Category Archives: work

Posting relating to my work

Edinburgh

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Another week at the bank has been completed.  The highlights of the week were.

The Flybe flight to Edinburgh was cancelled, and we were put on a BA flight, which was meant to leave 15 minutes earlier.  Rather a rush to catch the flight.  In the end we did not arrive in Edinburgh any earlier.  Did have a breakfast though.  Other than the breakfast, the BA flight was not fun.  Long queues at the Check in, which I had to jump, crowded aircraft, it took a long time to get on and off, and we were parked miles away from the terminal.

Yura was in town on Monday.  The result was an expensive meal at Thai Me Up for Ed, Yura and I.  The meal was very nice indeed.  Yura who is the expert on Thai restaurants in Edinburgh was heard to say the food was very good.

Tuesday I ate at the Petit Paris, having my usual pichet of vin rouge.  I ate a prepared crab followed by the fish of the day.  Afterwards I had a couple of pints of beer at the Bow Bar on Victoria Street.  The Bow Bar has a massive whisky collection.  I estimated there were 150 bottles of malt with well over 100 different malts.

Wednesday I took a walk around Arthur’s seat taking a stop at the Sheep’s Heid pub.  This pub is meant to be the oldest pub in Scotland, and resides in the ancient village of Duddingston.  The walk I did was basically along Queens Drive, which is a road used by joggers and cyclists circumnavigating Holyrood Park. The walk was quite a pretty walk, which takes you past a couple of Lochs.

Thursday, Ed, Mary and I had a few beers after work at the Guildford Arms.  When I got back to the hotel it had stopped serving food and did not even do snacks.  Not really very happy about the Mount Royal Ramada Jarvis, it has seen better days.  It is though on Princes Street and does have some actual Scottish staff.  Happy days next week, I will be back in the Apex on Grassmarket.

Friday, I ate a big breakfast to make up for the lack of Supper.  Flight left on time and arrived early into a nice warm Birmingham evening.  Of course no point landing early, the busses are never ready.

Axon Summer Party

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Axon had their summer party at the new (opened June) Splash Landings hotel at Alton Towers.

We drove up there on Saturday and arrived in time for lunch and a pint of beer.  The bar was open for the afternoon, we did not take advantage of this and went off for a swim in the water park. 

This was a pool with flumes which you rode on rubber rings.  The best, and Rosemarys worst, was the one which went uphill, rotated you and sent you through pitch black tunnels.  There were many places by the pool where water was poured on top of you, and you had the bonus of being able to set traps and pour buckets of water over others from platforms.  The childeren really loved this.  There was one place where several thousand gallons of water would be poured down on top of you.  When the bell rang, people would run up and stand and wait for the deluge.

After the swim, a rest and then the evening meal.  This meal was held in the hotel next door,  Alton Towers Hotel.  There was lots to drink, the food though was not up to power.  After the meal there was a limbo dancing.  When this finished the usual 70s 80s disco took over playing Abba.  Why can’t we have some real Rock? We stayed at this until the end and then went back to bed.

Next day breakfast and back home.  Very tired.

The Splash Landings Hotel was themed on West Indies Style.  The roof was all corrugated iron, with wooden walls.  Inside the corrugated iron was painted to make it look like there was rusted iron underneath.  The walls were done to look like they were decaying in the damp and heat.  Of course underneath all this was the standard reinforced concrete.  It was pretty effective, and example of the Tussauds imagination.

The hotel was not very efficient, booking in took along time, there were thousands of staff, but most were hanging around.  I have never seen so many life guards in my life at a pool.  I wonder what it would be like in a years time.

Oh and we never went to the Alton Towers park for the rides.

The weather

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It rained alot today. Raining onto already sodden land. Poor Rosemary had difficulty getting home, The roads across country from the Motor Way to home were closed, or if not closed, were flooded with several feet of water. She did make it back in the end.

Oxford with the Elevon team

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While Karen Yanson was over here from the Elevon Chicago office discussing our implementation of XML, we decided to take a break in the evening and head over to Oxford. A quick tour of the city on foot and then a curry.

Old Walker employees wanted

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Old Walker UK employees past and present had a get together at the Bugle Horn for a drink and a quick meal. Present were Steve Blasdale, John Curd, Peter Willson, Mike Barton, Rosemary Blasdale, Nigel Hudson, Steve Allen, Chris Quarmby, Barbara Wilkie, Stefan Roos. We had a good time recounting the old times.

