Client stories

Tracsis

‘Working with Freeman Clarke has helped us to become more sophisticated in the way we engage our insurers in making them aware of how we protect our IT assets and data. This combined with pragmatic, knowledgeable advice about where to focus our cyber security efforts to get the best impact has been invaluable.’

Kevin Smith, Governance, Risk & Compliance Director

SOS Leak Detection

‘SOS Leak Detection provides services nationwide. Primarily, these are purchased by large property insurance companies, who, understandably, are particularly sensitive about the unintended release of information about their clients. Towards the end of 2023, an increasing number of phishing attempts were being received across the organisation, so I took the decision to invest in modern protection mechanisms.

With the help and advice of David Tellis from Freeman Clarke, a new IT Managed Service Provider was identified, and a comprehensive security transformation project put in place. This project was carefully managed by David, keeping us adequately informed throughout (without overloading us in detail).

With the project and an external penetration test subsequently completed, I can sleep freely at night confident that our systems and processes are far more secure. We recently have applied for Cyber Essentials Plus to give further credibility to our renewed security stance and customers.’

Cox London

Cox London is an artisan manufacturer based in North London that is growing rapidly. It has an enviable list of discerning clients that appreciate the beauty and quality of its products. Nicola Cox, co-owner said, ‘David Tellis, part of the Freeman Clarke London and Northern Home Counties region, has become an invaluable member of our team — opening our eyes to the art of the possible and shining a light on areas for improvement. He supports our culture, and I feel confident asking his advice on a wide variety of business-related subjects.   His experience and recommendations are always insightful.’

Nicola Cox, Founder and CEO

COLORMINIUM

Colorminium has been shaping the London skyline for almost 50 years and are now one of the most experienced building façade specialists in the UK. Their Finance Director, Simon Byne, stated, ‘We have worked with David Tellis from Freeman Clarke for six months now, as an external CTO, which has positively challenged many of our IT practices and caused us to aim higher in what we can get out of both existing and new systems. In particular the confidence, from experience, to go out and systematically select new vendors where needed has assisted us to find some great new solutions instead of sticking with the status quo!’

Simon Byne, Finance Director

The Big Life Group

‘David provided invaluable, thought-provoking support during our tender process to transition our VDI managed service to a new supplier. As part of Freeman Clarke’s North West team David provided truly independent advice — a trusted partner I would have no hesitation in recommending to other potential clients in need of part-time IT Director support.’

Cazz Ward, Assistant Director

GHO Capital

‘GHO has been working with Freeman Clarke for several years on a range of engagements with several of our portfolio companies. Freeman Clarke have provided pre-deal advice; they have conducted Due Diligence projects; and they have planned and delivered complex systems and digital integration strategies. They are an important and reliable partner, and their people have been excellent.’

David Miller, Operating Partner

BGF

‘Freeman Clarke have been working with BGF for many years now—providing fractional leadership to some of our growing portfolio businesses, as well as assisting BGF directly with our Tech diligence process, as required. The excellent people of Freeman Clarke have worked hard to understand our needs, are quick to respond and provide first-class leaders with relevant skills around the entire country. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship.’

Andy Watts, Portfolio Talent

FCC Paragon

‘FCC Paragon is an established tenant-referencing company based in Portsmouth. Last year, we decided to take steps to ensure the foundations of our IT platform were robust and future-proofed before we embarked on upcoming projects. We very quickly engaged the services of a part-time IT Director from Freeman Clarke to move the department on and ensure we were utilising our in-house developers’ skills in the right area with better support and mentoring. The part-time model has worked exceptionally well for our company, and the IT director is involved with the Board on a regular basis to discuss ongoing programmes and future plans.’

Bryn Cole, Managing Director

Southern Sheeting

‘Ian demonstrates excellent leadership skills and has the innate ability to encapsulate complex situations into easily understood courses of action. Ian is also wholly “bought-in” to our enterprise and is able to drive projects forward for the betterment of the business. We now need to capitalize on his strategic thinking skills within IT and the wider business. Ian is a pleasure to work with and is a highly respected friend and colleague. I am delighted Ian wishes to continue working with us.’

