Tyneside technology consultancy Opencast has marked 10 years in business by launching a drive to create more than 200 jobs, opening three city hubs and expanding into a new head office.
Opencast Software was founded in 2012 when Mike O’Brien left his job with a global digital business to set up Opencast at Hoults Yard in Byker with Charlie Hoult, armed with just a laptop and a phone.
Mr O’Brien and Mr Hoult had met at the gates of the school where their respective twins attended, and set out on a mission to create a new way of doing technology consulting.
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The entrepreneurs, who remain co-chairs of the company, launched the firm without venture funding and grew it entirely on revenues from consulting work.
Today the company has more than 260 employees and aims to employ close to 500 people by the end of 2022 to meet a sharp rise in demand for its services across Government and business.
And the pair are planning for the next decade with a move into a new office designed for hybrid ways of working post pandemic, as well as opening new city hubs in London, Leeds and Edinburgh.
Mr O’Brien said: “Charlie and I started the Opencast business in 2012 with a mission to challenge the traditional consulting model by putting people at the heart of all our thinking. From start-up through to today’s rapid growth, we have lived and breathed that mission. We’re confident that the plans we have in place put us in a good position for the decade ahead of us.”
Like other businesses operating during the pandemic, Opencast has had to adapt to new ways of working, with its entire team moving to working remotely from home following lockdown in March 2020. Lockdown meant the closure of its offices, and those of its clients. It has also led to a more nationwide Opencast team, with around a third of its people based outside the region.
Following the end of lockdown, Opencast has created a new flexible, hybrid policy, giving people the option to choose where they work based on what is best for the work they and their team need to do – whether that is at home, a hub, the head office, or on the client’s site.
Coinciding with its 10th anniversary, Opencast will move into its new hybrid headquarters in Hoults Yard, yards from its old offices.
The new space has improved technology, more sustainable energy consumption, a mobile app for desk and room booking, plus meeting and events spaces allowing people to get together, collaborate and host social events for Opencast communities.
This month also sees Opencast open the city hubs in London, Leeds and Edinburgh in buildings operated by Spaces, part of the Regus group, giving Opencast staff the option to work from the new bases 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Spaces partnership means that Opencast people will be able to work out of 48 other Spaces locations across the UK too.
The company marked its 10 years in business with a special staff conference and party last week.
