Wiltshire Firm Celebrates 20 Successful Years

Cast your mind back to the turn of the millennium. Y2K was about to cause chaos, Westlife were riding high in the UK charts and a new company was about to enter the world of embedded technology.

On 4th January 2000 Sarsen Technology began life in a small office above a shop in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Unfortunately, that was before we had smart phones and digital cameras, so there is little to no evidence of the questionable fashion or hairstyles sported by the Sarsen team at the turn of the century...

Our very first order in February 2000 was from Thomson Marconi (now Thales Underwater Systems) for an Analog Devices Blacktip PCI card, and 20 years later we’re talking to some of the UK's biggest prime manufacturers about a wide range of technology; from embedded single board computers and FPGA based solutions to rugged MIL-STD-1553 hardware and high performance computing COTS technology.

It’s certainly never boring…

The portfolio of manufacturers we represent has also changed over the years. Aside from allowing us to expand our product line, our carefully selected partners have given us the opportunity to support applications in new sectors. We now successfully supply a range of solutions into markets that we had very little experience of back in 2000, including financial trading and cyber security.

Great relationships with customers, suppliers and colleagues have led to some great friendships too. Alongside the unique challenges that come with running a small business, there have been many opportunities to celebrate and share a lot of fun together over the last two decades.

We are extremely proud of our achievements over the last 20 years. Thank you to all Sarsen Technology staff, past and present, to all our loyal customers, and to the manufacturers we represent, for your highly valued support over the years.

We are really looking forward to the next exciting chapter in 2020!


Rogues Gallery **

**Not in chronological order (in case you couldn't tell)!

Sarsen Technology Christmas Office Hours

The Sarsen Technology offices will be closed over the festive period.

If there is anything we can help you with before the end of the year please let us know.

Friday 14th December - Limited Availability

Friday 21st December - Open

Monday 24th December - Closed

Tuesday 25th December - Closed

Wednesday 26th December - Closed

Thursday 27th December - Closed

Friday 28th December - Closed

Monday 31st January 2019 - Closed

Tuesday 1st January 2019 - Closed

Wednesday 2nd January 2019 - Open

Emails will be monitored, and technical support will be provided directly by our manufacturers.

Click for Out of Hours Support

From everyone at Sarsen Technology, we wish you and your families a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Sarsen Celebrates 14 Successful Years in Business

Way back in the year 2000, when some of us were still at school, an exciting new business opened in the town of Marlborough, UK.

Providing sales, marketing and technical support services for two
USA based manufacturers,
Sarsen Technology was born.

The brain-child of Nigel Norman, Sarsen Technology was established to provide embedded COTS hardware and software to a wide range of customers and market sectors. Nigel has over 25 years’ experience of the electronics and semiconductor industry in design, applications support, technical sales, sales management and business development.

Since 2000, the team has expanded to include additional salespeople, and a number of new departments including Accounts, Marketing and Administration. The significant growth since 2000 has been achieved by offering customers a complete embedded system solution, providing a local liaison from the initial enquiry right through to after-sales technical support.

As part of our ongoing quest for customer satisfaction we added 3 new manufacturers to the product line in 2013, allowing us to support an even greater range of applications that require anything from digital signal processing, data acquisition and single board computing to high-speed data record, playback and storage solutions. We have chosen the companies we work with based on their commitment to customer service as well as for their market-leading technology.

Today Sarsen Technology Limited is a well-established technical representative and distributor based in Marlborough. Committed to providing excellent service and support, we are ISO 9001:2008 registered. You can view a copy of our certificate here (PDF).

If you'd like to have a chat about your requirements our team is on hand to help. You can get in touch with us by calling the office on +44 1672 511166, or you can send us an email - info@sarsen.net.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The Big Sarsen Question - Why Are Our Processes So Important?

Process. The death knell of creativity and spontaneity. 

Or is it?

It’s easy to balk against the idea of following processes, because frankly, some processes can be a pain in the neck.
Some processes command that you go through several steps to achieve a result. Some can be repetitive or time-consuming. Some don’t allow you to deal with a particular situation as quickly as you possibly can, or in the best interests of your customer.

In all these cases there is a temptation to act ‘outside the box’, to simply fix the problem in the easiest way possible. But process doesn’t need to be inflexible— changes can occur in what the customer wants or needs, in new tools being integrated, such as databases or reporting facilities, or in what you are selling and how you want to sell it.

However, processes are hugely important to the smooth running of any business. Without them our day to day tasks would be chaotic. And although one part of a process may seem like a waste of time to you, that little part may be of huge importance to someone else further down the line.

There are a huge number of benefits to having a good set of procedures -

• Processes save time – by developing a certain amount of repetitive elements you tend to remember the routine.
• Processes reduce errors – by allowing you to consistently improve small packets of work, or even automating parts of it.
• Processes make it easy to hand off work to others – by creating a roadmap and instructions for others to follow. The task may need to be performed by different people at different times, and unless the individual steps are documented, there is every chance that Jo will perform the task differently to Jim, who in turn will do it differently from you. It can also encourage teamwork, by allowing your colleagues to help you if you're busy.

So I guess the answer to the question is simple.

Processes here at Sarsen are super important, because they are the link between what we do and how we do it. And we want to do it well.
Our processes mean our customers know they can expect the same level of service and support from every single member of our team. They help us to standardise our day to day operation as much as possible, improve our services, and achieve greater understanding and co-operation amongst our staff.

But who doesn't want to bend the rules once in a while....

News Bytes - June Issue Of Our Newsletter Now Available

The June 2011 issue of the Sarsen Technology News Bytes includes:

• Commercial & Rugged Altera Stratix® IV GX 3U VPX Board


• Game Changing Technology from Matrox/Trenton Partnership


• 4-port, CAN bus interface board from UEI


• Intel® Atom™ Z530P PC/104-Plus SBC

Also included are two white papers:

• Intel® Signage Goes Super-Size with Video Walls: Jim Renehan, Director of Marketing, Trenton Technology discusses the latest video wall technologies


• Laser-based Security System Relies on VersaLogic for Processing Power in Extreme Weather Conditions: Effective night time security is a critical deterrent to crime and terrorist activity around the world. Often the rugged environmental conditions prove to be a challenge for security systems

Business Link Web Site Search Engine Optimisation Workshop

Today Nigel attended a "Search Engine Optimisation Workshop" organised by Business Link at the Castledown Business Centre in Ludgershall, Wiltshire. The presenter was Andy Poulton who provided an excellent review of the key elements of SEO techniques for business web sites. The workshop was attended by 58 representatives of small and medium sized businesses from central Wiltshire. The business types represented a wide range of activity from Electrical Engineers, Web Site Developers, Growers & Sellers of seeds, Business Coaching, Wedding Dance Instructors and Embedded Computing Technology Distributors. Andy's blog can be found at Andy Poulton Blog. The workshop came at a great time for Sarsen Technology as we work towards the launch of our new web site in September 2010.

Business Link: The Magic of Web Marketing Seminar

Nigel attended the Business Link South West "Magic of Web Marketing" seminar presented by Alan Poulton at the Cricklade Hotel & Country Club in Wiltshire this morning. A well attended event with over 60 in the audience from a very broad range of industries. This was the second web marketing event that Nigel had attended and it was a very useful review of the current web world. Alan did a great job and Google seemed to be in every second sentence!