“What does good look like – and how can it be accelerated” are questions which many enterprises are asking about their IT, and a Docker and AWS specialist aims to answer these issues. Benjamin Wootton, co-founder of VC-backed business consultant Contino says his business differs from traditional IT outsource and this has to be, given that technology is now much more strategic. “We aim to transform the enterprise model from 'build your own', by showing enterprise IT how to work, exposing them to best practices.”
It seems to be working for them, having this year attracted some $30m of VC fund to support expansion after growing 400% in 2015. “Traditional IT was a cost centre, now it is source of competitive advantage but they struggle for talent.” Which is where Contino steps in, as advisor, tool expert and as a Docker and AWS partner, supporter of cloud integration.
“Engaging in several vertical markets is an issue – but now that all businesses are based on technology we work with financial services, retail and many other industries.”
It is understanding the change in the client organisation that seems to eb at the heart of what they do: “We have had experience of processes and our expertise is based on organisational change – psychology as well as technology – which combine to provide the motivation. The traditional IT outsourcer and even the vendors ware better at selling technology not transformation. But the culture has to change.”
The customers know they need to be better and more responsive, but they need guidance on the issues, the pitfalls and talk to someone about a reasonable timeframe. “
Interestingly, he says, AWS is starting to cross over into enterprise – there have been a few early adopters – “We found individual teams as well as central IT has really latched onto it this year in the advanced integration area. The feedback is that a lot of the early AWS parters were infrastructure sellers. But we are willing to get stuck into changing the client culture – recruiting those with a hybrid and coaching mentality as well as the technology.”
Financial services and insurance are feeling pressure from fintech. so this is a boom area, he says. It requires a reasonable degree of vertical market expertise, but with the new backing and user cases, Contino has been looking at the trends in financial services and learning the challenges. He is currently evaluating the European market for financial services.;looking at Benelux and Germany, but the Nordics is also proving interesting for retail and small business.
“So the only thing holding us back is meeting the demand – and having the resources. We are looking at growth through acquiring the right similar firm with people of a similar mindset.” He is interested in people with one or two large enterprise accounts. In parallel there is a plan for organic growth in the US.
There are a lot of small consulting players, but the scalability of management limits them to about 30-40 people; the big players like Accenture are expensive and also create dependency. “We are actually committed to creating dependency only through quality of delivery. We actively bring clients to talk to each other and co-work with the clients.”