The Cambridge Network Blog

managing mobiles

La donna è mobile
Qual piuma al vento,
Muta d'accento — e di pensiero.

Tonight we heard from some local companies managing the software on our mobile phones and other devices. Anglia Business Solutions and RealVNC both talked about the very robust and widely used mobile applications of their software to manage quite different problems.

For Anglia Business Solutions, the mobile data terminal or phone is capturing data for central Enterprise Requirement Planning systems or timesheets or giving mobile workers access to line of business applications like Customer Relationship Management and diaries. They overcome the poor signal quality available when workers are in remote locations or inspecting goods in ship's hold by developing applications on the mobile device that synchronise periodically. By contrast, RealVNC is giving a central operator a view and control of a mobile device so they can help a disatisfied customer get their Smartphone working, allow a games developer wanting to drive input from multiple mobiles for testing to control them remotely, or provide simple linking between a smartphone and automotive systems or home automation devices.

What is common about both companies is the scale and demands of the enterprises they are serving, the huge volumes of mobiles those organizations are trying to manage, and the poor useability of mobile devices and services. Anglia Business Solutions customers like Capespan or G's Marketing and RealVNC customers like NHS, DOD, or NASA will have very bad outcomes if systems do not communicate reliably. Just one of the OEMs integrating RealVNC into mobile operator support, SICAP, has 80 mobile operators supporting 800M mobiles around the world. Today smartphones make up less than 20% of the 1BN phones being shipped each year (rising to 80% in 5 years), but support calls are already 3 times as long as for old style phones and 15% are being returned in the first month.

The other thing they have in common is that as small privately-held companies working with enterprises, they haven't had to tell their story too much locally. It was good to learn more about some local Cambridge software ideas that are changing the world by connecting us all better.

strategic investments

Then the clouds part,
    Swallows soaring between;
The spring is alive,
    And the meadows are green!

This week I was asked to dinner with Vince Cable (Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats) to give him an update on Cambridge hi-tech industry. It was a large dinner, but Vince circulated between tables and I wound up being sat next to him for about half an hour.

Vince used to be Chief Economist for Shell, so I mentioned that Arie de Geus has been coaching some of our local CEOs on scenario planning through our Cambridge Leaders Academy, and talked a bit about the companies involved including ANT, ARM, CSR, Jagex, Redgate... He turned out to have worked closely with Arie on scenario planning in Shell in the 1970s. We discussed the positive impact that the strengthening dollar is having for local exporters and I pointed out that our local hi techs often have 70%+ of their revenues from export and are bringing money into the country.

In his open seminar earlier in the evening, Vince had pointed out that whatever government is elected will have to make very large spending cuts. He asked for our input. Exporting businesses locally are being constrained in their growth by congestion. Our local Regional Development Agency, EEDA, has always had relatively low budget compared to Northern RDAs, and flat cuts across the whole country would stall infrastructure investments in transport here. Initially Vince joked that Cambridge had always been congested (he was an undergraduate here), but he did agree that infrastructure was a government responsibility.

Vince had also mentioned earlier in the evening that he had been involved in "picking winners" in the Labour government of the 1970's and that had been a failure. I mentioned our concerns that emerging industries where Cambridge research had given local companies a lead (organic semiconductors, stem cells...) needed financial backing here or we might lose them to incentives offered elsewhere (e.g. Germany's Spitzencluster programme). Vince was sceptical. Many industry lobbies are threatening to relocate elsewhere unless they are subsidized here. I pointed out that our hi-tech companies have a track record of generating revenues with whatever support they are given.

It really was a privilege to get a chance to chat to Vince in the pressures of a general election campaign. Scenario planning gave Shell an advantage because their decision-making processes were better able to cope with the stresses of the oil shock of the 1970. Whatever the financial storms our country faces, we need to help our leaders understand the impact that our region can have.

sensing risk

And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.

This week we saw two very different groups from within our community, both assessing and managing risk.

BP and Telensa came to talk about monitoring remote assets. BP assess the likelihood and consequences of breaks in their pipelines, which differ greatly between those running through the mountains of Georgia or growing townships of Canada. They control those risks through horse patrols, sniffer dogs, optic cables checking temperature, noise and vibrations, and a range of other sensing technologies. If anyone has good ideas on how to detect small underground leaks, they are keen to hear from you! Telensa is helping local governments and energy companies tackle the 20% of their carbon footprint due to street lighting. Their lamp units improve on the local light sensors and allow authorities to dim lamps with the option to light them quickly if there is an incident. Engineers from 42 Technology, Antenova, BAE, Cosworth, Cyan, Nokia, Sentec, TT Electronics, Zimiti and elsewhere had plenty to contribute to discussion.

