THE JOURNAL THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

Dynamites 15 celebrate outstanding tech talent

T
he North Easts outstanding tech talent
has been celebrated at North East IT
and Technology Awards, the BT
Dynamites 15.
Taking centre stage at the awards was
Beverley Dean, founder of Special iApps, who
was hailed as the top achiever.
Charlie Hoult, Chair of Dynamo, which
staged the awards, said: The awards are testament to the North East being a hot spot for IT
with the Dynamites shining a light on and
celebrating the fantastic success stories.
The BT Dynamites 15 Award winners
comprised:

Outstanding Achievement, sponsored by

BT: Beverley Dean, founder of Special iApps
Beverley Deans youngest son William, who
born in 2005, has Downs syndrome and
watching him struggle to use apps on an iPad
was the catalyst to create a global apps
business that can benefit children and adults
with a range of disabilities or learning
difficulties. See Page 4
Rising Star, sponsored by the University
of Sunderland: Kieran Stratford, Orange
Bus and Nathan Fuller, Northumberland
County Council
Nathan Fuller has worked within the
Information Services department since
October 2012 and during that time has shone
as a leading light within IT. He embodies all
the best qualities of an outstanding employee
and is always keen to go the extra mile.
During his interview with Orange Bus,
Kieran Stratford was set a task that should
have taken him a week, but completed it in
one night. He has continued to exceed
expectations ever since, including building
his first website in just four hours. See Centre
Pages
Partner Award, sponsored by Opencast
Software: Alex Shiel
As head of intellectual property at law firm
Ward Hadaway, he has played a major part in
many of the most successful companies to
have emerged from the North Easts tech
sector in the last 20 years. He continues to
perform a vital role in helping new, emerging
and established tech businesses make the
most commercial use of their talents.
Innovator of the Year, sponsored by Sage:
Omlis
Omlis, a global mobile payment solutions
provider, brings highly powerful and effective
solutions to all mobile commerce security. As
pioneers in high integrity development for
mobile payments, Omlis is reinventing
security with a goal of delivering fault tolerant
encryption. See Centre Pages
Highly Commended ZeroLight
Collaborator of the Year, sponsored by
Tech North: Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC)
A collaboration between Newcastle
University and Newcastle City Council, CIC
has established a world-leading Centre of
Excellence in Cloud Computing and Big Data

>>Celebrating their success the winners and those who were highly commended at the Dynamites 15 Awards

analysis techniques. See Page 4

Future Workforce, sponsored by Sharpe
Recruitment: Dev Academy
The academy aims to solve the skills
shortage challenge through a sustainable and
commercially focused model. It has created a
programme that blends recruitment, training
and mentoring with its unique understanding
of how businesses operate.
Skills Developer Award, sponsored by
Invest South Tyneside
Skills Developer Employer: HMRC
The leadership team for a newly formed
Newcastle Digital Delivery Centre was given a
challenge to deliver an ambitious digital
strategy. Key to its success was introducing
new talent into HMRC and finding and
bringing on able people already in the
organisation to build an in-house digital
capability.
Highly Commended: BIM Campus
Skills Developer Educator: Baltic Training
Services
Baltic is committed to providing young
adults with the very best qualifications,
training and learning experience to ensure
they have the skills and knowledge to develop
into the IT specialists of the future. In the past

five years, it has worked with employers to

create more than 2,000 UK apprenticeship
opportunities.
Growth Explosion Award, sponsored by
Invest North East England and UKTI
Growth Explosion Start-up: Redu Group
Ltd
The company is an affiliate marketing
business that focuses on finding the best deals
and discounts for customers from major high
street and online brands and now is in the top
ten sales referrers for major high street brands.
See Centre Pages
Growth Explosion High Growth: Bede
Gaming
In just three years Bede Gaming has evolved
from a start-up into an established player in
the online gaming industry, with 155 staff,
offices in Newcastle, London and Bulgaria and
several blue-chip clients.
Growth Explosion Established Company
Award: OnTrac
An IT solutions company based in Gateshead, it supports more than 300 clients and in
excess of 25,000 individual users. It serves
private, public, and social-sector organisations and was ranked 21st in the 15th annual
Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.

