Ignys software development and electronics design consultancy celebrate 4 years together!
Wow it feels like only yesterday that we were celebrating our 3rd birthday! With our new award-winning status under our belt, we’re enjoying the crazy ride this year has been.
Don’t believe us? Look at what’s happened since this time last year and how we are doing it all to get you the best development support for your electronic products.
Our 3–4 year journey
Helping teams find the right design partner
Fresh off the heels of moving into a new office, just before the 1st lockdown, by July last year we had recruited our first Marketing Manager Hannah Ingram and promoted Poppy Sinclair to Sales Manager. Both of our Women in Tech have really helped ensure product developers know where to find a reliable electronics design and software partner.
You can now book virtual discovery calls to explore whether working with Ignys is right for your project needs. This includes deadlines, budgets, decision making, project overviews, understanding your needs and provides the opportunity to ask about what we do and how we work. This important step helps us both establish whether we can work together effectively and that the project can generate you a return on your engineering investment.
Related Blog: Find the right design partner for you
A new website teeming with articles
The next task was to refresh our website to really showcase what our clever engineers and designers can do. By September 2020, our website was launched, and we had entered several awards. We were shortlisted for nearly all of them including Test Product of the Year in the Elektra Awards, more on the award we won later!
Our first product, to help you with testing
We launched our first product RapiJig last Autumn, a new test fixture solution to help bridge the gap between smaller and larger companies for manufacture testing.
Update for 2022: We are delighted to announce that we are now the UK Exclusive Distributor for MG Products test fixtures. See the range below.
Scaling Up
Our current management team was complete by November 2021 with our Engineering Manager Stephen Keetley joining us. This was just the start of scaling up in terms of numbers, organisation, quality and processes.
We win together – Celebrating customer success
We love celebrating the success of our customers who defy the odds to develop and launch electronics products despite the pandemic. Some of our customers are already household names; others went on to be renowned for their great products gaining traction through their national marketing campaigns. We also received several new testimonials praising our electronics design and embedded software expertise.
Growing in numbers
We battled the endless cycle of lockdowns with effective marketing campaigns whilst word of mouth news of our great quality projects spread like wildfire. This would not have been possible without the dedication of our engineers, the endless commitment of our MD Richard Fletcher and the hard work of our management team. Our new Engineering Manager Stephen Keetley launched an extensive recruitment drive with a real team effort to attract the best engineers of all levels, a plan for growth which continues to this day.
View our Nottingham engineering job opportunities
Award winning consultancy
By June 2021 we had officially become an award-winning team, we were awarded Midlands Service Provider of the Year (Up to £1m) in the Midlands Business Awards. In addition, Richard was highly commended for the Midlands Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
See more on awards and finalist status
How we have grown!
Top statistics
People – From 8 to 14
Projects – 100+
Years since founded – 4
Awards won or shortlisted for – 5
Product’s launched – 1
What’s happened this year?
More people and more personal growth!
Some of our team taken June 2021 vs the full team in 2020
We grew from a team of 8 to 14.
Growing to a management team of 4, with a hardware and software engineering team.
And we can’t talk about people without mentioning our amazing customers, including those who have been with us from the start. Those who have joined us throughout our journey included our trusted business partners. And finally, to those innovators who have been wowing us with their crazy ideas even in the past week!
We are still recruiting and what is more we’re fussy; not only that our new teammates have the right skills but the right core values as well. What this means is you have growing access to exceptionally talented engineers with a passion and experience in product development and problem solving in software and electronics. But also ensuring the people we bring onto our team believe in Innovation with a Heart and Mutual Wins. When we work with you, we win together.
Despite working from home for most of this year our company bond stayed strong through our bi-weekly coffee meetings, 1 to 1 coaching and even our virtual Christmas Party!
Amazing projects we worked on this year!
We took on our 100th project recently!
We have really branched out with our projects from those using SiC and GaN, household name brands advertised on TV, low power design and AI related innovation. We have had a lot of interest from the healthcare and hygiene sectors to help keep people in all environments safe from covid.
Despite being experts in electronics design and software engineering we learn something new every day, both through the cutting- edge tech we work with through to encouraging each other, in a positive way, to grow as people both professionally and personally.
Exciting projects we worked on in 2020/2021
Most of the products we work on are top secret. Which is frustrating to say the least because we get so excited about them! So here is just a taste:
- We completed several feasibility studies to help businesses assess the next step in their product development journey.
- Working on SiC and GaN power projects, wireless charging and Bluetooth Low Energy.
- Working on several wellbeing-based products and launching a Nomophobia questionnaire to help people tackle their dependence on phones.
- Prayertech to help people with their worship.
- IoT and radio communication projects.
- Continued cutting edge hardware and software projects with companies that have been with us from the start.
- Had discovery calls with global companies of all sizes from start-ups to multi-nationals about their projects so we could see if we were a good fit for each other. We work on an inbound approach, helping people discover us rather than going for aggressive sales tactics.
