FLINT Research Institute
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History
The FLINT Research Institute (FRI) was set up in 1992 to provide a vehicle for the research activities of members of The FLINT Organization (See below). To this end it took on the splendid premises in Keston, Kent which now bear its name.
However, things have moved on since 1992. FRI and The FLINT Organization now operate quite independently. Approximately half the Associates of FRI are not members of The FLINT Organization. The research activities of FRI go significantly beyond the commercial and technical aspirations of The FLINT Organization. And the premises of FRI provide a convenient and congenial business centre for the local community as well as a research base for The FLINT Organization.
The
FLINT Organization is one of the UK's oldest,
best established and most reputable collaborative networks of
independent consultants and systems companies who share the view that:
The FLINT Organization was launched in 1982 as a commercial club with around half a dozen members. There followed several years of successful informal collaboration and steady growth, with FLINT attracting new members (including a number based outside the UK) whose careers had, in the main, outgrown the larger systems companies. In 1987 the FLINT Organization was incorporated as a UK company limited by guarantee, and at the same time a wholly owned trading subsidiary, FLINT Informatics Limited, was also formed. FLINT Informatics was set up to provide a more formal framework for commercial co-operation, notably in relation to marketing and the performance of larger-scale projects and joint ventures. It is a commercial network of affiliated trading entities - small system companies, partnerships, sole traders - whose principals are members of FLINT. In general, for any particular co-operative project one of the affiliates acts as prime contractor, with all other participants as subcontractors, although the option of FLINT Informatics Limited acting as prime contractor is not excluded. |
Note that neither the FLINT Research Institute nor The FLINT Organization has any connection with Flint Distribution Limited.