The growth expectations of Ultima Business Solutions surged following the appointment of experienced stalwart Scott Dodds as CEO. With his feet firmly under the desk, he outlines the next phase of Ultima's expansion journey and the strategy behind it.
Two months ago Reading-based Ultima Business Solutions appointed Scott Dodds as CEO. He replaced former CEO and founder Max McNeill who became Chairman, taking on a more strategic role focused on acquisitions, recruitment and overseeing the move to a new HQ. McNeill established Ultima in 1990 having spotted a gap in the market for selling third party memory. A year later the company sold its first PC and broadened its scope to include managed services and risk management in 2001 and 2005 respectively. The company went on to expand its offices in London and purchased a business park in Reading that will function as its headquarters from 2016.
While revenue and profitability have been consistent a recent sales surge pushed revenues from £73 million in the 2013/14 financial year to £88 million the following year, with a projected £108 million this year. The company's customer base is made up of mid-sized enterprises, predominantly, but not exclusively, in the private sector. Ultima's growth has been almost exclusively organic, but Dodds said there will be acquisitions of complementary and niche businesses in the pipeline.
The primary development over the past two to three years has been sales growth, especially across Ultima's product and service portfolio which includes managed services. "Growth has come from the expansion of sales force and consultancy resources," said Dodds. "I'm looking to broadcast what we do a lot further, becoming more transparent about Ultima's potential. It's also about planning ahead and placing our bets as customers and partners begin to ponder their options about which technology is best for the next stage in their business' development."
From a technical perspective Ultima sees the adoption of Fluid IT, subscription-based and cloud services as a positive thing for its customers, although there is a knock on impact for other areas of the company's business. Therefore, its evolution will be focused on providing advisory services around planning strategies and migration to these solutions, and then fully managing the customers' environment within these new solutions.
"Ultima has the ability to provide solid advice based on expertise and a deep understanding of what works best at an infrastructure level," added Dodds. "None of the more complex solutions, such as cloud, work without modernising the infrastructure of a business. Somebody has to make all this work together, maintain it and ensure that it's secure while also thinking about innovation. We want more people and businesses to understand what we can do for them through telling our story."
According to Dodds, the potential just gets bigger for smart companies like Ultima. "I'm in a privileged position as I've experienced working for a couple of the big vendors - Microsoft and VMware - so I can see where the industry is going," he commented. "I know things are getting bigger and better for us as licensing is becoming more consulting and services-led than ever before.
"One of our roles is to understand what's going on in the marketplace technology wise, and to have an opinion. It's no longer good enough to be agnostic when it comes to technology. People don't want that, they want an opinion and want to know why this is the best solution for them. In every industry, we've got to work out what the great ideas are, the things that customers in that industry demand, how to get better engagement, and then work out what technology is the best way to deliver this. There are so many different avenues in hybrid technology, which means you need smart infrastructure capabilities to be able to make that work."
Ultima has embarked on a recruitment drive to build on its 350 employees but the task is not an easy undertaking. "The challenge for the channel is always about having the right people, as well as being able to train them so that they can give the best advice possible," said Dodds. "The opportunity is almost unimaginable going forward, but the issue is about how we resource that. We've all got to learn how we can grow from within and find new ways of attracting young people into the industry, whether that's through Government sponsorship or apprenticeship and graduate schemes.
"Finding the best people and retaining the talent is at the top of our priorities. There's a huge opportunity for our people to grow up with the business and gain new experiences, and also for new recruits in both the Thames Valley and London where our offices are based. We want people to understand what they can get from Ultima and how they can grow alongside us."
As for technology, it needs to become simpler to consume, use and address, according to Dodds. To do that, the technology behind the consumer interface needs to be more manageable and much less complex. "The world of computing is so diverse that today you need a significant breadth of knowledge to be able to secure and manage this data," he said.
Dodds' own knowledge of technology and interest in IT stems from his father who worked for IBM during the 1960s. "After leaving college I started working for one of the first resellers in the UK," recalled Dodds. "I worked my way up and joined a company called Rapid Recall which is where I met Max McNeill some 30 years ago."
After six successful years with Rapid at the start of the PC era, Dodds set up his own reseller business with two colleagues. "We had a rather unique business plan for the late '80s and early '90s," he said. "We sold software from a CD focused on the Sun Microsystems marketplace, all before the Internet took off.
"We had our own reseller business for a couple of years before I took a job at Compaq, eventually running its UK channels business. This allowed me to gain more experience working with hardware and I subsequently became Sales Director at Acer in 1999, and then Managing Director when the existing MD, Dion Weisler, who is now heading up HP globally, moved on."
Dodds' next career move was to join Microsoft where he worked for over 11 years, initially running the OEM business in Northern Europe before getting involved with partner programmes, prior to becoming the marketing and operations lead in the UK. "My last role at Microsoft was running the mid-market and partner organisation for Western Europe for a couple of years," added Dodds.
"I spent almost a year with VMware as VP of EMEA Channels until Max talked to me about the opportunity with Ultima. It was perfect timing. There is a huge opportunity for Ultima to expand, particularly to grow our consulting and managed services businesses significantly in the next few years.
"Every year that goes by is the fastest, most innovative and challenging in terms of technology and the speed that it's developing. Customers and partners have to react to that, and we need to make sure we support them in the right way."