Historically, it’s the capital city of London that has dominated the technology scene in the UK. This city has also benefited from the vast majority of overseas investment in the technology sector, although both of these trends have begun to shift during the last decade.
For example, Tech Nation has reported that the northern city of Manchester has emerged as the fourth largest technology hub in the UK of late, while boasting a cumulative digital turnover of around £2.9 billion.
It’s also established as the single biggest tech hub outside of the capital city, offering an impressive 62,653 digital jobs to locals. In this post, we’ll look at three players on the Manchester tech scene, while asking why these companies have enjoyed such impressive growth.
- Response Tap
We start with the cutting-edge call tracking brand Response Tap, which was actually established over a few pints of beer in a university bar.
Within two years, the firm had successfully launched their campaign level tracking project, becoming the first in Europe to be integrated with Google Analytics. It has since raised more than £4 million in funding, while the business is home to 80 staff members and has offices in London and Atlanta (in addition to its HQ in Salford).
Connecting and powering calls, Response Tap helps brands to measure the relationship between telephone sales and digital marketing, which proves invaluable in an age of assisted conversions where businesses are committed to understanding the impact of integrated marketing campaigns.
Most importantly, this type of advanced call intelligence provides real-time (and actionable) insight into the digital actions that drive telephone sales, helping firms to optimise their marketing spend and eventual ROI.
- ANS Group
Next up is one of Manchester’s best loved and longest standing technology giants, and one that has stood tall during the city’s digital transformation since its inception in 1996.
Founded by trail-blazing tech entrepreneur Scott Fletcher, ANS is a managed and private cloud service provider that also operates out of London.
As a result of more than 23 years of rapid and sustained growth, ANS has successfully accrued more than 600 high profile customers across both public and private sectors, having delivered managed infrastructure and protection services to an incredibly high and consistent standards.
It’s list of clients is certainly impressive, including household names such as Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, The University of Nottingham, ODEON and Opus Energy.
- Intechnica
Finally we come to one of the best-known tech players in Manchester, and one that has played a pivotal role in driving the sustained success of online retail brands throughout the city.
Intechnica, which was founded in Manchester in 2007, provides cutting-edge software that helps online retailers to cope effectively with surges in demand at peak times. The software, known as TrafficDefender, offers immense value on days such as Black Friday as it minimises downtime and enables users to drive optimal sales.
It currently provides services to key clients such as AO.com (another Manchester-based tech hub) and sports betting giant William Hill, whilst employing a workforce of 65 employees.
In May the firm secured a cool £900,000 in funding from Mercia Technologies, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority investment fund and three business angels. This was the third major investment by this collaborative fund, which initially backed the fund in 2013 and plays a key role in the business’s ambitious growth plans.
