Andrew Mendoza, is the Chief Strategy Officer of Envirtual, a company that offers cloud computing and SAS – Software as a Service portfolio consultancy and services. IntelligentHQ interviews him and talks about business, cloud computing consultancy, and how to use solutions for business such as using services such as the ones offered by Flexioffices.
Andrew Mendoza1. Can you tell us about you, your education and your experience in business?
I studied Greek and Latin quite a while back but would never have thought then that 25 years later I would be working on a tech start-up. I started my career in blue chip corporate strategy consulting with Bain&Co and the Kalchas Group, a Bain/McKinsey spin off. I have also worked at Andersen Consulting / Accenture to where I was a partner in the global Media and Entertainment practice. I worked with a number of major enterprises and early stage businesses on responding to threats and opportunities triggered by digital business models.
After my time at Accenture, I became a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants working in an advisory capacity. Last year I co-founded EnVirtual and Exodus Ventures, an Angel EIS Investment club, focused on early stage UK technology and digital businesses.
2. Why EnVirtual?
There is a huge wave of change within the technology sector. Many companies need lots of help to take their business to the next level and technology can be a big brake on speed of launching and improving services and products. We set up EnVirtual to help Enterprises take full advantage of the growth opportunities that exist for them – by taking full advantage of the new approaches to technology (Cloud and SaaS) It’s a really exciting time for us and we are pleased that we are playing our part in the development of the UK as a technology centre and London as a hub for skilled and credible software providers.”
3. Can you tell us about the company and its strategy?
We focus on:
- cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS)
- important challenges in specific industries (rather than back office technologies that lots of industries can use)
- for major enterprises (rather than SMEs)
And we help these companies a number of ways:
- Advisory and execution support in getting things done
- Building software for single enterprises as a project
- By providing SaaS solutions through our own Product Companies, where we develop the software for multiple clients to use
4. You offer Software as a Service portfolio and Cloud Consultancy. Can you elaborate on your business offer?
Our focus is on innovation and the rapid delivery cycles to make it happen quickly. Our portfolio of consulting services covers:
- Readiness for Cloud – investment portfolio maturity profiling & candidate evaluations and assessments:
- Value from Cloud – developing enterprise architecture roadmaps & business value prioritization alongside the roadmaps
- Security for Cloud – risk profiling and mitigation plans around private and public and hybrid environments;
- Productivity from Cloud – managing the company-wide move and implementation of messaging, collaboration & productivity tools;
- Contracting for Cloud – commercial framework agreements for Cloud based service & solution providers;
Our portfolio of product investments are focused around:
- Industry vertical specific SaaS – end-to-end technology enabled enterprise class solutions and services
- Customer facing and focused – applications encompassing processes, information, analytics and insights
- Consumer technology enabled – delivering greater productivity, collaboration, networking and innovation
5. As you combine deep business process consulting knowledge what are your unique selling points?
Our Unique selling points and differentiation are:
- We are highly experience and used to moving at speed
- We can deliver complex new products and services at speed
- We are truly objective and independent as we are not trying to shift an army of offshore developers used to working on large On Premise software projects
- We have line business and start up experience and acumen, and are not just career consultants
6. What advice do you give to startups and SMEs starting to use Cloud products and SaaS?
Most start ups and SMEs will use Cloud and SaaS solutions more than Enterprise anyway as its cheap, highly effective and easy to start using. Drop Box, GMail, Xero etc make it much easier for start ups and SMEs than ever before to run efficiently and professionally. If you are a Start up or SME and you are NOT using Cloud and SaaS then the advice is to start using it.
Our main advice is for bigger enterprises to start adopting these approaches and tools – but for many such change is much harder and slower as IT departments, suppliers and legacy software companies are not predisposed to such change!
7. You are using Flexioffices for your operations office base. Why did you choose them?
Like many start-ups, we were borrowing office space and using coffee bars for meetings for the first two months right up until we landed a contract with a major client. That’s when we decided to find an office space in central London that would be convenient to get to for our clients and staff members alike.
Using Flexioffices serviced office spaces has helped us keep the flexibility necessary for a fast growing company like ours. Our offices have meeting rooms, a receptionist, and we don’t have to worry about utility bills etc. When we wanted a new round meeting table, we got one. When we asked for blinds, we got some.
8. Would you recommend them for SMEs and Startups? If yes why?
Yes, definitely. Flexioffices has a database of thousands of properties which can be searched online by postcode, street, town, stations, airports, and countries. Here is a selection of office spaces in Mayfair, London for example if you wanted to impress your clients with a swanky office space in a posh part of town. They also offer virtual office space, which gives you a mailing address, landline, meeting rooms, hot desks, and even receptionist. Some of the properties on their books are ‘business incubators’ which have subsidised rents and offer business support specifically targeted towards start-ups.
9. How do you see the cloud computing and SAS offers and trends going forward?
Cloud computing will inevitably become the default IT platform in the near future. Companies will spend more and more on IT as SAS shifts from back-office support to frontline value delivery. There is currently a skills shortage in our industry, but the UK government is putting forward proposals for changing the school curriculum to include an emphasis on programming skills which is a good step in the right direction. We have been struggling to recruit skilled software engineers and information architects due to a huge skill gap on the employment market. In fact, if you are reading this and you are or know of any software engineers, testers, release managers and experienced service managers, then do get in touch!
This is a content published under the IntelligentHQ Authority Publishing Partner.
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