Tony Hobbs, Managing Director

Securus

‘We are a software technology business and have been digitally safeguarding children in schools and colleges for over 17 years as well as providing services to the NHS, police forces, and other sectors. As an ambitious growth-focused business, we recognised the need for a technology leader on our executive Board, but a full-time role would have been overkill. The Freeman Clarke model suited our needs, and we have been delighted with the outcomes that our quality CTO has driven. His blend of experience, commerciality and strategic focus has been a major factor in positioning us as a technology innovator.’

Derek Allen, Chairman and Co-Founder

Keltbray

‘Keltbray are a £500m specialist construction business that has enjoyed a rapid growth trajectory. With the growth of new digital tools, we felt we needed more senior IT specialist advice, without necessarily requiring a full time CIO.

Steve joined us in August 2019 and as a fractional/part-time CIO provided exactly the input required. He has the experience of working as a CIO in several organisations and was able to mentor and guide our senior IT and Business Systems leaders. He helped us make better use of the existing systems we were using instead of acquiring new ones and helped to direct the efforts we were making in developing new systems so that we were getting improved value-added.

He also implemented structures to review the priority areas and focus on procurement and implementation in those areas. He is very professional and worked well with all levels of staff.’

John Keehan, Group Deputy CEO

IFF Research

‘IFF Research is a full-service research agency that helps organisations from the public and private sector make informed decisions. Established in 1965, we’ve proud to have become one of the largest independent research agencies in the UK.

As part of our growth strategy, we needed to develop our IT infrastructure to support our people and ensure seamless service delivery to clients. We contacted Freeman Clarke for strategic IT support and appointed Paul Larner as interim CTO. Paul hit the ground running, helping us develop our plan to scale successfully.

Working with Freeman Clarke’s extensive network of providers, Paul offered multiple options to expand our platform without huge capital investment. We decided upon a cloud-hosted platform with virtually unlimited scalability. After a proof of concept, the full project was successfully delivered, enabling us to scale our operations to 5x our previous capacity. Paul also led us through a tendering exercise to identify and then onboard a Managed Services Provider for support and maintenance. With Paul’s IT leadership, we are on target to increase our revenue by 30%, helping us achieve substantial improvements in our margins.’

Jan Shury, Managing Director

Private Equity

‘As a partner in a Private Equity firm, I have driven improvements across our portfolio companies, including FinTech, telematics, and traditional AEC firms. In particular, I address poorly performing technology leadership, poor technology choices, and poor project delivery, which all destroy value. This can manifest itself as unacceptable product or service delivery, high transaction costs, failure to deliver expected investment returns, or failure to identify the right value drivers and to prioritise accordingly. Furthermore, innovation and disruptive technology initiatives can create huge adjacent value for the business, but this relies on strong, creative and expert technology leaders.

Underpinning all this is a need to recognise that an exit is planned, often within five years, meaning that the business has to be focused on maximising its sale price at that time. This poses a different set of hiring and performance management criteria — technology leadership needs to be experienced, outcome-focused and commercially astute for any business planning an exit, MBO or IPO.’

Brian Proffitt, Principal

FCC Assura

‘Assura is a leading UK healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) listed on the London Stock Exchange. Assura’s vision is to be the UK’s best developer and owner-manager of primary care property, partnering with GPs to deliver high quality patient care in the community.

Consistently high quality and secure technology services are absolutely critical to the efficient running of our centralised operation and the property management service we provide to our client GPs. To this end, we appointed David as our part-time Freeman Clarke IT Director. David has helped us identify and deliver a series of tactical and strategic initiatives to position us for ongoing service quality and business growth. The two main areas addressed to-date include a review and improvement of IT security and transition to a totally new IT infrastructure and Managed Service Provider. Having a part-time, experienced IT Director has enabled us to get traction on some important improvements and deliver with pace and confidence.’

Jonathan Murphy, Finance Director

The Delivery Group

‘The Delivery Group is one of the UK’s largest e-commerce, retail and postal logistics businesses — delivering over 500 million items per year for a diverse range of B2B and B2C clients including Screwfix, Centrica, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan. Dependable, high-quality technology services are absolutely critical to the Group’s dedication to fulfilling client and end-customer promises. To this end, we appointed David, our part-time Freeman Clarke IT Director, to work alongside our IT team to prioritise and drive through a programme of IT improvement projects to help position us for ongoing service quality and business growth. These projects included various improvements to IT Disaster Recovery and Security capabilities, Technical Platform configuration, and IT Supplier Management. In addition, David identified some strategic considerations to factor into our Group operating model. Engaging with an experienced IT Director through Freeman Clarke has ensured implementing important projects at a fraction of the cost of employing a permanent member of staff — a great model from which we will continue to benefit.’

