused on growing our business further over the next 12-18 months. We do have a small number of clients in Asia, but again, we see this area as another growth opportunity, particularly in Japan. So there are a number of aspects to focus on, building up the products themselves, find-ing new customers in established markets, and increasing our presence in markets where we are under represented.”

As LogicNow builds upon its success, Forbes stresses the need, not only to find the right people with the right skills to help grow their business, but for their industry to continue to work directly in helping to beat the skills gap. “With these strong growth opportunities, we expect our staffing levels to increase to around 500 overall,” he says. “We’ve recently moved into larger premises in Dundee, and are doing the same in Edinburgh, and a number of other sites internationally.

Recruitment remains a challenge across the sector, and not just here in Scotland. This is a high growth industry, and while there are a lot of people out there looking for jobs there is quite a broad range of skills and experience. We’re looking for highly-skilled people with right experi-ence or the capability to develop those skills. It’s not a numeric shortage, but a skills gap. There are a number of industry and Scottish government initiatives, but the consensus is that this problem goes further back.

“As an industry we need to work hard to combat the stereotypes many school-children have about computer science: our industry is not well understood even within the schools themselves. We need to do more to ensure more young people understand the software industry is highly-skilled, with well-paid jobs offering great opportunities.

“People are using software all the time, with brands such as Google, Facebook and Twitter and we want youngsters to think: ‘I can be part of building some-thing like that’.

“With our new recruits, once on board, we develop and train people as required by our projects and new technologies. Software is all we do, it’s a very people-intensive industry and there are very limited needs for capital assets. Our assets are all about our people, creating value for our company LogicNow, and for our customers too.”

We need to do more to ensure young people understand the software industry is skilled, well-paid and offers great opportunities

The power of partnershipBased in Edinburgh city centre, IT services company Grant McGregor has worked closely with LogicNow for some years, throughout the company’s evolution.“Its products and services serve us well because it serves our customers well, and we have several customer types,” explains Jon Towers, director at Grant McGregor. “We work as an MSP outsourced IT partner for small, mainly Scottish busi-nesses and organisations where we are its only IT resource. LogicNow’s MSP offerings enable us to work smartly and effectively for our clients to keep their IT appropriately secured,

protected and productive — all for a simple, straightforward monthly fee — and without the overhead of in-house IT staff.“On the other-hand, Grant McGregor is also a value-add reseller of cloud and on-premise software/services from Log-icNow, GFI and others and we work across the whole UK and Ireland. In this arena, LogicNow’s services help us to save our busy IT Manager/SysAdmin end-users precious hours every week and we help them to get the max out of the vendor’s solutions quickly. That’s one of the key reasons that we’re able to work effectively and provide value in both markets.”

Building on established success en route to exciting new horizons

In addition to its presence in Dundee, LogicNow is recruiting in Scotland and internationally

Alistair Forbes says LogicNow sees the need to expand both its products and world reach

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 9

Well connected country that is arriving at speed

Commercial principles and cooperation in the DNA

The roll-out of fibre-optic broadband is progressing across the Highlands and Is-lands to bring faster, more reliable internet connections to 84 per cent of homes on the mainland and islands by late 2016. ‘Fibre’

allows internet speeds up to 80 mega-bits per second (Mbps) when delivered via green street cabinets or as much as 330Mbps where it extends all the way to a house or business.

The £410 million Digital Scotland Su-perfast Broadband initiative picks up the reins of fibre deployment where telecoms giant BT’s commercial roll-out ends, reaching the parts of Scotland the private sector alone could not.

The £146 million Highlands and Islands component is led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and fund-ing partners include the Scottish govern-ment, HIE itself, and Broadband Deliv-ery UK (BDUK) in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. BT is investing £19.4 million in the project, in addition to its commercial roll-out investment.

“The public money for this project is around four and a half times the amount that we have seen invested in the region across all our previous communications projects since the late 1980s,” said Stuart Robertson, HIE’s director of digital for the region.

“Connectivity is a key to making the Highlands and Islands more attractive to invest and live in. It is important across everything we do, from helping businesses to compete to countering depopulation.”

That translates into having the most modern telecoms services so that busi-nesses may compete on a level playing field with rivals in larger towns and cities.

Yet the ruggedness, remoteness and sparse population of parts of the region mean it is a small market which, tradi-tionally, has had high servicing costs.

“Rural and remote areas can often be at the end of private sector roll-outs of technology, so we saw public investment

as a way of having fibre broadband soon-er and pushing it further than we could have ever have hoped for commercially,” Robertson explained.

HIE hopes to extend coverage beyond 84 per cent of homes. “We would like to get it up to 100 per cent, though that is admittedly a tall order,” Robertson said.

The project includes an innovation fund which will explore how new tech-nologies can provide solutions for harder to reach premises.

“The final 16 per cent will not be for-gotten,” Robertson stressed. “Personally, I think we can go a lot further with the contract with BT, though we will need additional funding to do that.”

The Scottish government has also cre-ated Community Broadband Scotland which is helping communities Scotland-wide, which look the least likely to be reached by the project, to find alternative solutions including wireless links.

Businesses and homes in the Inner Moray Firth, Moray, Fort William and Oban areas, which are already connected, have been signing up with fast-broadband internet service providers.

Robertson said there are new oppor-tunities to be had by local companies: “I hope they will see it as an opportunity to do things in new ways to create competi-tive advantages, rather than just catching up with what others are doing where fibre has been available for a while.”

On pricing, he said: “One very large ad-vantage of partnering with BT is that, be-cause of the way it is regulated, companies in our region can buy fast broadband ser-vices at the same prices as firms elsewhere.”

The infrastructure being installed throughout Highlands and Islands has a high level of future-proofing designed and built into it, he added.

In an ideal world, the network would bring fibre connections to every home and business, but that is beyond the fund-ing available for current projects.

“What it is achieving, though, is to get the backbone fibre network out much further into the Highlands,” Robertson said. “It takes it deeper into the west, in-cluding 20 subsea cables to connect our island communities, as well as provid-ing the main ‘backhaul’ — high capacity fibre-optic cables — across land.”

This, he said, is an investment in the future. “As things improve in years to come, which could include a move to take fibre right to the home, we will have a more extensive backbone network in place to support developments. This is not just about today’s needs.”

Special feature:Next Generation Broadband

BT and its predecessors have served the Highlands and Islands for more than 100 years. In modern times, it has piloted satellite broadband, rural digital

exchanges, ISDN and first generation broadband in the region.

History aside, its £19.4 million contribution to the Digital Highlands and Islands project is “based on sound commercial principles,” said Brendan Dick, director, BT Scotland.

“However, we have a genuine sense of partnership with HIE. In our DNA, we want to do the right thing. That means deploying the infrastructure as a starting point — but the end game is about exploitation.”

With deployment under way, SMEs are already exploiting fibre broadband. “There is also a growing sense that this can transform public services, through digital healthcare for example,” Dick said.

“When we eventually look back and see how fibre has helped to grow the population and to increase wealth, we will realise that it’s really all about what is done with the technology,” he added.

Beyond telecoms engineering, the real challenge lies in helping businesses to maximise the opportunities. “HIE has a strong track record in promoting SME growth in particular sectors, which will be critical to success,” continued Dick. “BT is building a series of new internet access nodes across the region as part

of the initiative, in places that would not otherwise have them. Known in the trade as ‘Points of Presence’, these nodes give internet service providers high-speed, high-volume access points to the rest of the internet’s backbone.

“This means greater potential to satisfy investment needing higher-capac-ity broadband,” Dick said. “Such busi-nesses will potentially employ dozens or hundreds of people each, particularly in high tech.” Rolling out fibre across the region will spread such benefits well beyond Inverness, he added.

“It will take time for HIE, ourselves and others to drive through the benefits of this massive infrastructure rollout, but the potential is high.”