Highly Commended: Aspire Technology

Solutions
Project of the Year Award sponsored by
Accenture
Project of the Year Corporate Award:
Ubisoft CRC
A global scale video games publisher,
Ubisoft has launched a Consumer Relationship Centre (CRC), in Newcastle. The CRC acts
as a hub for all Ubisofts interactions with
players in Europe, Middle East and Asia
territories, integrating both consumer support
teams and community managers.
Project of the Year Public Sector Award:
My Trav Project Team. Newcastle City
Council
The team understands how important
independent travel is for helping children and
young people with special educational needs
to increase their life choices. During the past
year it has developed MyTrav, a smartphone
App, which helps guide the user through a
journey.
The awards were supported by BT, Accenture, Invest North East England, UKTI, Invest
South Tyneside, Opencast Software, Sharpe
Recruitment, Sage, Tech North and the
University of Sunderland.

THE JOURNAL THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

dynamites 15

Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology

We work with employers to produce highly skilled
computing graduates with the skills to meet the
demands of business and industry in the North East.
Why students study Computing and Engineering at Sunderland:
A modern, award-winning, purpose-built campus by the River Wear
with state-of-the-art facilities.
Excellent work placements.
We have signed partnerships with Sony Playstation, CISCO and
Sunderland Software City. We also engage with Microsoft, Accenture,
IBM, Sage, British Airways and Dynamo North East.
Our three year Computing degree courses are
accredited by the British Computer Society
(BCS), The Chartered Institute for IT for the
purposes of fully meeting the academic
requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional.
For further information contact:
Tel: 0191 515 2731
Email: appliedscience.enquiry@sunderland.ac.uk
Web: www.sunderland.ac.uk/faculties/apsc/ourdepartments/cet/

We energize the success

of businesses and communities
around the world through
the imagination of
our people and
smart technology.

Like every
teenager,
my dream
has always
been to
work for
a video
games
company

KIERAN STRATFORD:
ORANGE BUS

Keeping up to speed with fibre

Superfast fibre broadband offers new opportunities to encourage
social and economic regeneration, support inward investment in
local economies and to stimulate business growth.
For Businesses

Fibre is already providing a major economic boost to UK SMEs, encouraging

business growth, job creation, new sales and opening up new markets across the
globe. It enables: Companies to compete successfully, regardless of location.
Collaborative working, reducing time spent travelling as well as offering flexible
working and improved work-life balance.
Files to be sent and received more efficiently and also allows real time working.
Improved productivity and customer service.
Time and money savings thanks to the faster speeds, efficiencies and innovative
services that fibre broadband delivers.

For Homes

At home fibre broadband makes life easier. Its not just about doing one thing online
faster, it's about everyone in the home being able to do their own thing online all at
the same time.
Fibre broadband gives users the ability to run multiple bandwidth-hungry
applications simultaneously. This could include: Sending and receiving large amounts of data much more quickly.
Accessing school homework networks.
Learning at home via educational websites.
Watching catch up TV.
It also makes communication with family and friends much easier, regardless of
where they are in the world, and enables access to a wide range of services which
saves time and money. And if you work from home, run a business from home or
have dedicated business premises, fibre will transform the way you work.

For Communities

Sage is a massive supporter of the IT economy in the

North East and a proud sponsor of Dynamites 15.
To nd out more about us, visit
http://www.sage.co.uk/about-sage

Local residents can benefit from access to a range of online services, online learning
opportunities and better entertainment. Fibre broadband provides access for
people who wouldnt normally use the internet at home and enable them to keep in
touch with family and friends. Fibre improves the way community groups promote,
manage and engage with local people about their work. It promotes digital
inclusion amongst disadvantaged communities across the UK, making it an
everyday reality.

www.btplc.com

British Telecommunications plc 2015. Registered ofce: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England No: 1800000.

