Ergo goes Platinum by taking a more adaptable approach (Abstract – Sunday Business Post)
Ergo CEO John Purdy talks to Graham Clifford from the Sunday Business Post about the ever-changing IT sector and how to predict, anticipate and react effectively to new waves of innovation.
“The IT sector changes so frequently you’re constantly looking ahead to the next big thing, the next innovation, the next wave.”
“We never stand still. It’s not our way and of course you always have to take a risk,” he said. We did so when we set up Fenergo, a leading provider of Client Lifecycle Management and Client Data Management solutions, as an offshoot of Ergo. The launch of the business process management tool FlowForma was also a leap into the unknown. Often, you have to take short-term hits for long-term gain, and it cantake some time for an investment to come to fruition.”
Purdy anticipates revenues of €100 million by 2020. “That’s our aim and what we’re working towards,” he said. “We’re ambitious and have always been. It’s not the vanity of growth that particularly interests us, but the sustainability of growth. Key to achieving that is hiring the right people. In this sector, you don’t hire people for a job that they can do today, but rather for the job they can do in three or four years’ time. “In the tech space, staff need to be challenged continuously. They need to keep moving, developing, questioning, and so we need to provide that environment.”
“Now, when we approach clients, we speak of outcomes rather than solutions. So we ask how we can positively impact the business in terms of delivering a better margin and as a means to generate revenue,” said Purdy. “Technology is more than a support to the business, it can now be an enabler, a means of transforming the customer’s business so that they can differentiate and gain competitive advantage in their
market.”
“Dealing with the calibre of customer that we have requires Ergo to be world-class, in terms of the systems and processes we employ,” said Purdy. “Recently, for example, we began working with an aircraft leasing business and in their case, due to the nature of their business, we were required to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, not something every company needs to be, which is a major point of differentiation for us. “We’re always learning and, while we don’t want to be the biggest such company in the world we insist on being world class.”
Purdy said this year’s BMC Platinum Award was “further validation that we are executing on our strategy and living up to the vision that we’ve set out for ourselves, for our customers and for our staff”.
