Ventures

PA Consulting Group demerged its successful venture arm, Ipex Capital, in June 2008. PA Consulting and Ipex Capital have a strong pedigree in successfully exploiting and incubating intellectual property, technology and know-how.

In 1999 they founded UbiNetics, a company that became a world leader in 3G test and measurement products. The company supplied many of the world's leading telecoms operators, and semiconductor and handset device manufacturers. In May 2005 the test and measurement division of UbiNetics was sold to Aeroflex for $84.5 million, and in July 2005 PA agreed to sell the other half of the venture – Volume Product Technology – to CSR for $48 million.

Other successful exits have included Meridica, a developer of drug delivery devices and products for the pharmaceutical industry which was founded in May 2001 and sold to Pfizer for $125 million in November 2004, and Cubiks.

Exacsys: Delivering improvements in diagnostic accuracy

Healthcare related diagnostic tests are increasingly being carried out at the point of care – by doctors at the bedside or by patients themselves – rather than in laboratories. This kind of testing has the potential to reduce turnaround time, to enable rapid clinical decision making and to empower people to manage their own healthcare. However, some of these benefits are undermined by the inaccuracy of the results, which can result from variability between patients; environmental conditions and the capabilities of the user.

Exacsys is developing a unique solution to improve accuracy of clinical tests undertaken outside central laboratories. Our patented technology is based on the principle of ‘live calibration’ where readings are corrected by taking account of the measurement conditions for each test.

Our initial target application is Self Monitoring of Blood Glucose (SMBG), an important test to help people living with diabetes manage their condition; and a market estimated to be in excess of $10bn per year. People with diabetes, clinicians, and regulatory authorities seek and require improved accuracy in SMBG to manage blood sugar levels better. Exacsys plans to provide a solution to this challenge which will improve the quality of life for those tens of millions of people around the world that rely on daily tests.

Exacsys’ technology is potentially applicable to a wide range of other point of care and self-test applications, and we are working to identify further areas where our technology will provide value to patients and healthcare systems.

ProcServe: Unlocking the benefits of electronic procurement

ProcServe offers a cloud-based solution for businesses who wish to buy goods and services from their suppliers electronically, saving time and money. The solution overcomes a major barrier to electronic procurement, namely that buyers and suppliers use a wide range of separate back office systems that receive and process data in different formats. ProcServe’s key offer is a ‘Procurement Hub’ which enables buyers and suppliers to get connected and transact efficiently.

By connecting to the ProcServe Hub, buyers and suppliers automatically belong to the ProcServe Trading Network which provides the ability to join and share procurement information with similar organisations. This provides the potential to create ‘buying clubs’ or ‘trading communities’ to aggregate purchasing power and lower the costs of buying day-to-day goods and services. The ProcServe Trading Network covers more than 17,000 organisations and is growing rapidly.

ProcServe is a wholly owned subsidiary of PA Consulting Group. It provides some key marketplaces for the UK public sector including:

• The Central Government eMarketplace (GeM) on behalf of Government Procurement (Cabinet Office)

• Xchangewales eTrading, available to all public sector bodies including local and central government agencies across Wales

• The National Police Procurement Hub, a solution covering all the police forces across England and Wales

ProcServe also delivers a number of procurement hubs for commercial sector customers, including Orange and Xerox. For more information, please visit www.procserve.com.

IPEX

PA continues to work closely with Ipex Capital on existing ventures in the Ipex portfolio as well as looking at new opportunities together.
www.ipex.com