Client stories

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, The Big Life Group.

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 provided pre-deal advice, conducted due diligence projects, and 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 has been working with BGF for many years now, providing both fractional leadership to some of our growing portfolio businesses as well as assisting BGF directly with our tech diligence process. Since we have been working with the Freeman Clarke team, we have been introduced to a number of their excellent people. Freeman Clarke has 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

Southern Sheeting

“Ian demonstrates excellent leadership skills and has the innate ability to encapsulate complex situations into easily understood courses of action. Ian is 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

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, The FD Centre.

Securus

“We are a software technology business and have been digitally protecting children in schools and colleges for over seventeen years as well as providing services to healthcare, police forces, and other sectors. As an ambitious growth-focused business, we recognized the need for a technology leader, 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 business and strategic focus has been a major factor in positioning us as a technology innovator.”

Derek Allen, Chairman and Co-Founder.

Keltbray

“Keltbray is a £500m ($600m) specialist construction business that has had a rapid growth trajectory. With the growth of new digital tools we felt we needed some 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 organizations and was able to mentor and guide our senior IT and Business Systems leaders. He helped us make better use of existing systems 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, Keltbray.

Nacro

“Nacro is a charity dedicated to positively changing lives, strengthening communities, enhancing social inclusion, reducing crime, and preventing offending behavior. 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, Nacro.

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 centralized 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, Assura plc.

Pennies

“The Pennies vision 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 has continued to do so ever since – their part-time model means the price point works very well and has given 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, Pennies.

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 was 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 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, St Philips Chambers.

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, ComXO.

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 prioritize and drive through a program 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 we have implemented some 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, The Delivery Group.

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 solves 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 while keeping our costs under control. They take our business as seriously as we do.”

John Nevens, Owner and Founder, Bridgethorne.

id=”pitmans”>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 gives 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, Pitmans LLP.

Wandle

“As a medium-sized provider of affordable housing in South London, we know that high-quality and reliable IT is key to service provision to over 25,000 customers. With the speed of change in IT provision as well as the changing needs of customers, both internal and external, the need to have a well defined and deliverable strategic direction for IT is paramount. But from a value-for-money perspective, we didn’t need to employ a full-time IT director. 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, Wandle.

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, addressing 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, Dovetail Services.

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, and 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 organization. We are particularly impressed with the way that he has integrated with our team, led the technology selection process, and managed our IT suppliers.”

Emma Maile, Director, Grangewood

Nottingham Trams

“Martin is a pleasure to work with, and I would have no hesitation in recommending him. He is very hardworking, organized, 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, Nottingham Trams

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, On3

The Spring Partnership Trust

“Getting the best IT in place to support the organization is a vital part of our strategy to deliver better pupil outcomes. We needed expert IT leadership, and Freeman Clarke was able to provide that. David worked with our leadership team and has quickly understood our organization, 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 deliver ICT strategy consistently across all the schools in the Trust.”

Jo Brinkley, CEO, The Spring Partnership Trust