Orca Scan settling in nicely at Guildhall business centre

With the new business hub operated by Allia Future Business Centres already up and running for three months, tenants have been speaking of the pleasures of working in the heart of this historic city.

For Orca Scan, the experience is a delight, all the more so since the barcode scanning technology company has bounced around various other locations before settling for this new interface between the local community and the globally renowned technology and life sciences hub Cambridge accommodates.

“We were fully remote at home in Cambridge when we started off,” John says of the journey to Guildhall. “Then we were at the Bradfield Centre for a while, then we went to WeWork – and then it was lockdown.

“We’re more accessible here than we were at the Bradfield and WeWork, it’s much more convenient here, visitors love it because they can visit the city and do some shopping. When you think of Cambridge, you think of King’s College, the Cam, the market – not the train station or science park.

“What’s unique about Allia Guildhall is that it’s all within walking distance. As a remote-first company, that was a key selling point. If we’re going to bring our creative team together to brainstorm, it must be somewhere inspirational.”

John has assembled a team of 18, of whom “five or six” regularly work in Guildhall, where Orca Scan has a main office and a meeting room.

The entire team is connected by SpatialChat – a collaborative online workspace – during working hours.

“We do meet up though,” notes founder and CEO John. “If we have a get-together or key meeting they might come over from wherever they’re based in the US, Spain, London, Portugal…”

“And Saudi Arabia,” adds marketing manager Abby Dickinson, who’s watching/listening to the chat from her home in Dorset.

Orca Scan began in 2016 when John Doherty developed a barcode reader for his son Owen.

“I was a software developer for Cambridge Assessment at the time, I developed rapid prototypes,” he says. “I wrote the barcode reader overnight in Swift, it turned your phone into a barcode reader and sends emails automatically.”

The principle has been scaled up and the system is now tracking 50m objects globally per month, from car parts to medication, and has 270k worldwide users: the software is free for a single user, the payment model kicks in when you want to link all the phones together.

Orca Scan has developed its own spreadsheet for the data it harvests, and there’s now a zoom facility so you don’t have to go up to the barcode to scan it, your phone will identify it from 2m away. The result is that a customer like Lime Scooters can look at its inventory in real time at all its 130 warehouses across the world: Tesla, another customer, does something similar.

The company, which is profitable with minimal external funding, has a classic Cambridge pedigree, joining Accelerate Cambridge two years ago to help renose the business model.

Luther Phillips, Accelerate Cambridge’s programme manager, is full of praise.

“Orca Scan is a perfect example of why the Accelerate Cambridge programme is such a success,” Luther says. “With the support of the programme, John and team have taken an idea, grown it, created impact, and are now scaling at a phenomenal rate.

“I am very thankful to him, because he also gives back to the ecosystem, by welcoming each new cohort with his empowering story.”

John has developed all sorts of collaborative and exchange opportunities: the Guildhall office has three of Flit’s awesome fold-up bikes to one side, and John cycles in each day.

“It’s nice to store the bikes in the office, Allia agreed we could do that,” he said, adding that “we have three branded bikes from Flit for visitors to get around town”.

Alex Murray, managing director & co-founder, FLIT (Cambridge), said: “By working with other local companies we can not only provide training on how to use the bikes and handle their maintenance, we also get to support the awesome work that the Cambridge start-up community does every day.”

I’m offered coffee and it’s labelled ‘Orca Scan’. It turns out Masteroast Coffee Company, an independently owned coffee importer, roaster and packer base in Peterborough, is a customer, and sent over some Orca Scan branded coffee as a gift. Here’s what Orca Scan software does for them....

“Initially they booked an online demo,” John says of the client. “Most users find us via the app store when they’re searching for a solution to barcode tracking, and they contact us if they need support – we have really good SEO on our website.”

Tim Hill, Orca Scan partnership manager, adds: “They’re a big organisation, with 130 people. In fact one in seven cups of coffee drunk daily in the UK outside their home uses coffee that has come out of that facility. Orca Scan gives them complete visibility of everything from arrival to exit – from the moment the coffee arrives in the Peterborough premises it’s tracked, right through to when it’s delivered to customers, and at the point of exit the software automatically triggers invoices, which has massively helped their cash flow.”

“We’ve improved their daily cash flow by £100k by speeding up the invoicing process,” confirms John.

It’s all about being joined up, and Orca Scan likes extending the dots to the community on its doorstep.

“Everyone loves it here,” John says, adding: “It also helps that heating bills are all included in the charge – it’s a coil heating system in the ceiling, and it’s one fixed price for rent and no service charges or electricity bills.”

“The centre has a new lease of life,” says Laura Rose, head of marketing and communications at Allia. “In addition to private offices, the centre offers co-working where from just one day a week you can work in a communal area, which is currently running a winter offer with a discounted fee of £60 a month for one day a week, to £220 for four or more days with a dedicated desk.

“There are a range of meeting rooms available for external bookings.”