Business Spotlight – OASIS Group
OASIS Group – The quiet guys at the end of Gowerton Road are ready to meet their neighbours – and help them reduce their digital carbon footprint
Hidden away at the bottom of Gowerton Road sits one of Brackmills’ most intriguing businesses. OASIS Group’s low profile isn’t by accident – when you’re trusted with storing sensitive legal documents, pharmaceutical records, and critical business data, discretion is part of the service. But now these specialists in information security want to share something valuable with their Brackmills neighbours: a way to dramatically cut costs and carbon emissions through smarter digital storage.
“Our site isn’t easy to find, and that’s deliberate – we want to protect our customers’ information,” explains Mike Hallam from OASIS Group. “But it does mean we’re not that well known on the estate, even though we’ve been here for five years.”
From Dublin to Brackmills
OASIS Group was established in Dublin in 1999, where the European headquarters remains today. The company has grown through strategic acquisition to become one of just three major national players in records and information management, with around 10 sites across the UK and a presence in Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. The business employs 1,700 people across all territories and serves over 11,500 clients, with 25 staff based at the Brackmills facility.
The company built its reputation on physical document storage for sectors where compliance and security are paramount – legal firms, finance, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, and the NHS. Over the years, the business evolved to include document scanning services, helping clients transition from physical to digital formats. OASIS Group even operates its own shredding plant in Roade, where documents are securely destroyed and recycled into soft paper products.
The digital revolution – and its hidden environmental cost
But it’s the latest evolution of the business that could prove most valuable to Brackmills neighbours. Late in 2024, OASIS Group launched FileSmart, a sophisticated overlay to Microsoft SharePoint designed to tackle a growing problem that most businesses don’t even realise they have: the environmental impact of digital data storage.
“Businesses look at electric fleets, they plant trees, they focus on recycling,” says Mike. “But they rarely consider or understand the impact of their digital footprint. The reality is that digital data storage can’t just keep growing exponentially – data centres now consume more energy than the entire United Kingdom.”
Working with professors from Loughborough University, OASIS Group has produced a white paper on digital decarbonisation. The research reveals a stark truth: much of the data businesses store is redundant, duplicated, or simply unnecessary. This ‘dark data’ – information captured but rarely or never used – creates a massive drain on energy resources and contributes significantly to carbon emissions.
“Think about how often someone takes multiple versions of the same file, all saved with slightly different names,” Mike explains. “You’ve got inefficient version control, duplicated effort, and unnecessary storage. All of this consumes a lot of manual effort, energy and costs money.”
A free health check for Brackmills businesses
To help their neighbours address this challenge, Oasis is offering Brackmills BID members a complimentary digital health check. These 45 to 60-minute sessions – available face-to-face or online – provide a comprehensive assessment of how efficiently a business manages its digital data.
“We bring together the key people – someone who holds the purse strings, someone technical, and the end users who work with documents daily,” says Mike. “We workshop the challenges, whether that’s compliance issues, the time it takes to find information, or the costs of storage. Then we produce a digital maturity report that shows where you are and what could be improved.”
The benefits extend far beyond environmental credentials. Businesses that optimise their digital storage typically see reduced operational costs, faster data processing, improved decision-making, and better resource allocation. Businesses have seen cost savings of over £30,000 a year as well as saving thousands of hours of time locating data.
“It’s about making your digital infrastructure leaner, more efficient, and environmentally friendly,” Mike adds. “And if we can help with some of the gaps we identify, that’s great. If not, we simply part as friends. The aim is to help businesses understand where they’re at digitally and what they can do about it.”
Security by obscurity – but ready to connect
While OASIS may be hard to find on Gowerton Road, their expertise is becoming increasingly relevant as businesses grapple with growing data volumes and mounting pressure to reduce carbon emissions. The company’s approach to digital decarbonisation addresses a blind spot in most sustainability strategies.
“We’re the quiet guys at the end of the road, and that works well for our clients who trust us with their most sensitive information,” says Mike. “But now we want to meet our neighbours and contribute to the Brackmills business community. We’ve got something valuable to offer, and we’d love to share it.”
To book your free digital storage health check, contact Mike Hallam [email protected]
For more information about OASIS and their services, visit their website: www.oasisgroup.com