Fresh from GCSE success to diving into the deep

end of coding, the sky is the limit for talented apprentice turned programmer Kieran Stratford.
At just the age of 17, Kieran has already impressed
during his relatively short, nine month stint at
Orange Bus, a national digital agency, which has
offices in Newcastle and London and works with
clients such as Joules, Philips, the NHS and HMRC.
Dismissing the advice of those who warned
against an apprenticeship in the industry and
frustrated by the lack of IT education at his school,
Kieran, who always had a keen eye for coding,
embarked on a career in IT. He began with a
successful 15-week training course at the IT
Apprentice Hub, created by Dynamo in collaboration with Baltic Training Services.
Since then, employment as an apprentice
developer with Orange Bus followed and he is in his
element; working as a programmer on new technologies and with experienced developers.
However, it hasnt all been plain sailing for Kieran,
who had to literally beg his parents to allow him to
pursue a career in IT and leave behind his sixth form
studies, just three months in. After achieving 16
GCSEs, its not hard to see why persuading and
getting his familys blessing was such a tall order.
Kieran said: Ive always had an interest in IT and
technology because of my dad, so I was determined
to get into the industry. With school it was a case of
being told I was unlikely to have a successful career
in IT, so the best option would be to stay in education. Gaining first-hand experience was all I wanted,
though, and Im grateful that my parents have been
supportive, despite worrying at first and looking out
for my best interests, as any responsible adults
would do.
I couldnt have asked for a better education than
what I experienced at the IT Apprentice Hub.
Whether you are new to the industry or have a keen
interest in IT, it is beneficial to both sets of people,
and I grew in confidence after picking up more
in-depth knowledge and expertise.
Kieran previously worked with hardware building computers and servers but has already created
three games after learning the basics during his time
at the Apprentice Hub, through working in groups
and learning from experienced people, as well as in
his spare time.
During his interview with Orange Bus, he was set a
task that should have taken him a week to complete.
Chris Scudder, technical director, was impressed
when Kieran completed it in one night. He has
continued to exceed expectations ever since,
including building his first website in just four hours,
with big plans for the future.
Kieran added: Like every teenager, my dream has
always been to work for a video games company!
Programming is limitless, as you can create anything, so I just want to keep progressing and learning
even more. Hopefully one day I will be able to build
my own company and start a business.

THE JOURNAL THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

dynamites 15

REDU GROUP

Growing from strength to strength

With ambitious growth plans
on the horizon, buoyed by key
partnerships and an everincreasing followership, theres
plenty to celebrate at Redu
Group.
The innovative marketing
specialists, which is run by
North East entrepreneurs Gary
Hunter and Sam Morton and
employs 17 people, is on target
to more than double its growth
in just its second year.
Achieving substantial sales
increases and delivering brand
awareness on behalf of its online
retailer partners, through its
suite of websites, blogs, social
media activity and mobile apps,
truly is Redu Groups bread and
butter.
Its core principles are to find
the best deals and discounts for
its customers from all of the
UKs major high street and
online brands, with the Seahambased firm now in the top ten
sales referrers for major high
street brands, which include
John Lewis, Argos, Toys R Us
and Marks and Spencer.
Established in March 2014,
the company has gone from
strength to strength following
continued investment, hard
work and key partnerships,
including collaborating with
Ashleigh Swan, Britains
Favourite Money Saver. It
certainly is an exciting time for
Redu Group with many fun
initiatives and key projects lined
up in the near future.
For example, through utilising

>>Gary
Hunter
and Sam
Morton

the popularity of Newcastlebased Ashleigh and her

money-saving advice, which is
showcased throughout some of
the UKs well-known media
outlets, and the companys
development of her website
(www.ashleighmoneysaver.co.
uk) and Facebook page, has
resulted in an online audience
of more than 300,000. With the
development of further
websites, this tally has increased
to in excess of 500,000.
Sam Morton, director at Redu
Group, said: Above all, we are
committed to our clients and
raising their brand awareness
through a range of digital
methods. The company has
enjoyed a successful first year

and our projections suggest an

even greater performance in
year two, so we must build on
this period of positivity.
Both Gary and Sam possess a
wealth of experience in the
sector, with true entrepreneurial
tendencies and the ability to
unlock growth, with many
previous business successes.
Gary, who co-founded Redu
Group, formerly owned and
built-up a car leasing online
portal, which was bought by
Vertu Motors, the fourth largest
company in the region and the
sixth largest motor dealership in
the UK, prior to establishing
Redu Group in March last year.
Sam has also enjoyed a great
deal of success with his previous

ventures, including selling his

first business to multimedia
production company, Ten Alps,
which formerly had Sir Bob
Geldof as a director, and
co-founding Screenreach
Interactive.
These successes have
followed the pair to Redu Group.
Boasting more than 3m in
retailer sales and over 1.7m post
clicks per month, as a direct
result from its work, the future
looks bright for the firm.
Sam added: It has been
exciting journey so far for the
entire Group and everyone buys
into what were trying to
achieve. Our partnerships are
exciting and theres plenty more
to come.