Superfast broadband is crucial in making the Highlands and Islands even more attractive to invest and live in, discovers Neil Clark

Brendan Dick, director, BT Scotland says that rolling out fibre across the region will spread benefits well beyond Inverness area

in association with

Superfast broadband helps businesses compete and counters depopulation

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight10

Special feature

The rollout of the £410 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) partnership is bringing faster and more efficient internet connection

to thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland. Until recently superfast services were predominantly delivered commercially in urban and heavily populated areas. However, the DSSB public investment is building a new fibre network which is bringing services into remote and smaller towns — and doing it faster than any other publicly funded project of its type.

In November I announced that 150,000 homes and businesses in communities across Scotland, including 30,000 in the Highlands and Islands, can now benefit from fibre broadband through the project.

Fibre broadband enables multiple users in a home or business to access the internet, download and share large files at the same time and more quickly than ever before. This means thousands of families can now connect to these services for the first time, as well as enabling businesses and organisations to diversify and expand their services.

The Digital Scotland rollout consists of two projects, one covering the Highlands and Islands area and the other covering the rest of Scotland. Both projects are being delivered on the ground by BT.

The Highland and Islands programme has been developed through a £146 million public and private investment which includes £50 million to create a new core network to enable fibre broad-band across the west of the Highlands and Islands.

As well as being available in urban areas that were not previously covered by fibre broadband, like Dyce in Aberdeen, it is also reaching rural communities such as Cullen and Aberlour in Moray. In fact, across Moray as a whole, one in two homes and businesses can now choose to connect to fibre broadband.

We are still in the early stages, but already thousands of Scottish homes and businesses are able to take advantage of this service. They simply would not have had access to high-speed technol-ogy without this ambitious partnership project. The rollout takes the potential of the internet to a whole new level. It brings a more stable service regardless of the number of people online, and opportuni-ties to use technology in a new way.

This is fundamental to the Scottish government’s aim to deliver world class connectivity by 2020, enabling people across Scotland to connect any time, any place, anywhere using any device.Nicola Sturgeon is the Scottish first minister

More than 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 homes and b u s i n e s s e s in Scotland — 30,000 of them in the H i g h l a n d s and Islands - can already

buy faster and more reliable internet ser-vices thanks to the £410 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) rollout of fibre broadband.

These companies and households can now access broadband services with download speeds up to 80 megabits per second (Mbps).

As Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, explains on these pages, more and more businesses can now improve their services online, start new activities and reach more customers in the UK and abroad.

Through the three-year £146 million Digital Highlands and Islands project, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) aims to help meet national and European access targets. These are laid down by the European Commission and the UK and Scottish governments.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise would like to see everyone in the High-lands and Islands being able to access high-speed broadband by 2020.

The partnership approach will see the region taking a significant step towards this by late 2016. “BT is on target, having gone past the 30,000 premises passed-by fibre mark,” said Stuart Robertson, HIE’s director of digital for the Highlands and Islands.

“We aim to reach 45,000 by the end of 2014. So far, so good, but we need to keep this up for another two years to reach the 84 per cent of premises that is our goal.”

A major part of the effort in the first year of the initiative has been to install 20 subsea cables, totalling 400 kilometres in length, to the islands during the summer and autumn weather window. The other priority was to see the backbone of the optical-fibre network (the ‘backhaul’) laid on land, with all 800 kilometres of it in place by summer 2015.

“Both of these elements are well ad-vanced and it looks as if we are on target to complete the subsea programme by the end of the calendar year,” Robertson said. As Business Insight went to print, only one subsea cable remained to be laid and the weather looked propitious.

“The remaining two years of the pro-ject will be very much about getting the access networks in place to deliver the su-perfast broadband to people in our com-munities,” he added.

Fibre reaches these individuals in a number of ways. The most common is ‘fibre to the cabinet’ (FTTC), where the fibre is delivered to green cabinets on streets or roadside verges, then runs over existing copper cables into homes and businesses.

Hundreds of new fibre cabinets are be-ing installed across the region. The first went live in the fishing village of Buckie, Moray, last February. Some cabinets will provide improved services for existing ‘exchange only’ customers, whose lines currently run direct from their telephone exchange to their homes, bypassing any cabinet.

‘Fibre to the premise’ (FTTP) tech-nology takes the fibre-optic cable right to the front door. This offers the fastest broadband and is being made available in some areas as part of the project. FTTP can deliver internet download speeds up to 330 Mbps.

BT’s commercial plans cover around 50,000 premises in the Highlands and Islands, focused on Dingwall, Dunoon, Elgin, Fort William, Inverness, Oban and Forres — around one in five premises in the region.

As a result of the partnership pro-gramme, the first fast broadband ex-changes have been going live: Argyll, Highland, Moray and Shetland are among early beneficiaries. There will be

quarterly announcements of other areas joining their ranks.

Householders and businesses have a number of ways of checking progress as the rollout reaches other areas. They can enter a telephone number or post-code into Openreach’s website at www.superfast-openreach.co.uk, which advises when services may be available.

For a broader view of how the roll-out is progressing in the Highlands and Islands, visit the HIE website at www.

Stuart Robertson of HIE says that a major element of the first part of the initiative was installing 20 subsea cables to serve the islands

Network crucial to sustain our businessesA three-year, £146m digital project aims to see everyone in the Highlands and Islands access high-speed broadband by 2020, says Neil Clark

By Nicola Sturgeon

Connect any place, with any device

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 11

Special feature

hie.co.uk This website also has a down-loadable map (http://www.hie.co.uk/regional-information/digital-highlands-and-islands/next-generation-broadband/where-and-when.html) showing where the project is expected to reach over the coming years.

Potential users may also check with tel-ecom service providers to see if the new network will be available locally. They can register online through the ‘Keep Me in the Loop’ channel on the www.digital-scotland.org website for updates on the rollout.

One key point is that fibre-based su-perfast broadband is not the same as the existing ADSL services with which people are already familiar. People need to sign up for the new service when and where it is available; there is no automatic upgrade.

Highlands and Islands businesses mak-ing heavy use of the internet for sharing large files, video streaming, voice-over-internet, multi-location real-time collab-oration and other bandwidth-greedy ap-plications will find a range of appropriate packages available from Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Businesses may lease lines over copper or fibre (Ethernet), with dedicated Ether-net lines offering significant benefits and blistering speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbits). The Digital Highlands and Islands partnership will also make

Ethernet much more widely available in the region.

Experience to date hints at eagerness to buy into the new digital network. “We’re getting positive reports from BT that people are purchasing the new su-perfast broadband service as it becomes available,” Robertson said.

“My experience is that there is strong appetite for it in rural areas, and take-up can be high,” confirmed Brendan Dick, director, BT Scotland. “Some towns in the region, such as Nairn and Elgin, are already demonstrating that through both SMEs and households.”

Robertson added: “We are also hearing positive noises from some people who are connected to the internet as ‘exchange only’ customers, rather than via a local cabinet. Some ‘exchange only’ users were concerned that they might not be part of the superfast broadband programme. We are pleased to say that, in many cases, they will be. Some already have it.”

Demand among individuals and house-holds is driven by greater use of band-width hungry services. Cloud computing is still in its early days for many small businesses but stands to be a powerful driver of superfast broadband uptake.

“It’s just starting to take off,” Dick said. “In the next year or two, we will see a transformation on that front. The chal-lenge will then be to help SMEs to rethink

fundamentally how they use information and communication technology (ICT).

“Many SMEs have seen ICT in the past as a necessary cost rather than an invest-ment. A mind-shift is required, so long as you can articulate the benefits. It is not just high-tech companies that can benefit from fibre broadband. Evidence shows that those that exploit it well can grow more and faster, and can internationalise better.”

