Military To Civvy Street – A Soldier’s Story

EMB Ltd, the organisation that delivers the Business Link service on behalf of East Midlands Development Agency (emda) looks at how moving from military life to "Civvy Street" can be a massive culture shock for many service personnel, but for one ex-warrant officer turned entrepreneur, Paul Burrows who served with the Royal Signals and the Intelligence Corps for 24 years, the transition has seen him rapidly grow a business that's on track to turn over several million of pounds by 2010.

Electronic Warfare (EW), specialist training and consultancy firm Abacus EW Consultancy has secured orders until 2016 with purchase orders in place worth more than £8m. Abacus EW also aims to add a further five EW specialists to its current workforce of 12 within the next financial year.

The contracts include work for various Far and Middle Eastern customers and the MoD. Europe's second largest defence company, Thales PLC uses Abacus EW as its preferred EW training provider and has many contracts currently in place with Paul's firm to provide operational support for its EW programmes worldwide.

In addition, BAE Systems also relies on Abacus, especially within the Communications EW sphere of operations with the company delivering a wide range of EW courses currently advertised within the BAE EW portfolio.

Working with Business Link, Abacus EW were introduced to the complementary services of UK Trade & Industry (UKTI) and is now in the final stages of setting up lucrative EW training deals with other Far Eastern armed forces as well as several major projects in the Middle East.

EW exploits the electromagnetic spectrum and Abacus EW provides expertise in the exploitation of radar and a multitude of communications systems where the primary objective is gathering signals intelligence.

 

Plan of attack

Now with the help of Business Link, the company has won grant funding of nearly £8,000 to gain key certifications which will give it the added credibility it needs to open up new markets and opportunities.

Paul explained: "It was actually our accounts administrator, Carol Baggley who recommended speaking to Business Link having been so impressed with their services when she set up her own business earlier this year. So I arranged a face to face meeting with one of their advisers to find out how they might be able to help us.

"We're looking for a good portfolio of clients and now feel that the company has the confidence to go directly out to countries in the international EW arena.  Until recently, much of our work was subcontracted from French defence company Thales.

"As a preferred supplier, we service the majority of its radar training and consultancy requirements across the globe and continue to offer a bespoke, specialist service that encompasses our areas of EW expertise."

Paul's company also brings in considerable income to the local economy - over £150,000 in hotel room bookings last year alone during their residential courses held at their unique EW training centre at The Stables, Wellingore Hall.

 

Business Link in action

"With Business Link, it's all about helping you access solutions, so once they were aware that gaining ISO9001 and BS27001 accreditations and List X standing were priorities for our business going forward, they were quick to identify available funding initiatives and support we could tap into," said Paul.

The ISO standards sought by Abacus EW are internationally recognised quality assurance systems relating to business process and information security systems. List X status is awarded to commercial, non-government sites in the UK, approved by the government to hold protectively marked information ranked as 'confidential' or above.

The company, which is wholly owned by Paul and his wife Allison, is also about to complete the development of its own unique radar, electronic warfare and communication EW training databases. Other EW databases are currently being developed including an EW fusion management database.

Abacus EW has already received a lot of interest from companies all over the world keen to buy these databases and has identified that the training databases could be a product that is sold to EW forces worldwide to greatly enhance EW training in an operational environment.

"Business Link has also put us in touch with a network of experts who can advise us on our potential intellectual property rights if we decide to take this suite of products to market - this could be another valuable stream of revenue for us."

 

Working away from home

After leaving the army - his career involved tours of duty in Iraq and Kosovo - Paul worked on information security contracts for the Ministry of Defence as a CLAS consultant and on various EW contracts for Thales in the Middle East.

Abacus EW was born when a two-week electronic warfare contract turned into a two-year ongoing commitment.

"After leaving the forces I wanted to be near my family, but because of the uncertain commitment overseas, I couldn't take them with me. I wanted to spend more time with my family, not less, so I decided to do something about it.

"I finally left the Middle East after two years and was determined to set up my own business where I would have a lot more control over my working life and to bring any potential customers to me.

"Initially, I was offered easy in/easy out terms for one of the largest units in the Stables complex at Wellingore Hall and Allison and I took a gamble on the success of the venture. Since its initial launch, Abacus EW went on to win a sizeable contract for Thales in the UAE, at which point they took on four full-time staff, based out in the Gulf for six years, and four permanent staff for the UK side. Since then we haven't looked back."

The company's EW technical staff are all ex army and ex navy.  All Abacus EW specialists have clocked up impressive careers and were the leading lights in their chosen EW fields and the best within their trade groups.

 

Payback

And with Business Link's support in identifying significant investment in its training and simulation infrastructure and some great business development, Abacus EW has recently begun a partnership with the University of Portsmouth to deliver an MSc in Combined Studies (Electronic Warfare).

It is hoped to transfer this programme to the University of Lincoln during 2009 as MSc in Intelligence Systems (EW) and Abacus EW will become a delivery partner with the University. This liaison with the University of Lincoln, which will establish a more bespoke offering for the MSc, will see this programme run wholly under an Abacus EW banner.

This is aimed initially at the senior warrant officers and officers in the three services, to accredit their military careers.  Paul has done this to give something back to the military and is also receiving great interest in it from around the world.

This would bring extensive commerce to the city, benefiting serving military personnel in Lincolnshire and further afield.

"Although this arrangement gives us prestige, for us it's a lot more about giving something back to the people we've spent most of our working lives with both at home and abroad," added Paul.

Paul and three colleagues are already enrolled on the first pilot Abacus EW MSc course with 26 further students from all over the world signed up to join the programme from February 2009. All course fees can be claimed back via the ELCAS scheme as Abacus EW is a registered ELCAS training provider.

Abacus EW now has a full order book for EW training at the Stables until late into 2010 and with other major contracts on the near horizon, Paul will be actively seeking EW specialists within the communications ESM & radar ESM areas and always welcomes contact from high calibre service personnel due to leave the service on retirement.

Paul Burrow's top tips for developing your business:

• You can't put a value on having good people around you - invest in your staff and you'll reap the rewards
• Treat people how you want to be treated yourself - everyone's an individual
• Talk to Business Link as early as possible - they really do provide access to solutions. If you want to know what grants are available, they have their fingers on the pulse
• Shop around to get value for money and don't commit to anything in a hurry. Cheapest is not always best, but most expensive is no guarantee of quality and or professionalism either - personal recommendations are invaluable
• Don't neglect thorough research and learn to trust your instincts
• Speak to other businesses - no matter what their speciality - business is business and it's amazing how other companies can benefit each other
• Don't view similar companies as competition - but as allies to forge alliances with to take your business forward