Beyond Spreadsheets: Showcasing Ctrl O's LinkSpace at the Global Government Forum Innovation Event

We had a great couple of days at our Ctrl O stand at the Excel Centre, at the Global Government Forum’s Innovation fair. We didn’t think saying “fancy a chat about spreadsheets” would be a good opening gambit, but it worked an absolute treat, so we were all clearly in the right place! (Or people were very kind in humouring us, or tempted in by one of our chocolates)- in any case, we were grateful to meet so many lovely people and enjoyed it immensely!

It was particularly exciting when we realised that to get people’s email addresses, we could just zap the barcode on their name badge. We were a little worried about not having everything written down in a trusty notebook, but it shows that innovation truly works!

We did a lot of chattering about spreadsheets, and tried our darndest to make it as interesting and simple as possible. Our flagship software, LinkSpace, was created by our chief exec, Andy Beverly. As you can see, he’s only really at ease when he has 3 laptops on the go at once. We wondered if he might need a fourth one!

Andy created LinkSpace when he realised that friends and colleagues at the Ministry of Defence had a problem. They had a spreadsheet that people needed to input data to from all over the world, but they needed it to be extremely secure and robust. As a result, only one man in one office was allowed access to this spreadsheet and had clearance to input the data. He was emailed the information to type in 24 hours a day from all over the world (!)

Andy couldn’t stop thinking about the man with the emails and the spreadsheets, and was sure there must be a better way. Being an enterprising sort of chap, he went about creating software that was a really secure and reliable version of a spreadsheet or table, and the outcome is LinkSpace. LinkSpace is flexible in terms of who has access to which parts, who can edit what, and who can view what. In addition, if anyone accidentally deletes or changes anything, there’s a full audit history with every previous version saved.

The Ministry of Defence rigorously tested Andy’s software, and adopted it. And we understand that the man who was in charge of inputting into the Master spreadsheet was last seen skipping through a field shouting “input it yourselves, I’m off to join the circus!” (And who can blame him). LinkSpace was also adopted by the Ministry of Justice, some other companies, and Ctrl O has won two awards as a result of their pioneering work with this software.

You can see Carla doing a quick demonstration here with some of the main features of LinkSpace…

Interestingly, Chief exec Andy Beverley and our COO John Hayden met in the Royal Navy, when they were both deeply immersed in the world of ships, planes, and IT. Between 2007 and 2010, Andy was based on a huge 22,000 tonne aircraft carrier called HMS Illustrious. It was like a big sailing airport with 1200 people on board, and Andy was the head of IT. HMS Illustrious featured in the first series of Channel 5’s popular documentary Warship - you can see it in action here. (If you look carefully, you might see a bit of Andy’s head behind a computer).

Missions could be very high-pressure, and Andy had to be always at the top of his game. Sailing around the world, from the Far East to America for Independence Day, immersed in the world of Navy tech, Andy was in his element (and there was some sport on the runways to let off steam).

Our COO John started in the Fleet Air Arm (the Royal Navy’s air force) before moving into IT (who knew there was so much IT in the Navy?) John was a big fan of Adventurous Training and sailing yachts - in fact he’s sailed around Britain in one. John and Andy met each other whilst chatting about boats, or code, or uniforms or something in 2005 … and then bumped into each other again a decade later when Andy had launched Ctrl O. Andy asked John to come on board (see what we did there), and the rest is history.

So, there’s some background about us. We’re on various social media platforms, whichever floats your boat (sorry - we’ll stop the boat puns now).

And if you’d like to know more, do give us a call for an informal chat any time - even if it’s just to hear more about Andy’s time in HMS Illustrious, or John’s time on a yacht going around the UK!

Reactions and Responses

We had some nice notes and reactions to this blog, particularly on X (Formerly Twitter).

@Bikery1966 (who often tweets about flying light aircraft) wrote, “Great article about spreadsheets!” (A fine compliment if ever there was one). He continued, “I particularly love the Top Gun hockey game on the flight deck of HMS Illustrious, with Sea Harriers for goal posts!”

We’re sure Andy and John will be delighted and flattered by the Top Gun reference, and we’re now wondering if they’ll be setting up a beach hockey court outside the office. If so, we’re here for it! (But we’re not playing in tight jeans thank you very much).

There was more - Paul M @Onebiskuit told us a lovely story over several tweets. He said his dad spent his “entire working life in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm”, and that Paul was Christened on board the HMS Ark Royal, where his father was stationed. The christening involved using the ship’s inverted bell as a font, he writes, and that his name was engraved on the inside of the silver bell, which is “presumably in a museum somewhere now”. If anyone comes across the engraved bell of HMS Ark Royal, please let us know! It should have Paul’s name engraved on the inside!