The Highlands and Islands has seen ‘game changing’ investments before in the long history of government interven-tion in the region’s economy. These in-cluded the great hydro-electric schemes, and the oil and gas fabrication yards that ultimately fell on harder times.

Oil and gas are once more a positive prospect for jobs, with the added impetus of work from renewable energy devel-opments in offshore wind and tidal and

wave power. The scale and scope of the digital broadband project bears compari-son with these, Robertson suggested.

“Obviously, physical infrastructure such as roads, ports, ferries and industrial units are important.

“However, more and more people are saying that quality ICT infrastructure, kept up to date, is certainly as important, and some would argue even more so, par-ticularly for remoter parts of the High-lands and Islands.”

This perspective is given added strength by continuously rising customer expectations, he added. “People expect to get these services in even the most remote locations, and not just fixed net-works, mobile too. We are not directly improving mobile in the project but our improvements to core infrastructure will hopefully have a knock-on effect on the mobile network.”

Network crucial to sustain our businessesHuge logistics challenge met to lay high speed line on land, under sea

The Digital Highlands and Islands Project is “prob-ably the single biggest civil engineering challenge in the UK today,” according to the

man directing BT’s fibre deployment in Scotland, Andrew Hepburn.

There was so little existing fibre in the region that a significant part of the £146 million Digital Highlands and Islands project is to build a massive fibre optic network to open up faster internet access for many in the area for the first time.

The project, which forms part of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband initiative, is investing in more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) of new cabling on land, and 400km (250 miles) on the seabed to reach many of the UK’s most remote communities. Incorporating the biggest domestic subsea project in BT’s history, there are 20 cross-ings linking multiple islands to each other and the mainland.

The fibre network will provide the technology needed to handle high volumes of voice and data traffic well into the future.

“There’s nowhere in the UK where longer runs of fibre cable are being installed than we are doing here,” explained Hepburn. “This is a legacy network, and there is a real sense of pride that we are creating something which can be built on, and which will serve communities for at least the next 25 to 30 years.”

“It is a lot of network to reach a small fraction of the 28 million premises in the UK, but it will make a fundamental difference to the way of life for local people.”

BT’s experts oversaw the marine installation. Glenn Lipsham, senior marine and terrestrial operations manager for BT, spent around 14 weeks on board the main cable laying vessel operated by Orange Marine, the Rene Descartes.

“We have installed longer subsea

systems elsewhere around the world,” he said “But the complex-ity of having 20 crossings in a relatively small geographical area and all in a short space of time is immense — bigger than anything we have done before.”

He added: “The logistics have been incredible for us, for the cable installation ships, dive teams, civil engineering teams supporting the landing of each cable and the teams splicing the marine cables to the terrestrial cables and testing the systems end-to-end.”

Both on land and subsea, the Highlands and Islands terrain has proved challenging. There are areas on road and underwater which are sheer rock. “In some areas the seabed sediments made burial of the cables difficult although the majority of the cables have been buried as planned to ensure they are protected as best as possible from damage,” Glenn Lipsham said. “But their design life is 25 years, and they are suitably armoured and buried to protect them from such environments.”

Beyond the engineering, the project will bring significant benefits to island and other remote communities, said Andrea Ruther-ford, HIE’s digital head of policy, who lives and works mainly from her home in the Outer Hebrides.

“The delivery of superfast services to island communities will make a huge difference to education, work, entertainment and healthcare,” she said.

Mindful of the difficulties of reaching some remote locations with fibre, a £2.5 million Innovation Fund forms part of the project. Rutherford added: “We know there are areas it will be really difficult to reach, but bringing the fibre closer will make it easier to find solutions. We are working with BT to test out new technologies to extend coverage beyond the 84 per cent of premises targeted by the current phase.”

As the network continues to roll out, the first premises in Highland, Moray, Argyll and Shetland are already enjoying the benefits of fibre-based services provided through the partnership investment.

Project partner Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is investing on behalf of the UK Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: “We understand how important access to superfast broadband is, which is why the UK Government is investing over £100 million in broadband in Scotland. The widespread access to superfast broadband that our roll-out will deliver will provide a tremendous boost to the Scottish economy.”

BT’s commercial plans cover around 50,000 premises in the

Highlands and Islands, some one in five premises in the region

There is strong appetite for the new network in rural areas and take up can be high

The Rene Descartes, the main cable laying vessel, left and main picture, operated by Orange Marine

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight12

Special feature

Early adopter sings praises of fibre broadband in social media sphere

The Digital Scotland BEP is to run an intensive support programme for tourist businesses in the region

“Fibre broadband benefits me greatly because we do a lot on online tutori-als, screen sharing and webinars with clients

in locations such as the western Highlands,” says Rene Looper, co-founder of Inverness-based Tuminds Social Media. He recently had fibre installed for his training and support company and at home.

Looper and his wife Pamela sold their hotel in Forres in 2006 to start advising other businesses on online

promotion and selling, tools they had put to good effect during seven years in the hotel.

“I stay in many hotels and B&Bs and check their online presence beforehand. It is often out of date and does not reflect the fantastic quality that guests experience otherwise,” he said.

Looper saw the potential of social media early on, trained in its use, and now consults all over Scotland, including for the HIE/Business Gateway digital engage-

ment programme. Many businesses can use social media themselves to share their knowledge, expertise and passion about products and their local area,” he said.

“Used well, it drives sales. Even spending 15 minutes each day, 10 in the morning and five in the after-noon, to update a Facebook page can make difference.”

Forward thinking businesses were among his first clients. “Now, companies approach us because they see competitors doing well online or

want to sell internationally,” he said.Tuminds has grown from being

just Looper and his wife last year to employ six people now, and is starting to spread its wings. Recent contracts were in London and Malta.

Looper added: “Most of our work used to be in tourism because the industry was among the first to understand the concept. We now have a wider range of clients — dentists, law firms, housing associa-tions, oil and gas companies, food, photographers and others.”

Ambitious firms on line for top advice A new digital engagement plan will provide advice and health checks to help firms make the best use of broadband, says Neil Clark

Aas businesses check on pro-gress in the Digi-tal Highlands and Islands project through dedicated websites (see pre-vious pages), HIE supports business and communities

to take full advantage of superfast broad-band. Since 2012, HIE has partnered Business Gateway to deliver a digital en-gagement programme, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. This involves free specialist advice, infor-mation, events and workshops.

It includes three-day Digital Health Checks for companies, who receive inten-sive specialist advice and a digital action plan to develop the business.

Digital workshops are another ele-ment. “They help firms understand how to make best use of current broadband,” said Theresa Swayne, HIE’s senior de-velopment manager — digital. “It also prepares companies for the opportunities that will come with superfast broadband.”

The workshops focus on improving corporate websites; using e-commerce; and developing social media strategies for business.

“Companies want to know how to use social media in a business context,” Swayne said. “Demand has exceeded our expectations. Workshops cover social media at introductory and advanced lev-

els and we have covered the whole of the region consistently from 2012 onwards with Business Gateway.”

Businesses of any scale access the Digital Engagement Programme through a single email address, hidigital@hient.co.uk, and are signposted on to the right support depending on the company’s size and growth plans.

“We handle all types of enquiries,” Swayne said. “It could be about infra-structure or business questions, and it does not matter if they are clients of HIE or Business Gateway, or not.”

Digital participation is a key theme of the Scottish Government which, prior to the establishment of the HIE/Business Gateway programme, found that 75 per cent of Scotland’s businesses were online and using digital technology but needed help to do more. A quarter — 25 per cent — were not online.

“We would like businesses to really understand the potential benefits before they write digital technology off as irrel-evant,” Swayne explained. “This financial year to date, we have had 528 businesses on courses and have delivered 62 digital health checks.”

