We don’t rest on our laurels..
Symology was founded in 1983, and established a reputation for innovation, creativity, expertise, and determination.
Over the years we have changed and grown, yet these core principles remain. We are now 100% employee owned, our core principles are galvanised and extended. We are changing in all the right ways.
On this page you can find details of our corporate accreditation – Symology are dedicated to meeting and exceeding any recognised standards appropriate for our business.
You will also find details of recent awards – we look forward to growing this list with our (already) award winning Aurora solution!
Managing Director Mike Bartlett with our Street Works UK Project Of The Year award
Our Accreditations
Symology was originally formed in 1983 as a privately owned company. In 2002 following a number of years of sustainable growth, Symology embarked on the first steps of employee ownership by setting up an Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme, allowing employees to purchase shares in the company. The EMI was massively successful, it enabled a sense of commitment and responsibility, it was also a positive factor for recruitment, retention and development of highly skilled and motivated staff members.
In 2014, the owners and directors looked to secure the long-term independence and integrity of the company, and thus provide the best possible guarantee of protection for customers’ investment. This was achieved with an equity stake into an employee owned trust, with a majority shareholding.
The trust is governed by both elected management and employee representatives, a number of whom also sit on the Board itself. Employee representation on the Board assures us the highest levels of cooperation, transparency, communication and teamwork, which Symology customers have always recognised as central to the provision of our services.
Symology are proud to announce that we have achieved the Good Business Charter Accreditation for our ethics and business practices.
These ten measures are used to recognise and encourage responsible business behaviour and rewards organisations that exhibit such an approach.
As an Employee Owned company we get to choose the kind of organisation we want to be, and being accepted into the Good Business Charter demonstrates that commitment.
The Good Business Charter has the support of both the CBI and the TUC which both have trustee representation on its board. Other partners of the GBC include the Living Wage Foundation and the Prompt Payment Code.
Further to out Good Business Charter accreditation, we are accredited as a Living Wage Employer. Everyone in our employment deserves to receive a Real Living Wage that meets the cost of living.
With the seemingly constant drive towards cloud based solutions, the risk of cyber attacks cannot be ignored. In 2014 the Government launched it’s Cyber Essentials scheme to help organisations protect themselves against these cyber threats and to provide security assurances to their customers.
The scheme offers two types of accreditation, ‘Basic’ and ‘Plus’, with the ‘Plus’ edition offering a higher level of assurance by means of external independent third party testing of an organisation’s approach to cyber security.
Symology are delighted to announce that we have recently been accredited with the Cyber Essentials Plus certification, demonstrating our continued commitment to meeting our customers needs. Click here to download a PDF Certificate, or here to view our certification online.
From Symology’s Infrastructure and Security Manager Malcolm Watson:“Security is such an important area when dealing with customer data and something which we take very seriously. Adding Cyber Essentials Plus to our existing ISO 27001 accreditation demonstrates Symology’s continued commitment to data security.“
Symology operate with a drive for constant improvement, not just across our software, services and solutions, but with everything we do. With our previous ISO27001 accreditation coming to an end, we took a further step with a new UKAS accredited auditing company to put us through our paces.
NQA are a global certification body with over 30 years of experience supporting a wide variety of organisations in over 100 countries around the world. Operating with a philosophy of “Never stop improving”, Symology felt NQA’s beliefs are closely aligned with our own. You can download a PDF for our current certification here.
Symology’s successful certification was confirmed by Malcolm Watson, Infrastructure and Security Manager: “Security is not something that you can just repeat, doing the same things year on year. The challenges and threats that we face are constantly evolving and so we must do everything possible to stay ahead of the curve. At Symology, we felt that adopting an approach of “restarting” rather than “renewing” would give us the most accurate and truest assessment of our current corporate approach to security, and I have to say I’m delighted with the extremely successful results.“
We have registered for ISO 14001 certification, as part of our considerable efforts to reduce our carbon. In fact, we are going further. You can download a PDF for our current certification here.
Aurora itself can help you meet your own zero carbon initiative, see this article for details.
Our Awards
Symology were delighted to be announced as winners of the ArcGIS Adoption award at the 2021 Esri Partner Conference.
In March 2021, Esri UK recognised Symology’s adoption of Esri technologies in Aurora. Symology was selected for the ArcGIS Adoption award from 2,700 organisations worldwide.
Heather Fletcher, Head of Partners and Alliances at Esri UK, commended Symology’s focus on user benefits and efficiencies:
“Symology’s Aurora project is a perfect demonstration of the power of the latest ArcGIS system, enabling our partners to deliver new ways of working. The cloud solution offers the flexibility users demand, while the map-driven user-interface is more intuitive, giving each user a high-end experience, letting them find and record assets and street works faster than before.”
Symology’s Sales & Marketing Manager Stuart Marshall sees the adoption of Esri technologies by Aurora as a key success factor:
“We see Aurora as the future of Highways management in the UK and we’re proud to have been recognised for its total modernisation using Esri’s cloud-based GIS. Creating an improved, future-proofed solution enables us to retain and expand functionality, enhance our user experiences and provide a platform upon which we can grow as a company.”
Symology are delighted to be announced as the winners of the Street Works UK, Project Of The Year award for Aurora becoming the brand new Scottish Road Works Register.
In July 2020, during a global pandemic, Symology implemented a National Street Works solution which saw Aurora adopted for the Scottish Road Works Register. Whilst a contractual requirement, this was the very first implementation of Symology’s Aurora solution and so carried with it significant pressure.
Iain Ross, SRWR Manager for the Scottish Road Works Commissioner, praises the efforts of both Symology and the SRWR users in the smooth implementation.
“The implementation of any new solution necessarily includes a number of unknowns for users, but we knew Symology had previous experience of executing national solutions and their team worked closely with the Office of the Scottish Road Works Commissioner and RAUC(S) representatives to ensure a smooth and successful transition.”
A proud James Smith, one of Symology’s Product Managers heavily involved in the implementation, commented on both the timing and the success of the winning project, with a clear eye on the future of Aurora.
“I am immensely honoured that our Aurora project has been recognised with this award. Aurora for Scotland has been a mammoth collaboration between Symology, the Office of the Scottish Road Works Commissioner, and the whole Scottish road works community. Under the dual pressures of a global pandemic and the launch of a national system in England, I am exceptionally proud that we delivered a comprehensive, feature-rich solution, specifically tailored to Scotland’s needs. I am excited to bring the benefits of Aurora to the rest of the UK.”
