Data Connection wins Queen's Award with 97% export sales
London, UK: 21 April, 1999. Data Connection Limited has been granted a Queen's Award for Export Achievement. Over 97% of its 1997/98 revenues were from exports - software technology licenses and expert software engineering services, mostly to the US high-tech sector.
Guy Kawasaki, formerly "evangelist" for Apple Computer Inc, once famously (or infamously) said
"British technology is one of my favourite oxymorons."
Data Connection proves him wrong. For years the company has been providing highly complex software technology to the development labs of organizations like Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Cisco - organizations that incorporate Data Connection's technology in their own products which they then sell world-wide.
The company survives and prospers by persuading such organizations that, despite their expertise and vast in-house development resources, it makes commercial sense to acquire best-of-breed technology from Data Connection, rather than attempt to develop equivalent technology in-house or acquire technology from local US suppliers.
The company achieves this success by recruiting some of the best brains from UK universities and training them into world-class software developers. One observer likened Data Connection to Bletchley Park in World War 2 - based on the fact that the company recruits talent from all academic disciplines, and nurtures that talent in multi-disciplinary teams to undertake world-beating brainwork.
Recruiting and training talent is, of course, only part of the story. The company is controlled by an Employee Benefit Trust ("EBT"), which each year distributes the company's profit to all the employees. In the last financial year, profits were £4.5 Million on revenues of £16 Million. Not surprisingly, the company's retention of its employees is remarkable - during 1998 just 2 of its 140 software professionals left the company.
This is Data Connection's second Export Award - the first was awarded in 1992, when exports were 83% of revenues. In the seven years since then, both revenues and profits have increased every year (and have approximately doubled since 1992).
Background
Data Connection Limited (widely known in the US as "DCL") was founded in 1981, since when it has grown from 7 employees to 185 today. It is based in Enfield, Middlesex, with smaller offices in Chester and Edinburgh. Its US office near Washington DC is staffed from the UK.
Data Connection develops leading-edge technology that is at the heart of the revolution brought about by the Internet and the convergence of voice and data communications. Its products implement key value-added features - most notably Internet Telephony, conferencing, universal messaging and online directory products - which are deployed both in enterprise networks and over the Internet. By integrating these technologies, the company offers a unique universal communications platform for commercial exploitation of the Internet. This platform is built on top of Data Connection's products implementing the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Signaling System 7 (SS7) communications protocols that underpin both the Internet and traditional telephone networks (wired and wireless).
Data Connection's customers consist of
- over forty networking vendors (companies like 3Com, Bay Networks, Cabletron, Cisco and Nortel)
- the major computer systems vendors (including Compaq/Tandem, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, Silicon Graphics, Sun, and Unisys)
- large end-user organizations (such as Barclays Bank in the UK, leading banks in Germany, and the US Library of Congress)
- systems integrators (Lockheed Martin in the US, for example, are the prime contractor for the US Defense Message System, and base their solution on Data Connection's Messaging and Directory products).
For further information contact Phil McConnell, Managing Director, on 020 8366 1177, at , or visit our web site at http://www.datcon.co.uk.
Data Connection is a trademark of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.