INDEPENDENT technology consultancy Opencast is ten years old – and is planning for the next decade with a move into a new HQ designed for hybrid ways of working post pandemic, as well as opening three new city hubs – in London, Leeds and Edinburgh.

Mike O’Brien and Charlie Hoult, who remain co-chairs of the company, bootstrapped the new business without venture funding and grew it entirely on revenues from consulting work. Today the company is over 260 strong and aims to employ close to 500 people by the end of 2022 to meet a sharp rise in demand for its services across government and business.

Read more: Newcastle's Opencast to treble in size after HMRC contract

Welcoming the 10th anniversary landmark, Mike said: “Charlie and I started the Opencast business in 2012 with a mission to challenge the traditional consulting model by putting people at the heart of all our thinking. From start-up through to today’s rapid growth, we have lived and breathed that mission. We’re confident that the plans we have in place put us in a good position for the decade ahead of us.”

Like other businesses operating during the pandemic, Opencast has had to adapt to new ways of working, with its entire team moving to working remotely from home following lockdown in March 2020. Lockdown meant the closure of its offices, and those of its clients, with the delivery of work by people dispersed across the UK.

Lockdown has also led to the emergence of a much more nationwide Opencast team, as new people joining the business no longer need to work from its headquarters in Newcastle. Today around a third of the people working for the business are based outside of the North East.

Explaining the new approach, Opencast chief people officer Cate Kalson said: “At Opencast the empowerment lies with our people to make hybrid working work in practice. Hybrid working for us is not about being in the office between certain hours or set days. It’s about our people being at the right place at the right time, to deliver their work, with their clients and their team.

“We’ll be working hard in the coming months to ensure that we listen to our people, and also our clients, about how the new arrangements work as well as they possibly can – maintaining maximum flexibility throughout.”

Coinciding with its 10th anniversary, this month Opencast completes its move into a new hybrid headquarters in Hoults Yard, Byker – just yards away from its old offices.

The new space has been designed after extensive consultation with the whole Opencast team. It offers improved technology, more sustainable energy consumption, a mobile app for desk and room booking, and meeting and events spaces allowing people to get together, collaborate across hybrid teams and host social events for Opencast communities and broader networks.

In addition to the opening of its new HQ, in April Opencast is building its national presence with the opening of three new city hubs – in London, Leeds and Edinburgh. All three hubs are located in buildings operated by Spaces, part of the Regus group.

The new hubs offer Opencast people living in or near those locations – as well as anyone from its team visiting and needing a place to work – the option to work from those spaces, with access 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The company has existing communities in each of these locations and is actively growing its teams located in these regions.

 

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow our dedicated County Durham Facebook page for all the latest in the area by clicking here.

For all the top news updates from right across the region straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on newsdesk@nne.co.uk or contact 01325 505054