NEWS: HELPING TO CREATE AN INNOVATIVE CULTURE
Three pioneering South Wales companies have made it to the finals of a new award category in the Western Mail Business Award for Wales 2003. The Welsh Innovative Company of the Year award celebrates the innovative culture in business throughout Wales. The finalists are a multimedia company, another that works in the field of industrial microbiology and a third which designs and develops telecommunications products. The award is sponsored by specialist IT training and consultancy company The Cadcentre (UK). Small Planet Technology, Swansea: Small Planet Technology is a start-up company which designs and develops new innovative telecommunications products and systems. The company was founded by Brian Docherty and Jim Churchman, formerly of Tetrel, the European market leader in private payphones. Jim and Brian decided to repeat Tetrel's success and Small Planet began trading from Technium in King's Road, Swansea, in March 2001. The company then began to recruit staff, host potential customers and started the development of new products in earnest. Small Planet designs and develops new products from concept. The company works closely with its manufacturers to make these products, to meet its own specifications and designs. The first product it has marketed is BT TwinTalk, which was taken to BT as a brand new concept, supported by well-developed prototypes in 2002.
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