Psytechnics

Psytechnics Limited operated as a specialized telecommunications firm focused on performance management technology for unified communications services. The company was established on November 20, 2000, as a spin-out from the research labs of British Telecom. A key figure associated with the company was CTO and Founder, Dr. Mike Hollier. Before its acquisition, Psytechnics had established dual headquarters in Ipswich, United Kingdom, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.

The core of Psytechnics' business was the development and provision of software to proactively manage and assure the user experience for IP-based voice, video, and telepresence services. Its flagship product, the Experience Manager, offered real-time visibility into the Quality of Experience (QoE) for end-users of unified communications. This technology translated complex network performance data, such as jitter and packet loss, into understandable quality metrics like the Mean Opinion Score (MOS). The software was designed to support a wide array of unified communications technologies from multiple vendors, enabling IT departments to diagnose and resolve call quality issues efficiently. By 2009, the Experience Manager was managing networks with over one million IP Telephony users across Europe and the United States, serving clients that included large enterprises and service providers.

The company's revenue model was centered on selling its Experience Manager software to organizations that needed to monitor and guarantee the quality of their real-time communication networks. The technology developed by Psytechnics was significant enough to contribute to seven ITU standards, including the widely recognized PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) P.862 algorithm. On April 1, 2011, Psytechnics was acquired by NetScout Systems, a publicly traded provider of service assurance and cybersecurity solutions. The acquisition was a strategic move for NetScout to integrate Psytechnics' advanced technology and engineering expertise into its nGenius Service Assurance Solution, thereby strengthening its capabilities in managing unified communications. At the time of the sale, Psytechnics was backed by institutional investors including DFJ Esprit, Gimv, and New Venture Partners.

Keywords: Psytechnics, voice quality monitoring, Quality of Experience, QoE, unified communications, performance management, NetScout, IP telephony, video conferencing assurance, PESQ, mean opinion score, MOS, telepresence, network performance, Mike Hollier, British Telecom spin-out, real-time monitoring, Experience Manager software, VoIP management, call quality diagnostics