We spoke about 2017 being a year of great change with new technologies coming at us at great speed.
As is the way with Concurrent Engineering, we have embraced the changes without reservation and ensured that we are front and centre in being recognised as such by PTC. This is our DNA and we do not shy away from the challenge. That said, our approach brings challenges, as we have to relearn right across the business and then ensure that we have the frameworks to deliver to a world class standard. The ongoing transition has been tough and this was reflected in the numbers, as we did not make the progress we had hoped for but we did not have a disaster either. In fact, the last two months of 2017 pulled the numbers round quite successfully.
This leads me in to thinking bigger and believing that we are capable of elevating our sales expectations and how we position ourselves. We can compete with anyone and we can win.
There is no better example of this than FT Technologies.
We engaged FT late in 2016 and we were one of ten companies invited to deliver a pitch for one hour.
We were then down selected to five and we received an Invitation To Tender document and a team was assembled to respond. By the time the document had been returned we had input from almost ten people from PTC in the US, PTC locally and the Concurrent team.
We were down selected to three companies and had a further test to deliver a technical piece of work and this was orchestrated by Phil and delivered onsite by Andrew and Theo (PTC). We worked on business and technical detail for some time after this, before being told that we were the only company now engaged.
There were one or two further complications with Inneo appearing on the scene and a demanding team at FT, but through trusting the relationship that we had developed and trusting our own judgment we eventually received a PO for £125k and all at list price.
Because of the commitment to the project and the standard of work throughout, there was no negotiation when it came to agree on the PO. FT were committed to the total cost and we are now defining the project delivery.
We can win many more of these through teamwork and trusting our processes.
We are capable of putting together the best teams to compete and we are doing the same with our delivery teams. The opportunity we have is real and whilst change will be inevitable, 2018 is the year to move to the next level.
From a PTC license point of view we are now in their Q2 and a third of the way through it, obviously we are one month into our new year. Last year was an ok year financially, with growth largely flat in the UK, but the TO in Ireland showed some descent growth at 18%. Influencing and driving income and managing costs are the two primary things on my to do list for 2018. Managing costs is critical to our success.
