Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Smith Associates: the consulting firm Smith Associates which located on the Park
1986 employed 26 well qualified staff. The company grew very substantially, the
founder left after a management buyout and it was renamed to Detica in 2001.
Today the company has grown to in excess of 1,400 employees, turnover per
employee in 2008 was over £150,000 and the company remains a leader in data
and IT security. The company's best known products are anti-fraud software
Detica NetReveal, Detica DataRetain, which is software that enables businesses to
comply with data retention regulations, and internet security software Stream-
Shield. In 2008, Detica was acquired by BAE Systems (Holdings) limited, which is
part of BAE Systems plc, and it remains wholly owned by the company. Detica's
headquarters remain on the Surrey Research Park in Guildford where they are
continuing to consolidate. The majority of staff are located on the Surrey Research
Park.
There have been three spin-outs from Detica of which the fastest growing is the
privately owned company Actica which has achieved a turnover per employee of
three quarters of a million per employee. The ability for the company to find,
recruit and retain the best staff because of the location of the site, the flexibility of
the University as a landlord that at one time made a loan of £250 K to the company
to assist with trading and the quality of its management are all important in this
company's progress.
Stingray: stingray which started on the site in the Surrey Technology Centre in
2007 was founded by an entrepreneurial team of two technologists who licenced
an array of laser technologies from the UK Defense Agency QuinetiQ. This
technology was developed for listening to submarines in the north Atlantic during
the ''cold war'' era. The entrepreneurs adapted the technology for use in the oil
industry for geophysical data collection. Funded by venture capital the company
grew to a team of 11 while in the Surrey Technology Centre. During that time they
developed the technology through a proof of principle, proof of concept, and then
developed prototypes which were subjected to field trials and were eventually
offered as a fully warrantable product. The company's innovative technology
prompted its acquisition by the Norwegian geophysical data company. This
company is an example of where locally based entrepreneurs used the Surrey
Research Park to develop a technology that was transferred from a government
funded defence laboratory into a commercial based civilian use.
Bullfrog: in 1991 two entrepreneurs started the computer games company Bullfrog
and moved to the Surrey Technology Centre. Eventually outgrowing the services of
the building the company moved to self contained non managed space on the Park.
Growth was driven by the commercial success of both the company's own games of
which they established the now well known genre of ''god sim games'' and by
working as games developers for other providers such as Nintendo, Sega and Sony.
The commercial success of Bullfrog led to its acquisition by Electronic Arts (EA
UK) for an undisclosed sum. EA UK then continued to invest in the company. EA
now employs over 300 people in Guildford. One of the founders of the company left
EA UK and returned to the Park to establish a new games company Lionhead
Studios. The company proved to be highly successful with its Black and White and
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