Ubisense in the Financial Times

Key tech awards dominated by business-efficiency services

he Deloitte awards rank British technology companies in terms of their rate of sales growth. Thunderhorse claims it can give clients a return on their investment within a year, a key attraction for banks in these troubled times. The company's software gives banks a standardised way of documenting credit derivatives trades.

Traditionally, banks have relied on in-house IT systems, which have struggled to keep pace with the explosion of derivatives trades. Now many of the world's largest investment banks, including Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Société Générale, use Thunderhorse's technology.

The other big downturn boom has been in digital media businesses that have prospered as clients have sought cheaper ways to target their marketing. Bigmouthmedia, the Scottish group, came fifth in the rankings and TH_NK, based in Newcastle, was sixth.

"The companies that have been successful have been ones that have really focused on what their customer wants," said David Halstead, partner at Deloitte. "Many have shown great agility, partly through working in small teams," he said.

But the focus on serving budget-conscious clients has not cut out the opportunities for higher-end, more visionary technology.

Second in the Deloitte rankings was Ubisense, which sells radio data tags that allow companies to track the whereabouts of their supplies. A spin-out from Cambridge university, and widely seen as one of potential new stars from Silicon Fen, its tracking systems work indoors, trumping GPS technology, and are accurate to 15cm, compared with about 20m for GPS.

The group was founded by Prof Andy Hopper, who still teaches at Cambridge and is best known for his association with Acorn, the 1970s low-cost computer start-up.

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