Roke was founded by Plessey in 1956 and sold to Siemens in 1991. Siemens have invested heavily in the site facilities to make Roke the jewel in the crown among Siemen's technology centres. In a real vote of confidence in the strength of the talent and skill base in the team working at Roke, in 2001 Siemens invested £10 million in the centre to upgrade the facilities, including a 4000 square metre new purpose-built laboratory. Since joining the Siemens group in 1991, Roke have since grown to become one of Siemens' most trusted suppliers of innovative solutions and contract R&D.
Renowned for its highly inventive engineers, Roke holds over 350 patents covering a variety of technologies and solutions. In 2005 Roke was the highest ranked UK company for the number of patents filed with the UK patent office.
Innovation
Innovations coming out of the centre include the original concept for the 'Hawk-Eye' system, which accurately tracks the flight of a cricket or tennis ball – and revolutionised television coverage of the sport. Roke have invented an award-winning self-powered mine detector – which has helped to address humanitarian problems in countries like Angola, Somalia and Cambodia.
Roke is a story of a strong local base operating with global reach. One of the key advantages of being in Southampton, according to Roke, is the pool of talent it offers and the excellence of the local technology and engineering base. And Southampton is great for transport links, whether that is for customers in London or visits to their parent company in Germany.
On the other hand, as Brett explains,
"The globe is shrinking. We have a much better opportunity in Roke today to apply our technology to emerging markets such as China."
Alastair Cook, who works in Industrial and Medical Solutions for Roke, adds,
“Working for Siemens gives us great visibility of the changing nature of global markets. Regional markets alone are no longer so important to companies as large as Siemens. Because major developments on investment and procurement, in the medical world or defence markets, for instance, are made across continents. In future we’re going to need to keep track of many new discoveries and investments that are being made across the globe."
The ability to invent ground-breaking technologies is crucial to Roke's future. David McDonald, Business Sector Director says that their approach to that at the moment is,
"To continue to attract the best talent that we can through the recession. We have a centre of engineering excellence in Southampton, and we have very good local contacts with schools. We want to ensure we continue to get the best talent, so that when we come to the other end of the recession we’re well placed to grab the new opportunities as they arise".
Roke provides their customers with access to a wide range of innovative technology. This technology spans wireless communications, information systems and sensors and can be found in such diverse products as mobile handsets, radars and RFID readers. Roke has also played a key role in delivering complex systems solutions. These range from systems for congestion charging in large metropolitan areas, to monitoring the height of aircraft across European airspace.Their business is to apply cutting-edge technology to practical problems – summed-up in their slogan 'First, Fast, Difficult'.
