Save The Children and Amido sign IT partnership

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Save The Children International has appointed cloud-first technical consultancy Amido to undertake a strategically important IT project to streamline and consolidate the charity’s IT systems.

Charities are not the most original when it comes to technology, digital or IT, so it’s interesting to note they’re using one of London’s most up-and-coming cloud consultancies to do so.

The charity is a leading international children’s relief organisation operating in 120 countries. They do whatever it takes to ensure all children get access to what they deserve – a healthy start, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm.

By partnering with Amido, Save the Children International hopes to improve its IT efficiency whilst retaining its global brand presence worldwide and national localism in the international marketplace.

“This project will open a lot of doors for us. It’s been a project high up on our strategic technology roadmap for some time. Amido’s efforts will be critically strategic to our IT efficiency so that the charity’s money is spent on helping children – which has always been, and will remain, our only focus,” said Graham Kent, Director of IT Shared Services, Save the Children International.

Amido works with brands such as ASOS, CBRE, Global Radio, London City Airport and Coats to remove friction from their customers’ online and mobile experiences to drive revenue and engagement.

From social sign-in to smart content delivery and smooth transactions, it helps brands build loyalty through customer recognition by bridging systems in a powerful way, yielding real-time results for brands and their customers.

“Amido are proud to be in a position where we can give back. By hosting the solution on Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud Platform – who donate the consumption of their platform their philanthropic arm – we have designed a solution that is scalable, faster and more flexible than what is currently in place,” said Alan Walsh, CEO, Amido.

Amido adds silver lining to the Cloud Industry Forum

Cloud-specialist consultancy Amido is the latest organisation to tap into the benefits of Cloud Industry Forum membership

cloudThe Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), the industry body focused on raising standards in the cloud sector has announced that London-based technical consultancy Amido has become its latest member.

Amido is an independent cloud-based consultancy that works with brands, public sector agencies and global banks to streamline their IT infrastructures.

It was listed at #12 in the 2017 Sunday Times Lloyds SME Export Track 100 and has experienced a 124% increase in international sales in the past two years.

CIF is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to improve standards and education in the industry. It provides a Code of Practice to endorse providers of cloud services and, through its Professional CIF Membership scheme, assists end users to enable them to adopt such services.

“Being part of CIF will enable us to work more closely with key players in the cloud industry and their eLearning schemes will also help us to accelerate our technical expertise. We look forward to working with CIF and its members to drive best practise and transparency in the cloud market,” said Alan Walsh, CEO of Amido.

CIF has three priorities:

* Create a platform to discuss, engage and partner within the community to ensure thought-leadership and market direction. We do this through regular members meetings, media and customer events, whitepapers and market research
 
* To drive a public level of transparency about the capability of Cloud Service Providers through a process of self-certification to an EU-recognised Code of Practice. This Code of Practice enables CSPs to present their proposition as trusted suppliers while raising their brand

* CIF has built a Professional Membership program enabling IT professionals to see best practice of adoption. Following a Cloud Adoption Roadmap, users and suppliers can enhance their skills and achieve certification via an online training process. 

“Amido has a deep understanding of the benefits of cloud and a wide knowledge of where the market is. As a consultancy that helps organisations to tap into those benefits, Amido has a lot to contribute to our work and to the market as a whole,” said Alex Hilton, CEO, CIF.

Exclusive Q&A with Alan Walsh, CEO Amido

Alan Walsh has engaged in global delivery management roles for big brands such Marks and Spencer, Channel 4 and lastminute.com before setting up Amido in 2010. He speaks here exclusively about how Amido is rocking the IT consultancy boat.

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Q. So, Mr Walsh, how would you describe Amido to ‘the person on the street’?

A. We are a privately owned, vendor-agnostic technical consultancy that specialises in implementing cloud-first solutions to deliver business value, fast.

We help our clients build flexibility for the future and differentiation of customer experience. And, we do this while minimising business-risk and build-cost.

Q So, please tell my readers more about the market you’re in

A.  We believe companies are tired of paying large sums to global consultancies such as IBM and Cap Gemini and waiting years for innovative projects and new functionality to be delivered to the business.

Q So you’re trying to disrupt this dated model?

​A Yes. It currently takes too long for IT behemoths ​to deliver business value and we are ​disrupting the old model by​ going straight to the cloud
​and doing things faster, in a more agile way and on a more personal level.

Q. In the sector right now, what is hot apart from disruption?

A. Well, there’s the obvious rise in cloud technology adoption, there is a skills shortage in this area that needs to be addressed and we know there is an increased demand for solid engineering expertise in agile software development to enable digital transformation​.

​Q. What is the problem that Amido is solving?

A. We believe CIOs are asking: “How do I spend my IT budget on something that innovates and delivers real business value to the business and our customers, quickly?”.

That, effectively is us.

​We are assembling and integrating proven cloud technologies, often building solutions around an existing core while enabling clients to prioritise their investment between commodity services and those that deliver competitive advantage.

​Q. So which companies are you currently working with?

​A. We think we’re gathering an impressive client list, past and present. This includes​ ASOS, ​CBRE, ​Coats, ​Channel 4, Faithful+Gould (part of Atkins Global), Global Radio, ​London City Airport, ​the RSA and a couple of major high street banks and public sector bodies we can’t name… as much as we’d love to.​

​Q. Why do you think you’re a cut above your competitors?​

A.  A lot of our competitors are technically biased or aligned to particular vendors. We don’t operate like that.

Our choices for our clients are not based on kickbacks from enormous IT vendors. We make pragmatic choices.

Amido was set up because we felt that enterprises and digital agencies were trying to re-invent the wheel every time a new project came along.

​We think the real magic is hiring the best engineers, understanding what our clients need, knowing the technology that is available in the marketplace and aligning these technologies together in the most effective way.

Finally, tell us about the culture of the company​

​A. The company founders have all worked with each other in previous lives – software companies, digital agencies, client-side technical teams.

​We set up Amido as we were frustrated with how technology was being delivered in organisations and agencies/consultancies.

Consequently we only hire the best and we like to think he have a sense of humour in an industry that is generally considered dry and a little stolid.​ I think the video that you plan to run with this Q&A shows that pretty well.

​Q. Thanks for coming in, Alan, enjoyed the conversation, I think our readers will do as well

​A. My pleasure, thanks for having me.