Edition Six
Office of the CTO
Your guide to navigating a constantly evolving IT landscape
The Office of the CTO provides access to product, professional and managed services support for both corporate customers and public sector organisations. Built on real-world delivery experience, technical expertise and commercial acumen, combined with extensive industry knowledge, our division uses market intelligence and data-driven insights to bridge the gap between technology as an enabler and verifiable business outcomes. Comprised of business consultants, sales specialists, bid managers, service architects, public sector managers and vendor experts, the Office of the CTO offers a powerful partnership. As strategic advisers, we impart real knowledge, helping make the complex appear simple
"Good is not good enough for us at Ultima. As CTO my mission is to deliver nothing less than excellence at every touchpoint."
Matt Hudson, CTO, Ultima
We shift the focus from product-centric conversations, helping translate innovative ideas that deliver real business benefits.
Strategic Planning and Innovation
Foster a culture of innovation throughout our business and define and communicate a clear technology vision across cloud, security, modern workspace, data and AI.
Technical Governance and Policy
Establish governance frameworks to enable consistent and effective decision-making, regarding technology investments and strategic direction.
Development and Implementation
Oversee the development of our products and services, from ideation to deployment, ensuring they continue to exceed customer needs.
Business-to-IT Convergence
We work alongside the C-suite and senior leaders, to introduce dynamic IT services, so that as goals pivot due to market forces, IT can rapidly respond.
Customer and Market Focus
Through market analysis and customer engagement, we understand your needs and pain points, using this feedback to guide solution and service development
Return on Software Investment
From optimising your technology stack to right-sizing your portfolio, we provide expert analysis to select the most appropriate software for new investments.
Technology White-boarding
More than just evangelists, our industry experts can re-imagine your entire IT environment, in the lead up to mergers, acquisitions, divestments or restructuring.
Future Proofing
We stay abreast of advancements in cloud, security, workspace and AI, adapting strategies and initiatives to ensure we remain relevant to our customers.
Strategic Planning and Innovation
Foster a culture of innovation throughout our business and define and communicate a clear technology vision across cloud, security, modern workspace, data and AI.
Technical Governance and Policy
Establish governance frameworks to enable consistent and effective decision-making, regarding technology investments and strategic direction.
Development and Implementation
Oversee the development of our products and services, from ideation to deployment, ensuring they continue to exceed customer needs.
Business-to-IT Convergence
We work alongside the C-suite and senior leaders, to introduce dynamic IT services, so that as goals pivot due to market forces, IT can rapidly respond.
Customer and Market Focus
Through market analysis and customer engagement, we understand your needs and pain points, using this feedback to guide solution and service development
Return on Software Investment
From optimising your technology stack to right-sizing your portfolio, we provide expert analysis to select the most appropriate software for new investments.
Technology White-boarding
More than just evangelists, our industry experts can re-imagine your entire IT environment, in the lead up to mergers, acquisitions, divestments or restructuring.
Future Proofing
We stay abreast of advancements in cloud, security, workspace and AI, adapting strategies and initiatives to ensure we remain relevant to our customers.