Royal Bank of Scotland came to forecast how foreign exchange will vary over the next few months, and suggest ways to control that risk. A strengthening dollar may help local exporters like Aixtron, Antenova, Biocair, Biotica Technology, Cambridge Consultants, CSR, Datanomics, Jagex, Light Blue Optics, Nujira, Plastic Logic, Pi Shurlok, RAND Europe, Taptu, Ubisense, Xaar. But the increased volatility of foreign exchange makes it more expensive to hedge. 

Bringing Cambridge ideas to the world requires skills in making sense of technology to handle real-world problems, and financing and scaling up businesses to deliver those solutions around the world. It was good to see experts of both kinds getting together.

greener cars

Love's still-mysterious car,
Has many a light of gold and white,
    And a single dark red star.

Last night we heard from Intelligent Energy, Johnson Matthey, and Lotus about the succession of emission control technologies needed to clean up our car exhausts and those of the lorries, motorbikes and construction motors running in our cities. They have built up skills in chemistry, engineering, and electronics control to supply components and designs globally to Original Equipment Manufacturers responding to ever tighter legislation.

It is interesting to hear about the technology and design trade-offs of a hydrogen plane, a catalytic converter, a hydrogen taxi. These choices are important to component and design suppliers like ARM, Cambridge Consultants, eg technology, PA Consulting, Philips, PowerSi, Omnagen, TTP, University of Cambridge, University of East Anglia, Anglia Ruskin and the wide range of government, legal and financial advisors contributing to the discussion afterwards.

The time scales and investments required for changes in global distribution systems are huge - and ideas from around Cambridge can help make those decisions cleaner. And that can lead to leading world market shares, as local companies like Johnson Matthey (autocatalysts) and ARM (automotive electronics) have shown.

Real-time diagnostics

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
    Old Time is still a-flying

Last night we heard from Shane Gordon (Associate Medical Director, NHS East) and Mark O'Connell (R&D Director, Probe Scientific) about the opportunities and challenges of bringing real-time diagnostics into medicine.

Cutting the time before a doctor has test results available is already delivering 75%+ reductions in referrals where Point of Care diagnostics are available, helping patients quicker and saving money. Consumers have more access to information through the internet and diagnostics available from their pharmacies, and doctors need to respond. But getting comprehensive, portable and reliable diagnostics into the hands of doctors is challenging in an increasingly regulated environment.

Many of the participants commenting spoke directly from their own clinical experience, relating the changes coming to shifts in responsibilities and skills. It was exciting to hear the interchange between practicioners and technologists from Addenbrookes, Cambridge Consultants, Grant Instruments, HealthUnlocked, Lab21, Lumora, Medical Device Technology, Nokia, Pathology Diagnostics, Philips, Psynova, Unilever and TTP amongst many others.

Cambridge has much to share about medical devices, with its combination of leading medical research, electronics and device capabilities. It is good that people make time to really connect.

best behaviour

That I had a world to do
Ere I could set up my rest,
Where to choose and choose the best.

Last night we heard from Paul Kenny and David Symonds on how to manage performance in Sales. The common theme was that you need to observe and give feedback on the behaviours that connect to customers, rather than simply rewarding results.

David went into more detail in the case of SAS, rated the best company to work for in the US by Fortune, contrasting it with his own previous experience of Oracle. SAS make statistical software for decision making, and David serves Retail clients like Tesco, where it is used to analyse the Clubcard data and make merchandising decisions; Waitrose, where it is used for forecasting and preventing stock outs; Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and others.

SAS and Oracle are roughly the same age, but while Oracle is publically listed and grew rapidly through acquisition, SAS has remained private and grown mainly organically.The pressure of quarterly reporting to the markets drives heavy discounting at end of quarter and year in Oracle, while there is little discounting in SAS. Oracle spends around 12% of turnover on R&D while SAS spends 23%.

Interesting stuff for technology entrepreneurs trying to understand how to attract and retain the best people - and connect to customers around the world.

patenting life

Nor to business a drudge, nor to faction a slave,
    He strove to make int'rest and freedom agree

Tonight we heard from Ananda Chakrabarty about the issues of patenting living organisms and his latest research trying to make new drugs based on the effect of bacteria slowing down or reversing cancer and AIDS. Bioengineering is of particular interest to InCrops, who both sponsored the session and introduced Ananda.

