FDM Group: Business Model & Growth Opportunities

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This was when you were at FDM?

I think, as a result of that, Barclays then deemed it more of an opportunity to cut ties and reliance on FDM, and actually use their own internal program they'd started to evolve themselves. That is a risk, but Barclays were heavily behind wanting to do that, and they invested the resources into that. A lot of companies, whilst they want to follow suit, haven't got the investment, and certainly haven't got the time to do it. It was a great journey; we worked with them, we helped set up their apprentice program, more or less, because they utilized that to effectively start to whittle down the numbers that they were using at FDM. I think, at the end of the day, it was a healthy parting; it was for a good reason rather than bad reason.

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What are the entry barriers? It seems like there's quite a few companies in this space.

I think reputation is key. FDM has been around for so long. They are the big market player and everybody knows what you're going to get with an FDM Mountie. In terms of barriers, certainly what I've found in the last few years, it depends on who you are talking to. In the old days, you would go and speak to a CIO or CEO, or get buy-in from the local delivery teams. But now, it's all about, what is your target operating model? What do you really want? How can we overlay this type of model to be compatible with your HR driven program, which might be more diversity inclusion, or more women in IT. I think those are the barriers. It's trying to say that this model can complement your objections rather than be negative to your objections. I think that's where FDM are very shrewd; the fact that they will include HR, they will include diversity inclusion teams, they will include, not just IT delivery managers, but a whole encompassing group to talk about a working solution to get that customer to where they want to be. I think that's still why this model is very, very popular with a lot of companies.

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Switching to your later role, the second half of your career at FDM. Clearly, the model has worked, historically, very well in the UK. How well does that model export itself to other places?

I think it's difficult for companies to expand from, let's say, the UK to America, without having that form of relationship, without possibly having those contractual obligations already signed. I think if you've got that, you've automatically got buy-in with reference ability, so it becomes a little bit easier to introduce that model as you expand out. Not just into perhaps New York, but different states; every state has got a different law. Those are the sorts of things you need to be aware of. I think a cross-border decision maker is fantastic way to expand a lot more quickly.

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