- Helping companies from the East Midlands all the way out to places including Europe and the Middle East.
An award winning team
We are so proud to call ourselves an award-winning team after being awarded the prestigious Midlands Business Award – Midlands Service Provider of The Year (up to £1m) 2021.
In addition our RapiJig test fixture was shortlisted for Test Product of the Year in The Elektra Awards.
Our MD Richard Fletcher was highly commended for Midlands Entrepreneur of the Year in the Midlands Business Awards and a finalist in the East Midlands Chamber Awards.
We were also shortlisted for the Outstanding Growth Award in the East Midlands 2020 Awards too.
Incredible industry guest articles
We have been very privileged to collaborate and host some amazing articles from the likes of BSI on UKCA, radio communications from a women in tech telecommunications expert, DFX and start-ups magazines.
We have also been involved in the second edition of the start-up magazines 2nd edition survival guide and amongst other publications we have written articles for AI Journal.
Our new home
We’ve made the most of our new home on Nottingham Science Park, when we first moved in last March (for all of a week before the pandemic hit!) we had plenty of space even with social distancing in place (although we worked from home for an extended period). Now the office will be positively bustling when everyone is in!
The evolution of our offices….
Working together to promote the business
Marketing has been a team effort with our Marketing Manager Hannah working closely with the engineering and management team to create extensive technical articles on topics from edge cases through to chip shortages and design reviews.
Core values
Our company core values MICRO.
Mutual Wins, Innovation with a Heart, Committed and Passionate, Responsive and Approachable, Open and Honest.
Part of a Team
Making the most of Christmas working from home
What has it been like working at Ignys this past year
Poppy Sinclair Sales Manager says “There has been a big shift in the types of companies we have been speaking to with a really good mix of innovative start-ups and large household names looking for design work. We are appearing on more people’s radars as news of our good quality engineering work in electronics and software continues to spread. This is happening through word of mouth, relationships with trusted partners and successful marketing campaigns.”
Dr Nicholas Shattock explains “The team has expanded with new talent. When I first joined our office was not much larger than a broom cupboard. I have always known we had real potential but now we also have extended capabilities to add to that growth. Our professionalism is growing and so is the stature of the projects we are working on.”
Cezar Chirila has enjoyed the journey “I’ve been with the team a long time now and I love the fact we are still working with a lot of the companies we took on at the beginning who still love working with us. It has been amazing watching the team expand and become even more professional. It’s becoming clear that Ignys really means something now in the world of electronics and people have started recognising us from seeing our name on our Bill of Materials (BOM).”
Daniel Szlamp is excited by: “The household brands we are now working with are amazing, we’ve shifted up a whole level as we grow out of being a start-up. I have always been impressed by our standards too, we don’t believe in quickly-done work which cuts corners but in proper engineering which has been thoroughly tested and evaluated leading to great quality electronics products.”
Peter Wortley is pleased with how we are scaling up “It has been particularly amazing to watch our software design processes grow into something far more efficient.”
Stephen Lynch who joined us a few months ago says “Ignys are a really wonderful team, I have felt welcomed from the start and I have really loved working with the people and the great projects our customers bring to us.”
Stephen Keetley likes our emotional intelligence “I don’t think we can take for granted just how great we are as a company at looking after ourselves. We take quality and professionalism seriously, but mental health is important too. I am really pleased at how supportive we are of each other. I strongly believe we are growing in a clever way, recruiting the right people and those new teammates are really taking on board what we are about, in terms of the expertise of what we do and the team bond.”
MD Richard Fletcher illustrates our growth “As a team we never push any problem under the rug always tackling industry trends head on. Our drive is important. People are really starting to notice us; we are on their radar and job hunters are very keen to work with us. We are gathering a critical mass. People like that we are open and honest, I think what we have is something truly unique.”
Hannah Ingram is hooked “Ever since my first job interview, I was well and truly hooked. I knew straight away something was very different about Ignys. I have watched figures I thought were exciting 12 months ago fall by the wayside as we just grow and grow in strength and numbers. I like that we believe strongly in progression. That every single person here is a talented work in progress capable of so much more. If you told me 12 months ago, everything I’d be in charge of, I would probably have cried. I am learning so much too by working alongside such talented engineers and creators.”
We are also really pleased to welcome Toby Lane and Elias Jesus to the team! Welcome!
What’s next?
We’re here to bring great ideas to life. Join us on a journey as we steam full throttle towards our 5 year mark!
Closing words from Richard Fletcher
We’ve come a long way during one of the most challenging years. Recruitment, quality initiatives, robust planning, team participation, focus and hard work have meant we are in a great place to begin our 4th year with strength and focus in an environment that supports the team, and creates mutual wins with staff, customers and the business. I’m looking forward to the next year and the ongoing journey and would love you to join us in all of our successes.