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On 15 July 2006, Building Automation Solutions Limited (BAS) completed the acquisition of the UK Building Automation Unit (BAU) business from Siemens Building Technologies UK (SBT). This transaction created the largest independent controls company in the UK, providing building management systems, energy solutions and support.
It employs over 200 people and is now expected in its first year to exceed its target turnover of £22m by 30%. It is the only Solutions Partner to Siemens plc for BMS in the UK having exclusive rights to the sale of APOGEE and VISONIK. In addition to distribution rights over other SBT products widely used in the market such as DESIGO.
BAS is owned in equal share by its two shareholder directors, Steve Dalton, formerly of Siemens and Johnson Control Systems, and Bob Savage, formerly of Satchwell Control Systems, I spoke to them to find out more about this new company.
An ambitious start
If you have a look at the homepage for BAS (www.bas.uk.com) you will see that the most prominent phrase is ‘Partners for Life’ which may strike you as an ambitious comment for a company that has been in existence for less than six months. But having met the two men in charge it is easy to see why they chose this phrase because their exceptional start and ambitious plans for the future will make them stand out in the BMS market.
Following the decision by Siemens UK to divest itself of the Building Automation Solutions and Service Unit of the company as part of their re-structuring plans, it didn’t take Steve and Bob long to knock the business into shape and instil their own beliefs and values into the rest of the team, something which is very important when you are the newcomer and your entire workforce has previously worked for the global giant Siemens. But while it has been hard work, this is something that this partnership is not averse to. Steve says: The last few months since the acquisition have been incredibly hard work but we knew that at the start and we are delighted with the progress that we have made.
“We now have six offices throughout the UK and employ 215 people which is a 15% increase on the number of people we had when we started out. We are also looking at our first quarter results which show us to look more like a £30million business. But while all this is fantastic we cannot lose sight of what we are here for, and that is to provide a service to our customers.
“The main message which we want to give to the industry is that our promises will be kept. When we first started out we agreed that this was how we wanted to operate because too many companies promise the earth and deliver far less. We have therefore structured our business to ensure that we can keep our promises to our customers.”
How it works
There are two major parts to BAS; the Project Business which accounts for all of the new projects on the go and the Support Business which looks after the maintenance side of the company. The focal point for the support business is their 24 hour Remote Energy Bureau in Scotland.
The Remote Energy Bureau is something of a USP for the company because it enables them to look at the full capability of a system and provide real time data to the customer. Bob says: “What this gives us is the ability to offer a service agreement based around energy savings. Everything that we control affects energy usage and ideally every service contract which we provide will be linked to the energy bureau. That way we can offer our customers an energy profile to show them how their building is working and then we can work with them to optimise the control system and therefore their efficiency.
“The main point to make where energy efficiency is concerned is that it is about providing a happy balance – there is no point in being so energy efficient that your staff are working in the cold and dark but at the same time there is a good balance which you can reach by providing optimum comfort at an efficient level.
“But the Remote Energy Bureau is not just about energy efficiency because the maintenance contracts which are run from here mean that if there are problems in a building we are made aware of them immediately and by dialling into the customers’ control system we can solve the problem – which puts an end to staff turning up to work on a cold Monday morning to find that the heating doesn’t work.”
A different approach
This would all suggest that as well as being able to boast the fact that they are the biggest systems house in the UK they can also show that they can provide the green solutions which more and more building owners and managers are aspiring to. Surely offering so much and so soon has had an impact on the market.
Steve says: “It has certainly given the market a lot to talk about and it does feel as though everyone is watching not only the business but us as well. The good news is that we have been accepted as a company which was proved by the 30 new people who started work with us in the first three months.
“I think that the big difference which people see is that we do not have the bureaucracy which can come with a huge organisation and therefore we can react quickly to demands. There was a lot of expectation in the industry because the company was originally part of a well renowned name like Siemens, but our message is different and our major challenge is to educate the industry and our customers so that they too can appreciate the differences.”
Training
It is quite easy for a new company to concentrate on the job in hand and forget about other issues – such as training. But again this seems to be well on the business plan with the promise of 12 new trainee engineers and an energy training program which focuses on making a positive impact to their customer’s energy concerns. So what is their view of training? Bob says: “As an industry we need to be doing more because we simply do not have enough qualified people to meet the demand.
“The main problem is that we need to be more appealing as an industry. There are two sides to the industry, the mechanical side and the advanced IT side. To get people to do both is quite difficult but the more work we do on the IT side the more people we are attracting to the industry. We therefore need to get the message out to students at an early stage and get them excited. By marketing the industry better we can go a long way towards attracting more people and therefore more skills into the industry.”
Looking forward
It is clear for everyone to see that BAS is a company which has taken the market by storm, and while they do have an excellent suite of products to work with, their success is also a lot to do with the people involved.
Both Bob and Steve agree that this is a people business and that everyone has a part to play – which is one of the reasons why they believe in growing people within the business. They also believe strongly in forming relationships both with their customers and their staff which goes a long way to explaining their huge success so far.
But if I had to sum the company up it would be with a phrase which they both used when asked what have they learnt from the past few months since the acquisition. The simple answer was that: “We should always be looking back, seeing where we can make improvements and constantly evaluating the business.” So while this may seem a simple thing it is something which many companies fail to do and could perhaps explain the ongoing success of BAS.
