Everon, the European market leader in digital grouped living solutions, has announced the appointment of Mark Smith to lead the company’s UK sales and partnerships team at a time of significant change and opportunity for digital healthcare.
As UK Sales Director for Everon, Mark will draw on more than 35 years of experience in the technology enabled care (TEC) sector, to continue strong relationships with project teams within NHS community healthcare and private sector housing organisations.
Mark joins Everon having worked with several industry leading companies supporting digital transformation in the public sector as well as opportunities for business growth across health, housing and social care using his technology, SaaS and Smart City experience.
He is also someone with a passion for driving improvement and improved health outcomes, through the potential of TEC, having become an established thought leader on the impact that digital solutions can make to improving at-home preventative care and reducing pressures on public sector services.
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Mark to the team, and look forward to the impact he will bring as we enter an exciting new chapter for the business. Our thanks go to Lee Balfour who has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth as Sales Director over the past four years and we wish him all the best for the future.
“We are determined at Everon UK to make it easier for our existing and future clients to invest in our game changing digital solutions, including our recently announced partnership with Siemens Leasing, allowing health, housing and social providers to access the technology services now with flexible commercial options."
“This year we have also announced new strategic partnerships that have given us the capability to deliver systems that will bring the next generation of proactive care technology to assisted living providers, ensuring people can live independently for longer.
“By 2027 UK TEC will be fully digital and Mark will play a pivotal role in terms of bringing Everon to the attention of new health and care providers as they make that transition to a more pro-active and supportive approach, delivering TEC solutions that have the potential to transform healthcare as we know it.”
Mark Smith, Sales Director, Everon UK, said: “Everon UK is on an exciting journey, and I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to play my part in the company’s continued growth as a leading UK TEC solution provider. This is not just another job for me, but an opportunity to share my experience to support, grow and motivate the next team of thought leaders driving change in health, housing and social care. I can’t wait to get started.”
We're pleased to announce that Richard Hosier, Head of Product Development for Everon UK, has been appointed as a BSI Committee Member to help improve national quality standards across the industry.
The British Standards Institute (BSI), the UK's National Standards Body, oversees the national standards-making process and represents the UK in European and international standards organisations like CEN, CENELEC, ISO, and IEC.
In his new role, Richard will be part of the BSI panel GW/1/12/3, contributing to the revision of BS 8521-2:2020, which focuses on social alarm system signalling protocols.
This quality standard is essential to ensuring that social alarm systems from different manufacturers exchange information and controls with alarm receiving centres in a compatible manner.
BS 8521 [LW1] specifies a protocol for point-to-point transmission of alarms, faults, control signals and communications monitoring to allow for communication of alarm information, system information, speech control functions, equipment control systems and streaming media.
Richard will be focused on a specific area of this standard (BS 8521 – 2:2020) which is the digital communications protocol dealing with specialised group living environments. This is designed to support multiple users using a shared social alarm infrastructure.
This area is an essential part of the switchover in the UK’s social care alarm industry from analogue to digital systems with the revisions to the protocol considering the fundamental differences between traditional analogue and IP-based technology.
“I’m looking forward to bringing my experience and that of Everon across the business to setting the industry standard that will ensure the quality of service to clients across health, housing and social care is maintained as we transition to a digital future,” Richard said.
The UK has a new government with Labour securing power for the first time in 14 years, and Keir Starmer elected as Prime Minister.
During the election campaign, the party released a list of pledges explaining what it would do, if elected – from modernising hospital equipment to creating a National Care Service.
These manifesto commitments will now form part of a legislative programme aimed at cutting NHS waiting times, reducing pressures on primary and acute health services and reforming social care.
For those of us operating in the Technology Enabled Care (TEC) sector this renewed focus provides an opportunity to shape future policy and remind newly appointed ministers how we can contribute to reducing the need for care home and emergency admissions.
The TEC Services Association (TSA), the national advisory body for TEC, released a seven-point summary shortly before polling day detailing how TEC can support the new government in delivering improvements around health, social care and housing.
These reveal how TEC empowers older and disabled people to lead ‘technology enabled lives’, boosting independence and wellbeing and helping them to access early support, closer to home.
They also highlight how TEC keeps people out of hospital highlighting how 85% of people who’ve fallen remain at home if their call is handled by a TEC falls team.
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, said:
“The new government has promised to fix the NHS, but any reforms ministers intend to deliver must be considered at the same time as the much-needed changes required to fix social care. We finally need to grasp the nettle.
“Technology enabled care (TEC) will be key to this, reducing pressure on our health services by preventing emergency admissions to hospital and allowing more people to live independently at home for longer.”
“The TEC sector has the potential to drive economic growth alongside reducing the burden on statutory services, as part of a digital and AI strategy for adult social care.”
Everon, the European market leader in digital grouped living solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with Siemens Leasing to help health, housing and social care providers with the cost of adopting the latest in technology enabled care (TEC).
As an approved partner, the company will be able to provide flexible payment schemes that will allow potential clients to better manage the cost of adopting the next generation of at-home care. Benefits will include:
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, said: “We want to make it easier for our existing and future clients to invest in our digital solutions with minimal up-front costs. This partnership with Siemens Leasing will help us to achieve that goal.
“It is an exciting time for Everon as a business and for the TEC sector more broadly as we move closer to the end of analogue in telecare with new digital technologies coming on stream that will ensure people can live independently for longer.
“We now have the capability to monitor people’s health from anywhere - helping to provide better care, from fall detection to location identification. This new partnership will allow more clients to invest in systems with the potential to transform healthcare as we know it.”
The strategic partnership with Siemens Leasing comes as many clients consider their options for future investment in digital solutions before 2027 when all analogue telephone services will cease across the UK in favour of digital-only connectivity.
Everon provides end-to-end digital grouped living and home care solutions with over 100,000 connections in use across Finland, Sweden and the UK. In March 2024 the company announced new partnerships with Howz, Develco Products IRIS-IoT and Cair to collaborate on a range of new smart assisted living solutions.
These will link Everon’s devices and sensors with Howz’s machine learning and change detection technology, giving clients the care insights needed to detect issues early and intervene before they escalate. The aim: to improve proactive care within the home and reduce the need for care home and emergency admissions.
