Top US tech uni thanks Caltech Lifts for help with messaging app

Caltech Lifts has been thanked for help with a messaging app by a world-famous US tech university!

Family firm Caltech Lifts was founded in 1978 by engineer Howard Renwick and changed its name in 1985 from ‘Instrument and Control Engineering’ to Caltech Ltd to reflect its move from calibrating, repairing and testing items such as pressure gauges into lift engineering – it stands for ‘Calibration and Technology’.

Recently his son Andrew, who now runs the company along with brother Fraser, got an email from a senior director of IT at the California Institute of Technology (usually abbreviated to Caltech) asking if the Dundee firm could help out their namesake with a problem on the company messaging app Slack.

A group of people at the US university, founded in 1891 and rated the world’s best in the most recent Times Higher Education rankings, had been using the messaging system to reduce the number of internal emails and found it so useful they decided to roll it out to the rest of the staff. But when the IT person went to claim the organisation name ‘caltech.slack.com’ on the app they found it had already been taken by the Dundee lift firm!

Started a year ago

They started using Slack about a year ago after Andrew Renwick complained to his brother Steven, who runs financial technology firm Satago, about how many of his daily emails were internal and how much time he spent dealing with them.

Steven recommended using Slack for internal organising chats because he’d found it transformed internal communications for him and his colleagues by being quick and easy to use as well as integrating easily with other systems. Since going on it the family lift firm has seen the benefits.

The first problem only came when they got the email from Caltech the university!

Surprised

Speaking about the unusual request, Managing Director Andrew Renwick says: “I was quite surprised when I initially read the email, and half-wondered if it was a prank. But it quickly became clear it was real. Then I thought it was quite funny that a tech university rated the best in the world was asking if we would do them a big favour with a piece of technology!”

Although he doubted anyone would ever confuse his company, which is one of the UK’s leading suppliers and maintainers of lift equipment, with the Californian university, Andrew agreed to have his firm’s Slack name changed to ‘‘caltechlifts.slack.com’ as he realised the potential name confusion on the app could be a big problem for the university, which has several thousand users of the app. “It seemed the decent thing to do,” says Andrew.

In return the university, best known as the fictional home of the lead characters in top US comedy The Big Bang Theory, sent him a bottle of extra virgin olive oil made from olives which grow on-campus, a Caltech badge and offered him and his family a free tour of the university if they’re ever in the area.

Sandra Cole
Sandra Cole
05/08/2022
I would like to say a huge thank you to your team for the excellent customer service you have provided to my parents in Dundee. You have gone way beyond providing a service. My mum is disabled and cannot function at home without her stairlift. She is by all accounts housebound. The support you have given them is quite frankly unbelievable and it is blatantly apparent how much you care. I cannot recommend your company highly enough. My parents are my world and I have no words to explain just how well you have looked after them. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are amazing. Sandra Cole.
Lynn N
Lynn N
14/02/2022
Quoted and fitted a stairlift for my parents at short notice and at a significantly lower price than all the national competitors. Happy to support a local company, and we were delighted with the service - from sales staff to the guy who performed the installation.
kev
kev
08/06/2021
We (Alpha Projects) have worked with Caltech Lifts on several projects and would not hesitate to highly recommend the company. We have always found Caltech to offer a friendly, personable service and carry out their works in an efficient, safe and timely manner.
John Fort
John Fort
07/05/2021
Cannot thank Caltech enough for swift service in getting our lift back up and running in time when we urgently needed it most, could not have got this service any where else top job guys - Thank you again - The Fort Hotel Broughty Ferry Dundee
Jason Sellars
Jason Sellars
18/12/2020
An absolute pleasure to deal with. Having discussed my requirements Caltech were able to provide a stairlift that matched my criteria and budget perfectly. Very impressed by their clear, friendly and fast communication as well as punctuality . Installation work by engineer Tony is impeccable, and was carried out very efficiently with no disruption at all. He also gave excellent step by step instructions on using the lift (we all observed Covid awareness throughout). This stairlift has helped to lift my mum out of what has been a very difficult time for her, and I'm so pleased to have supported such a well deserving local company. Thanks again Murray, Graeme and Tony!
Robert Sloan
Robert Sloan
13/12/2020
I would highly recommend Caltech Lifts as just installed a stair lift into my mothers home. From start to finish all those involved have been very professional, efficient, keeping us informed throughout the whole process. The installation was carried out to a high standard. Special thanks to Graeme and Tony
Henry Donaldson
Henry Donaldson
19/07/2020
We recently had a problem with the lift in the care home myself and my wife run - our current service provider said we were going to have to spend £20,000 to upgrade the equipment so naturally I got a second price. To my absolute delight Caltech sent an engineer out to take details but also to spend a little time on the lift to which they managed to resolve the intermittent fault and it has now been running perfectly for 6 weeks!! Can't thank the team enough.
Brian J Kidd
Brian J Kidd
03/07/2017
Super helpful. Great service and staff, highly recommend