how essensys is helping foster innovation at the UK’s largest life science incubation hub

Established in 2002, BioCity was one of the first (and now the largest) Bioscience incubators offering stateof-the-art laboratories alongside commercial office space to support both early stage and established companies in the life sciences sector. A former MSD research facility, BioCity Glasgow is a 20-acre biotech incubator and is nestled amongst landscaped gardens where companies based at the site are able to enjoy benefits often considered only available within high-end coworking environments. BioCity’s occupiers have access to a stylish coffeehouse and restaurant ‘Nowhere’, air hockey, pool tables, a gym, and numerous cozy breakout spaces, offering a place for collaboration between companies and helping BioCity’s brand stand out in a competitive time for the industry.

BioCity is providing state-of-the-art working and innovation spaces to pioneering start-ups and established businesses alike, from all areas of the life science industry. They offer a range of flexible leases for collaborative workspaces as well as laboratories equipped with the highest technical specifications.

adapting for innovation

With the sector becoming increasingly competitive and science park members able to choose from a wealth of locations, the industry is adapting to ensure that operators are able to offer a wide range of needs for a diverse set of occupiers. Mission-critical software that underpins a dynamic flex-space, innovation hub or science park operation ensures that providers can offer an environment where startups and large business alike are empowered to drive innovation.

With two BioCity sites already powered by Connect, essensys’s software-enabled infrastructure platform, the incubation hub is scaling their portfolio further with the essensys partnership. Connect software will power BioCity’s Glasgow site, providing, automation, security, resilience, and equal levels of performance to deliver an excellent member experience to their occupiers.

BioCity, like the growing number of operators that form part of the essensys network, are leveraging essensys technology to drive revenue and reduce churn with Connect’s powerful insight engine and self-service capabilities.

“Connect by essensys has been integrated seamlessly, is simple to manage, and ensures that our members are able to focus on innovation and their businesses while receiving the best in class performance.”

streamlined automation

Offering a combination of flexible workspace services and dedicated working and laboratory spaces, BioCity needed to safeguard against the difficulties of onboarding new customers and provisioning services. Since implementing the Connect platform, BioCity has been able to spend less time running in and out of and maintaining their comms rooms. With Connect, setting up new customers and delivering services can be done with a few clicks of a mouse, allowing them to dedicate more time fostering customer relationships and growing their business. With Connect, ensuring that members are consistently receiving best-in-class services from day one is easy.

The time being saved by BioCity thanks to the 100% purpose-built solution is being further complimented thanks to the enhanced automation tools within Connect. Its proprietary software is turning what was previously frequently occurring headaches such as service delivery into a seamless and pain-free process.

marketplace: fostering innovation

Having seen the benefits of Connect’s on-demand marketplace at their Nottingham sites, BioCity were keen to deliver the same level of flexibility and services to the Glasgow campus and its members. With expectations becoming increasingly demanding, the Connect marketplace allowed BioCity to deliver the services their members require all from a single platform on-demand and in real time. With members requiring a large number of internet ports and phones, Connect is able to deliver these services seamlessly through automation.

With Connect’s state of the art bandwidth manager, BioCity have been able to segment their internet connection into multiple packages and are able to deliver and upsell different speeds based on occupier requirements.

Meeting member needs is paramount to fostering the ideal environment for innovation. Connect’s growing marketplace of products and services combined with award-winning automation and simplified onboarding process have aided BioCity to provide their members with the perfect user experience. Leveraging Connect’s smart technology keeps BioCity competitive in being able to offer tailored services to the varying needs of their occupiers.

“essensys has provided us with a faster, secure and resilient service enabling us to focus on growing BioCity with peace of mind.”

industry defining migration

BioCity had been operating with a technology solution that failed to meet the expectations of both their staff and members. Migrating to Connect’s softwareenabled infrastructure required a large-scale tech migration of BioCity’s existing services, software, technology and databases. This was enacted seamlessly resulting in optimum levels of uptime and BioCity were able to conduct business as usual and still provide their members with an excellent experience throughout the large-scale project rollout.

The completed migration saw the entirety of BioCity Glasgow’s legacy hardware and equipment modernised, including new switches, wireless access points, gigabit capable connection speeds, secure and always on Wi-Fi, enterprise grade resilience, private cloud servers, and more delivered with ease.

complex technology simplified

Unlike their previous technology solution, managing a range of member requirements across the vast 20- acre campus became simple with Connect software. For the BioCity staff utilizing the software to enable the site and its members, the new platform was easy to pick up, learn and control – even for non-technical users. The purpose-built, web-based solution by essensys allows the BioCity team to easily onboard, manage and automate services with ease and even control complex tools such as bandwidth managers with just a tablet while walking across the campus.

With Connect powering all but one of BioCity’s locations across the country, members traveling between sites enabling members to utilise BioCity’s portfolio and collaborate across the nation when needed.

New features and additions to the Connect platform have been easy to pick up and easy to learn, meaning that any of the BioCity team are able to jump in and help deliver the services their members need with minimal knowledge of technology, ensuring that members receive an excellent service while greatly reducing member churn.

resilience for innovation

The Connect platform is underpinned by the essensysCloud, the only completely private cloud network purpose-built for this sector. Because network reliability and security are imperative factors for science park occupiers, BioCity was compelled to join the essensys network. The enterprise-grade resilient infrastructure built by essensys has improved member experience, simplified multisite operations, and has enabled BioCity to run their science park business while delivering on the needs and expectations of their members.

The essensysCloud also provides BioCity with an automatic second backup connection, which ensures that members are always connected with consistently reliable Wi-Fi and telephony services, ensuring zero disruptions to their work. Thanks to industry-leading resilience of the essensysCloud, BioCity can ensure that strict security requirements are in place to meet the varying range of compliance levels required by their members.

connected and future-proof

Science parks, innovation centres and incubator hubs within the United Kingdom are facing an unpredictable and potentially turbulent few years due to the geopolitical landscape. The importance of ensuring that sites are future-proofed with secure, reliable and powerful technology to complement their spaces is quickly becoming paramount.

The ambitious large-scale migration to Connect has enabled BioCity Glasgow to not only provide their existing members with an excellent service but has also prepared the site for a wide range of evolving member needs. With the success of Connect at BioCity’s Nottingham sites, this purpose-built solution has removed the complexities surrounding science park and innovation centre technology at their Glasgow site. BioCity is leveraging essensys technology to grow and scale their operation efficiently, securely and with confidence.