A new Scottish government group, the Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership (DSBEP), involving multiple public agencies, has £6 million over two years to provide additional funds to help companies capitalise on the global digital economy.

It has funded a pilot scheme providing

‘digital vouchers’ — small grants up to 75 per cent of eligible costs of no more than £5,000 — to help companies change their digital capabilities. HIE and Business Gateway have assisted eight businesses in the Highlands and Islands in this way. A potential full, national scheme is in de-velopment.

“We are also to run an intensive digi-tal support programme for tourism busi-nesses,” Swayne said. “We have £200,000 from the Digital Scotland BEP to focus on tourism. The highest percentage of companies coming on our programmes are from that sector — hotels, B&Bs, res-taurants in small, rural areas that want to understand how they can use the fibre infrastructure to reach new markets. We are aiming to help 60 businesses this way and it kicks off soon.” This programme of one-to-one support, digital health checks, access to workshops and grants, is recruit-ing a project manager to launch soon.

The Digital Scotland BEP and HIE have also put up £340,000 between now and March 2016 to implement a new Digital Scotland excellence centre on the Inverness Campus. It will be located tem-porarily at the Centre for Health Science next to Raigmore Hospital.

“We want a showcase for exciting, in-novative technology from academia, re-

search and industry, and one that is for-ever changing,” Swayne said. “These will be technologies requiring next genera-tion broadband. It’s about having a vision for the future of digital. We see it being used also for business briefings and by young people learning about technolo-gies related to future jobs.”

HIE has partnered UK digital skills charity Citizens Online to help people who are ‘digitally excluded’ to get online. Tactics include workshops, mother-and-toddler groups, lunch clubs and other activities.

“The focus is currently on work clubs, where people go online to look for jobs,” Swayne said. HIE has provided funding to complement what is already being done locally. There are projects across the region including Orkney, Skye and Moray; new projects are starting up in the Outer Hebrides, Shetland, and Argyll and the Islands.

This digital inclusion effort depends on local partners making it happen. In Orkney, this is a housing association; in Moray, a library and in Highland, the lo-cal authority.

“This programme has helped thou-sands,” Swayne said. “And it will help to identify businesses not using digital tech-nologies.”

HIE’s Theresa Swayne says demand is high

Used well, social media drives sales. Even 15 minutes a day updating a Facebook page can make a difference

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 13

the Highlands and Islands by BT uses products which have been developed in conjunction with us over a 10 year period. These developments enable BT to install duct using low-cost construc-tion techniques. The actual cost of the duct is very small compared to installation costs. Therefore, if we can

develop a duct which reduces the overall cost of installation, it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Emtelle is a company which continues to grow and prosper in the overseas markets and now supplies products to more than 60 countries across the globe, including Australia, the US, Canada and Europe. This has helped create more jobs and develop a broader more secure business base.

Emtelle is also busy supplying products to several power companies who are building the new infrastructure to enable renewable energy, including offshore and onshore wind farms. David Parsons added: “They all need fibre cable for telemetry to the turbines so they can be managed effectively.

Over and above that they need linkages to the national grid to be able to export the power they generate. Our Powerprotect+ duct systems which have been developed in recent years are used by Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy as well as all other Dis-tribution Network Operators thoughout the UK and Ireland. These enable the easy replacement of the cables required to get the energy from the wind farms to the grid.”

So while its products may be hidden underground, Emtelle is supplying the country’s digital infrastructure, a vital component in the 21st century.

COMMERCIAL REPORT: EMTELLE

For Emtelle UK, success in the business world lies in building and maintaining relationships. As the market leader for tel-ecommunication duct systems, the Hawick-based firm have

enjoyed a 30 year history of supplying BT for its fibre optic roll-out. In 2013 alone it supplied 29 million metres of duct and tube requirements to Openreach for use in their Next Generation Access (NGA) programme. Earlier this year, it was instrumental in helping BT pass the one million customer mark in Scotland.

UK Chairman George Brown, who has been with the company since it commenced supply to BT over 30 years ago, commented: “Emtelle are delighted to help BT celebrate this major mile-stone in the roll-out of its high speed broadband network. The relationship we have developed with BT over this 30 year period has provided a very stable platform that has allowed Emtelle to invest long-term to drive down costs for the long term benefit of the business and

supporting the BT fibre optic roll out.”Much of Emtelle’s success can also be

attributed to their focus on efficiency and innovation in the manufacturing process. David Parsons, sales director for the UK and Ireland, said: “We have an ongo-ing investment in the manufacturing process.” Earlier this year, Emtelle made a £4.4 million investment in new technol-ogy across its manufacturing sites in Jed-burgh and Hawick, where it employs 180 people, to ensure the company remains at the forefront of technology.

David Parsons added: “We maintain a very close technical and practical dialogue with our customers because new cable technologies and installation tech-niques are always evolving. Throughout the lifetime of the relationship we strive to maintain service levels and deliver to the point of use in short lead times. We work closely with our customer base to understand how they are installing our duct and cable systems to develop more efficient ways of doing so.

“In Scotland the work being done in

Powering up the superfast futureFrom the home to big business, high speed broadband access is key to future success and Emtelle UK is at the forefront of making it happen. Barry McDonald reports.

Work in the Highlands and Islands with BT has been developed with Emtelle

More than a million people in Scotland lack the basic online skills needed to com-municate, find information, get things done, and stay

safe on the web. Does it matter? Emphatically so,

because without these skills people are shut out of everyday opportunities the rest of us take for granted — everything from keeping in touch with friends to catching up on TV programmes and sav-ing money by shopping online.

Making sure everyone has access to fast broadband is essential, but for many people the first step using the internet — discovering what can be done online and gaining the confidence to browse the

web — is just as important. This really is a personal journey. Each of us is unique, and the ideas that motivate people to get online are different in every case.

What we do know is this: if we do noth-ing to make more help and support avail-able, too many people in Scotland will never realise and enjoy the huge benefits the internet can deliver.

And from experience, we know that when people do need help to get started online, it’s best coming from those who are already part of their lives, and who understand what makes them tick.

Fortunately, Scotland has a proud tra-dition of community and voluntary ac-tion and this gives us a strong foundation to build on.

For the past year, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has taken a leadership role on digital partici-pation in Scotland, working closely with the Scottish government and partners across the country to add momentum to the ambition to get all Scots capable and confident online. With more than a mil-lion people to reach, this means working with and through a huge range of partner organisations to promote digital skills in

communities in every area of the country.Among the many actions we now have

underway are:Setting up a directory of places that

people can go to for face-to-face help and advice, to make it easier for them to take

their first steps online. We have over 300 centres listed so far and are adding more all the time.

Making resources available to organi-sations running digital inclusion pro-jects. This year we have a cash fund of over £200,000, as well as in-kind support pledged by our partners, to award to a wide range of projects across Scotland.

Organising digital staff and mentors for Scottish charities and voluntary or-ganisations. We are aiming to place over 100 digital internships over the next year, with each host supported by SCVO and a mentor from a tech company.

Encouraging partners to sign Scot-land’s digital participation charter, to show their commitment to digital skills and supporting the national agenda. More than 80 public, private and third sector organisations have signed in the first few weeks alone.

Plus Hosting a series of events for anyone and everyone working on digi-tal participation in Scotland. These are opportunities to learn from each other and get connected to potential partners. Hundreds of people have attended our events so far, and the next big one will be on 25/26 February at The Gathering in Glasgow.

The scale of the digital participation challenge in Scotland is huge, and the generous support of our partners is criti-cal for us to get the job done. We firmly believe this agenda should matter to everyone in Scotland — and that we all stand to gain if we can help everyone gain the confidence and skills to get things done online. Chris Yiu is director of digital participa-tion at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. To find out more, visit www.scvo.org.uk/digital

Arguing a strong case for getting caught in the net

Chris Yiu says lacking basic online skills can shut people out of everyday opportunities

Online confidence is a vital goal for Scots, writes Chris Yiu, the SCVO’s director of digital participation

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight14

The internet is for eve-ryone, and that is the key message behind the drive for better digital connectivity. However, not every-one has the capabili-ty, or the opportunity, to ensure it is fully ac-cessible.

