Member Article

Olive Communications extend lead with Safety Bank purchase

Olive Communications, the fastest growing UK business communications and IT provider, has acquired SafetyBank Solutions Ltd, a leading developer of Software as a Service (SaaS) based products to the construction sector.

SafetyBank was formed in 2010 to create and develop software to help the construction industry manage and administrate all aspects of health and safety, risk management, compliance, training and governance throughout the entire supply chain.

In acquiring SafetyBank, Olive will now be able to provide business-critical applications to companies employing field-based workers, in addition to its current portfolio of connectivity, equipment and converged communication solutions. Olive is one of Vodafone’s largest Platinum Partners in the UK, managing in excess of 120,000 mobile subscribers and supporting in excess of 2,500 business customers.

As part of the acquisition, Olive has acquired the entire issued share capital, along with the Intellectual Property Rights. It will retain all SafetyBank staff, including its 15-strong application development team. SafetyBank Chief Executive and inventor of the platform, Jody Kennedy, will join the Olive Board as its Chief Technology Officer.

Martin Flick, Chief Executive of Olive said: “This is our tenth acquisition in two years and is the most significant in terms of our broader managed services strategy. We have already been investing in and developing the SafetyBank platform jointly with Jody and his team, and following a soft launch earlier this year, we are now ready to incorporate the range of services into our core portfolio, hence the timing of the acquisition.”

Flick continues: “This acquisition is a game changer for Olive. It demonstrates our commitment to continually add value to our customers by delivering cost-effective managed communications and connectivity, alongside device and user management, rich content and services.”

The construction industry faces a considerable challenge in managing critically extensive and sometimes onerous administration of projects within a complex ecosystem of suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors, who make up over 90% of the industry. The administration requirement is very difficult to manage, given the demographic spread of workers and projects across multiple companies within the dynamic nature of construction.

In combining the two businesses, Olive creates huge benefit for its customers, both within the construction sector and beyond. The SafetyBank platform is innovative, intelligent and intuitive and solves very real operational challenges for the sector head on. Moreover, the platform is adaptable cross-sector to any organisation that needs to manage business processes for a mobile workforce. Further modules are soon to be launched to serve other sectors of industry.

SafetyBank manages interaction between organisations across the whole supply chain via a secure web-based portal. Users interact with it though a mobile application that is interoperable across all major operating systems, which is simple to use but highly effective.

Olive now has an extensive range of services in its portfolio, including Mobility, IPVPN and Hosted Voice, PBX Maintenance, WAN and Cloud-based solutions. These will be enhanced by new SaaS applications, delivered as integrated managed services to the customer.

Jody Kennedy, previously Chief Executive of SafetyBank and now Olive’s new CTO, said: “Olive has already played an integral part in making SafetyBank available for those working on sites and remotely. The success demonstrated by Olive as the market leader in workforce mobilisation is a great enabler for all of our customers and partners in creating a limitless, streamlined and empowered approach to risk management and beyond. The once only dreamed of combination of SaaS, mobilised workforce and construction risk management is now not only a reality for enterprise businesses, but is affordable to all.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Olive Communications .