How an industrial data management consultancy have exceeded their expectations at Fareham IC
MRO Insyte is an industrial data management consultancy run by Peter Eales. Peter had been working on a contract with the (then) Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Saudi Arabia, and he was moving house to Lee-on the-Solent area. He was thinking of semi-retirement but was intrigued by the new Fareham Innovation Centre.
Buoyed by the ‘makes you want to work’ space and his discussions with the Centre team, he became a Business Lounge member and soon attended a roadshow event. It was not long before the team at Fareham had identified Peter’s passion lies in mentoring and motivating others to succeed. Peter wanted to make sure his many years’ experience in maintenance and repair operations, and spare part supply chain, was passed on to others and leveraged.
Fareham Innovation Centre appreciate the value that the younger generation can bring to businesses and wanted to engage with local undergraduates. The Centre team co-ordinated a presentation on Internships from the University of Southampton and helped Peter conceptualise projects for two interns in the Summer of 2016 – one partially funded by Santander. Peter had now taken a desk in the Centre’s shared office allowing him to use the lounge for his interns on a temporary basis during the summer break from the contract with the (now) Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Natural Resources.
Matt and Richard were second year Aeronautical Engineering and first year Computer Science undergraduates respectively. They surpassed all expectations; finishing the 10-week project scope in just 4 weeks. They extended their internship to 12 weeks and went beyond scope and building algorithms and then developing a basic user interface; such that Peter was able to present this prototype tool in Seattle to peers from Boeing and then to Shell in the UK. Peter also demonstrated the new tool at the EMEA Power Transmission Distributors Association (EPTDA) event in Berlin. Interest was such that Peter has incorporated a new company, KOIOS Master Data, to further develop and market this game-changing solution.
KOIOS has taken a second desk in the shared office and Peter has hired a developer (leveraging the services of a recruitment business in the Centre), appointed a Non-Executive Director with significant talent in software commercialisation and deployments and is looking for a Business Development Manager. Peter was encouraged to pitch for investment at the recent Venturefest South event in March, which he wouldn’t have had the courage to do without the backing of the Centre team. He has taken on a third intern this Spring but his internship success has inspired six other businesses in the Centre to consider taking on talented interns to add major value this summer.