In 1995, several significant computer programs and technologies emerged, including the release of Windows 95, the introduction of Java and JavaScript, and the development of the Internet search engine AltaVista. The year also saw the launch of Amazon, eBay, and Netscape. However, more legendary is the inception of what is now known as Asckey Data Services Limited, a name inspired by ASCII, a standard data encoding format for electronic communication between computers.
Where it all began
Asckey started as a consultancy company working with NHS Estates, now known as NHS England, working from the back office of a house in St Ives. Asckey consulted on the support of the Works Information Management System (WIMS), owned by the Healthcare Facilities Consortium (HFC).
The company decided to expand, move to an office outbuilding in Pidley, and take a step into application development. In 2001, Asckey was awarded a contract by the HFC, then a member of the NHS Confederation, to redevelop WIMS. Due to the size of the project and the number of stakeholders, it took several years to complete. In 2005, the project concluded, and WIMS was transformed into EclipseFM, our first version of Computer-Aided Facilities Management software.
During this time of development, in 2003, Asckey also began hosting and maintaining the Estates & Facilities Management portal, now known as NHS Digital.
The growth in services
With the development projects growing, Asckey began to assess how we could further support our NHS clients. In 2008, we began providing N3 hosting services for NHS-related applications, and then in 2015, we facilitated the move from N3 to the Health and Social Care Network for many of our clients. HSCN hosting then became a service we offered to the Healthcare sector.
In April 2011, following a reorganisation within the HFC, Asckey acquired the full rights to Eclipse-fm®, which was subsequently rebranded as fmfirst®. In 2012, the name was changed to fmfirst® Estates, becoming an innovative CAFM system used by NHS Trusts across the country.
The fmfirst® name became the preceding name to our developing suite of applications, with our cleaning compliance application, fmfirst® Cleaning, being added to the portfolio in 2013.
2014 saw the creation of fmfirst® Cloud, the platform to access our cloud-based products, and became a demo platform for showcasing what the software could do.
With the growth of the team, we were then able to offer bespoke development as a service and welcomed new clients from outside the healthcare sector.
In 2016, the management of Asckey changed hands. In 2018, with the continued growth of clients and the Asckey team, we moved to new premises from a village office to a building in the town of St Ives. The move in 2018 also led to a rebrand of the company to represent the change we had gone through from consultancy to application development and hosting providers.
How we continue to grow
The fmfirst® product suite continues to evolve in terms of functionality and user numbers. There has been a significant increase in fmfirst® uptake in recent years, with notable growth in the number of fmfirst® sites across the UK. This includes the whole of the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board – the largest health organisation in the UK.
Along with fmfirst® Cleaning, fmfirst® Cloud now hosts our Survey, Portering, and Tasking applications. fmfirst® Tasking has become an alternative CAFM solution for many of our clients. We continue to add new modules within our applications, most recently, we added Stock Management to our fmfirst® Tasking module.
By continuously working with our clients to improve and develop our applications, we aim to achieve our mission of becoming the partner of choice for organisations. We are proud to say that 75% of our clients have been with us for 8 or more years.
Get in touch today if you would like to discover more about our applications and how we can add value to your organisation.
