WiFi SPARK's Matt O’Donovan on their approach to innovation and product development

Matt O’Donovan started WiFi SPARK in 2003, almost 20 years on, the business has grown and refocused its energy on the healthcare sector. Working to deliver patient engagement platforms that work for more than just the patient, O’Donovan and his team respect the network of influencers that have allowed them to get where they are today and plan to deliver innovations that make life better.

Matt O’Donovan built WiFi SPARK from the ground up. In 2003 WiFi SPARK was born with just O’Donovan and one other employee. From humble beginnings providing WiFi solutions to B&Bs and small venues, the business quickly took off and gained some of the best hotels, marinas, and conference venues in the country, only slightly ahead of the company’s work within the NHS which now dominates its ventures.

As WiFi SPARK’s CEO, O’Donovan recognises that running a company isn’t just about business. Along the way, you form relationships and friendships with customers, suppliers, and employees, even with competitors. Respecting the importance of genuine relationships allows customers to trust you with their businesses, you to trust your suppliers with yours, and for mutual respect to be developed with your competitors. You are able to grow and develop a team of loyal people working with you to achieve what are ultimately your goals.

The goal of WiFi SPARK has developed over the last eighteen years. It began as delivering intelligent WiFi solutions to an array of high-profile convention centres and arenas but has since refocused, to target providing free Patient Engagement and Entertainment opportunities to the NHS and healthcare organisations.

O’Donovan’s vision is to revolutionise the delivery of Patient Entertainment and Engagement over the next three years. To achieve this, there has to be a great deal of innovation and smart thinking that pushes the company to remain relevant and realistic.

This innovation works so successfully by utilising those relationships. Whether it be calling on the company’s exceptional employees or looking to a brilliant network of Partners, the WiFi SPARK roadmap is continuously developed by engaging in conversations about how to make the company’s solution even better with the people who build it, sell it, and use it.

Within healthcare, innovation built upon user feedback is integral. It doesn’t make sense to develop a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist or to ignore a pain point experienced across the industry. For any healthcare technology to be successful you must work with healthcare professionals and patients alike to develop responsive solutions that make their everyday that little bit easier, something that has become even more poignant over the last two years.

Another factor important to WiFi SPARK’s continual growth is engagement in conferences and events, something the team is very happy to have back face to face. February will see Matt O’Donovan and the WiFi SPARK team attending the Leading Healthcare Innovation Summit at London’s QEII. O’Donovan will lead a presentation on the benefits of deploying patient engagement solutions to areas not always considered; looking at how engagement platforms can work for staff as well as patients.

As WiFi SPARK’s focus hones in on patient engagement solutions, the opportunity for the company’s growth and success relies heavily on responding to the arena as it changes. Who knows how the company will continue to evolve over the next eighteen years.