Locate Grow Succeed

OMLIS

North East firm with global ambitions

Newcastle-based Omlis was
founded by Markus Milsted in
his home city just two years ago,
but it already has global
ambitions and is rapidly
increasing its number of staff.
Solutions architect Markus
Milsted launched Omlis in
November 2013 and it has 50
employees now, but wants to
grow this to 120 by the end of
this year, due to seeing great
opportunities in the market for
mobile payment technology.
From the very beginning, we
have aspired to create a
company founded in the North
East, but with a global ambition, says Milsted, chief
executive. In September, Omlis
announced its partnership with
Digital Pathways, a leading
provider of data security and
leakage prevention services in
the UK. The UK enjoys a
smartphone penetration of 68%
and currently boasts the most
mature m-commerce market in
Europe.
Omlis claims to be pioneers in
technology which can be used
to make mobile payments more
secure. Its aim is to deliver
encryption technology with the

mobile phone in mind. Omlis is

designing a product specifically
for the demands of securing
mobile device transactions and
says this is not always the case
with other commercially
available encryption technology
gadgets.
Omlis believes there are
significant growth opportunities
provided by attracting new
clients who face pressing issues
of being currently unbanked.
And this will help tackle the
damaging effects of fraud.
About its innovation in this
area of business, Omlis says it
has developed encryption
architecture, which secures
transactions directly within the
mobile channel. Technology
uses unique device authentication and data storage designed
specifically for digital payments.
Omlis strives for a future
where anyone, anywhere, can
use their mobile device and
safely conduct financial
transactions, says Milsted.
Omlis technology is constructed with high integrity
computer language Ada, which
currently is applied to military
and power station sectors.

>>Markus Milsted

Security is the issue raised more

than any other as mobile
financial activity grows.
Consumers accessing mobile
activity are growing in numbers,
even though there is unease
about security. This problem
was highlighted by a string of
high-profile attacks which laid
bare the consequences of poor
cybersecurity.
Increased mobile usage
widens up the market to those
who are unbanked currently.
Globally there are two billion
people in this category, Omlis

says, based on research from the

World Bank in early 2015.
Consumers need to juggle
convenience and security.
Omlis encryption technologies enable owners of sensitive
information, such as payment
service providers, financial institutions, retailers and app
developers, to securely
exchange data. Its technology
uses differentiated sensory
inputs, random key generation
and unique verifier authentication. Omlis claims its architecture is compatible with any
existing infrastructure. It says it
supports a mobile payments
network with limitless scalablilty.
Omlis uses a Correctness by
Construction development
process which increases system
reliability by eliminating
opportunities for human
interference and eradicating any
chance of human error. Omlis
goal is security and uninterrupted customer experience.
The firm says a better payments
system can close social, cultural
and financial gaps. Also, it is
targeting a market which is
moving rapidly forward.

For information on why you should locate

in South Tyneside visit

www.investinsouthtyneside.co.uk

For when its mission critical

We are an independent technology

company, specialising in the
systems that organisations count
on to deliver their core services.

YOUR MISSION-CRITICAL
SOFTWARE PARTNER
www.opencastsoftware.com
info@opencastsoftware.com
0191 276 5656

THE JOURNAL THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015

dynamites 15

SPECIAL iAPPS

Recruitment
Intelligence
NRG is the Norths
leading recruiter of
creative & technical talent.
We help vibrant games firms, digital
players and a host of software businesses
achieve growth and success by
identifying graduates and technology
enthusiasts who match our clients
passion for the sector.
Find the brightest talent:
newcastle@nrgplc.com
www.nrgplc.com
0191 232 1222