Trends in 2024
Organisations continue to evolve into complex, multi-faceted entities, which require a blend of technologies to meet the demands posed by an increasingly disparate and tech-savvy workforce
Of CIO relationships
CEOs are becoming far more strategic, as they build their platforms for digital leadership, with nearly 40% saying they are responsible for digital transformation - Gartner
Concerned over skills shortages
A lack of access to technical skills is one of the top 3 challenges holding back organisations ability to respond to change, underscoring the importance of a talent strategy - Accenture
Expect disruption to accelerate
Further in 2024, with 76% of C-suite leaders seeing generative AI as more of an opportunity than a threat, and more beneficial to revenue growth than costs reduction - Accenture
Are not fully prepared
Nearly half say they are not fully prepared for the accelerating rate of change, with 72% approaching investments with more caution because of societal concerns about responsible use of AI - Accenture
Struggle to get the balance right
Almost four out of five CIOs find it challenging to balance short-term operational needs with long term strategic IT investments, often leading to suboptimal spending - Accenture
of UK Business Leader
Experienced a significant software investment that failed to meet expectations, with the average UK enterprise spending £1.8 million on new software in the last 12 months. - Digi
Of IT budgets in 2024
Will be allocated to security, with 80% of CIOs planning to increase cyber / information security spending. Considering the expansion in potential attack vectors, is a significant outlay - Gartner
Of IT projects fail to deliver ROI
Based on the analysis of 50,000 projects, with 31% cancelled prior to completion. 17% of large IT projects went so badly, they threatened the very existence of the company - Standish and McKinsey
Leadership team
Stuart Sims
Head of Modern Workspace
Building an attractive cultural, technological and physical working environment, one that places the employee at the heart of the workspace strategy, can help attract the best talent and increase productivity. Unfortunately, achieving this panacea has been a perennial challenge, with forecasters and research groups giving a damning indictment on everything from employee engagement and innovation, to retention and customer satisfaction. As an evangelist for all things workspace, my role is to help customers unlock productivity short-cuts and support the adoption of modern collaboration and communication tools, so teams can achieve their goals
Richard Choi
Head of Data Centre
Data centre environments typically follow strategic and tactical investments, growing organically in line with business needs, or rapidly evolving due to M&A. Many customers are operating with a mismatch of platforms that either do not integrate well, are duplicated across several functions, is nearing capacity, or is no longer fit for purpose. These risks can lead to higher operating costs, stalled projects and an increase in pressure on SLAs.Working closely with our colleagues in the Cloud and Security teams, my role is to ensure that every customer is operating on the best data centre foundations for its immediate and future needs.
Dominic Melly
Head of Cloud
Complexity is often cited as the one of the main reasons why companies experience failure with public cloud. Despite willingness to invest and quote often the strategy to support it, long-term ROI is often poor, negating the stated benefits. Even the most mature organisations - those with experience in public clouds - can struggle. As Ultima's Head of Cloud, my role involves helping customers accelerate or optimise their public cloud journey. This includes providing leadership around strategy, design, migration / transformation and on-going support needs, working closely with colleagues in our Security and Data Centre teams.
Chris Kirk
Head of Business Process Automation
One of the most precious commodities we have is time. Unfortunately, the reality is that people's time is often sunk into manual or mundane tasks that provide fixed value. Introducing automated systems that can perform repetitive tasks with minimal intervention can dramatically increase throughput, accuracy and consistency, with the time saved reallocated to higher value projects. As head of our BPA division, we're able to provide a flexible pool of digital labour to undertake much of the heavy lifting, breaking the association between work, the resource required to deliver it and the method of triggering, initiating or interacting with each process.
Neil Thompson
Head of Presales Architecture
Since its inception in 2011, the Bid Office has been at the forefront of presales governance and best practice, supporting both Ultima and our customers across every conceivable sector, in sourcing the right IT solutions. As part of our as a centre of excellence, I'm tasked with ensuring we deliver a clear and consistent message when it comes our security, cloud, data centre, modern workspace and public sector offerings. I also provide cross-functional support to the leaders and specialists across the Office of the CTO, helping them conceptualise, design and develop their products and services, making sure they reflect the needs of our customers.
Danielle Connor
Head of Public Sector
There are over 600 departments, agencies and bodies that make up the UK public sector, with 47,000 customers and 5.7 million employees. Whether you’re an IT leader in the NHS or work in higher education, we are able to simplify public sector IT sourcing through framework and purchasing support, expert advice, and via our long standing partnerships with leading vendors and suppliers. As head of our Public Sector team, I help connect Public Buying Organisations (PBOs) with the IT products and services they need, ensuring they leverage the most appropriate frameworks e.g. TePAS2, HTE and G-Cloud, and abide by the required purchasing regulations.
