Accolade for access leaders in Dorset web challenge

1:22pm Wednesday 11th June 2008

NEW doors to on-line success have been opened for a Poole-based access control specialist. The company, TDSi, has been named as the winner the latest heat of a Dorset web-business challenge.

Sponsored by Business Link, the e-Den award is an annual search for the region's most hotly-tipped website - and last Thursday (05 June), TDSi managing director John Davies stepped forward to take the winning accolade in the third of four play-offs.

The heat was held at Bournemouth University where 100-plus people gathered to see four Dorset business chiefs make their case to a panel of web business experts from the region. The competition will reach its climax this September with the overall winner receiving prizes worth £8000.

The most recent victor, TDSi, is one of the UK's fastest-growing designers and manufacturers of electronic systems used to control who goes where in buildings and office premises.

Although the company's card-reader door entry systems are its top-sellers - with over a million people worldwide using TDSi cards every day - the firm is also pioneering new access technologies.

These include attack detection systems, and biometric scanners which "read" the eyes, fingerprints, palms or even the voices of employees. If a match is made, the person is then allowed access through a door or to a computer - without having to worry about forgotten pin numbers or lost swipe-cards.

The e-Den contest is organised by Bournemouth-based BowShot Ltd which runs groups for high-potential entrepreneurs and website owners.

Judging the most recent e-Den heat were four Dorset and Hampshire-based owners of established website businesses. They heard from four challengers who described their on-line operations and their ambitions for the future.

The panel of experts offered advice and guidance which was also shared by the audience, many members of which run their own businesses depending wholly or partially on website marketing.

After deliberating, the judges decided that John Davies of TDSi had put forward the most compelling case for developing his firm's website. The audience was told that John's company currently has more than 20,000 access control installations worldwide, and is shortly to open new offices in China.

John was presented with an I-Pod Touch by Warren Munson of Poole-based accountancy and tax advice firm Inspire which sponsored this latest heat.

Nicholas Steven, event organiser and founder of BowShot, said that the evening had once again provided a unique opportunity for Dorset business owners to learn how others were generating business via the internet, and to pick up valuable advice from experts in the field.

Next month's play-off, again at Bournemouth University's Talbot Campus, takes place on 3 July - and more information is available at www.bowshot.org.