Osborne Engineering case study: becoming an essential cog in a successful business machine with a global footprint
Osborne Engineering has built a reputation for exceptional service quality and dedicated customer support over more than 40 years supplying white metal hydrodynamic bearings into heavy industry.
When the company first engaged with Atom in October 2025, it was looking for an IT provider that could not only handle daily “niggles and gremlins” but also be trusted with Osborne’s broader IT infrastructure and security – critical considerations for a business with offices not just in the UK but also the USA, Poland, Malaysia and Dubai.
And what they really wanted was a provider not afraid to pick up the phone and have a conversation. So, of course, our “Talk First” approach suited them down to the ground.
“Wherever and whenever we have an IT issue within the business, Atom’s team have always been quick to get on the case and find resolutions swiftly. We really appreciate being able to pick up the phone and talk to Atom’s IT experts because we find it just helps to get things fixed quicker than getting into an email exchange.
“Their “Talk First approach” is definitely something we value”
Scott McLean, General Manager at Osborne Engineering
Founded in Newcastle in 1984, what Osborne Engineering don’t know about white metal bearing manufacture and repair frankly isn’t worth knowing. Over the years, Osborne Engineering Ltd (OEL) has acquired other organisations and expanded its offering to move into training and condition monitoring services.
Having worked extensively across the petrochemical, oil & gas, and power generation industries, OEL is a business that prides itself on professionalism. And so the company needs an IT function as robust and efficient as its operational team.
OEL General Manager, Scott McLean, explains, these requirements ultimately led his business to Atom’s door.
“We used to have an in-house IT team but as the business grew and evolved we made the decision to opt for a plug-in solution from an IT consultancy. We’ve worked with a number of external IT companies over the years but we made the jump to Atom towards the end of 2025.
“To date, we’ve found the team at Atom to be highly responsive and, after a quick phone call or email, we often find issues solved in less than half an hour . . . unless it’s a wider hardware or solution issue. I can certainly say that the team have been swift in fixing problems to date.”
Scott explains that keeping the Osborne’s IT running smoothly and seamlessly is particularly critical due to the fact that the head office holds all of the Group’s manufacturing and repair drawings, which are vital for business continuity. He says,
“If the IT went down locally, the whole group would be impacted so the role Atom play in ensuring that our IT infrastructure is well managed and maintained really does matter.”
Scott continues,
“We’ve also had the technical team at Atom look at our connectivity to ensure our broadband is as fast and reliable as we need it to be. They’ve recently assisted us in upgrading our routers and we’ve definitely seen an improvement in recent weeks – both in our UK office and in the USA.”
Supporting growth
With ambitions for substantial growth in the coming years, Osborne Engineering was also keen to work with an IT provider that had the capacity to flex up and meet the growing needs of the organisation as it expands and evolves.
But that shouldn’t come at the expense of a personal touch and Scott suggests that one of the key benefits of working with Atom has been the ability to simply pick up the phone and have a conversation. He says,
“We really appreciate being able to pick up the phone and talk to Atom’s IT experts because we find it just helps to get things fixed quicker than getting into an email exchange.
“Their “talk First approach” is definitely something we value.”
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