Showcasing the ‘Magic of Tech’, the 2023 ScotlandIS Digital Technology Awards are just around the corner, being hosted at the Radisson Blu in Glasgow on May 18.

Speaking about the event, ScotlandIS CEO Karen Meechan, said: “Our Digital Technology Awards have now been running for 13 years and are established within our sector as a joyful celebration of the tech industry that honours some of the incredible successes and innovation that Scotland harvests.

“It’s been brilliant to see the continued growth of previous winners, and the significance of being recognised for their achievements is evident as many return to apply for the awards year on year. ScotlandIS aims to foster this talented community and we are delighted to host them in Glasgow once more in 2023 to showcase the best and brightest.”

To celebrate the upcoming awards, we caught up with seven of last year’s winners to see how the last year has been since winning their awards.

iOpt (Award: Public Sector Innovation)

“I can’t quite believe it’s only been 1 year since iOpt were the winners of the Public Sector Innovation award at the 2022 Digital Technology Awards. The amount of change we have seen as a business and in our sector has been astonishing, never mind what we have achieved as a small but expanding business.

“In numbers alone we have grown from 4 to 9 staff, from 2,500 sensors deployed to 15,000+ (and circa 500M data points a year), and from 18 customers to over 35, literally from Cornwall to Shetland and the breadth of the UK.

“In financial numbers that all means our turnover for the last financial year was 6X the year before. We have a long way to go but it’s all steps in the right direction.

“Whilst a lot of our growth has been driven by our market, we have also benefitted hugely from being part of the business eco-system in Scotland — and for that we are very grateful and confident of the future.”

Dane Ralston, Director, iOpt Limited

Farrpoint (Award: Data Trailblazer)

“Since winning the ‘Data Trailblazer’ award for our mobile mapping solution, we have conducted several more coverage checking projects across England, Scotland, Wales and Canada.

“We drove over 10,000 miles validating the mobile signals in these areas just last year, helping local authorities and governments to better understand where investment might be needed to improve connectivity services for their residents and businesses.

“To take our collected data to another level, we also matched it with EV charging point locations, publishing further research and raising awareness about the importance of connectivity for EV charging. Only 67% of EV charging locations we surveyed had mobile signal from all four operators.

“FarrPoint’s data team continues to innovate, and we’re very pleased to be shortlisted for the Product/Service Innovation award this year for another data-driven solution. This time we looked at how Internet of Things (IoT) technology can help preserve Scottish peatlands, which are key to the UK reaching its ambitious net-zero targets.”

Kristina Vard, Head of Marketing, Farrpoint

Fyne Labs (Award: Open-Source Contribution)

“What a busy year it has been since the last Digital Tech Awards! It was fantastic to have been recognised for our contributions to Open Source, and the event was an excellent opportunity to bring the team together (for the first time, since we work remote-first).

“Having been spurred on by the award we doubled down on open source contributions, ensuring that all our client development contracts are released as open source software.

“Thanks to the ScotlandIS network and their publicity of the event we were able to grow our client base faster than ever. With the industry awards on our achievements list we were able to expand into the American market as well. Overall it’s been an exciting year – but keep an eye out for product announcements later this year!”

Andrew Williams, CEO, Fyne Labs. 

xDesign (Award: Digital Tech Business of the Year – Enterprise)

“Since last year’s Award event, it’s been a year of continuing momentum and growth for xDesign. Not only have we expanded our UK footprint to include a larger Leeds office, we’ve also bolstered our numbers with hires among our technical and senior leadership teams – taking us to around 450 people in total.

“The recent joining together of xDesign and CreateFuture has also been a particular highlight, meaning we’re able to boost our reputation for high-quality end-to-end digital delivery.

“It’s also been a year where the company has been able to help nurture the communities it works in and serves.

“For instance, our recent Leeds Unleashed event saw us taking direct action when it comes to the future of digital skills by giving young people the opportunity to go behind the scenes of some of Leeds’ tech and tech-enabled businesses.

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“Coupled with the launch of our own internship and graduate programmes, we’ve been able to give more young people and career changers the opportunity to experience what it’s like to work for a truly people-first technology company – all vitally important for our future growth.”

Darren Dalrymple, Head of Scotland, xDesign

QueryClick (Award: Product/Service Innovation)

“We were absolutely delighted to win ScotlandIS’s Product Innovation Award at last year’s Digital Tech Awards.

“Since our award win, we’ve been working hard to continue innovating the marketing measurement space with our attribution tool, Corvidae. Some key developments include improved session stitching accuracy, implementing Offline stitching, as well as adding a new suite of reports and frontend.

“We’ve made it even easier for marketers to get actionable insights from their analytics reporting.

“Corvidae continues to be recognised for its unique approach to attribution across the industry. Later in the year, we also won Masterclassing’s Effective Digital Marketing Award for Most Effective Attribution Solution for the second year running.”

loveelectric (Award: Digital Tech Business of the Year – Start-up)

loveelectric has had a huge year since winning ScotlandIS’ Start-up Business of the Year 2022!

Since last year’s awards, loveelectric has gone from strength to strength as we scale our electric car salary sacrifice benefit. Over 650 businesses have joined our EV revolution, offering their employees an accessible and affordable route to driving electric. Together, we’re accelerating EV uptake and racing towards our collective goal to reach the UK’s net zero targets.

Along the way, we’ve hit some major milestones. We launched our first TV and radio campaign, reaching new audiences across Scotland.

We doubled our team in the past 12 months, building our in-house client support and EV expertise. With renewed vision and wider expertise, we’ve made massive new developments, including introducing a nearly new electric car marketplace to give our customers complete peace of mind, company portals to make administering our employee benefit a breeze, and a delivery tracker so employees know when their EV will arrive.

Steve Tigar, loveelectric CEO & Founder.