The end of the year always presents a good opportunity to reflect on what has happened in the past twelve months and consider the upcoming new year – looking at both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
In many ways, 2024 has been a transformative year with some very positive groundwork being done for future growth. At SCT, we made some great progress in building our teams and developing the technology and analysis that delivers value across multiple industry sectors. We added some first-class software engineering expertise to our embedded software systems team and have enhanced the data analytics that help customers better understand their assets.
A year on the railways
We can confidently say that this year was one of milestones and challenges for the UK’s rail infrastructure. March marked the start of the latest Control Period (CP). Network Rail’s control periods establish the investment priorities and activities for the coming five-year planning and funding cycle. CP7 spans 2024 to 2029 and applies the £44 billion funding package to improve rail reliability, sustainability, passenger experience, and importantly the health and safety of the workforce.
Encouragingly, from our perspective, it features the need for investment in technology to remotely monitor the condition of infrastructure assets, reducing the time that track maintenance engineers spend on track. Unassisted lookout working has already been reduced by 98% according to the England & Wales Strategic CP 7 overview. Network Rail’s extensive use of SWiX is having a positive impact on these statistics.
The UK has long been a proving ground for our end-to-end industrial IoT solutions. The rail network in the UK is held up as a standard for other countries’ railway operations, particularly those facing the challenges of an ageing rail infrastructure. These are more likely to need our solutions than ever.
2024 was a busy year for our international ambitions. We forged new partnerships in several countries and have enjoyed encouraging conversations with the contacts we made at industry events and key trade shows in Germany and the Middle East. Closer to home, we exhibited at Rail Live and participated in the Railway Industry Association (RIA)’s Annual Conference. At both events there was a great deal of interest in our IIoT remote monitoring solutions and we made some very good contacts with National Rail and Tier 1 suppliers.
Branching out
While SCT is particularly strong in providing remote asset monitoring tools and analysis for rail industries around the world, we have been busy across many other areas. 2024 has been an interesting year for us in the mining and renewable energy generation sectors. With the increasing focus on sustainability and climate change, we expect to see far more interest in the strength of our products like Smart Washer in protecting assets such as wind turbines.
Fingers crossed for Eurostars success
In September we entered the Eureka Eurostars call for projects. Eurostars is part of the European partnership on Innovative SMEs and is open to some countries outside of the EU, including the UK. It is the largest international funding programme for SMEs that want to collaborate on R&D projects to create innovative products, processes or services. We are excited to be applying to take part and join the ever-growing international network of SMEs, universities and research centres. We will keep you posted on progress.
We cannot stress too highly how our focus on the importance of R&D in SCT is a leading factor in the development of our business and our contribution to modern industry. We look forward to sharing more on this initiative in coming months.
On the horizon
As 2024 draws to an end, what is on the horizon for 2025? One of the most notable things to celebrate is the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. Railway 200 promises a host of activities and opportunities to celebrate the past present and future of rail.
Without giving too much away, 2025 looks promising for SCT. We’re looking forward to joining in the Railway 200 celebrations with some exciting announcements of our own about new products designed to meet new industry challenges.
We will be entering new markets and enhancing our teams further by hiring talented new people from across a range of diverse backgrounds, because we know that this gives us a far broader spectrum of ideas to draw on.
There’s a lot to do in 2025 to build on the hard work we have invested in 2024. But, in the meantime, we wish you a peaceful and restful break. Let’s recharge the batteries and get ready to do it all again next year.
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