As chief executive of trade body Scot-landIS, Polly Purvis is working hard to tackle the challenges facing the Scottish technology sector, and with 50,000 new recruits necessary to her industry over the next fi ve years, the increasing skills gap tops the organisation’s priority list. For Purvis, though, the issues surround-ing digital connectivity and inclusion also play a crucial role in skills development.

“Connectivity is an enabler, it helps everybody,” she says. “So yes, it’s about how we skill up the technology sector, but it’s also about making sure the skills are there for the future, with a wider and increasing skills requirement for every Scottish industry, not just those of the digital technologies sector. Increasingly, almost everybody is using technology, becoming conversant with smart phones, tablets and PCs, which impact on all of our everyday lives.

“However, different levels of skills will be needed by different businesses. Right now, many organisations need people who can put information on the web, in terms of day-to-day updates and basic web design. However, that doesn’t mean a local B&B needs to have an in-house software developer — although a com-pany employing 40 people will. So part of the up-skilling is about increasing the basic levels for everyone.”

The Scottish technology industry cov-ers a broad range of businesses, from those involved in broadband rollout or big communications fi rms to a range of small companies acting as data centres for ISP or hosting services, and a number of games developers. The vast majority however, are involved in software devel-opment and services. Although the need to attract investment remains a constant, this is a fl ourishing sector with many suc-cessful Scottish companies also blazing a trail in the international market. Still, the verdict from ScotlandIS is that we must do better.

“Despite all the diffi culties of recent years, our industry is continuing to grow,”

tion around urban connections, such as the smart city initiative in Glasgow, and ensuring ordinary people can access bet-ter wifi — as taxpayers we’re already pay-ing for wifi , for example in libraries and universities and I think their networks should be opened up for public access with the addition of privacy layers to pro-tect their confi dential information.

“Social inclusion is also a challenge. Many people are not disadvantaged by distance or geography but by economic and social deprivation. A youngster may be learning and gaining skills at school, but if her family can’t afford a PC or laptop at home, then she is not going to build on that. There are also age issues, many people were not early adopters in terms of internet use, and while there are older people who go online, often tagged silver surfers, there is a signifi cant group who don’t. Increasingly, with government

and council information all being driven towards online delivery, many other citi-zens are being disadvantaged as they seek services, jobs or benefi ts.

“We’re now partnering the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), getting out there, not only to help third sector organisations use digital technology, but also use the knowledge they gain to educate the communities they interact with. Up-skilling can be a long process, but we need that education in place so more and more people realise they don’t have to be scared of going on-line, and know exactly what to do.”

ScotlandIS argue a simple concept: in-creasing success in the digital technolo-gies sector is driving demand for skilled recruits, but increasing use of technology in everyday life is also driving the need for widespread upskilling. Connectivity is about people, too.

The chief executive of ScotlandIS explains to Ginny Clark why connectivity is important beyond the digital technology secctors

Let’s ensure that new skills will enable all

Part of the up-skilling is about increasing the basic levels for everyone

Polly Purvis says that that social inclusion in technology also remains a challenge

Feature

Expertise in diversityScotlandIS is the trade body for the Scottish digital technologies industry, representing more than 300 software, telecommu-nications, games, IT and digital agency businesses.

This is a diverse sector, including big global players and small specialist companies, who directly employ around 73,000 people, with a further 30,000-plus also employed indirectly through IT departments across Scottish businesses and organisations, worth £6 billion to the Scottish economy.

ScotlandIS not only works to raise the profile of the flourish-ing digital technologies industry, but also lobbies Scottish and national policy makers, while supporting their members in the development of business relationships with customers, suppliers and partner compa-nies.

The skills gap in Scotland’s growing digital and ICT sector, exports and investment, together with issues surround-ing connectivity, remain key challenges for ScotlandIS.

ScotlandIS is looking at innovations such

as the smart city initiative in Glasgow

says Purvis. “To an extent it’s been re-cession proof, with signifi cant growth over the past four or fi ve years, with the demand for technology solutions from more and more businesses producing this pent-up demand for skills.

“There are a number of challenges, and I’d like to see a greater focus around ex-ports, with some of our businesses need-ing to be a bit more ambitious. There are investment challenges too. We’re lucky we have such a strong business angel community, but when small businesses with really good ideas are looking to take the next step, then fi nding growth and venture capital is hard.”

Purvis believes greater connectivity will be central to helping businesses re-alise their potential, but warns the wider benefi ts can only be exploited through an inclusive approach — both geographi-cally and socially.

“The investment in connectivity is great, but some of our rural communi-ties are going to be at the tail end of the broadband roll-out programme. If you haven’t got internet access, then as a busi-ness you have a real problem, a barrier. In many ways, businesses and communities in the Highlands and Islands, the Bor-ders, and Dumfries and Galloway, need even more support. We’re still up there in our approach to connectivity, but we’re not in the top league of countries with rural issues such as Sweden and Canada. It’s not just about having super fast con-nectivity, it’s how they fund it. In Sweden, there is more economic power at local council level, with projects funded on a community basis.

“They are very much at the forefront on connectivity, having procured it at lo-cal contract level, and got there faster. We need to enable our rural areas more quickly so they can do business with the rest of the world, and get everyone online and not disadvantaged by distance from the market place.

“We also need to look more at innova-

JAMES GLOSSOP FOR THE TIMES

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 15

Connectivity can right-ly be regarded as the business buzz word du jour. And it’s with justification, as it is a vital component in driving efficien-cies. The Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN) Programme

is a new initiative to drive connectivity. It is designed to deliver a single public services network available for the use of any, and potentially all, public service or-ganisations within Scotland. The SWAN programme aims to enable infrastructure and service sharing that will produce cost efficiencies and facilitate the crea-tion of public services that are high qual-ity, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local needs. The contract value for SWAN Connectivity Services is estimated to be up to £325 million over nine years.

Minister for Business, Energy & Tour-ism Fergus Ewing, said: “The SWAN Pro-gramme is a great example of how key public sector organisations have come to-gether as partners to aggregate demand and procure a single communications network that has delivered cost and per-formance advantages.

“There are now over 1,000 Vanguard Partner sites connected to the network and the transition continues at a pace. Between Capita and the SWAN Author-ity, there are currently discussions with over 40 potential additional SWAN cus-tomers. West Lothian Council and Skill Development Scotland are the first non-Vanguard customers to become part of the SWAN Membership.

“The SWAN Programme is deliver-ing real results and this can be replicated right across the public sector. With this in mind, the Scottish government Procure-ment Division is currently preparing to procure a national Unified Communica-tions and Collaboration service, which will be the first of the additional shared services to utilise the SWAN infrastruc-ture. I look forward to seeing the further roll out of national Digital Public Ser-vices to benefit people and communities around the country.”

In the first instance, SWAN will de-liver service services in two main cat-egories: core infrastructure services and catalogue connectivity services. The core infrastructure includes the development and deployment of the network itself and the provision of support services such as a help-desk, service portal, service monitoring, reporting, billing and tech-nical design support. These are services that will be required by most, if not all, service users. Connectivity services will allow service users to connect to other service users and gateways with a variety of bandwidth, resilience and security op-tions available.

The SWAN Programme represents a major milestone from the Scottish Gov-

ernment’s Digital Public Services strat-egy. It is one of the first major initiatives to be launched by Scottish Ministers in support of the Scotland’s national digital public services strategy ‘Scotland’s Digital Future – Delivery of Public Services’ and is aligned with the McClelland Review of Scottish Public Sector ICT Infrastructure, taking forward its recommendations on public sector collaborative procurement, aggregation of network demand and use of common standards.

