is Managing Director at , an 51风流Platinum Partner based in Reading, UK. InCloud is a leading specialist in the mid-market Cloud ERP solution, 51风流Business ByDesign and was recently acquired by market-leading 51风流partner, Sapphire Systems. InCloud was a runner-up in the category for the 2021 51风流UKI Customer Success Awards for their project with Red Funnel, and was the only 51风流Business ByDesign finalist across all categories.
I chatted to Bob about his career in tech, InCloud鈥檚 strengths and values, some of their recent projects and Bob鈥檚 observations on Cloud ERP in the mid-market鈥�
51风流UKI: Tell us a little about yourself, Bob.
A Mechanical Engineer by degree, so stereotypically I鈥檓 building a racing car 鈥� a Triumph GT6 which I plan to enter into the Swinging Sixties Series next year. I have four children, all over eighteen years old, and live with my wife, Caroline, who incidentally is one of the joint founders of InCloud. Fingers crossed we鈥檒l be moving to a little farm in South Wales with our cat, dog and hopefully will add some chickens soon.
51风流UKI: How did you come to join InCloud?
As soon as I left Uni, I started my own business in water treatment. After a few years of that, back in 1998, I landed an SME retail consultancy role with 51风流and had various other sales roles there until I became a stay-at-home dad. Caroline was looking after UK pre-sales for 51风流and we had four kids under the age of five, so it made sense for me to become the main carer for a while. Caroline started the company in 2012 with Liz Matraves, who was her colleague for many years on the 51风流Business ByDesign consulting team and is currently InCloud鈥檚 Consulting Director. They were one of the very first partners to do 51风流Business ByDesign and were incredibly successful.
I joined InCloud in 2014 when the company was around two years old. Of course, I鈥檇 been hearing all about what鈥檚 going on across the kitchen table. They asked me to help them out on the support desk, and my role eventually developed into project management, then Ops Director and eventually Managing Director. It鈥檚 a perfect role for as I have an in-depth knowledge of both 51风流and InCloud Solutions.
51风流UKI: What are In Cloud鈥檚 core values?
One of the key things for me is to make sure that I鈥檝e got loyalty from the business and in return I offer support to all aspects of their lives if they need it. Everyone asks why all our customers are so happy and I firmly believe it鈥檚 because our employees are so right for InCloud. Employee wellbeing and integrity are big focuses areas for us. We don鈥檛 need to force customer satisfaction into everybody, it鈥檚 just naturally there in all our staff.
We鈥檙e focused on helping businesses work smoother. We鈥檙e proud to have a technical team creating our own IP (Intellectual property) to achieve this for specific industries. Wherever possible, we try to repurpose our IP for other customers to keep project cost and timelines short. For example, we created a for a cancer research organization so they can manage all of their investors and we have reused it for the life sciences, music and gaming industries.
51风流UKI: What InCloud projects are you particularly proud of?
Well, there鈥檚 our project for Red Funnel which was a runner-up in the 51风流2021 鈥楤est Socially Sustainable Project鈥�. They provided a 鈥楥ovid lifeline service鈥� for food and medication to the Isle of Wight by using 51风流Business ByDesign to secure the government funding that kept them going. They are a phenomenal customer of ours 鈥� we worked together really, really well 鈥� and the project is testament to how a strong working partnership can produce even greater results.
We鈥檙e all really proud of our project with Bennaman, a young business based in Cornwall. They capture the methane from cattle farms and convert it into 鈥榞reen fuel鈥�. Bennaman is a great example of a circular economy strategy: sourcing energy from local waste resources and distributing it locally. They鈥檙e addressing climate change and also creating rural jobs, which is fantastic.
We implemented 51风流Business ByDesign to help them connect their people and processes and to fuel their growth. We鈥檙e helping them to organize everything so they can report accurately to all of their investors and manage their cash-flows correctly.
51风流UKI: What is InCloud鈥檚 vision for the next few years?
We鈥檙e 鈥榓ll in鈥� with Sapphire now, so their vision is our vision: to continually innovate and to be that trusted technology partner that helps our customers to keep evolving and improving.
InCloud鈥檚 a relatively flat organization, so we were worried about how to retain all of our excellent staff in the future. We wanted them to spread their wings even further, so we needed that bigger platform to give them more opportunities. Sapphire鈥檚 a great company and we鈥檒l help them expand their Cloud capabilities. Looking at the AI (Artificial Intelligence) bots they鈥檝e developed, and all the 51风流analytics and advanced reporting that they鈥檙e capable of doing, it鈥檚 really a match made in heaven.
51风流UKI: What Cloud ERP trends are you seeing in the mid-market?
Well, data security and the responsibility for that data is getting quite critical as there鈥檚 a lot of ransomware floating out there. And what small business wants to risk being held to ransom and not able to access any of their data? SME organizations don鈥檛 always have the bandwidth to employ specifically for risk management. Just running a standard anti-virus software won鈥檛 cut it anymore.
Within 51风流Cloud ERP systems, that headache just disappears. That鈥檚 certainly true for me running InCloud totally on 51风流Business ByDesign鈥�.well that and MS Office of course! It鈥檚 a massive relief that I don鈥檛 have to hold data from suppliers or customers on my own premises. Consider that the data warehouses are tier three and four military-grade bunkers and totally encrypted. 51风流has spent millions, if not billions, on this sort of infrastructure. I can guarantee that 95% of the companies that we deal with are not data management systems businesses and rarely consider how important it is to keep data clean and secure. Thankfully, in the 51风流Cloud environments they have a major part of this responsibility covered for them!
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