Associate Newsletter - July 2023
Associate Programme Update
In our last associate newsletter, we were just a few weeks away from hosting our next associate networking event. Now a number of weeks on we are pleased to share the event was a success with one of our largest turnouts of associates to date. Thank you to everyone who came along, we had a fantastic mix of long-standing veterans of the community along with many new faces who have joined more recently. We’re also very pleased to share that through our charity raffle we were also able to raise funds worth £1,120 for Time to Talk, one of our chosen charities, so again we extend our thanks to all of you who donated on the evening and we look forward to sharing details of the next event later this year.
Looking back on the first half of 2023, it has been another busy year of new client agreements, associates being referred to and joining the programme, and projects mobilising. Below is a snapshot of just some of the stats over the past 6 months, and thank you to everyone who has played a part in supporting Platform Smart during the year so far!
As we now look ahead to the second half of 2023, we’re excited to see an increase in demand from our existing clients as well as numerous new client conversations taking place particularly within the Cyber Security space. We are in conversations with potential new clients in the Banking, Automotive & Aviation sectors all looking to undergo significant Cyber Security Transformations in the coming months so we look forward to progressing these conversations and sharing details of opportunities with you all in due course.
As always, if you’d like to hear more about any of the topics discussed or want to update us on your availability for new engagements please do not hesitate to get in touch with the team at associates@platform-smart.co.uk
Oscar Roper - Head of Associate Programme
Platform Smart Business Update
As we enter the last couple of months of our current financial year, we begin the process of looking ahead to plan and set targets for what will be our 9th financial year. Once again this year seems to have flown by and with the summer holidays just around the corner I suspect the remainder of the year will pass by in a blink of an eye. As is often the case, when looking ahead to plan and set targets, we look back and reflect on the successes and challenges of the previous year. In the main, FY8 has been another fantastic year, we’re seeing growth in the majority of our clients, frameworks extensions are progressing which will provide us with a ‘passport to work’ with our clients for the years ahead, new associates continue to join our associate programme and we continue to be referred to potential new clients to see how we may be able to help them with their transformation activities.
From an economic perspective, we continue to be in uncertain times and having seen month on month growth since April 2020, we have experienced a slight plateau in activity and a levelling off regarding new requirements and opportunities over the past few months. Of course, we always strive for growth but seeing a slight drop in new requirements over the last few months has allowed us to focus more on the inner workings of Platform Smart and to reflect on how we can ensure we scale our processes and systems to ensure that all of our projects and all of our associates receive the levels of service and satisfaction we strive for. Having said that, looking at our pipeline and the new client discussions that are currently taking place, it feels like we are now moving past the plateau of activity and we expect to see an increase in client opportunities over the weeks and months ahead and as things stand we expect to end the FY with 30% growth on last year which given the current climate is a fantastic achievement.
Our Managing Consultant team are progressing some very exciting discussions with 4 potential new clients, all of whom are prestigious brands who we would be proud and excited to work with. Each of these discussions are progressing well and we are in the final stages of contractual discussions with a couple of them and expect to conclude these in the near future, as soon as this is the case we will of course share the details with you and we look forward to mobilising our associates on our first projects with these clients soon.
As always, please do reach out if you want to hear more details about anything going on within Platform Smart or if you have any feedback or ideas that can help make Platform Smart deliver a better service to our clients and Associates. Finally, with schools breaking for summer next week the holiday season is just around the corner, we hope everyone has a fantastic summer and we wish those that are venturing off on holidays a safe and enjoyable break.
Steven Sperling - Director
Client Update - Benson Ince
It’s been a busy year to date across some of my client accounts so I wanted to share an update on some of this activity, and where we expect there to be opportunity over the remainder of 2023.
It will soon be 18 months since we first started working with Scania and we are really pleased with how this relationship has evolved during this time. With engagements spanning across payments & finance, CRM & loyalty, building controls and more, we are thrilled to be involved in so many critical projects and with the fantastic work our associate team has delivered to date. With some changes in the Scania leadership team, we are also supporting the stabilisation, project governance, and preparation for new senior arrivals and look forward to continuing to build on our relationship with Scania to further support their Technology & Finance transformations over the months ahead.
We’re excited to see lots of activity and opportunity on the horizon with Costa Coffee as they prepare for a significant Dynamics 365 Programme across finance and operations. We have recently welcomed two new associates onto the account providing Business Analysis & PMO services and are in active conversations with Costa exploring how Platform Smart can further support their transformation as things progress.
Finally, following the successful work delivered to date across a variety of infrastructure projects and support services, we are pleased to continue to see further demand coming from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) as they prepare for further infrastructure transformations. In particular we are seeing an increase in demand to provide architecture services to execute a variety of specific improvements identified across the business and IT infrastructure and will share more information in due course as we look to build this capability.
Benson Ince - Managing Consultant
Becoming available?
If you would like to discuss any of the above topics further, hear more about current opportunities with Platform Smart, or give us an update of your current situation and availability then feel free to get in touch with the link below.