Little British Battlers battling – and winning (5)

Here are highlights of two more ‘small but perfectly formed’ UK software and IT services companies whose CEOs we met at our inaugural Little British Battler event last week (see here). There’ll be the last brace of companies spotlighted tomorrow in UKHotViews, only from TechMarketView!

And don’t forget, we will be compiling our in-depth analysis of all 12 Little British Battlers for publication in our inaugural LBB Report later this month, but this will only be available to eligible TechMarketView subscription service clients.

(Apology: In yesterday’s UKHotViews we misspelt the name of Tony Ruane, one of the founders of cloud storage player Redstor. The offending analyst has been horsewhipped.)

Coactiva Aspiren: Getting innovative with Government data

A company can have all the right ingredients in place but success depends firmly on the execution. And since CEO Ray Fielding undertook a supported MBO of Coactiva Aspiren from Sungard Public Sector (prior to its acquisition by Capita) in 2010, his management team has set about allowing the company to fulfil its potential. With a focus firmly on the UK, and predominantly on the UK public sector, Coactiva Aspiren is providing innovative solutions to UK government organisations seeking to use the vast swathes of data available to them to improve their performance. Incredibly timely! Offerings include business intelligence and performance management software as well as advanced data analytics solutions.  And all the software is available ‘as a service’ (and has been since 2007). There’s no doubt they’ve been punching above their weight, winning business against the likes of IBM, KPMG, Northgate, Experian and Equifax. Indeed, when the big players aren’t competing with Coactiva, they’ll often by incorporating their solutions into their own offerings. And their ambitions don’t stop there. Following recent investment in product development, we’re  likely to see Coactiva making a mark for itself in new ‘adjacent’ markets.

Assuria punches above its weight in cyber security

Reading-based Assuria operates in one of the ‘hottest’ SITS niches of all, developing enterprise cyber security and compliance software to combat the growing threat of cyber attack. It truly is a ‘Little British Battler’ and is punching way above its weight in competitive global markets. Assuria is particularly strong in the ‘classified’ environment because the information that its software collects meets the high forensic needs of defence customers. Combine that with the fact that Assuria offers its systems at a price that allows any organisation to access the technology and it’s easy to see how it’s built up such an impressive customer list. Its 250+ enterprise clients include Government departments in the Americas, Asia and the UK, as well as organisations from the banking, financial services and telecoms sectors. Interestingly, it does more business internationally than in the UK, in part a reflection on the UK government’s historic attitude to SMEs. There’s evidence that attitude is changing, but the UK public sector market is just one of the areas where Assuria sees opportunity in 2012.

Posted by HotViews Editor at '08:02' - Tagged: lbb