A start-up which specialises in management consultancy and software business has moved into new premises in Portsmouth after outgrowing the homes of the co-founders.
Skore is the latest firm to join nearly 60 other businesses operating out of Portsmouth Technopole, opposite the city’s ferry port by the M275.
The firm now has upwards of 40 clients, spanning the UK, USA, Australia and mainland Europe and in a range of sectors such as construction, food production and software technology.
Other customers include private healthcare providers, the NHS and a major bank.
They are benefiting from costs savings identified by Skore, led by operations director Craig Willis, technical director Colin Claverie and head of partnerships Chris Green.
Craig and Chris both graduated from the University of Portsmouth.
Pete Outen, Portsmouth Technopole’s centre manager, said: “Skore’s software-as-a-service helps companies and organisations across the globe become more productive.
“For instance, 80 days of wasted time in a builder’s training administration system were exposed. Following the findings, new efficiencies were implemented, with a resulting increase in productivity.
“In another case, a global food producer was able to halve the expensive time spent on the design phase of change management projects, from three weeks to 1.5 weeks.
“Skore is the latest customer at Portsmouth Technopole to punch well above their weight in software applications – it’s great to see a start-up doing so well.”
Craig, who co-founded Skore with Colin, said: “The business outgrew our respective homes far quicker than we anticipated; it was not possible to keep on having meetings with customers in hotels along the M27.
“We are a professional business and now we have a professional office at the Technopole, which I found out about from a free event at the University’s Business School, where the serviced offices centre was being discussed because of its support for start-ups.
“The Technopole team made it so easy for us to move in and settle in, with a superb office package which includes telephone answering and messages, reception services, mail handling, use of meeting and conference rooms and access to networking events, workshops and business support.
“What’s more, we are being introduced to new commercial opportunities with fellow business occupiers and, just weeks of moving in, the Technopole’s innovation director, Richard May, has already opened new trading doors for us.”
Skore’s success has come from merging on-site consultancy with software created by Colin and Craig, who both have a background in technology development and business consulting.
They found that off-the-shelf alternatives were far too expensive and only geared to corporates, not small-to-medium enterprises of which there are 5.5 million in the UK, representing more than 99% of all businesses.
Craig said: “There was a clear gap in the market. Our propriety software is being increasingly utilised by consultants, analysts and end users on a licence fee basis, with recurring revenues to complement our face-to-face management consultancy revenues.
“Blending digital technology and human interaction, Skore is very much a proven approach to diagnosing and treating business pains, starting with understanding the symptoms, investigating the causes and identifying the right solutions.
“We find many inefficient processes in firms, irrespective of size or reputation. These often relate to legacy systems or traditional ways of doing things, and are hidden away or ignored because no-one within the business has either considered change management or fear it.
“Either way, inefficiencies weigh on profitability and output – they will become amplified over time unless action is taken.”
Owned by the University of Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Technopole is managed by Oxford Innovation, which runs 21 innovation centres across the country on behalf of freeholders and investors, with the emphasis on supporting start-ups and early-stage firms.
There are more than 1,000 firms at the centres.
