22 international – case studies
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global potential grows worldwide
Scientifica manufactures a
specialised product that is arguably
the best of its kind in the world.
Consequently, although its market
is niche, it is also global, writes
Richard Willsher.
Its equipment is used in
electrophysiology – the study of
the electrical properties of cells
and tissues. It measures minute
changes in voltage or electrical
current. This is of vital interest to
medics and researchers working
in neurosciences and investigating
diseases such as Parkinson’s
and Alzheimer’s or seeking to
understand the functioning and
processes of memory. But the
measurements are exceptionally
precise. The company’s equipment
can direct a probe into a cell to
an accuracy that is on the scale of
1/5,000th of the width of a human
hair.
The company, with research,
development and manufacturing
operations in Maidenhead and
headquartered in Uckfield, east
Sussex, began manufacturing
its own equipment 10 years ago.
Over the next several years it
developed a customer base among
the top universities and research
establishments throughout the UK
but took its time before entering
the international marketplace.
“We wanted to make sure our
market in the UK was stable
and the products that we were
designing and producing ourselves
were long-term reliable,” explains
Mark Johnson, Scientifica’s joint
managing director and co-founder.
“That way we could ensure that we
could sell them into distant markets
and be confident that we could
provide the technical support and
back up.”
But because scientists and medics
from different countries are
investigating similar problems,
the demand among them for such
equipment was bound to be pretty
much the same.
“Researchers face the same
challenges wherever they are in
the world,” says Johnson. “We have
designed our products with focused
help from our customer base. We
really involve our customers to
produce equipment that is as near
perfect to meet their needs as we
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can make it. Also being relatively
new boys on the block as compared
to some of our competitors, we’ve
been able to see what they’ve done
and learn from them.”
Therefore Scientifica understands
its market very well and also pays
particular attention to the excellence
of its equipment and the uniqueness
of its capabilities. “Our market may
be 100,000 people worldwide. This
is quite small but because of this we
can identify our potential customers
quite easily. And because they often
collaborate and are a very close
community of people, if you do a
good job – and we do a great job –
they recommend our products to
their friends and colleagues in their
own countries and in others,” he
continues.
His company now exports 40% of its
£4 million of annual sales. Last year
turnover grew by 30% and Johnson
expects that overseas sales will
soon exceed those in the UK. While
he is currently focusing on selling
into USA, Canada, Japan, China and
Australia, Scientifica’s products have
already found buyers in Belgium,
France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Russia,
Scandinavia and Spain.
Scientifica has established itself
as the supplier of choice to the
world’s neuroscience research
community, which is a considerable
achievement. It has also
demonstrated how a niche product
can find a global market, provided it
reaches a thorough understanding
of its customers’ needs and aims
with scientific accuracy to meet
those needs precisely.
Details: Scientifica
01825-749933
www.scientifica.uk.com
Post recession, many
organisations around the world
are cutting cost by being more
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information. A Pangbourne-
based business is helping them to
do just that.
Winscribe provides Windows-
based software for digital
dictation, transcription, voice
recognition and workflow
management. The company is
typical of many Thames Valley
businesses. Its parent company
is based elsewhere – in New
Zealand in Winscribe’s case – but
it handles its company’s sales to
markets in Europe, the Middle
East and North Africa (EMENA).
“The thing that sets us apart is
the intelligent workflow,” explains
Philip Vian, the company’s CEO for
EMENA. “That’s what our software
manages. When, say, a doctor
dictates a patient’s notes, it’s what
we do with the voice file once he’s
recorded it. Our system ensures
that the voice file is sent to the
right transcription team, perhaps
with the patient’s x-ray or other
patient data, so that it needs the
minimum amount of additional
work and can be handled swiftly.”
The Winscribe system is used
across a variety of different types
of organisations in both private
and public sectors. Healthcare
is one, but also legal services,
the police and law enforcement
and various government
departments. In addition to
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2010
transmission of digital data,
Winscribe has developed several
specific technical vocabularies so
that it can apply voice recognition
to the voice recording. This means
that the recording is already
transcribed enabling a secretary
or assistant to merely edit it. This
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The company has translated its
software into French, Dutch,
German, Polish and Spanish and
has made inroads into those
markets. But its big push at the
moment is into the Middle East.
It has also prepared an Arabic
version, which is finding many
uses in the region, particularly in
the healthcare sector.
“The Middle East is an emerging
and very buoyant market for us,”
says Vian, “because of the amount
of money that most of the Gulf
countries are now spending on
healthcare. One of the best ways
to improve healthcare is to reduce
the document turnaround times
so that the patients are seen much
quicker by the next specialist or
they are discharged much quicker.”
He notes that “healthcare tourism”
is now a booming business in
some Middle Eastern countries
as an increasing number of
patients from Europe and from
Asian countries travel there for
treatment. The company’s sales in
the region have grown 30% year-
on-year.
More than 350,000 people
now use the Winscribe system
worldwide and this is growing
by leaps and bounds as whole
organisations embrace more
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data. In particular organisations
emerging from recession are
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without adding staff to their
payrolls. Vian says that in this way
Winscribe is benefiting from the
post-recessionary backwash and
the business looks set to grow
exponentially as organisations
around the world see their peers
and competitors becoming more
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products in order to keep up with
them.
Details: 0118-9842133
sales@winscribe.com
www.winscribe.com