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Sitekit was established by Campbell Grant on the Isle of Skye in 1989 to provide remote technical consultancy to clients in the energy sector. In the early 1990s, the company became an early adopter of Internet and web technology and prospered by providing web services to a wide range of customers in the Highlands.
In 2008, Campbell, with support from HIE, attended the Entrepreneur Development Programme at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Boston. This inspired Campbell to work with his management team to identify a more ambitious business strategy that would support the growth of the company beyond its regional market to compete nationally.
The team opted for a strategy of specialisation in a single vertical market and, after careful analysis, targeted the healthcare sector based on global growth forecasts and an existing bridgehead that could be quickly expanded.
Today, Sitekit is committed to developing digital solutions that help to improve service delivery in health care and to enable people to live healthier and happier lives through the use of familiar digital consumer technology and joined up digital public services.
The company is now working with over 50 NHS Trusts in England, and in 2017 secured its largest ever contract to deliver a security system for a major government department.
Sitekit founder and CEO, Campbell Grant, explains that it has been a testing journey to get to this point. “As a growing company, headquartered in the Highlands, we’ve got through both hard times and good times with a combination of perseverance and team work. This, along with a relentless focus on great customer service, has enabled us to successfully grow the business and build a loyal, strong, highly skilled workforce.
“Our success in the digital health care sector in recent years is now enabling us to grow and deploy solutions in other sectors. We’re now providing secure identity solutions for both local and national government, and major corporates in the private sector. Working in close partnership with Microsoft, we’ve won and delivered several major contracts – expertly deploying Microsoft’s leading edge cloud security technology.”
I’m continually championing the need for Scottish-based companies to take the lead in the commercialisation of academic research – particularly in the life sciences sector.Campbell Grant, Chief Executive, Sitekit
By adopting a clear market-led business strategy and actively participating in major collaborations in the life sciences sector, Sitekit has grown from a small Highland-based web consultancy to become a recognised leader in the UK digital health sector and a business with a reputation for excellence in healthcare and in cyber-security.
Sitekit CEO, Campbell Grant, is a strong advocate of the business benefits of working with academic institutions and commercial partners to deliver innovative solutions into the market.
“I’m continually championing the need for Scottish-based companies to take the lead in the commercialisation of academic research – particularly in the life sciences sector”, he explained. “We can work together with academia to apply research and deploy new technologies to transform sectors such as health and care - and in the process create sustainable economic development through innovative products and competitive companies that are able to compete internationally and export Scottish and UK expertise to the world.
“I’m currently Chair of the Digital Health Special Interest Group of the Scottish Lifesciences Association and also Chair the Digital Health group within the UK Knowledge Transfer Network. It is through organisations such as these, that bring academic and business sectors together, that we can ensure citizens gain secure access to innovative digital services that provide them with the right information at the right time, using technology that is both familiar and easy-to-use – as is already the case in commercial sectors like retail, travel and banking.”
In September 2017, Sitekit’s eRedbook joined the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme for high potential digital health SMEs. Working alongside the Accelerator’s experienced team of Digital Health (NHS) Navigators will enable the Sitekit team to engage with parents, local childcare champions and health organisations in London to accelerate adoption and access to the eRedbook, the UK’s first online Personal Child Health Record.
Sitekit has also been working with the Managed Service Network (MSN) for Children & Young People with Cancer in Scotland on the development of the MyStoryNow app: a secure digital tool for young cancer patients to view information held in their Person Held File (PHF) and share this with health professionals, family members and friends.
In October 2017, Sitekit was one of five projects successfully awarded funding in Phase 1 of the first Cancer Innovation Challenge SBRI funding competition looking for new approaches to record and integrate cancer PROMs (patient recorded outcome measures) and PREMs (patient recorded experience measures). Sitekit’s project focuses on providing a digital platform for the Teenager and Young Adult (TYA) cancer service in Scotland that recognises each individual’s needs are different and that they require person-centred, needs-led interventions and support.
And in the education sphere, Sitekit has been working with West Highland College (part of the University of the Highlands and Islands) to design an innovative, web-based Foundation Apprenticeship in IT. The aim is to enable pupils in more remote secondary schools, such as those in the west coast of Scotland, to obtain relevant commercial work experience that is normally only available in an urban setting.
“We continue to employ over 20 here in Portree on Skye, and that’s a sizable business for the island, but we also have offices in Edinburgh, Oxfordshire and London. Right now, we are looking to recruit another ten people to the team, and that will take us to over 60 employees across all sites.
“Of course, being based on Skye means I have to travel a lot. But for me, the benefits of living here outweigh the travelling. I was brought up here and so it will always be home. For me, there really is nowhere else in the world that is quite like the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.”
"I began this business on the Isle of Skye and we have managed to build something that now has a national and international reputation. We have had good support and advice along the way from the local team at HIE and from others such as SDI and the wonderful GlobalScot network." Campbell Grant.
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