Ex-Intellution manager creates `first top-to-bottom service`

Intellution`s former general manager for the UK, Andrew Ballard, has set up a new company which, he claims, will be the first UK-based organisation to offer manufacturers and systems integrators the capability to develop "shopfloor-to-topfloor" industrial automation and business systems.

Ballard is managing director of the new company, Fortetion, which has its headquarters in Buckingham. Andrew Toner and Chris Barlow, both former directors of Barton Information Systems, have joined Ballard as directors of the new company.

Ballard has maintained his ties with Intellution. The US software supplier has named Fortetion as its strategic partner for the UK and Ireland. The new company is also selling complementary products and services to help customers make the transition from manufacturing to IT software. Several MES (manufacturing execution system) specialists have been signed up as partners and Fortetion is offering consulting services, site audits and product training.

Fortetion already has an office in Manchester and plans to set up offices in Ireland and Scotland. At present, it employs 19 people and hopes to boost the figure to more than 25 by the end of the year. Ballard predicts that Intellution`s substantial UK customer base combined with Fortetion`s other products "will enable us to quickly develop partnerships with manufacturers in all types and sizes of industry".