Small Business, Big Connections
IXC® UK connects Birmingham-based SME with Australian multi-national
When a small, West-Midlands paints and coatings company signed up to IXC UK in search of new applications for its many technologies, it was hard to imagine the service would take its technology more than 10,000 miles to one of the world's largest medical devices companies.
Many of the coatings company's applications were already used by the naval industry because of their ability to withstand the wet, salty and constantly changing temperatures of the marine environment.
So, reasoning that these conditions were pretty similar to those posed by the human body, the intermediary set about finding connections in the medical arena.
Within a matter of weeks, the intermediary had spotted a potentially valuable connection in the medical devices sector via IXC's secure, global network. The company had been seeking an affordable and reliable hermetic seal for a revolutionary in-vivo implant but, until now, had been unsuccessful in this search.
But how biocompatible was the coatings technology? Investigation by the intermediary found that the client company had, some years ago, produced an FDA-approved biocompatible coating for a US-based client but, since the completion of that project, had had neither the know-how, nor the resources, to develop any further business in the rapidly-growing medical technologies sector.
Once biocompatibility was established, IXC UK's intermediary successfully "introduced" the two companies who are now working together towards the imminent launch of the in-vivo device.
Not only does IXC appear to have delivered a significant and wholly unpredicted revenue stream for its micro-business client in the UK, but also found a quick and cost-effective solution to the multi-national's launch headaches. What is absolutely clear is that these two companies' networks would never have coincided without intervention from IXC.
