Mark Hunter MP applauds local firm’s employee engagement

MP praises SolutionsPT’s Investors in People and Sunday Times accolades

Mark Hunter MP visited industrial IT specialist SolutionsPT in his Cheadle constituency on Thursday August 30, to help the company celebrate achieving the Investors in People Gold standard.

Mark Hunter MP shaking hands with Phil Gillard, SolutionsPT's general manager

This latest achievement follows the company’s record high entry in The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For list earlier this year. Hunter learned how SolutionsPT uses its focus on employee engagement to recruit and retain high quality staff from within his constituency and beyond.

“Within ten minutes of entering the SolutionsPT building, I’d already seen the Sunday Times Best Companies logo on display in three or four places,” joked Hunter. “In all seriousness though, the company’s pride in this and the Investors in People standard indicates how seriously they take employee engagement.”

Discussing the benefits of ThinClient

During the meeting, Phil Gillard, General Manager of SolutionsPT, explained that balancing the interests of all the stakeholders in the business has been crucial in the company’s growth. Hunter commented, "This is clearly an outstanding firm that has achieved a lot, both for its customers, on behalf of its staff and on behalf of its stakeholders." 

There was also a debate on how emerging technologies, such as the use of social media could be applied in novel ways outside SolutionsPT’s traditional markets.

Gillard explained that there was an emerging need for enabling machines to talk directly to each other and that this could have significant value in areas outside manufacturing processes, where SolutionsPT was historically focussed. The infrastructure in our cities, transport and energy systems could benefit from this kind of technology, becoming more efficient.

Gillard illustrated the theory by referring to technology that could one day see public transport resources routed in accordance with demand. Need could be measured by social media and mobile phone signals, rather than relying purely on timetables.

Mark Hunter MP and the SolutionsPT team

This was clearly of interest to Hunter who was extremely supportive and offered to assist SolutionsPT in forging the relationships that will help the company reach technology thinkers at local, regional and national level, as he would any company asking for help in his constituency.

Mark Hunter is the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, covering Bramhall, Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green, Stepping Hill, Woodford and parts of Hazel Grove. He is also the Liberal Democrat Deputy Chief Whip – making him a Government whip in the Coalition.

Hunter was elected in a by-election, succeeding local favourite Patsy Calton in 2005, and held his seat in 2010 with a majority of 3,272.

Local industrial automation company set to participate in Tatton Flower Show

The SolutionsPT team at Tatton Park

Seven staff from Cheadle based SolutionsPT will be volunteering their time to help create a garden at the Royal Horticultural Society Tatton Flower Show on Thursday, July 14. Entitled Embrace, the garden celebrates the 40th anniversary of St Ann’s Hospice in Manchester and has been designed by up and coming garden designer Sharon Hockenhull. 

Embrace aims to capture the unique personality of one of the oldest hospices in the country. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, St Ann's Hospice is well-known for its unique approach to patient care. The Hospice helps around 3,000 patients affected by cancer and non-cancer life limiting illnesses every year.

The garden evokes the idea of a physical, emotional and spiritual embrace. The core idea of the piece is a vibrant sense of life that envelops people with positive, therapeutic experiences. In 2009 Hockenhull entered the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park, in Cheshire with Be Fruitful, a creation which was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal.

Phil Gillard, SolutionsPT’s General Manager reflected on the project: “I believe that Hockenhull’s Embrace concept achieves the objective of remembering the great work done at St Anne’s hospice and would hope that the display has a real chance of doing well in the competition. We are very pleased to take part in such a creative venture.”

The SolutionsPT team members who will be attending the show are Pat Cooper, Lesley Dickson, General Manager Phil Gillard, Kay Kinvig, Janet Legg, Neil Pearce and Jill White as well as Tracey Pearce, the partner of Neil Pearce. SolutionsPT was recently named one of the Sunday Times’ Best 100 Companies to Work For.

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Editor’s note: If you want to stay constantly up to date on the latest news from Solutions PT, Wonderware, HardwarePT, EmsPT and Versiondog, you can subscribe to their press Blog here: http://www.solutionspt-pr.blogspot.com/.

For further information contact:
Margaret Lunn, Marketing and e-Commerce Manager, SolutionsPT Ltd,
Unit 1 Oakfield Road, Cheadle Royal Business Park, Cheadle, SK8 3GX
Telephone: +44 (0) 161 495 4600
Fax: +44 (0) 161 495 4690
www: http://www.solutionspt.com
e-mail: margaret.lunn@solutionspt.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SolutionsPT

Press enquiries: Richard Stone or Oana Baetica
Business Innovation Centre, Staffordshire Technology Park,
Beaconside, Stafford, Staffordshire, ST18 0AR
Telephone: +44 (0) 1785 225416
e-mail: richards@stonejunction.co.uk or oana@stonejunction.co.uk
www: www.stonejunction.co.uk
Blog: www.stone-junction.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/richiestone
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/technicalpragency
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/technicalPR

About SolutionsPT: SolutionsPT has over 25 years experience in industrial automation and has developed strong partnerships in the manufacturing community during that time. The company operates through three independent but interlocking brands SoftwarePT, HardwarePT and EmsPT. The software division comprises the brands ‘Wonderware United Kingdom’, ‘Wonderware Ireland’ and Versiondog. The hardware division offers a comprehensive range of industrial hardware and connectivity tools whilst EmsPT has over 20 years of proven and recognised experience in the delivery of manufacturing execution systems and continuous improvement programmes.

Ref: SPT033/07/2011