Anne Moises the Chief Information Officer for the Scottish Government commented:

“Through the McClelland Review, we not only had a compelling vision for a se-cure aggregated communications service, we also had had the support and partici-pation of the wide body of Scottish public sector organisations who recognised the benefits and cost savings that could be achieved and the opportunities it pro-vided for better sharing of services and information. There is a strong desire from all Scottish public sector organisations to deliver more joined-up services that are centred around the citizen, and the net-work makes it possible to integrate and deliver digital services and information in a way that was previously not possible.

“The SWAN project is a great exam-ple of public sector organisations work-ing together to deliver a range of shared local and national benefits. Four Van-guard Partners: NHS Scotland, Educa-tion Scotland, the Pathfinder North local authority consortium and the Pathfinder South local authority consortium worked in partnership on this complex procure-ment for the benefit of all public bodies. And a shared service approach centred in NHS National Services Scotland will ensure the contract continues to deliver maximum value for money to all organi-sations that join over the lifetime of the contract.”

For the Vanguard Partners alone the

annual equivalent saving on current costs is likely to be between 6 per cent and 50 per cent, depending on the Vanguard Partner, with an average saving of 25 per cent across all Partners. Similar levels of savings are anticipated for other public sector bodies that sign up.

SWAN has been designed to deliver in a dynamic environment of new poli-cies and new ways of working and is well placed to exploit the anticipated rapid de-velopments in communications technol-ogy. It has the capacity to grow and be flexible to enable new digital services to be brought on stream quickly. However, SWAN is not just about the connectivity , it provides a modern set of commoditised digital services (e.g. voice, video, unified communications and collaboration tools) on which common business practices and shared services can be delivered.

Many other public sector organisations have committed to using SWAN in the future when their current contracts ex-pire. These include the Scottish Govern-ment, a number of local authorities and Police Scotland.

Ian Russell, Country Manager, Scot-land & NI with SCC Scotland, one of the companies involved in delivering the

SWAN programme said “SCC Scotland has invested in people and infrastruc-ture to enable the business to promote SWAN Enablement across the Scottish Public Sector. The formation of SWAN will transform communication and col-laboration across the sector and will drive benefits in costs and services to staff and citizens through shared services.

“Our inclusion on the NES Frame-work introduces SCC to the whole of the Scottish public sector, focussed on assess-ment, design and implementation ser-vices around migration to SWAN. Of the eight companies that the NES Frame-work includes, SCC is the only provider with the end-to-end capability from net-work to application.”

A new arrival of distinction

Fergus Ewing points to value of public sector partnerships

SWAN is an initiative driving connectivity in Scotland’s public sector, discovers Barry McDonald

What are the benefits of SWAN?SWAN will benefit from using existing communica-tions infrastructure and services (where possible) as well as exploiting the significant investment that the Scottish government has made in new infrastructure as part of the Step Change 2015 and World Class 2020 programmes. This will mean:• Reduced cost of services – by leveraging collective demand for services that have traditionally been purchased on an organisation to organisation basis, we will be able to reduce the cost of basic services.• Cutting procurement costs – going through a formal OJEU procurement to meet the network service needs of many public sector organisations will reduce the

overall expense of procurement by removing the need for each organisation to carry out their own procure-ment process.• Enabling greater collaboration – creating a shared, holistic network services solution will enable greater communication between public sector organisations, which in turn will lead to a higher standard in the delivery of public services.• Unifying network assurance – utilising a common standard of data assurance will make it easier for public sector organisations to interact with each other, and ensure greater security for data transmitted internally and externally.

THOMAS KOHLER

The contract value for SWAN is estimated to be up to £325 million over nine years

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight16

Somw, a romantic tale of humble entrepreneurial beginnings is quite unex-pected in our brave new digital world. But Calum MacDonald’s Highland WiFi story falls nicely into that genre — like Tom Farmer’s global KwikFit empire starting from a lit-

tle tyre-fitting shop in Edinburgh or the young Freddy Heineken hawking his beer from a suitcase around New York’s pubs. Great oaks from little acorns ….

Though Mr MacDonald wouldn’t yet claim to have an empire, the achieve-ments of his award-winning enterprise in five short years are remarkable by any standards. And its genesis was definitely humble and single-handed.

Despite never having formally studied the subject, being “very tech savvy with a self-generated computer-based back-ground”, his running of a local computer repair business on his native Skye gave him the confidence to take the first step in realising his enduring dream to “come up with something that would make the big-time”.

It seems he has made a more than promising start. Highland Wi-Fi is now Scotland’s only recognised public access wifi network, unique in the industry with its blend of indoor and outdoor wifi lo-cations, all operating under one wireless network — meaning customers of its ser-vice register only once, after which they can log in at all Highland Wi-Fi loca-tions, providing they are within range of its wifi antennas.

So how did Calum MacDonald do it and what inspired him? Having arrived back on Skye nearly two decades ago — after leaving the insurance business in Edin-burgh — as the owner of a mobile phone much used there, he needed no telling that the Highlands and Islands were perhaps the biggest telecommunications “not spot” in the British Isles. “So I contacted Voda-fone in 1994 and enquired as to when they were planning to get the masts and trans-mitters up in the Highlands. They said sor-ry, it would be at least another five years.”

A notorious wifi ‘not spot’ in the UK has found a champion to really heat it up. Rick Wilson talks to Calum MacDonald

That, combined with his observation that the growing local market of mobile-wielding tourists was burgeoning while hitting the same problem, was enough to get him on his metaphorical bike “to get ahead of the curve”.

“Let’s face it, Skye is pretty remote but with a large tourist industry, so it wasn’t hard to see the gap in the market.” In 2009, when little was known about the concept of outdoor wifi, he noted that the Loch Greshornish Caravan Park, five miles from his home, was enjoying a flurry of new motor-home activity thanks to the Caravan and Camping Club whose mem-bers were clearly, like some of the island’s natives, frustrated by lack of connectivity.

Prompted by talking to them about that and by driving past the site to see there was great potential there for gen-erating a large customer base of visitors who had no internet access, Mr MacDon-ald took that fateful step: setting up High-land Wi-Fi to offer travellers a solution.

“I did a lot of legwork,” he recalls, “ap-proaching every campsite owner in the Highlands with the proposal of install-ing a wifi network at their campsites at no cost to them, which allowed people to roam from campsite to campsite using a high-speed service available by joining the Highland Wi-Fi network.

“When I started with outdoor wifi at campsites — an area none of the com-petitors was operating in — I was quickly convinced that this would be the way into the industry in a big way, since nobody else was really doing it back then. If you have ever been to the Highlands, you will

also realise the limitation of the mobile phone and 3G services. As soon as we were successful with outdoor wifi, mov-ing back indoors to install wifi at loca-tions was the logical step.”

From there, with no fewer than 90 wi-fi systems now in place, the pay-as-you-go service (and free at certain locations) has covered a huge area of Scotland from John O’Groats to Paisley with in between towns, villages, campsites, hotels, hostels, guest-houses, self catering establish-ments, tourist attractions, bus stations, canals, marinas and cafes in its network. It has thus become one of the UK’s most successful new businesses offering more than its customers have tended to expect in its operating area.

“Behind the scenes, the technology and connections we are providing are streets ahead,” says Mr MacDonald. “Currently, our quickest public access wifi location on the network is 69MB download and 8MB upload. This is classed as superfast and our goal is to have the one of the fast-est wireless networks on the planet!

“By utilising the fibre connections cur-rently being installed in the Highlands and beyond, we will be able to realise these ambitions. South Korea has about 100MB everywhere, but apart from that, other countries are pretty slow on the up-take. We would able to offer members of the travelling public wifi speeds close to 100MB at certain locations.”