Tom Walker
Commercial Lead
As Commercial Lead, my team exists to support our customers and sales team with subject matter expertise. This includes our Sales Specialist team, who help organisations use technology to solve business challenges, as well as our Microsoft Licensing team, who assist customers in ensuring that the often significant spend in this space is optimised. I also look after Lifecycle Services, providing third party services to support existing assets, and our Alliances team, who utilise programmes and relationships with our strategic vendor and distribution partners to deliver the best possible value to our customers.
Stephen Webb
Head of Security
While security professionals are tasked with shoring up IT’s defences, they are not necessarily looking at their organisation in the same way a hacker might. From the people responsible for preventing cyber-attacks, to the technology used to protect, mitigate and respond to incidents, I help customers understand their approach to security and how to prevent a wide range of threats. With over 25 years in the industry, I help make sense of the security ecosystem, assessing the maturity of their strategy and identify what technologies and controls they need to invest in, alongside the processes that will dictate how their business will react in the event of a breach.
Michael Minarik
Head of Business Consulting
Comprised of technical experts and business strategists, our Business Consulting division are able to speak your language, translating complex technological concepts into actionable business strategies. My role in leading the team is to offer a clear and efficient path to transforming your operation into a more effective, forward-looking enterprise that delivers real-world results, alongside a streamlined route to achieving your objectives. Our approach isn't just about leveraging technology for its own sake, but about making intelligent, business driven choices to enhance operations and prepare for future challenges, whatever they might be
Insights
Both our Bid and Public Sector divisions help customer sourcing teams deliver IT change by ensuring that formal tenders and expressions of interest are handled consistently and to the highest standard. Once complete, our APMP-certified bid managers will present our commercial proposition and answer any questions you may have. For public sector customers, we operate an additional set of governance and tender management processes, which are crucial in helping customers maintain adherence with specific procurement regulations. This includes applying for and maintaining compliance with frameworks like GCloud, Technology Products and Associated Services (TePAS2) and HealthTrust Europe (HTE), ensuring all bids meet the required regulatory and policy guidelines. Effective writing of proposals, bids and business plans is a key function of our Bid, Public Sector and wider CTO teams, with attention to detail and clarity being at the heart of our submissions. Helping translate complex technical solutions into clear, value-driven proposals, we focus on the benefits you can expect to derive from such an investment, alongside aspects such as implementation time lines and detailed cost break downs, so that you have all of the information to hand in order to make an informed decision.
Three decades of technology experience to IT Decision Maker benefit
As an IT Decision Maker, you face many challenges and opportunities in today’s dynamic and competitive market. You need to balance the demands of your business stakeholders, your employees, and your customers. You need to ensure that your technology solutions are secure, reliable, and scalable. You need to keep up with the latest technology trends and innovations. You need to demonstrate the value and impact of your technology investments. And you need to do all this while managing your costs and risks. The Office of the CTO can help you overcome these challenges and seize these opportunities.
Ultima can help you to:
Enhance your business resilience: Ultima can help you design and implement a technology strategy that enables your business to adapt and thrive in any situation. Ultima can help you leverage the power of cloud, security, workspace, and AI to improve your business agility, efficiency, and innovation.
Boost your reputational health: Ultima can help you build and maintain a positive and trusted reputation for your business. Ultima can help you ensure that your technology solutions are compliant, secure, and ethical. Ultima can help you deliver a consistent and exceptional customer experience.
Optimise your technology value: Ultima can help you maximise the return on your technology investments. Ultima can help you measure and communicate the business outcomes and benefits of your technology solutions. Ultima can help you manage and optimise your technology performance and costs.
Drive your productivity effectiveness: Ultima can help you empower your employees with the best technology solutions that enable them to work smarter, faster, and better. Ultima can help you create a modern and flexible workspace that supports collaboration, communication, and creativity.
How can you get started with the Office of the CTO?
If you are interested in working with the Office of the CTO, you can contact Ultima by email, phone, or through its website. Ultima will schedule a consultation with you to discuss your business needs and goals, and how Ultima can help you achieve them with the best technology solutions. Ultima looks forward to partnering with you on your customer technology journey.
