Specialist IT group SCISYS, which last year moved its parent company from the UK to Ireland to protect EU-funded work, has ended 2018 and started 2019 by winning four multi-million pound contracts.
The group, which has a base in Bristol and whose expertise spans transport, defence, media and space, said the Brexit-driven relocation had paid off as it had helped secure three of the deals through its German subsidiary SCISYS Deutschland. 
The largest of the contracts – worth €11.2m (£9m) from French group Thales Alenia Space France – continues the Chippenham-headquartered firm’s work on four elements of the Ground Mission for the Galileo European satellite-navigation system, which provides a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control, pictured in an artist’s impression.
Work on EU-funded the programme has already started and will continue until June 2020.
It enhances existing functions and improves security and cyber resilience capabilities in the next phase of the Galileo programme.
London Stock Exchange-listed SCISYS said the “significant” order underlined its Space division’s position as an expert software supplier to Galileo and as a long-standing partner of Thales Alenia Space.
The second contract is made up of two initial orders, also with Thales Alenia Space France, to develop and implement security-relevant elements of the Galileo Ground Segment.
The total contract value for both elements is €3m (£2.7m) with the initial orders covering the initial work on the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC-U) and the Point of Contact Platforms (POCP-U) parts.
The contract was also awarded under a programme funded by the EU.
The success extends the record order book that SCISYS announced in its interim report. Added to what the firm described as “healthy cashflow and increasingly strong balance sheet”, it said it reinforced its confidence that it would achieve further year-on-year growth. “The prospects of the Group continue to look highly encouraging,” it said.
A third contract worth €5m (£4.5m) won by SCISYS Deutschland and announced yesterday, is with GMV in Spain for the continuation and further enhancement of three elements in the Galileo Ground Control Segment.
Meanwhile, SCISYS’ UK division has been awarded a £2.4m contract with an unnamed existing defence sector client.
The firm said the one-year logistics information services contract was for follow-on-work, continuing a defence project started in 2016 which SCISYS delivered successfully to schedule.
It includes software support and configuration management services workstreams coupled with software development and enhancement.
SCISYS CEO Klaus Heidrich said the Space division contracts underpinned the firm’s continued position of strength in the European space sector and satellite-navigation programmes in particular.
“The recent decision taken by the board to redomicile the SCISYS parent company to Dublin to protect EU-funded work has proved decisive in securing this contract,” he added.
The contracts also extended SCISYS’ record order book announced in its interim report.
“Added to our healthy cashflow and increasingly strong balance sheet, it reinforces our confidence that SCISYS will achieve further year-on-year growth in 2018. The prospects of the group continue to look highly encouraging,” added Mr Heidrich.
SCISYS supplies bespoke software systems, IT and support services to the media and broadcast, space, government, defence and commercial sectors. The group employs around 580 staff across its offices in Chippenham, Bristol, Leicester and Reading and four in Germany.