Now this energetic locally-grown en-trepreneur now has his eye on many of Britain’s “not spots” — while ultimately

seeing no global limit to the company’s possible stretch. “The concept is flourish-ing,” he says, “and we’re acquiring cus-tomers from all over the place.”

He is particularly proud of having picked up the Scottish Canal network at 19 locations on the Caledonian, Crinan, Forth and Clyde canals, including at the Falkirk Wheel and the new Kelpie Heads. And he stresses that such successes depend on the quality of his top-of-the-range infrastruc-ture, key to which is a trade partner in Germany that provides industrial routers to allow the signal to be broadcast.

His company’s achievements already include the winning of a prestigious Smarta 100 award after only six months, a mention in Parliament when a High-land MP praised its “enabling” perfor-mance, and the attraction of more than 525,000 successful connections.

“We are eagerly awaiting installation of the superfast fibre network across the Highlands, and have already begun the upgrade process at our site locations where fibre is available,” says Mr Mac-Donald. “We will be passing on those high-speed benefits to our customers, so providing them with one of the world’s fastest wifi networks.”

His firm has also developed a mar-ket share by placing satellite services to boost coverage. Indeed, this has helped him realise the full, exciting extent of his business’s potential. “Our ultimate ambi-tion — after the UK — is to go global,” he says, “for there are such opportunities absolutely everywhere.”

Skye’s not the limit for wifi pioneer

Calum MacDonald now has global ambitions for his wifi business

Behind the scenes, the technology and connections we are providing are streets ahead

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 17

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The world of IT has changed beyond recognition in the last 40 years but SCC has remained at the vanguard, planning, supplying, integrating and managing

systems for some of the biggest names in business. From car manufacturers and high street retailers, to universities, the NHS and government departments, SCC makes IT work through knowledge, pas-sion and partnership.

Today, its services are as broad as its client base and covers everything from managed services, cloud and data centre services to managed print services, supply chain services and network and security.

It’s the latter which falls under the remit of Network and Security General Manager, Ollie Hart. And like every aspect of SCC’s business, there’s a simple yet effective approach to staying ahead of the competition: understanding custom-ers’ needs.

Ollie Hart said: “We need to under-stand that our customers have a vision of where they want to be and it’s our job to understand how we can help and support them on that journey.”

“The other aspect that keeps us ahead of our competitors is we have long, deep and extensive relationships with vendors that we view are important to the sec-tors we work in. It’s a balance between understanding where our clients are going and having that strategic relationship with them, to them knowing the vendor landscape. It’s also knowing the future of those vendors and where they are going

and not being afraid to recommend and cajole both parties to come together.”

With an increased focus of systems security, SCC’s Networks and Security division is a vital component in the firm’s infrastructure. Ollie Hart said: “In simple terms, the network is the method by which you move things about and the security is the security implications you have to think about either on that net-work or the data you’re moving on that network. To look after and guide clients in areas of business and security has been a key factor for a number of years.”

Networks and interdependency of systems across UK business and govern-ment organisations are growing, and with this growth comes complexity. With complexity comes risk – of data loss, malicious attack and network outages –

and a dependency of only few who fully understand it. The traditional network environment has gone; users expect to be able to access personal and corporate data wherever they are, on whichever device they choose. This has dramatically increased the risk of targeted attacks and the reliance on IT departments to provide a high quality service.

However management of networks can be simpler, in turn enabling the security of a system or environment to be assessed on merit and criticality of the data, without having to be incorporated into current systems.

Simplification is the key to enabling business agility and reducing the risk of data loss or business downtime. This also enables IT to add value to an organisation and not be seen as a cost, through pro-ductivity gains such as self-help password resets or wireless hotspots and access to corporate data.

Ollie Hart added: “Consumers, in their widest sense, are demanding they access what they need when they need it, fast efficiently and using the devise they’re using.

“You have this convergence of the network which has traditionally sat within one area of IT and security which has sat with another area and data, which sat with yet another, all coming together

Attackers kept at bay by secure relationships

A company at the forefront of making IT work for major organisations explains why understanding the client’s desire for sound network security is vital, writes Barry McDonald

to enable the business or government department to actually function. The SCC view supports that, in that my business looks after both our capability, delivery and planning around the network layer and also skills and capability around security from the initial engagement and understanding a government department or business’ appetite to risk.

“There’s no such thing as 100 per cent security but what you have to do is show that you’ve tried your absolute best. We can work on the solution and what the integration of services need to be to help that organisation reduce that risk and be effective in terms of being ready for the inevitable: a ‘when’ not an ‘if’ of something attacking them.”

Workspace takes on the challenge of change SCC recognises the way we work is changing almost as quickly as the technology we use. The traditional office-based nine-to-five culture is becoming a relic of the working environment. Histori-cally we have gone to work. Now, with changing lifestyles, tech-nologies and expectations, work can be defined as something you do, not somewhere you go. Change is not a recent challenge but the pace and ability to transform your business and work styles has increased beyond all recognition.To meet this challenge, SCC has devised Workspace, a new initiative to support this new way of working. Workspace is defined in four key areas: visual communications, universal communications, mobility and End User Compute.Workspace is at the forefront of SCC’s strategy to enable busi-ness to transform to new ways of working. The Workspace propo-sition areas enable organisations to avoid the harsh reality of new, talented employees shunning legacy systems and inflexible technology which they might perceive to infer a similar outlook on the wider business. Workspace also reflects the requirement for business to remain secure, reliable and cost-effective while embracing changing work styles. Workspace has now evolved to be any location from which you

do work – including the train, office, coffee shop, home sofa or airport lounge. Your ‘Workspace’ should provide you the experi-ence, look, feel, capabilities and information you require, wherever you want and need it. This is a fundamental migration from the concept of a set workplace, which suggests being tied to a single physical location and the legacy ‘phone-on-desk’ environment. As the workspace concept matures, technology is allowing people to break down traditional barriers and increase their productivity. In the coming years, the only thing we can guaranteeis change in the way people think and expect to work. Businesses need to prepare for, and embrace this change or potentially face significant challenges. SCC understands that people make business possible. Getting the best from people is far more complex than giving them more money, a new job title or a bigger office. People need to be happy and involved in an organisation in order to make it truly successful. Traditional, rigid hierarchical models are now being challenged by disruptive ways of working in the manner of high-profile companies such as Google, Facebook and other start-ups. This change in people is exacerbated by the proliferation of technology into everyday life.

Ollie Hart says looking after and guiding clients is a key factor for SCC

Tuesday December 2 2014 | the times

Business Insight18

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The Smart Metering initiative will allow customers to make informed decisions about their bills

Smarter ways to view emerging technologies

The pressures facing our cities are signifi cant. As someone who has worked closely with government departments and local au-thorities, I have recognised

that while there are signifi cant challenges that require innovative thinking, these can be managed – and the use of technol-ogy is key to the future of our cities.

As well as growing populations, urban infrastructure is beginning to creak, not only with increased usage, but also under the weight of growing expectations. Technology has become such a vital part of our everyday lives, that if it doesn’t deliver immediate solutions, it has a far-reaching impact.

Having worked alongside the Public Sector for almost 20 years, I have seen how our cities are facing these formidable challenges.

I have also seen how it is absolutely no-good in trying to play catch up. These are problems that need to be addressed proactively, looking forward to the future needs of our cities. Of course innovation is a massive part of achieving that, but what I have recognised is the crucial aspect of connecting cities.

This means not only open information, but sharing of resources and engaging those who work and live in our cities to have stronger participation in the process.

