Legal technology provider, F-LEX is celebrating its most successful year yet as the business continues to build its reputation for offering a flexible and affordable solution to recruitment.

The three-year-old company, which recently opened a Northern Hub in Manchester Technology Centre, has enjoyed year-on-year growth of 160 per cent. The first quarter of 2019 saw a 54 per cent increase in the number of paralegals placed and a 97 per cent rise in the number of clients using F-LEX’s platform.

F-LEX offers quick access to highly qualified, pre-approved paralegals and can provide individuals through to entire teams to boost resource for projects or one-off pieces of work. These include litigation support, document review, GDPR-related administration, contracts and compliance.

Eimear McCann, head of F-LEX’s Northern Hub, said: “The last twelve months have been fantastic for F-LEX; growing our team and our presence in the North.”

“The legal sector is becoming more and more receptive to new innovations. Firms are beginning to recognise that the introduction of technology not only provides solutions to common issues, such as recruitment, but also futureproofs their business in a digital world.”

F-LEX offers placements at law firms, legal tech companies and within in-house teams to ensure junior lawyers and paralegals gain the skills needed to succeed throughout their career.

Eimear continued: “It’s great to be a part of an exciting shift within the industry, providing on-demand services to a wide range of different legal providers whilst developing an exciting career path for junior lawyers in the process. We have had such fantastic success stories from our paralegals, who have had amazing opportunities through F-LEX, from training contracts to secondments to Brazil.”

Siemens Digital Industries together with Atos and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre has launched a ground-breaking Industrial Digitalisation Accelerator (IDA) to offer businesses a practical, collaborative space to explore Industry 4.0 technologies.

The Industry 4.0 collaboration space will be based at the Hartree Centre at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, at Sci-Tech Daresbury.

It is the first time that three distinct and yet complementary experts in the field of computing (STFC Hartree Centre), analytics (Atos Codex) and IoT solutions (MindSphere) have come together and combined their expertise to offer industry the opportunity to discover new pathways to growth.

The accelerator program is offering businesses of all sizes the chance to produce proof of concepts, mentorship to help them acquire Industry 4.0 technologies like big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), modelling, simulation and sensor technology through the Made Smarter programme, and the opportunity to develop end-to-end digital solutions.

The IDA will also sign-post firms to external funding programmes such as Innovate and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Brian Holliday, Executive Management Board of Siemens plc and Managing Director for Siemens Digital Industries, said: “Staying competitive in the evolving technology landscape isn’t easy, yet the opportunity to drive productivity has never been greater.

“By harnessing the combined power of these three partners the IDA has a mandate to do just this; increase industrial productivity providing new pathways to growth.

“Combining the unique capabilities of Siemens, Atos and the STFC Hartree Centre in one accelerated environment, we aim to cut through the noise to help businesses overcome their own digitalisation challenges and realise the opportunities presented within Industry 4.0.”

Adrian Gregory, Senior Executive Vice president and CEO, Atos UK and Ireland: “This facility will deliver new levels of data-driven insight and opportunity in direct alignment with the challenges set out in the Made Smarter Review. Through our continued partnership we are pleased to support the Hartree Centre as a beacon of innovation, where the enormous potential of digital technologies can be harnessed and applied, helping businesses to remain fit for Britain’s digital future.”

Alison Kennedy, Director of the STFC Hartree Centre, said: “At the Hartree Centre we work with companies in a wide range of industries to help them benefit from advanced digital technologies like supercomputing, big data analytics and AI. We’re thrilled to be able to offer our expertise in this exciting and unique partnership which will offer UK companies a practical, collaborative space to accelerate the exploration and integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and improve productivity.”

Global fast-food chain, Wok to Walk, has launched a new restaurant in Manchester with support from a seven-funding package from HSBC UK.

The popular Asian restaurant group opened its new 950 sq. ft. Barton Arcade Deansgate restaurant to the public this week. The eatery gives diners the opportunity to choose from a three-step menu, with the fresh, affordable meal stir-fried in front of them in minutes and served in its instantly recognisable orange takeaway boxes. Customers are given the choice of sitting in its 44 seat restaurant or buying a meal to takeaway.

The new restaurant will create up to 15 new jobs and an anticipated £800,000 of sales in the next 12 months.

Ismail Adam, Co-Director of the Leeds and Manchester Wok to Walks, said: “This is the North West’s second Wok to Walk, and it is a privilege to bring it to the heart of Manchester. The reason why the restaurant is so popular right around the world is simple, we give our customers tasty, healthy and affordable food. The franchise offers the ability to create our own stamp on the business and we see great potential for further expansion across the North West with the support of HSBC UK.”