Michael Owen, Group CFO

Pennies

‘The Pennies vision has always had technology at its heart so, from the beginning, we needed a first-class technology leader as a trusted and committed member of the team. Freeman Clarke filled this gap for us and have continued to do so ever since — their part-time model means the price point works very well and gives us access to specialist IT expertise we could never have afforded or required on a full-time basis. They have set technology strategy, defined solutions, and helped us form technology partnerships, as well as contributing to our wider board discussions. Importantly, they have felt like a core member of the team and coached others so we even benefited when they were not on-site! Their approach has been pragmatic, attentive, and focussed. They have had a pivotal role in helping us develop our business model, which happens to be in the charitable sector and has already raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.’

Alison Hutchinson, CEO

EcoWorld

‘We needed an experienced IT leader to help us prepare for the sale of Willmott Dixon’s residential development division, Be Living. We reached out to Freeman Clarke to provide an IT Director from their London team. Paul Larner quickly came on board to join our senior management team and created an IT strategy to separate the IT systems in readiness for a sale. The plan was smoothly executed within three months, along with £2m of savings. We were now ready for sale! Subsequently, EcoWorld International acquired 70% of Be Living in March 2018, along with projects worth £2.6 billion. Paul has since supported us through a move of 100+ staff to our new head office. Paul has a common sense and practical approach and is able to communicate complex IT initiatives to non-IT senior management. I am more than happy to recommend Freeman Clarke to any company needing strategic direction from experienced IT leaders.’

Karen Rogers, CFO

ComXo

‘ComXo is a fast-growing business providing global switchboard support services to professional service firms across the City of London and beyond. I needed the experience of a full-time IT Director but didn’t want the cost, and Freeman Clarke’s model provided exactly what was required. I now have someone on the Board who is used to working at that level and who brings a positive and progressive attitude to my technology function. Our switchboard is wholly reliant on our unique technology, and over the last couple of years, since we’ve been working with Freeman Clarke, we have taken major strides forward rolling out our Switchboard Anywhere system, removing single points of failure, improving security, and delivering projects on time and within budget.’

Andrew Try, CEO

St Philips Chambers

‘St Philips is a rapidly expanding barristers’ chambers in Birmingham. Last year we completed an acquisition in Leeds and opened a new office in London. This expansion created technical and capacity issues in IT, and the small IT team were struggling to manage the change. Freeman Clarke initially provided an IT Director to conduct an IT strategy review to identify if IT was “fit for purpose.” The Board agreed with the recommendations from the review, and, over the last 10 months, Freeman Clarke have been helping St Philips to deliver these recommendations and support St Philips’s ongoing growth.’

Joe Wilson, Chief Clerk

Nacro

‘Nacro is a charity dedicated to positively changing lives, strengthening communities, enhancing social inclusion, reducing crime, and preventing offending behaviour. With an ever-changing social justice landscape, we needed to revisit all aspects of our strategy, including the delivery of ICT to support our Staff and our Service Users. Lacking suitable internal resources, we spoke with Freeman Clarke, and they seconded a Principal to take over as Head of ICT on a part-time basis. Since then, he has been working with the Executive Leadership Team, Senior Managers and the ICT Team to reposition ICT to better support the charity in a more cost effective manner. Apart from contributing to the overall business and cost reduction strategy, a significant amount of work has been done within ICT to make it more flexible, enhance mobility with our frontline workers, and enable the charity to better understand and report on its outcomes.’

Jacob Tas, Chief Executive

Bridgethorne

‘As a niche consultancy we’re very dependent on IT—but we simply don’t need and don’t want a full-time IT Director. Freeman Clarke solve this problem. They manage our cost and service issues with our suppliers, and have given us a simple IT strategy that connects our IT investment to our business aims. We have an enduring relationship that’s delivered significant value to us whilst keeping our costs under control. They take our business as seriously as we do.’

