Immink’s background is as a marketer with a focus on the effective use of technology-based systems to provide useful and efficient means of managing business functions.

His work has encompassed implementing a national credit authorisation system to worldwide computer-based client relationship management, document management and specialised systems. Previously employed by Esso Petroleum and The Equitable Life Assurance Society, Immink founded Ledma Ltd in 2006 after deep and thorough study and research in order to bring Omneport to the market. His abiding aim is to harness the power of technology for business benefits.

What’s the background to Omneport?

It all started with some personal experiences and a few people from the travel industry who approached me. If all your papers are lost when travelling, what then? I remember trying to fax a 12 page insurance policy to somebody on the West Coast of the USA – it was the middle of the night here, the fax at their end kept mangling the paper and the print was so small the fax just couldn’t cope.

So I gathered a team and we carried out detailed research – both formal market research and desk research as well as one to one interviews with people in a variety of professions and businesses, from directors of public companies to futurologists! We left no stones unturned.

Everybody is voting with their feet nowadays and using the internet more and more for serious matters such as banking, purchasing items and making sometimes quite significant decisions. At the same time, we saw increasing pressures on companies to demonstrate Duty of Care to their employees, to embrace corporate social responsibility, and the Corporate Manslaughter Act was looming, which of course came into force in April this year.

And very recently we were extremely pleased that we were instrumental in the shift of policy from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. For years they had steadfastly proclaimed that when you travel you should always take photocopies of key documents (passports, tickets, credit card details etc). But this meant people would at a stroke be carrying twice the number of documents, thereby doubling the possibility of identity theft. Starting from about 18 months ago, we lobbied them to change the advice. They now include that you should store information in a safe digital store.

So what exactly is Omneport? Why should people use it, how could it help?

Omneport is an ultra-safe computer system accessed through a secure user-friendly website, designed for people to store and organise electronic copies of important personal or business documents such as passports, tickets, medical information, insurance papers, contracts, financial information, the list is endless - so that whenever and wherever copies are needed, by you or by another Omneport user to whom you have given access, they are easily available.

Basically you need no longer carry everything with you – put it in Omneport and access it anywhere in the world from a PC, laptop etc, deal with it and then close it again.

If your laptop packs up or is stolen, it doesn’t matter because the information is actually in Omneport. No need to carry a memory stick which can get lost or damaged. And of course, there’s no information for the US Customs & Border Police to seize! Likewise, no worries if you lose your mobile phone if you’ve put a copy of all your contacts in Omneport.

I must add that all this is also much greener than carrying papers and giving other people photocopies of your key details. On a big scale, that’s the equivalent of chopping down a lot of trees!

Finally, Omneport is independent so not ‘owned’ by an employer - which means people can change jobs without having to start all over again. Omneport is an account in an individual’s name and nobody can look at its contents except the owner of the account.

People like this [independence] - especially for their personal information which they want to have access to even when travelling, such as bank account details, medical information, contact details of family and friends and so on.

What can I put in my Omneport account?

Any document – word documents, pictures, photos, PDFs, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and of course copies of key personal items, passports, insurance policies, contracts, Wills etc. It is your personal secure library.

Who in particular should use Omneport?

Business people who travel. Not just for personal items but also for, say, their travel itineraries, the presentation they are about to make, the highly sensitive business information that you do not want to lose. I believe companies should make Omneport accounts available for all their employees so that they, the companies, know that whatever happens the employee can do his/her work and not be diverted because something – business or personal – has been lost or stolen. It would be a very clear demonstration of the company’s concern for their employees who travel on behalf of the business.

But anybody concerned with looking after their ‘stuff’ – maybe to have it all in one place safe from prying eyes, the burglar, fire or theft.

How safe is Omneport?

Very. Safety depends upon three aspects - physical, digital and human. We use The Bunker to deliver the service and it is right there at the top of security in all of them – it’s a state of the art facility in an ex-MOD nuclear bunker 50 feet underground, with at least four different electricity supplies and run under extremely tight control procedures. The people running it include some of the world’s foremost computer security experts, and their client list is very impressive.

What future plans do you have for Omneport?

We hope shortly to roll out Omneport Central – quite simply, one account but with multiple users. It is ideal for storing key information which needs to be kept wholly and completely separate from a company’s main system. Companies will use it for holding their business continuity plans, risk assessments, health and safety information and anything they wish to keep secure and accessible only to the co-users of the account. And where secure communication is required between parties this will be ideal - it beats email in many ways – you know that the information cannot be inadvertently forwarded to somebody else.