Making a difference to so many

With global reach and a
network of regional and international volunteers, Special iApps is
more than just an app developer.
It is an inspiration.
Beverley Dean established the
non-profit in 2011 to help bridge
the gap and provide access to
digital educational resources for
people with disabilities.
With a background in IT and
telecommunications, Beverley is
joined at Special iApps by her
husband and chief technology
officer, Colin, and Barbara Lowe,
head of design and photography.
Simple and unique, its apps
can be personalised to suit any
child with Downs syndrome,
autism, cerebral palsy, hearing
and visual impairments, poor
fine motor skills and even adults
with learning difficulties.
After seeing her youngest son,
William, who has Downs
syndrome, struggle to use apps
on an iPad, this was the pivotal
moment for Beverley, which
proved to be the catalyst for what
has turned out to not only be a
beneficial learning tool for
William, but for children in more
than 60 countries.
Starting out from a kitchen
table with just two people and a
>>Beverley Dean of Special iApps, right, and above with son William
handful of volunteers, Special
iApps has produced 11 apps and
has enjoyed more than tens of
definitely a struggle, as there was community and with supporting
thousands of worldwide
little support to be found. It was
organisations, which is vital for
downloads, with 70% of its trade a case of speaking with families
any business, as you need more
coming from exports.
and networking single-handedly. than just that initial idea to get
The social enterprise has
But now, four years on, we have
going.
benefited from the help of
grown organically and receive
Despite overcoming personal
volunteers from a number of
support all over the world from
challenges and stretching every
different countries who have
volunteers who have children
available resource, Special iApps
provided translations to serve
with disabilities and even those
founders drive and determinaeven more children internation- who dont, which is fantastic.
tion has seen the social enterally. Special iApps first app
People are actively stepping
prise make a difference to the
contained eight global languagforward and this has helped us
lives of so many disabled
es, now it has 22.
reach even more children
children, not just in the UK, but
Beverley said: Starting out
globally. Theres a lot of talent
throughout the world.
during the recession was
here in the North East IT
www.specialiapps.org

CLOUD INNOVATION CENTRE

Collaboration attracts global companies

We want to help and support
businesses leapfrog the competition.
Those are the words of Steve
Caughey, chief executive of
Arjuna Technologies Limited
and Technical Consultant to the
Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC),
Newcastles answer to encouraging innovation in the North East
and revolutionising the way in
which businesses do business.
Its goal is to establish a
world-leading centre of excellence in cloud computing and
big data analysis.
The collaboration between
Newcastle University and
Newcastle City Council is
making waves with its pioneering ideas and ability to attract
global companies to the region,
not to mention the work it does
to help shape the young minds of
the future and help combat the
skills gap in the IT industry. The
CIC has already won 1m worth

of funding from the Department

of Media and Cultural Studies
which is available to regional
organisations to help educate
and increase the skill-set
surrounding cloud computing
and data analytics, with a core
team of technical experts to
provide advice and assistance.
This has not only created
partnerships with innovative
organisations looking to up-skill
around the cloud agenda, but
has helped address the skills
gaps in the industry through
collaboration and knowledge
transfer, as well as identified new
business opportunities.
Mr Caughey said: The North
East is a hub of IT and digital
excellence and initiatives like the
Cloud Innovation Centre must
be promoted and utilised. The
fact that Newcastle Universitys
Computing department is
number one in the country for
research impact, pipping

>>Steve Caughey

Cambridge University to the top,

demonstrates the talent and
resources that are available in
the city and regionally.
In addition, the CIC assisted in
winning the Regional Digital
Catapult bid and is actively

involved in a number of NELEP,

Dynamo, Newcastle Council and
Newcastle University-led bids. It
has also launched the idea of the
North East Data Exchange,
which would increase the
sharing of public and private
sector data.
Its Cloud Series has been
particularly effective; bringing
three of the worlds leading
companies Amazon, Google
and Microsoft to the region, to
describe their long-term
strategies and relevance to the
business community. The
launch of programmes aimed at
school children will follow, in
collaboration with Sage Group,
aimed at getting youngsters into
the IT and digital industries and
boosting local and national
economies.
The future certainly looks
bright for the CIC, the city of
Newcastle and the North East as
a whole.