Anyone else from the old Walker who reads this note and would like to meet up for future meetings, please send me an email, or fill in the visitors book.

Elevon becomes Arelon

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On Friday, when I was watching cricket, the UK side of Elevon (the company I work for) was sold to its managers in a Management Buyout for 16 million US dollars. The money was provided by Alchemy. 

I, Peter Willson, and John Curd were excluded from the deal and continue working for the US parent company of Elevon. Presently we still reside in the offices at the new company Arelon. 

This is the press release.

6th September, 2002 – London, UK – Arelon Ltd., a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the finance, procurement and business intelligence areas, today announced the completion of a Management Buy Out (MBO). The Elevon EMEA management team and Alchemy have successfully concluded discussions with Elevon, Inc. to acquire the Elevon EMEA business.

Having achieved a consistent increase in sales and profitability during the last two years, the management of Elevon EMEA reached an agreement with its corporate executive in San Francisco to seek an investor for the MBO. Alchemy was chosen from several investment organisations because of their desire to help accelerate the company’s growth. Alchemy is the leading UK private equity investor in IT services with investments in Sanderson, Cedar, Datapoint, Radius and Phoenix.

The new company is Arelon Ltd. As part of the agreement, Arelon Ltd. will own the intellectual property of Elevon 5, Business Intelligence, and new development of STEPs specific to the EMEA region. Arelon Ltd. will also have exclusive sales, support, and marketing rights for Elevon 2, Elevon Active Financial Planning, Horizon and existing STEPs. The existing development and support teams for both Elevon 2 and Elevon 5, currently based in the UK, will continue to provide this service from the UK. The “road maps” for the development of all current and future products will be enhanced by this MBO.

“The initial investment in Arelon Ltd. is the first part of a plan to position the company as a major force in the e-business and financials market in the UK. Due diligence shows that Elevon EMEA is a profitable and well-managed organisation and will form the foundation for growth plans,” said Jon Moulton, Managing Partner of Alchemy Partners LLP.

“This MBO is being conducted from a position of strength. During the last 2 years we have seen our EMEA business grow considerably. This growth has been founded on a sound business ethic, and an enthusiasm to deliver effective business solutions to our customers. The benefits of this MBO are multifaceted but, principally, it allows us to react more effectively to our current and future customers. Our successes with Elevon 2 in 2001, expanded into the development and design of the latest STEPs products, which we intend to continue to build upon. We own Elevon 5 and Business Intelligence, which is clearly advantageous to our clients. Our exclusive agreement with Elevon, Inc. for all other solutions also ensures our clients’ investments are protected, and allows us to become more responsive to customer and market trends going forward. These activities all reinforce this MBO decision, and the Board’s commitment to growing the business,” said Roger Llewellyn, Chief Executive Officer, Arelon Ltd.

“The plan for the next three years calls for steady growth in all aspects of the business, while at the same time taking advantage of the skills of our development team. This will allow us to create new and innovative ways of providing our customers with the ROI they need from automating their processes,’ Llewellyn concludes.

The Board of Directors will comprise of Jon Moulton, Managing Partner Alchemy LLP, Roger Llewellyn as Chief Executive Officer, Dean Dickinson as Director Operations, John Day as Director Business Operations, and Bill Strachan as Director Sales.

A detailed description of the MBO and its potential is available from the contact below.

For additional information contact:

Clare Frost
Marketing Manager
Arelon Ltd. 
Tel. 01296 432951
clare.frost@arelon.co.uk 

Bill Strachan
Sales Director
bill.strachan@arelon.co.uk

About Arelon

Arelon Ltd., formerly known as Elevon Ltd, is a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the areas of finance, procurement and business intelligence. Over the last three years Arelon Ltd. has been extremely successful providing e-business solutions to Global 2000 organisations. After working extensively with these leading organisations, Arelon Ltd. has identified the need to deliver collaborative solutions that extend beyond the four walls of the enterprise. Arelon Ltd. is dedicated to building on these successes to continue to provide the market with enterprise-wide solutions, enabling its customers to continually add value back into the business and achieve a high return on investment.

More information about Arelon Ltd. is available by contacting us at clare.frost@arelon.cc.

© 2002 Arelon Ltd. All Rights Reserved.