Throughout June, the entire Exponential-e Group will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of Vysiion – three decades of challenges, triumphs, innovation, and more than a few laughs and tears along the way!
Let’s start by going right back to the beginning…
The early days of RFL Communications
Vysiion – then known as RFL Communications, was originally founded in 1996, under the direction of Peter Clapton, Phil Whitehead, and Steve Fabray. Armed with minimal funds and an ambitious business plan, they immediately began punching above their weight, with plenty of late nights and long-distance travel ensuring that the first contracts were the kind of ambitious projects that would typically have been awarded to more established providers, such as:
- Delivering 120 teleprotection devices for the Qatar electricity company, to be deployed across the Ras Laffan gas field (infamous as a consequence of the current USA / Iran conflict).
- Installing a remote access solution across all National Grid’s UK sites.
- Providing a new comms system for the Manchester metro, following a competitive bid process that include some of the UK’s leading communications providers.
The success of these initial projects, secured in the first two years of trading, provided Vysiion with a strong foundation to establish themselves as a serious competitor in a complex field, earning the accreditations needed to undertake even more ambitious projects. All the while, early profits were reinvested into the company and growing the team, with administrator, head of QSHE and compliance, and occasional project manager Jane Lockwood the first to join the business.
Keen to expand beyond teleprotection deployments, Vysiion began broadening its capabilities in the buildup to the millennium, particularly around the design, install, and commission of fibre networks and microwave radio systems for power plant projects across the world, with teams active in Brunei, Brazil, Uruguay, Belize, St Lucia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Poland, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Azerbaijan.
From OT to IT and beyond…
Anticipating the need for increased convergence of IT and OT systems, Vysiion began expanded its service portfolio throughout the 2000s, with a view to serving as a single trusted provider, able to deliver the kind of intelligently integrated platforms that critical services would soon come to depend on. But for the time, networking remained the bedrock of its services, with its teams conducting full network builds for a number of leading energy companies around the world, including ETESA in Panama, NEPCO in Jordan, and ADWEA / TRANSCO in the UAE.
Back in the UK, the business’ first transit van and cable trailer were purchased, with Mark Nichols joining in 2006 to head the installations team and develop its field services capabilities even further, an area in which Vysiion is now regarded as a UK leader and pioneer.
Later, Simon Hoy joined the business in 2008, a key moment in Vysiion’s transition from a pure networking provider to a designer of fully integrated IT / OT systems – followed by Carl Rossall in 2009. Together, they helped drive Vysiion’s increasing prominence in the utilities and renewables sector, not only providing organisations like ENWL and UK Power Networks with resilient, high-performance connectivity, but also providing expert support and guidance around their future digital investments at a time when many in the sector were unsure of the right way forward.
A new beginning: the birth of Vysiion
2015 saw the next critical step in Vysiion’s journey towards providing the UK’s critical industries with truly integrated solutions, bridging the gap between physical and digital systems. To mark this transition, a formal rebranding took place, with the RFL Communications name retired in favour of Vysiion Ltd. and the workforce expanding from 48 to 118.
The acquisition of a local IT company would help further establish its capabilities as a managed service provider, particularly within the public sector. Clair Griffin, who joined the company as a Technical Architect in the same year, played a key role in this evolution, enabling the Operational Delivery team to provision a range of new services in response to the UK energy sector’s evolving IT requirements. Vysiion continues to serve as a trusted technology partner for the sector as a whole, supporting over 80% of the UK’s offshore windfarms.
The following five years were a challenging period for Vysiion, but the teams’ collective drive and the strong foundation that had been established in the preceding years allowed it to continue developing the range of services it offered to public sector organisations, with data centre co-location and ‘smart hands’ services, delivered in partnership with Ark Data Centres – and 24 / 7, ITIL-aligned support incorporated into its service wrap. Gaining the globally recognised ISO27001 accreditation was another key step, allowing Vysiion to confidently deliver some of the most sought-after Government contracts.
This, in turn, helped establish several customer relationships that continue to develop to this day, such as the Ambulance Radio Programme, for which Vysiion centralised numerous critical platforms and delivered a secure, resilient private network, supported by a 24 / 7 service desk – and multiple organisations in the fields of defence and national security, beginning with MOD CySAFA in 2016.
Early successes in this area led to the creation of a dedicated Defence team, which leverages their own experience in the armed forces to tailor Vysiion’s evolving service portfolio to accommodate the most rigorous project requirements around performance, security, and compliance.
Joining the Exponential-e Group… and looking ahead to the future
In 2020, after a long period of deliberation, Vysiion took the next major step in its journey and officially became part of the Exponential-e Group, combining their own unique capabilities with those of Exponential-e and Xpertex. Close collaboration with colleagues from across the Group has further broadened Vysiion’s capabilities, leading to the development of a unique CNI Toolbox, where unique blends of cyber-secured platforms, networks, infrastructure, managed services, and 24 / 7 support can be seamlessly and securely delivered in the most complex, highly regulated environments.
From the boardroom to the field, Vysiion’s staff remain deeply committed to the principle of technology as a force for good across society, working closely with customers and partners alike to not only deliver the necessary technical innovations, but ensure they are deployed in ways that will continue to streamline compliance obligations, maximise service availability, and keep ‘defence-in-depth’ security inherent in the design. It’s already been a long journey, and it’s far from over…
So, here’s to the next thirty years!
In the early years, customers were expanding their networks, delivering new sites, and replacing legacy services and infrastructure. The focus was operational change – ensuring systems continued to operate reliably as requirements evolved.
Over time, I saw the conversation broaden. The operational drivers– including network expansion, asset management, and the delivery of new infrastructure – remain much the same, but the technology landscape has become significantly more complex. As IT and OT become increasingly interconnected, there is a much greater emphasis on resilience, security, and adaptability. I’ve seen this play out directly through both the enhancement and integration of existing operational environments and the delivery of new infrastructure, designed with these expectations in mind. That journey from keeping services running to helping shape more integrated, resilient environments has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my time at Vysiion.
On joining Vysiion in January 2015, it was a standing start for managed service provision in the public sector. From getting on to relevant frameworks for public sector, building cost models, template proposals and collating relevant case studies from RFL and the acquired IT companies. Not to mention getting the Vysiion (how do you pronounce that, what do you mean it has a double “i”?) name out there. The first year was tough and multiple times I thought we wouldn’t make it. Early 2016 the first seeds started with a couple of new contracts won which then gave us the references to keep on growing. Personally, whilst embracing new technology along the way, and going through multiple job roles and titles, the highlights are always working with our customers, getting this recent feedback from a customer “a consistently reliable, pragmatic and helpful individual” sums up how I hope others feel about Vysiion and our approach to delivering excellence to our customers.
Thirteen years ago, I joined a business that had ambition and great potential. Since then, I have been fortunate to grow my career alongside a great team of people, taking on new challenges, developing new skills and I feel I have contributed towards Vysiion’s success, which I’m very proud of. I look forward to the opportunities ahead and continuing to contribute towards another period of growth for the Group.
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