An interview with: Niamh Allen of IoT Horizon
The world of tech is vast, and here in Lancashire, we are lucky to have lots of tech companies working on fantastic innovative solutions. One such company is IoT Horizon, who are paving the way forward with their smart Internet of Things solutions that bridge the gap between wellbeing, carbon reduction, and cost savings.
We caught up with Niamh Allen, IoT Horizon’s Sales and Marketing Director to hear about her experience as a young woman in tech, the amazing work IoT Horizon is doing, and all the ways tech can help future-proof companies.
Introducing Niamh Allen from IoT Horizon
Niamh is IoT Horizon’s Sales and Marketing Director. When leaving college, Niamh had no idea what she wanted to do or what industry she wanted to work in. She seemingly fell into the world of sales and tech, starting out in an internal sales role helping behind the scenes.
During her time in that company, it was clear that Niamh’s chatty, friendly personality lent itself well to front-of-house customer relations and so she was promoted to a business manager role and became a lead account manager for big brand names like Aston Martin and Heathrow Airport at the age of 20 years old — where she was far younger than her colleagues in the Sales department, leading her to be passionate about supporting other young people in management roles.
After this role, Niamh took time out to travel before joining the family company of IoT Horizon where she has worked her way up to Sales and Marketing Director, having a huge impact on the company’s success over this time.
First, can you tell me more about your role at IoT Horizon?
Niamh: I joined as Sales Manager nearly 5 years ago. After a year and a half, I was promoted to the Sales and Marketing Director.
In my current role, I am responsible for overseeing both sales and marketing operations, as well as playing a key role in shaping the overall business strategy. Since I’ve been in this position, the business has grown roughly 60% in revenue year-on-year which is mirrored in our profit margins.
We started as a small family business, but now we have a dedicated team of ten professionals, including Research and Development, Customer Services, Operations, Research Analysts, and Software Developers.
Can you give a brief insight into what IoT Horizon do?
Niamh: At IoT Horizon, we specialise in providing "internet of things" solutions that enable our clients to connect devices, people, and buildings to the internet, giving them access to more detailed and useful data. Our primary focus is on creating smart building and smart manufacturing solutions that help our clients optimise their spaces for factors such as space utilisation, thermal comfort, and energy use.
We are proud to offer our proprietary platform, Neronis®, which provides comprehensive data visualisation and analytics. We provide a wide range of support services including data analytics support to ensure that our clients can get the most out of the platform and use it to its full potential.
As a one-stop-shop for IoT solutions, we offer everything from helping our clients build their business case to analyse their unique challenge statements. Rather than simply throwing technology at the problem, we take a collaborative approach to ensure that we understand the problem fully before finding the most effective solution. This includes hardware installation, software analytics, and ongoing support throughout the entire journey.
“Personal development has also played a significant role in my growth. I encourage all our employees to prioritise their own personal development, and I have made a conscious effort to focus on my own over the past few years.”
Can you share your experience as a young woman in the tech space?
Niamh: When I first joined IoT Horizon, I experienced a significant amount of growth in my skills and abilities. However, when I was promoted to the role of Sales and Marketing Director, I struggled with imposter syndrome. I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would listen to someone so young. Early on, I found it challenging to contribute to meetings, especially when I was the only woman present in a room full of older, typically white male professionals in manufacturing and other organisations.
Fortunately, IoT Horizon has been incredibly supportive of my development, and I have since completed a Business Manager degree with UCLan, as well as a Level 6 Chartered Manager qualification. I found that this combination of academic knowledge and practical application helped me gain the confidence and skills needed to excel in my role as a leader.
Personal development has also played a significant role in my growth. I encourage all our employees to prioritise their own personal development, and I have made a conscious effort to focus on my own over the past few years. I have joined peer groups and networking groups focused on business and leadership in the Lancashire and Liverpool regions where IoT Horizon operates. I have found the Lancashire Digital Hub's Women In Tech Mastermind group to be incredibly helpful. It's reassuring to know that other women in the industry, regardless of age or background, experience similar feelings of imposter syndrome.
While it has been challenging, I have worked through my imposter syndrome and gained the confidence to speak at events and engage with others in the industry. One of the things that helped me overcome my imposter syndrome was reflecting on my past experiences and achievements. I also have found it helpful to seek out female mentors and coaches in the industry who I can look up to and lean on for support. In Lancashire, there are plenty of women in senior roles who serve as great examples of successful leadership, such as Miranda Barker from the Chamber of Commerce, Melissa Conlon from AMRC, and Debbie Francis from LEP.