Andrew Holgate, Relationship Manager for Greater Manchester, HSBC UK, added: “With the help of our funding package, we’re proud help bring Wok to Walk to Manchester. The brand has increasingly become synonymous with delicious and unpretentious food, for both a working lunch and a weekend treat for the family. Matched with the experience of Ismail and his team, we believe that the new restaurant will be a roaring success.”

Accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers have achieved an almost perfect 50-50 split in pay balance for male and female colleagues.

Research undertaken by the firm across its offices in Manchester, Blackburn and London showed there was a near equal 50-50 division in pay between male and female staff within each quartile of the gender pay gap report.

Employing a total of 81 men and 72 women for gender pay gap reporting criteria across its office network, the firm’s calculations showed the female mean hourly pay rate for 2019 was minus 2.1 per cent lower than that of men. So, when comparing mean hourly rates, women earned £1.02 for every £1 earned by men.

In terms of the median hourly rate, the hourly rate for women was 1.4 per cent lower than that of their male counterparts, equating to women earning £0.98p for each £1 earned by males.

The conclusions for 2019 showed an improvement on the same calculations for 2018 when the mean hourly rate for women was minus 5.5 per cent lower for women than their male counterparts, with the median hourly rate for women being minus 1 per cent lower than that for men.

Jo Rigby, HR director at Beever and Struthers said: “Our split of female to male pay has improved from the previous 12 months to an almost perfect 50-50 split in each quartile

“Whilst Beever and Struthers is not legally required to report on the gender pay gap because we employ less than 250 people, the firm places a strong focus on equality and found the pay gap report to be a helpful way of understanding why there is a gap and how to make changes to ensure that equality is present across the firm.

“We are a progressive and modern employer and while we’re very proud of these results, our fundamental aim continues to be to recruit the right person for the right role regardless of gender or any other characteristic under the Equality Act and to provide equal opportunity for all.”

Manchester-based Siemens Digital Industries has announced a new academic teaching programme called Connected Curriculum, 18 months after launching its MindSphere Innovation Network (MINe), in partnership with higher education providers,

The University of Sheffield, Liverpool John Moores, Middlesex University, Newcastle University and Manchester Metropolitan Universityhave all already signed-up to the initiative. As a result, each institution will work closely with Siemens to bring advanced industrial tools, data and approaches into their respective apprenticeship, undergraduate and masters courses.   Festo, the global supplier of automation technology and provider of industrial training and education programs is a key delivery partner for the new curriculum.

At the heart of the Connected Curriculum is Siemens Digital Industries world-leading industrial software portfolio and cloud-based IoT platform MindSphere. MindSphere is a highly secure operating system which connects industrial machines and devices via IoT protocols. It allows data from multiple sources to be captured and analysed simultaneously, creating a real-time picture of the whole production process via a single, powerful and intuitive interface.

The Connected Curriculum announcement was made by Brian Holliday, Managing Director of Siemens Digital Industries, at the 2019 MindSphere Innovation Network (MINe) Symposium last week. Hosted at the University of Sheffield, the two-day event saw 15 academic institutions explore the potential for collaborating with Siemens, each other, and other companies, across Industry 4.0 projects and technologies including Industrial IoT.

Brian Holliday, Siemens Digital Industries Managing Director, said: “Collaboration is central to delivering successful, robust and secure industrial IoT projects. Universities can be key partners in this process, often having expertise industry doesn’t such as data science, visualisation and insights into human behaviour including how people engage with technology.

“This is why Siemens developed the MindSphere Innovation Network in partnership with several universities two years ago, which in turn has informed the Connected Curriculum we have announced this week. I am now looking forward to working with Sheffield, John Moores, Middlesex and Manchester Metropolitan universities to help explore the full potential of Industrial IoT with our MindSphere platform at the heart of the process.”

Manchester Metropolitan University will be the partner university in the Connected Curriculum that will focus on delivery to postgraduate students, embedding the programme in its new Industry 4.0 Masters courses in the Faculty of Science and Engineering that are launching in September to bridge the Industry 4.0 skills gap.

Professor Andy Gibson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “Manchester Metropolitan is focused on bridging the Industry 4.0 skills gap by equipping students with the skills for the new digital economy.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with Siemens on the Connected Curriculum as our students and academic colleagues will benefit immensely from working with such a pioneering and transformational technology company.  Our partnership will ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of the digital revolution and continue to lead the way in innovation in postgraduate education, such as with the suite of six new Industry 4.0 masters degree courses launching in September.”