Consulting looks to extend its reach in public sector
(15 Oct 2007)
ITS Monday
By Che Golden
Curach Consulting is looking to focus on the public sector and in helping companies to establish their IT strategy. Spearheading this initiative will be Liam Phelan, former head of consulting at Capgemini Ireland and now a new director at the company.
Since it was founded by a group of former Oracle Consulting staff in April 2001, Curach has carved a successful niche in the independent Oracle consultancy space. It has no plans to take on any other software vendors on its books as the Oracle business is providing it with plenty of growth but there are other niche areas the company is keen to grow its presence in.
"We now have over 70 consultants and we have broadened our client base and types of offerings," said David Dalton, managing director of the company. "We have made a number of senior appointments, chiefly Phelan and also Bruce Curtis, who has come on as our services director. He was previously head of professional services at CR2."
Most of Curach's business comes from existing relationships and growth has been driven by the expansion of its services offering. The group has expanded its consultancy expertise and now offers business process and business orientated design services on the IT side. Dalton has found that as the company has matured it has moved over to work with the business people rather than just the IT department.
While the customer base is loyal, Curach has also been adding new names to its list, including AIB, Bank of Scotland Ireland, Google, UCD and Airtricity. The financial services and public sector has always been receptive to its services offering but Dalton feels there is room for more growth.
"We have done well in the public sector but it is an area we are focusing on in the next two to three years," said Dalton. "We have trebled in size over the last three years, staff numbers alone have jumped from 25 to 70, but in the future we would be happy to do 20 per cent year on year. As we mature we are getting into a larger scale and the economy is slowing."
Curach has been self funded since its inception and Dalton sees no reason for this to change. "Services should be self funding,'' he said. "You are doing some thing wrong if you are not."