What have been some of your career highlights at IoT Horizon so far?
Niamh: I'm proud to say that I've achieved quite a few personal and professional milestones since joining IoT Horizon. Firstly, I completed my degree and training which helped me develop my skills and expertise. I was also honoured to be featured in the Lancashire Business View as one of the top 15 leaders in the Sub36 “ones to watch” list.
In terms of business accomplishments, I take great pride in playing an instrumental role in doubling our turnover year on year. This has been a major milestone for the company and a testament to our hard work and commitment. I was particularly proud of securing the AMRC North West tender as well, given that we were the only company in Lancashire to win the tender. This has opened up new opportunities for us and has helped us win other tenders.
Another significant highlight was seeing our platform take shape and evolve has been extremely rewarding.
Finally, being recognised as a Liverpool City Region tech climber this year was a great honour. It's a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team and reaffirms our commitment to providing innovative and cutting-edge solutions to our clients.
In your opinion, why should companies care about being digital?
Niamh: Customers are becoming more digital and savvy with technology. They want to interact with companies with digital channels. So, businesses need to keep up with that or they will lose customers to competitors that are more digital.
Customers are also demanding more sustainable companies, so they want to work with companies who know exactly where products are from or who are moving towards net-zero. A lot of that is going to be demanded by customers, and tech can help with sustainability.
The workforce is also changing, with people being hybrid, remote, or in the office. That is something we support for our employees at IoT Horizon through digital tools. I appreciate that it is different for manufacturing, but there are a lot of industries where digital tools can help the workforce have a better work-life balance.
How can companies use technology to future-proof their business?
Niamh: Better data helps you make better decisions. Whether that is customer behaviour, market trends, internal operations, productivity, or something else.
As an example, Neronis collects better data on the indoor environment. 90% of our time is spent in doors and yet the indoor environment is 2-3 times more polluted than the outdoors. That can impact things like sick building syndrome which has a short term impact of fatigue, respiratory illnesses, feeling generally unwell, and longer term impacts like respiratory, heart or lung diseases. All of which can massively impact productivity. If your indoor environment isn’t kept at the right levels, it can reduce productivity. So, getting better data on the indoor environment can help you optimise the building environment.
Collecting data can also help you be more agile. If you have more data on your processes and people, you can respond quicker and offer greater support for your employees and customers.
And how can tech help cut back on operational costs?
Niamh: From our perspective, collecting better data can have direct and indirect cost savings.
If, for example, you are monitoring environmental factors such as temperature. If you can see you are heating the building at nighttime when it isn’t occupied, you can make a very quick saving by turning the heating off during those times.
We recently did a project with a school, where we found lots of interesting data. We found that for 17 days over Christmas, no one had been in the building but it was being heated to 24 degrees. A consultant estimated that they could save around £10,000 from that insight.
We’ve also worked with brand new buildings where we saw temperatures varied across the building, staff reported feeling unwell in the workplace. Once we started to monitor the environment, our data and technology has driven a post-building optimisation phase where they have brought the building management engineers back in to improve the building conditions.
Our data can help people understand how many people are occupying the space, how it’s being used, what the air quality is like and energy consumption. There is a lot of data that helps companies get quick wins and improve what they do.
As for manufacturing, there are tools they can use to track machine running time and optimise performance.
Understanding how to improve the building conditions means they can reduce sick days which is especially important for places like schools, where they have to pay sick pay and cover staff, or manufacturing where they will need to get more staff for fulfilment.
Being able to monitor tech remotely also means you don’t have to pay for people to be on-site.
Getting the balance between employee wellbeing, operational costs, and carbon emissions is a key part of what we do. It isn’t just about saving costs, it’s the synergy between all three aspects that has the biggest impact.
For non-techies, breaking into the tech space can be quite daunting. What advice would you give for people (and companies) who want to embrace tech but don’t know where to start?
Niamh: If you're interested in learning more about applying digital technologies, I would highly recommend visiting IoT Horizon in Lancashire, we have a demonstrator and are happy to provide you with independent advice and show you our platform in action.
Additionally, I suggest visiting the AMRC in Samlesbury to gain a better understanding of how to retrofit legacy equipment with digital technologies. They have a smart building demonstrator and offer lots of support, including tours and events. It's an excellent starting point.
