“It's about internet connectivity” Lumico's journey from mobile platforms to robots almost four metres high

What started off as an app development service six years ago has now become much more for Hampshire firm Lumico Digital.

The company, based at Fareham Innovation Centre in Lee-on-the-Solent, also creates automated systems for a diverse range of industries, from manufacturing and wholesale to utilities, fintech and sport and leisure.

It can automate processes, improve logistics operations and connect existing products and services to the Internet of Things, where devices exchange data with other enabled devices and systems.

Lumico Digital was founded by Steve Kennington and Stephen Briney in 2017, but its foundations were laid a long time before that.

Steve Briney, Chris Orriss, Oscar Newman, Greg Kirpa, Ioan Davies, Steve Kennington

Steve, a computer science graduate from the University of Portsmouth, explained: “Stephen and I first met in 2004 when we’d both graduated and started our first jobs together at Xyratex in Havant. We’ve known each other a long time.”

Steve and Stephen both went on to work as developers for larger tech companies in the UK and abroad, but thought they could offer a more personal service and work more closely with clients as a small team.

Steve said: “I think we knew we wanted to start our own company, but at the time we just didn’t have the finance or the knowledge.”

Lumico Digital began by working on mobile platforms for a range of clients, including in the fitness, smart water and insurance sectors.

Another early project saw it develop an app to be used as part of stadium tours offered by several Premier League clubs.

Steve said: “Initially we marketed ourselves on the mobile apps as that’s what we were working on for our previous employer. We had the expertise and there was a demand.

“But six years on the company is very different.”

Today the kind of projects Lumico Digital works on ranges from the establishment of an automated manufacturing facility and the optimisation of contract trainers and instructors in the health club sector to a logistics system designed to minimise wastage of perishable goods and the prediction of possible outages in a utilities supply chain.

Last year its skills were also used to design and build a world first of its kind – nine 3.8m-high robots that retrieve and prepare newly-manufactured hard drives for automated shipment.

They were delivered to a customer in South East Asia and Steve and a member of staff flew out to oversee integration with existing automation.

For Steve it was a return to his background in automated hard drive testers – robots that move hard drives around to perform final tests before they are cleared for end use.

App development remains an important part of the business though. One company Lumico Digital has worked with recently is The Tomato Stall, an Isle of Wight tomato grower and supplier that wanted to modernise its B2B customer experience by creating an easy-to-use online order app.

Credit: Lumico/The Tomato Stall

Credit: Lumico/The Tomato Stall

“Calling round to chase up orders and promote new products was very time consuming and log-jamming the sales team with repeated calls to current clients.

“By creating a mobile app connecting The Tomato Stall’s customers to their own virtual store, we were able to remind them when to place their orders, showcase extended ranges of fresh merchandise and enable them to track delivery of their orders.”

“The app is available for both iOS and Android platforms. It also includes an admin suite so that The Tomato Stall’s staff can allocate and price products on a daily basis, and easily onboard new customers” adds Steve.

Lumico Digital is also helping the company to optimise how its factory floor operates.

Steve said: “Our USP is that we’re like a one-stop shop, from mobile and web apps and the cloud to software products and hardware. We’ve found our niche in taking an idea from a client and building the whole product for them.”

They think that in the near future the IoT space is going to be the big growth area.

Steve and Stephen believe that, over the next decade, manufacturing and service businesses across the globe will re-invent themselves as connectivity becomes universal and their physical assets become new sources of information and insight.

They say businesses leading this transformation will operate more efficiently and develop new business models and revenue streams. Meanwhile those who choose not to invest in IoT risk getting left behind.

Credit:B4LLS

The company’s aim is to collaborate with clients to get the maximum benefit from opportunities that the IoT will bring.

One IoT project it’s working on is developing a device that can give clear and concise instructions to someone when under pressure.

Steve explained: “You press a button and it will talk you through something such as giving CPR. It can turn type into audio and say whatever you want.

“It’s all about usability. We’re also talking to marine companies and major train companies regarding health and safety compliance.

He added: “It’s about creating electrical engineer-designed products that have some sort of internet connectivity.

“We’re finding that companies are approaching us with products that have become a little bit irrelevant because they don’t connect to the internet.

“I think a lot of companies will want to turn their products into smart products – connectivity is a differentiator and there’s not the cost involved of creating a product from scratch.”

He’s excited about opportunities to grow the company.

“We’re about to bring in a new business development person. We’ve never advertised for work before, it’s always come to us. But now I think we need to start looking outwards and finding people who need us.

“We have a group of engineers who are hungry to work on new things. Engineers view everything as a challenge to be overcome. It’s about finding the right solutions.”