16 August 2016

Costain’s acquisition of Simulation Systems Limited (SSL), the integrated intelligent detection, monitoring and technology management solutions business, is already starting to bear fruit for customers.

The acquisition of SSL complements Costain’s ‘Engineering Tomorrow’ strategy, the Company’s commitment to identifying, developing and implementing innovative solutions to meet the UK’s major national infrastructure needs.

Like Costain, SSL has an established blue-chip customer base which includes Highways England, Transport for London, the Scottish and Welsh governments and a number of local authorities. These are all customers that require intelligent infrastructure solutions that enable them to deliver smarter and more efficient services – whether in energy, water or transportation sectors. But in order to deliver smarter, more efficient services, organisations need to harness innovative digital technology.

Louis Thompson, SSL’s Managing Director, has been appointed as Director of Digital Technology and has met with a number of key customers responsible for the UK’s national Nuclear, Water and Highways assets, who are no strangers to digital and technological innovation.

“Most of our customers are already familiar with digital technologies for specific solutions, but in order to maximise the benefit, we need to combine our end-to-end technology and engineering capabilities, bringing it all together to provide better value and enhanced customer service,” said Louis.

Simon Ellison, Highways Sector Director and SSL Integration Director, added: “Digital technology is a vital enabler to meeting the rapidly changing demands of our customers. They need to be able to make informed decisions based on accurate data that tells them how their assets are being used. And they need a range of digital tools in order to use those assets in the smartest way they can – from something as simple as smart metering in the water or energy sectors to entire stretches of smart motorway and integrated journey planning systems.”

For example, tunnels are potentially the most high risk part of the road network, requiring constant monitoring for air quality, smoke/fire detection, flood and sump level sensors, loop or video based detection of vehicles, video based detection of animals and pedestrians. SSL provides Highways control systems and solutions in this area, from initial design through to manufacture and maintenance.

Through SSL, Costain can now offer comprehensive technology services that include advice and design, software applications, hardware solutions and complex integration services, together with full installation and aftercare support. With SSL’s unique offering, Costain is already engaged in a number of tenders.

“We are already seeing excellent engagement across the group as well as with our key customers, and we are already seeing opportunities taking shape with over £500million of tenders being progressed,” said Simon.

Simon added: “The acquisition of SSL is a massive milestone for Costain in terms of growing our technology capability and accelerating the transformation to being a fully integrated end-to-end engineering and technology solution provider. More crucially, we also have 150 years of civil engineering knowledge and experience to support technological implementation.”

Caption: A CCTV camera board being assembled and tested at the Costain Integrated Technology Solutions facility in Yatton near Bristol

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