I would also reach out to places like the Lancashire Digital Hub, which I have genuinely used as a facility. They run lots of tech talks and meetups. It is a great place for a non-techie person to start. It is that ability to meet up with a digital community and get an insight into different types of technology and hear from different people in the tech community.
How can people get more involved in Lancashire’s Digital community?
Niamh: Participate in online communities and consider joining online groups related to your interests or career goals. Platforms like LinkedIn and Slack offer a wealth of digital communities where you can engage with like-minded professionals, ask questions, and gain valuable insights.
Take advantage of training programs too. Lancashire offers a variety of skills bootcamps and training programs to help you upskill and qualify in as little as 12 weeks. Keep an eye on resources like the Electech cluster and the LEP's digital strategy to stay informed about available support. Boost, for instance, is an excellent example of a support program that can provide you with valuable guidance and resources. I’d suggest reaching out to Andrew Leeming and his team as I’m sure they’d be able to point you in the right direction.
“Networking can be very daunting, but it’s an essential aspect of building a successful career in the digital industry.”
Make use of coworking spaces. If you're looking for a comfortable and collaborative workspace, consider hot desking at a digital tech hub like Strawberry Fields. These spaces provide an ideal environment for meeting new people and building professional relationships. There are lots of coworking spaces and business centres focused on digital, and tech across Lancashire.
And lastly, network! In my career, I’m lucky that I have been around experienced networkers. I asked my MD to attend events with me, and listened to how he started conversations. Young people might not have had that experience, especially due to COVID so it can be a lot harder for them.
Networking can be very daunting, but it's an essential aspect of building a successful career in the digital industry. Attend events, speak with professionals, and connect with individuals on LinkedIn afterwards. If you're unsure where to start, consider joining a community specifically designed for younger professionals to network comfortably and confidently.
Is there anything IoT Horizon is working on at the moment that you can share with us?
Niamh: We are really focused on our energy monitoring at the moment. We are working with a nationwide entertainment company on energy consumption monitoring and fridge optimisation. Using our data we’re helping them find the optimal time to turn fridges on, that don’t contain temperature-sensitive goods.
We’re also helping them look at energy consumption across the space. So, when they have different shows using the space, we’re helping them look at the energy consumption differences between a small versus larger show and whether they should charge different price models based on those. We are helping them find out where energy is being spent across the building so they can better optimise it moving forward.
We look at the carbon reduction saving and the cost saving. Different people care about different metrics. So, we build out all areas to help people see the bigger picture.
We were recently successful with AMRC Wales so we are deploying a project for occupancy and asset tracking at their site. That’s definitely something to look out for!
And finally, East Lancashire Chamber of commerce has sponsored IoT Horizon through the RedCAT funding programme. Lots of companies won’t support schools due to the budget. Whereas, we are really passionate about improving air quality in schools.
So, we are using the funding to deploy our technology in a Lancashire school and a Lancashire college. We are running a trial study and working with those schools to understand the data and help them make better decisions. We’ll give them access to the data, help them understand it, and monitor the before and after to see the impact. We are using that data and study to be able to work with more schools and colleges so they don’t miss out.
A lot of studies in the US and Europe show the impact the school environment has on young people. It can reduce their ability to learn, their test scores. So we are keen to get our own data to show that you can improve productivity, reduce staff absences, and make the environment a nicer place for children to be so they perform better. That’s a project that I’m really excited and passionate about.
Before we go, do you have any final words of wisdom you want to share?
Niamh: As a young person in a management role, it's okay not to know everything. Instead, surround yourself with capable individuals and seek external support to fill gaps in your knowledge.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, take risks and think creatively to challenge traditional ways of doing things.
By seeking out new perspectives and approaches, you can develop a wider range of skills and strategies that will help you succeed. Remember, the key to success is to keep asking questions and be open to learning from others.
Final thoughts — Don’t be afraid to ask questions
As Niamh said, don’t be afraid to ask questions. There is power in not knowing all the answers. Approach things with a sense of curiosity and determination… and remember, you can always look to data for answers too.
Niamh has shared lots of valuable advice on breaking into the tech space and overcoming personal challenges such as imposter syndrome. Her passion for helping others break down tech barriers really shines through. If you would like to connect with Niamh, you can find her on LinkedIn.
If you are keen to hear more about IoT Horizon and the fantastic work they are doing, you can visit their website to learn more about what they do and their data visualisation and analytics platform, Neronis.