The success of its US operation, which has grown from zero to a near-$40m run-rate in its three-year life, has persuaded Cambridge Technology Partners Inc to bring its brand of systems integration to the UK, with the opening of an office in Richmond, Surrey. The move comes six months after the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based firm began its European venture by establishing an outlet for its services in Holland. To compete against traditional systems integration concerns over here like Hoskyns Group Plc and Andersen Consulting, chief executive James Sims – former Concurrent Computer Corp president – says Cambridge Technology offers quicker and cheaper solutions. The company’s main thrust is interoperability, and it is not aligned with any particular technology or system. Most of its 300-odd US customers are moving from outmoded minicomputer environments to mission-critical Unix-based systems. Because Europe never rode the minicomputer wave to quite the same degree as the US, Sims argues that, on the whole, European firms haven’t had to make that quantum shift quite so soon. However there are many, he believes, that are now ready to do so. Cambridge Technology’s strategy is to introduce a single Unix server at the centre of a customer’s existing computing set-up and use it to develop an application such as project management or customer service, with graphical user interface clients; something not already up on the proprietary kit. Sims estimates that such an initiative would cost anything between $5m to $20m and take up to two or three years on a proprietary system – he says Cambridge Technology can typically do the job within six months for under $1m. Subsequently, Cambridge Technology would move more applications over to the Unix server and begin to do distributed computing. It will only then begin to assess the need for the rest of the proprietary kit and begin downsizing the organisation, gradually eliminating proprietary boxes as their duties are replaced by Unix applications. Some proprietary systems are always likely to be retained for certain tasks, Sims says. Cambridge Technology sells no products apart from its own services and does not offer traditional facilities management. Buying hardware, Sims believes, is increasingly a commodity purchasing task, and users should soon, if thay can’t already, be able to upgrade systems with only minimal help their suppliers. Cambridge Technology will develop and maintain software. Cambridge Technology’s Dutch unit has gathered some 20 customers in its short life – Sims claims that at least four firms are already interested in what it can offer in the UK. The Richmond office, with three staff, will be up to 25 soon – 50 by next summer, and other European outlets are also on the cards.