Diamond vs Chakrabarty in 1980 established that an oil-digesting bacterium for use in cleaning up oil spills could be patented, in 5 to 4 majority decision of the US Supreme Court. The voting was similarly close in the audience, considering the potential of such innovations to bring wealth and advance to society and the danger of later innovations involving enslavement of human life. According to Ananda, a similar vote in a talk he gave at the European Patent Office in Munich was two thirds against patenting living organisms.

The controversy continued afterwards in networking with Life Science University researchers, local lawyers and medical research charities. People questioned the science of the current research and the logic of the legal judgement. But they agreed we were lucky to get a chance to hear Ananda's experience first hand and debate the issues.

free will

A man that looks on glasse,
        On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it passe,
        And then the heav’n espie.

Last week we heard Dan Pink talk about motivation, part of a thread of discussions on how to lead knowledge workers in our Hi Tech industries. Knowledge workers are more productive when they are free to pursue their own interests, as Google's 20% time, 3M's 15% time and Zappo's unscripted customer service show. 

Dan illustrated different levels of motivators from basic needs for things like food, through "carrots and sticks" like money to the higher level needs for autonomy, mastery and purpose by handing out first a sandwich, then £10 and last a long period of Q&A. Simple "sticks" like a fine for lateness doubled the lateness of Israeli parents picking up their children from daycare - because it made lateness a service with a price. Simple "carrots" like paying students larger incentives to perform tasks only improve performance for mechanical skills. Once thinking is involved, students perform poorer with monetary incentives - even when the experiment is moved to India and the same incentive is now worth a couple of month's salary.

Local founders, technologists and academics from local organizations including Abcam, Anglia Ruskin, ARM, Bango, CSR, Illumina, Imerge, Marshall, Qualcomm, Philips, Polysolar, RAND, Red Gate, University of Cambridge had plenty of questions. How do we drive ourselves and our teams to do the necessary drudgery that makes up much of technical work or learning to play an instrument? Our audience was more talkative than earlier stops on the book tour like the RSA and Amazon according to the minder from Dan's UK publisher, perhaps a reflection of its diversity.

Our Hi Tech cluster depends on the pride of its workers to make those distinctive products that embody Cambridge ideas for the world. It is good to see so many people taking time to think about what drives them and their colleagues.

Half life

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare

Last night I attended an packed networking and discussion session for local CEOs organized by PA Consulting. Most of the audience were in biotech, pharma or cleantech. Their first speaker described a zombie half-living, half-dead economy: banks too weak to lend, governments who cannot fund expansion, consumers unable to consume and companies unable to grow. PA think winning companies will be those that maintain liquidity, adapt to a funding desert and stay flexible. The investors and CEOs in the audience voting between the talks certainly didn't seem very optimistic that 2010 would be a much better year than 2009.

Perhaps some of the downbeat response was due to a high mix of post-bubble biotech companies dependent on long investments before getting product to market, keen to see a trade sale. In contrast, a positive message came from Hermann Hauser, who spoke of the quality of the deals coming across the desk and the high proportion of serial entrepreneurs leading their latest investments.

Sitting at dinner afterwards with founders of local companies including Biowisdom and Owlstone, I  heard a less depressing story. They have product in market, and short-term plans on what they need to do to sell more. While they are a long way from the de facto standard native companies Hermann cited like ARM or Illumina, they have real customers. Some have recently secured more funding. It will be good to see them again soon - and hear more about the lively bit of the economy locally!

Technology funding

We have short time to stay, as you,
    We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
    As you, or anything.

This week another bank came to visit and find out more about the technology companies being formed here. They want to grow with the entrepreneurs, and help them through each stage of their funding, leveraging their angel round money, helping fund their cash flow as they start to do bigger projects and supporting them as they go international.

Technology stocks did well in 2009, rising 59% against an S&P average of 24%, and some are predicting an active year of technology mergers and acquisitions in 2010. Cambridge is a familiar place for technology funders - this bank has half a dozen technology clients here already - but they want to engage with more.

This is all good news for those of our members who identify finding funding as the main block on their growth. We'll hear more about the ways that technology entrepreneurs are finding growth capital in a debate on 16th March.