It also takes strong and visionary lead-ership to identify the problems that need to be addressed now to ensure our future cities are places that can serve the needs of all sectors of the population, particu-larly an ageing one, with emphasis not

only on the economic prosperity, with job creation and retention being crucial, but also the health of our populations and the prospect of closing inequality gaps.

This can, of course, place huge strain on public sector budgets, but future cities will need to face their increased populations with an even greater focus on reducing consumption, emissions and waste. It’s clear that electricity will be the dominant power source for transport and be distributed via intelligent grids, with integrated storage that will allow exten-sive renewable generation and real-time balancing of supply and demand.

I have also seen how connectivity between all our devices and machines has been growing at a rapid rate. This is becoming seen as ‘the Internet of Things’ in which devices, systems and services will become interconnected and provide ever-smarter connectivity. The Internet of Things (IoT) includes examples such as wearable devices and driverless cars and Gartner predicts that nearly 26 billion devices will be on the Internet of Things by 2020.

Looking to how our cities will func-

tion, it’s clear to see how the Internet of Things will be the driving force behind managing the smart city infrastructure, transport, emergency services and helping the elderly, as well as optimising energy, building and general resource use.

The Smart Metering initiative, in which the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) aims to have a smart meter installed in every British household and small business by 2020, will connect to the Smart Energy Grid. This programme, which CGI is helping to implement, will empower consumers to take control of their energy bills by making decisions about how much and, more importantly, when they consume energy.

If I can provide a further, practical example of one issue that has been tack-led in Scotland, CGI runs the smart tick-eting infrastructure for the concessionary travel scheme. We worked together

with Transport Scotland to implement one of the largest Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) ticketing schemes in the world.

Making public transport a more attrac-tive option will be a vital part of cities of the future and already this system facili-tates in the region of 12 million journeys every month. By 2050, just 35 years away, 70 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities, according to the World Health Organisation. That’s something we cannot halt, but I’m confi dent that the current forward thinking is already starting to tackle the potential issues.

Chris George is CGI’s vice president with responsibility for the Scottish Public Sector. His focus is on helping the Scottish Public Sector to reform its public services and move towards Scotland’s Digital Future. Chris joined CGI in 1995 and has held various roles focused on government and public sector.

The Internet of Things will see devices, systems and services becoming interconnected and smarter

By Chris George

Business Insightthe times | Tuesday December 2 2014 19

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a global IT servic-es Company, which is rated as the fastest growing brand in its industry worldwide in 2014 with a brand value of

US$ 8.2 billion. It ranks in the topmost tier of its industry in terms of market capitalisation, employees, brand value and is the industry leader in customer satisfaction. its £1.47 billion UK and Ire-land business employs over 10,000 people across 60 locations, with TCS headquar-tered in London, and in Scotland, based at Edinburgh’s South Gyle.

With corporate sustainability key for TCS, its concerns over the skills shortage in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-qualified work-ers, particularly in ICT, are a focus for development work. With some estimat-ing employment opportunities in this sector are set to grow at almost twice the UK average up to 2020 the Social Market Foundation, a leading cross-party think tank, believes the UK is facing an annual shortfall of around 40,000 STEM graduates.

TCS recognises its industry has a responsibility to help tackle these problems, together with government support and initiatives. Nupur Mallick, the TCS head of HR, UK & Ireland, says the challenges are to raise the profile of STEM and ICT careers and the benefits they offer during secondary education, emphasise the potential for creativity in IT, and encourage employers to provide opportunities for bringing young people into the workplace to help develop their skills.

“Back in India, we work closely with schools and universities, and with the government, to make sure we have a strong pipeline of talent,” says Mallick. “So when we started to hear about the statistics concerning participation in STEM subjects at schools, and about the perceptions young people have about the

careers they can lead to, we realised this was an area where we have experience.

“The issues over skills concerns are not limited to the UK, of course. However, as we have experience in this area, we introduced the ICT Skills Development Initiative, beginning with a community engagement programme, building some small initiatives across the different age groups, from 11-14, 14-18, and also provide additional training for teachers. With the over-18s, we offer more than

Encouraging young people to recognise the opportunities in the sector is central to the role of a global IT services company, says Ina Wood

100 internships every year, and these are paid positions with proper targets – they are not about making the tea and coffee. We also have our own graduate and apprentice programmes.

“Pupils in the UK are just as clever, just as talented, but the problem is they have become users, not creators. We have not been telling them: ‘Look at this amazing app, you can become the creator of the next big app everyone wants’. So we want to engage the kids in programming, but

we don’t say it’s programming. We start by asking them if they have a smart phone, which most have, and then we say: ‘Try this’. By the end of the three days they will know about creating an app.

“It’s important for children to know the technology behind so many aspects of their everyday lives, and the things they are interested in. Do they like football? We need to tell them about the big data involved in this sport. This is how we open minds, inspire, and engage. Close to 70 per cent of the children we work with say at the end of the programme they will think about an IT career, and that was not the case when we started the programme.”

The initiatives feature Promoting Engineering, where TCS is a founding donor of the high-profile global award Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineer-ing, and Engagement – Working with Academia, forging strong partnerships with some of the UK’s leading universi-ties to provide dedicated course content, and the Academic Interface Program (AIP) integrates TCS projects within the syllabus. Employment – Apprentice-ships, Graduate Placements and Beyond, focuses on recruiting directly from university campuses as part of a structured graduate programme, and partnering with the National Apprentice Board and e-Skills UK, to support a national push on apprenticeships. Inspiration is the TCS IT Futures Programme which works across a number of secondary schools and universities, with the aim of reconnecting young people who have an enthusiasm for technology, and Teach First is a partnership programme that supports the provision of high quality ICT teachers in schools serving low-income communities.

TCS are also working to help break down stereotypes, and encourage more girls and young women to follow STEM subjects at school and in university.

“Of 300,000 people at TCS, one in three are women,” adds Mallick. “It’s important we can be seen as role models, that we go into school to show how the IT world is such a leveller. As a woman it doesn’t matter if you are coding, if you are a technician, you are equal to everyone else, and there are other benefits from IT in terms of a career, such as opportunities to work from home.

“We are determined to help tackle the skills gap, as we are concerned about the supply technology talent in building up our business in this country. It’s not about branding or raising our profile. Every business is becoming a digital business now, and we have to make sure the young people coming through are inspired and engaged about that.”

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Inspired new generation of talentIt’s important for children to know the technology behind so many aspects of their everyday lives. This is how we open minds

Napur Mallick says of the 300,000 people at TCS, one in three are women

Award highlights employee investment At the recent Annual HR Network National Awards 2014 held in Glasgow, TCS UK & Ireland won the ‘Corporate Responsibility Award of the Year’ for its IT Futures Programme. The HR Network Awards recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements in people management and development and also the impact it has on business success.TCS has also just been recognised with two major honours for excellence in people management, with Gold level certification from Investors in People, and a CIPD Award for their ‘Best Rewards and Benefits Initiative’.

Nupur Mallick, Head of HR, UK and Ireland at TCS, said: “We are immensely proud of the investment we make in our employees. We are thrilled both Investors in People and the CIPD have recognised the work we do to help employees get the most out of their jobs. We look forward to building on this success as our UK business continues to grow.”Gold is the highest level available, and TCS has achieved this certification in 2005, 2008 and 2011, putting it in the top 2 per cent of more than 26,000 UK organisations recognised by Investors in People. A review was carried out

by external assessors in September mith more than 200 employees from various backgrounds and geographies interviewed as part of the Investors in People assessment. The CIPD ‘Best Rewards and Benefits Initiative’ is for creating value by design-ing and implementing programmes that reward and recognise crucial skills, behaviours and performance. CIPD is the professional body for HR and people development and has more than 130,000 members, with their annual awards going to individuals, teams and organisations for HR leadership.

We work closely with schools, universities and government to make sure we have a strong pipeline of talent

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