Onboard Tracker’s continual commitment to Aberdeen City Centre

Feb 2, 2023

Bridge House, located at 56-58 Bridge Street, is set to undergo a quarter of a million-pound investment to renovate and modernise the premises.

The six-floor office building forms part of the Aberdeen Conservation Area and was once the location of iconic Aberdeen business, John Bell Antiques in the mid 1900’s.

More recently, the building has been home to both our team here at Solab, and business and marine travel specialist ATPI.

Both of our businesses have confirmed their commitment to the city centre by extending their respective leases for 10 years.

Bridge House Investments’ spokesman Iain Hawthorne, said, “We’re really pleased to have secured further lease periods from our two blue chip tenants.

“We have worked with both businesses for several years during the ups and downs of the oil and gas business and the changing face of the city centre.  As owners of the building, we continue to invest in the fabric and presentation of the premises and are in the process of a £250k investment to ensure that Bridge House remains an attractive option close to the city centre and transport infrastructure.”

Kevin Coll, Managing Director, Solab, said, “Solab is a proud advocate for city centre businesses operations in Aberdeen and the central location works well for our entire team. Bridge House has excellent digital infrastructure and its location and access to parking has made it an ideal base from which to grow our business over the last three decades. We hope our continued investment helps attract other companies into the city centre to secure its future.”

Russell Borthwick, Chief Executive, Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, commented: “It’s a further piece of good news for the city centre that Solab and ATPI have chosen to invest in a long-term commitment to their Bridge Street premises.

“Towns and cities everywhere are seeking to adapt to the changing environment and as we continue the process of reinventing Aberdeen city centre, it’s vital that we create places where people will want to spend leisure time, live and work.

“This announcement is another important piece of the jigsaw with two high profile businesses making a statement about their commitment to providing high quality workspace for their staff in an iconic building in the heart of Aberdeen.”

ATPI Managing Director, UK, Adam Knights, added, “ATPI are delighted to have re-signed our lease on a long-term basis at Bridge House.

“We considered a number of satellite business parks in our review process and ultimately decided that the city centre location provided us the right location to access our entire customer base.

“We have a long-term relationship with our landlords and have jointly invested in the internal infrastructure to improve the working environment for our staff.  We look forward to continuing this over the coming years”.

In addition to the lease extensions, one floor of approximately 2,000 square feet is undergoing extensive ‘good as new’ refurbishment and will be available for a discerning tenant to take possession in the next few weeks.  FG Burnett is marketing the available floor and would be pleased to hear from potential tenants, who could customise any aspect of the refurbishment if preferred.

Thanks again to Bridge House for providing the perfect space for our team, and we look forward to the next decade with you.

ONBOARD TRACKER™ SECURES CONTRACT WIN WITH TECHNIPFMC

Jan 26, 2023

TechnipFMC is the latest subsea client to employ our crew management software Onboard Tracker™. Through the new streamlined system, TechnipFMC can make best use of processes and create a single point of storage for data to maximise crew planning, scheduling and training management for offshore personnel.

The move sees TechnipFMC join the ranks of Onboard Tracker™ clients including Subsea 7, Boskalis and Semco Maritime all of whom use the online hub to manage personnel logistics and planning, crew rotations, training, certification and competence.

Onboard Tracker™ is a modular, web-based Software as a Service (SaaS) platform which manages the safe and efficient crewing of tens of thousands of energy and maritime personnel across the globe.  Our technology acts as a leading light in the North East’s Digital Workforce initiatives and keeps tens of thousands of energy workers trained, competent and safe on over 70% of the manned rigs in the UKCS, and in over 70 countries worldwide.

Exponential growth means that the subsea sector now accounts for almost half of the company’s clients.  Additionally, the rise in uptake has resulted in the system now being used to manage almost one third of subsea marine vessels in the UKCS – a figure which is expected to show a further marked increase during the rest of this year and beyond.

To reflect growing uptake in the market, a number of subsea and marine-focussed improvements have been incorporated into Onboard Tracker™ to enable clients to manage key operations such as saturation diving time, lieu management, leave liquidation and minimum manning levels to track resource gaps, and plan and forecast future personnel issues.

Commenting on the ongoing success with the system, our Managing Director Kevin Coll said: “Onboard Tracker™ has seen a substantial increase in subsea and marine clients in the last two years with 45% of our clients now operating in the subsea sector.

“We have noticed an undercurrent of change during that time as subsea organisations prioritise the use of digital technology to transform the way they operate, clearly demonstrating that Onboard Tracker™ fully aligns with a breadth of clients across the industry.”

Our Implementation Manager, Tanya Urquhart, was instrumental in ensuring TechnipFMC’s move to Onboard Tracker™.  She added: “TechnipFMC made the switch from a number of different systems to our enhanced operating system.

“The technology is now supporting TechnipFMC’s fleet operations globally and we are delighted that their team has fully embraced the technology.  They are now experiencing the benefits a digitally connected system brings to their vessel operations – dashboard and reporting options gives each user a personalised experience as well as tailoring it for their own function within the business along with Power BI reporting and technology.”

She added: “One of the many benefits of Onboard Tracker™ is that the software is continually evolving, and we keep our clients up-to-date with new functionality options every step of the way.  By harnessing subsea and technological expertise, we will continue to develop the integrated platform in step with the dynamic needs of the subsea and wider energy industry.”

For more information on Solab and Onboard Tracker, click here. 

Zoe Prentice Completes ONE Graduate Scheme at Solab

Nov 29, 2022

We are delighted to announce our Business Support Graduate Zoe Prentice has successfully completed her graduate programme with Opportunity North East. We celebrated this milestone for Zoe at the ONE Graduates Into Business event held at the Chester Hotel in November.

Zoe joined our team with a yearlong placement in collaboration with Opportunity North East (ONE), who fund training for SME’s taking on graduates. The programme provided a structured training and personal development programme ensuring companies across various sectors and graduates maximised benefits, enabling graduates to learn and develop as a cohort and supporting one another in a peer-to-peer environment.

At the event, Zoe and our Managing Director Kevin Coll, both took to the stage to reflect on their experiences with the programme, and how beneficial it is to both businesses and graduates.

Zoe presented a wonderful speech, taking us on her journey from struggling to find the right job during the pandemic, to helping organise user forums with Onboard Tracker. During these 12 months, Zoe has undertaken courses in Presentation and Communication Skills, Copywriting, Digital Marketing, Sales and Marketing, Project Management and Stakeholder Management. Alongside these courses, she has been working in a variety of roles within Solab and OBT to help guide her in the direction of her interests, and find where her strengths can be put into practice. 

 Zoe commented that “All of these workshops have allowed me to increase my self-belief, and gain exposure that has been vital to my success in my job.”

The ONE Graduate Placement has allowed Zoe to grow and develop her skillset which she can use to assist her in her future with Solab. We are beyond proud of Zoe and her astonishing development during the last year. She has brought invaluable insight to our team and embraced all challenges and tasks given to her here at Solab.

Congratulations Zoe!