Our August Company of the Month, Vitabyte Software, formerly Wolffsohn Research, is a cutting edge software development agency specialising in tailored digital solutions for the health and life science sector. Founded in 2019 through a collaboration between Professor James Wolffsohn and Dr. Alec Kingsnorth, the company emerged from James’s challenges in sourcing reliable software development partners for his scientific research. Alec, who holds a PhD in instrumentation and specialises in software development, was the perfect collaborator to bring these ideas to life. Over the past five years, Vitabyte Software has organically grown, expanding its offerings and establishing itself as a leader in providing specialised services to health and life sciences companies.
Mark Natriss is the Chief Operation Manager and said: “In my role at Vitabyte Software, I act as a bridge between our customers and our engineering team. My work begins with meeting clients to gain an understanding of their needs and the challenges they face. With a clear grasp of their problems, I collaborate with them to design a customised software solution tailored to their specific requirements. I find that digital mock-ups are particularly valuable in this process – a picture really does paint a thousand words, helping everyone to visualise the final product. Once the solution is defined, I translate it into detailed instructions and specifications for our engineering team, ensuring that the final product aligns perfectly with our clients’ expectations and helps improve their efficiency and outcomes.
“Northern Ireland has been an excellent base for Vitabyte Software. Organisations like HIRANI and Catalyst have fostered a supportive environment for the health and life sciences sector. The location offers strategic access to both Great Britain and Republic of Ireland markets, facilitating close interactions with our clients. Furthermore, the presence of two outstanding universities has been beneficial, especially our collaboration with Ulster University in commercialising some of their Myopia research.”
Vitabyte specialises in custom software development and data visualisation tailored to the health and life sciences sectors. Recently, they have expanded their offerings to include digital automation services.
“For instance, we partnered with Belfast-based Antigenesis Biologics, which specialises in designing custom antibodies and antigens as well as services like antibody discovery and therapeutic development,” said Mark.
During an automation assessment for Antigenesis, Vitabyte identified a critical issue: their highly skilled team members were spending considerable time on manual, labour-intensive tasks, which not only introduced potential risks for errors but also underutilised their expertise. By automating the data movement between systems, Vitabyte significantly reduced the risk of error, allowing their team to work more efficiently and concentrate on delivering greater value to their customers.
“Vitabyte create tailored solutions that directly address the complex challenges in the health and life science sectors, allowing our clients to become more operationally efficient. Our innovation lies in our unique team composition – every member, from customer service to our developers, has a background in science or engineering. This shared technical language facilitates smoother communication and more efficient project execution. For our customers, this combination of experience and innovation, means faster delivery times, fewer design changes, and solutions that are precisely aligned with their technical and scientific needs.
“We are keenly aware of the importance of efficient workflows in life sciences. Manual processes can be time-consuming and error-prone, whereas digital automation can revolutionise operations, reducing processing times by up to 75% and errors by as much as 30%. For the remainder of 2024, we are offering a complimentary digital automation assessment to life science companies based here in Northern Ireland. The aim is to help companies identify processes where digital automation opportunities exist and understand the likely savings that could be gained by doing so. Vitabyte’s goal is to help potential clients explore the power of digital automation and how it can improve their work flow and operational efficiency, without being a drain on their existing resources.
“To illustrate our services, let me share an example of a client who faced an overly complicated data workflow. Initially, the data was exported from one system and then emailed to the manufacturing team. From there, it embarked on a long journey through the office, starting first with operations. Here, an employee spent over four hours each week manually entering the data into various spreadsheets. These spreadsheets then made their way through several other departments, including accounting and marketing, before finally landing in management’s hands. Each department made their own adjustments, creating a tangled dataset that, unsurprisingly, led to inconsistencies.
When we were first brought in to analyse the data, we quickly noticed that a few things didn’t quite add up. It was like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with mismatched pieces. A brief investigation revealed that the data had taken a significantly more scenic route than necessary, filled with unnecessary detours and sightseeing stops. We proposed a more direct approach: automate the entire process and give the data a first-class ticket straight from the system to the relevant spreadsheets.
Now, the data flows directly from the system into the relevant Excel documents, accessible to everyone, without the manual entry. This automation has saved our client over 200 hours annually in manual data entry and reduced errors by 30%. Our client’s teams are thrilled – they have more time, fewer headaches, and they’ve even managed to cancel their subscription to “Spreadsheet Drama Weekly.” Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to identify the simple solutions!”
You can find out more on vitabyte.co.uk and on LinkedIn and anyone interested in booking in a complementary automation assessment should contact Mark at Automate@vitabyte.co.uk
