Here at CTC we’re aiming to open the cloud industry up, and part of doing that is increasing awareness of the amount of companies that exist. Bluebird IT Solutions aren’t completely new to the cloud scene – they’ve been operational for four years in the UK, and are an IBM Premier Partner. I had a chat with Natalie Shelley, and James McCaskie from Bluebird about their ideas on the cloud industry at present, and where they see Bluebird going in the future.
NS:Â Natalie Shelley, Managing Director
Trained as an engineer, Natalie was involved with the running family businesses in dentistry for the following 15 years. She then switched focus to the IT industry where she worked in HP corporate marketing for the worldwide Customer Reference Programme and then in corporate marketing for the defence company QinetiQ. Natalie returned to IT to form the company Bluebird IT Solutions as part of the TIS Group.
JM: James McCaskie, Sales Manager
James is the Sales Manager at Bluebird IT Solutions, looking after the company’s most valued customers across Northern Europe. James has always worked in enterprise IT sales with a focus on the financial services and industrial sector. James has a business degree and specialises in understanding his customers’ business challenges while prescribing technology remedies to solve them.
Bluebird as a whole:
Bluebird is the UK operation of the TIS Group which was founded in Croatia in the 1970s. In operation for 4 years now, Bluebird is an IBM Premier Partner with a mission to create outstanding solutions for moving data securely between and within organisations. Managed File Transfer, Business to Business Integration and WebSphere technology are all areas in which Bluebird operate to deliver success to organisations’ data transfer needs.
So, James and Natalie, what do you think of the cloud industry at present?
JM: Cloud computing has been on the cusp of the hyper curve for a number of years, but I think companies are now really starting to see the value of the cloud transaction model for both cost and business flexibility purposes. More frequently than ever we are getting asked about Cloud and how our rapidly growing customers can best take advantage of the model. Exciting times!
NS: Companies can adopt cloud computing in a variety of ways – from simply using cloud based applications alongside or integrated into their on-premise IT to completely replacing all on-premise IT – hardware and software – with hosted services. At present companies are probably somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum but the trend is moving towards cloud as it comes with a great number of benefits – flexibility, simplicity, and financial to name a few, but this offset against the perceived increase security risk. However, as companies are gaining confidence in the cloud, and security in the cloud, then the trend will continue. As an observation we’ve noted that the UK is slower at adoption of cloud than other countries though – for instance the Nordics.
[easy-tweet tweet=”The UK is slower at adoption of cloud than other countries says Natalie Shelley of @BluebirdITS” via=”no” usehashtags=”no”]
What are Bluebird IT Solutions’ main strengths?
JM: Our strengths lie in the fact that we are as secure as they come! One of our main product offerings is Connect:Direct, which has never suffered a security breach. We hit all the government security requirements and all transferable data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. We also have a really secure audit trail that we are able to follow easily.
NS: Besides the superiority of the IBM technology that we provide, which I consider to be the best on the market, Bluebird’s technicians are extremely skilled and experienced and are experts in the solutions we provide. I therefore know that our company is providing the best that there is to our clients when it comes to secure Managed File Transfer and B2B Integration. Â
What do you think sets you apart in the competitive cloud marketplace?
JM: Our security! There have been so many breaches recently in the industry, so security is really at the forefront of people’s minds. We pride ourselves on the security that we offer, and we think our clients do too.
Our support model is really strong
NS: Our support model is also really strong – because we’re a small company we can invest more time into our clients and give them a more personal experience. Each of our account managers knows their clients inside out, and they’re able to respond really quickly if an issue does arise. This means that everything is kept secure and the clients are kept happy – it also means the clients avoid any financial penalties that may be associated with data breaches.
Could you describe the ideal client for your Bluebird’s services?
NS: Our ideal client would be any company that is required to transfer files and data securely between organisations. The requirement for governance and control over the file transfers are often most relevant in the financial services sector where we use our skills and experience to work with often the smaller financial organisations to develop a future proof strategic IT infrastructure that they can use to handle expected growth.
Are you able to tell us a bit about some of your current clients?
JM: Our clients vary in sector across Europe, many of whom cannot be publicly referenced due to the nature of their business. However, they all have characteristics in common. They all have the desire to govern and control the transfer of data securely. Many of the companies we work with are using the technology to enable expansion, and we work with a lot of small banks and FinTech organisations to help them achieve that growth.
And finally, where you see Bluebird IT Solutions heading in the future?
NS: Still delivering the best service and technology to our customers.