John Nevens, Owner and Founder

Pitmans

‘Pitmans is a successful, expanding legal firm who need to use IT to improve our internal activities as well as our services to clients. We don’t need a full-time IT director, but Freeman Clarke give us access to a first-class individual for trusted advice, assistance and leadership. They have helped us to reduce our IT costs and improve our efficiency by removing day-to-day IT issues, and helping us to raise our sights to new ideas and opportunities that IT can offer us.’

Christopher Avery, Managing Partner

Wandle

‘Wandle is a medium-sized provider of affordable housing in South London. High-quality and reliable IT is key to providing good service for over 25,000 customers. With the speed of change in IT, as well as the changing needs of customers, our need for a well defined and deliverable strategic direction for IT is paramount. But from a value-for-money perspective, a full-time IT director is neither justified nor needed. The fractional model fits our need entirely, and we are able to scale up and down the input we need according to the projects and planning cycles.’

Tim Coppard, Business Partnerships Director

Dovetail Services

‘Dovetail provides a complete subscription fulfilment management service to many of the UK’s magazine publishers. Information Technology is a critical element of what we do, and our bespoke IT systems are central to our business strategy. We needed a leader to take charge of these systems—someone with the expertise, confidence and authority to deliver on our plans and to own and run our IT. Freeman Clarke provided us with options for people which allowed us to choose the right individual who would build the kind of positive and committed culture in the IT team that we need. Freeman Clarke’s IT director got stuck in, addressed a range of short-term issues as well as providing a long-term roadmap. He brings deep experience of software development, data migration and real-world business and people management. He has become a valued and committed member of our senior team.’

Rupert Miles, Managing Director

Grangewood Builders

‘For over 20 years, Grangewood has been applying its expertise, craft and passion to the refurbishment of some of London’s most impressive and important residential buildings. In 2015, we embarked on an ambitious growth plan and needed to ensure our IT was fit for purpose, so we decided to bring in an expert IT Director. Freeman Clarke was the obvious choice, given their reputation. One of their leaders started working for us as our IT Director to lead a review and upgrade of our IT systems. In 2016, we moved offices and implemented a number of significant upgrades to our systems, processes and organisation. We are particularly impressed with the way he has integrated with our team, led the technology selection process and managed our IT suppliers.’

Emma Maile, Director

Nottingham Tram

‘Martin is a pleasure to work with and I would have no hesitation in recommending him. He is very hardworking and organised and always meets targets. He is very good at working on his own initiative, which is great for me as my time is limited ,and I know that he will make contacts and get things done without me necessarily having to be involved. I am not very IT literate, and he always explains things in a way which I can understand, which is great.’

Johanna Williamson, Finance Manager

On3

‘On3 is a successful professional services business, but we wanted to differentiate ourselves and increase our value by creating a new technology product for our customers. I needed someone to help me develop this vision, the commercial model, and then to turn this into reality. Freeman Clarke provided detailed technical knowledge and the business focus to make all this possible. From the outset, they felt like part of the team and have helped drive and contribute to all aspects of our success. We now have a thriving new business which would simply not otherwise have been possible.’

Jill Foley, Managing Partner

The Spring Partnership Trust

‘Getting the best IT in place to support the organisation is a vital part of our strategy to deliver better pupil outcomes. We needed expert IT leadership and Freeman Clarke were able to provide that. David worked with our leadership team and has quickly understood our organisation, developing a specification for our IT needs. He ran a process to consolidate our multiple IT suppliers, which gives us the IT support we need, with vastly improved service levels and better value for money. David has also developed an IT supplier partnership to help develop and deliver ICT strategy consistently across all the schools in the Trust.’

Jo Brinkley, CEO

The FD Centre

‘The FD Centre has expanded rapidly in recent years and plans to continue this growth in the future. A scalable CRM system and sales and marketing platform is at the heart of this vision, but we had struggled to get this project underway for many months. Freeman Clarke helped us understand our objectives, clarify options, and turn this into a plan of action. Their Principal directed the project and led us through a potentially difficult product and supplier selection negotiation. As well as the technical aspects, he also deals with the vital tasks of keeping the business objectives in view and everyone on-board. He has the confidence, experience and authority to make this happen and is only interested in helping our business.’

Colin Mills, Chairman