DOCAN’s year in review & what’s to come in 2024

This isn’t our usual style of post but with the year drawing to a close, we figured it was a great opportunity to hit pause on the educational content and talk a little bit about ourselves.

DOCAN is led by a team of incredibly talented engineers with decades of experience, but the company itself was only formed in 2017. The growth we’ve experienced in the past 6 years is something that we’re incredibly proud of, and 2023 has been a pivotal year in our success.

So, let’s take a look at what we’ve been up to this year and share some of our plans for 2024.

Growing a business is challenging at the best of times, but particularly in this current climate. However, we’ve really put our all into achieving sustainable growth throughout the year, and it’s paid off.

As an engineering consultancy, we offer an incredibly high level of skills and services across a broad range of disciplines and niches. Whilst these skills are typically few and far between, we’re always competing with the larger more established organisations that have been around for decades – and as we mentioned before, we’re technically still in our infancy.

However, as our credibility as a value-led consultancy has grown, so has our client base. Alongside our core list of clients, we’ve generated business from 12 new clients – 6 of which are Blue Chip Large companies, with the others being SMEs – throughout the year and helped drive their projects to success.

This in turn placed us in a fantastic position to grow our team. We’re always on the lookout for highly skilled engineers to join DOCAN and this year alone we’ve taken on 3 new additions which has allowed us to establish a strong core structural engineering & analysis team. With 2 more engineers set to join us in the new year, it’s an exciting time ahead.

The great thing about the work we do here at DOCAN is that we can do it anywhere around the world. We have the flexibility to operate on a global scale, offering the same level of service and quality no matter the location.

Earlier this year, we shared all about our Middle East engineering consultancy service plans, and we have already completed our first consulting projects over there. We’ve built some fantastic connections along the way and have acquired an agreement with our first Middle Eastern partner, RCG.

We’re confident that we’re great at what we do here at DOCAN but as with anything, there’s always an opportunity to grow and become even better. For us, it’s incredibly important that we stay on top of our game, following industry best practices and offering cutting-edge methods and technology to all of our clients.

In order to do this and support our long-term growth strategies, in 2023 we became members of the Energy Industries Council (EIC) and corporate members of the Vibration Institute.

Why? Working within the EIC enables us to expand upon our existing work, offering our high-value services to global clients in the energy industry. Additionally, our corporate membership with the Vibration Institute enables us to offer industry best practices for cutting-edge solutions related to Vibration particularly in the industrial setting, either within Expert Consulting, or Condition Based Monitoring.

They are more than just a membership status, both of these were natural progressions for us in this stage of growth and will only help to propel us further.

At our core, we’re a team of engineers who love what we do and prioritise the work we do for our clients first and foremost. However, investing in the DOCAN brand and committing to growing our online presence has been essential to where we are today.

Recognising the importance of building brand awareness and boosting our online visibility, we’ve transformed our website and made it our mission to put the time and effort into developing our online strategy.

From sharing our knowledge and expertise through educational blog posts to connecting with our clients on Linkedin, we’re reaping the benefits of dedicating time to our online presence and it’s been a powerful addition to overall growth.

We’re very much a can-do company and we carry that attitude into every project we take on. We believe there’s no job too small or large for us, we’ll always find a solution that exceeds expectations.

Of course, we’ve completed various successful projects throughout our time as a company, but there are always those specific jobs that give us a higher sense of achievement. Maybe it’s a brand new challenge, a new industry or a particularly intricate problem.

Some of our standout projects from 2023 include:

• Various projects for the assessment of very high-temperature piping & pressure vessel applications
• R&D project for a new technology in the paper-making industry
• R&D project for a start-up company in the nuclear industry
• Developing our Civil/Structural Engineering discipline with several projects in this area given, started or completed with our Chartered Structural Engineers
• Completed our first project related to Hydrogen/CO2 degradation and embrittlement – with large scopes in play for 2024
• Worked on projects in several new industries for DOCAN, such as FMGC, Auto Manufacture Industry, and Mining

Anyone passionate about their field of work will recognise that attending industry events is easily the best way to network, build connections and gain additional knowledge.

Encouraging our teams to attend relevant events is important to us, no matter where in the world they may be. In fact, we flew over to Abu Dhabi this year to exhibit at ADIPEC for the first time. This was a fantastic event which helped to cement our Middle East growth strategy.

Other great events we attended included the Energy Exports Conference and a Business Growth Event in London. We’re sure there will be many more events on the horizon in 2024.

Speaking of which…

We make no secret of the fact that we aim to become one of the largest international engineering consultancies across our speciality areas. We’re ambitious and we’ll always have plans set in place to help us achieve that long-term.

In the shorter term, our main goals for 2024 start with continuing to expand the consulting capacity of our business. To do this, we’re broadening our scope of supply and employing more great people – with new starters joining in January, February and March. We’re increasing our technology stack to ensure our clients have the very best opportunity for added value, and we’re also starting our regionalisation program with new locations opening up so we can give a better client experience.

Along with that, we want to give something back and kick-start our in-house software and engineering training courses. We have a plethora of knowledge and skills ready to be shared. If you’re interested, keep an eye out on our website as we’ll be launching our first events in early 2024.

We’ll round this off by sharing a huge thank you to all of our incredible clients and colleagues who have made 2023 an unforgettable one. We’re looking forward to seeing what 2024 holds for DOCAN.