Delivering complex IT projects is difficult enough at the best of times, but it is especially challenging when your organisation is also struggling with the impact of a global pandemic as well as disruptions to trade caused by Brexit and other geopolitical factors. For companies without large teams of in-house IT experts, it is nigh on impossible. The key to success in this case is to find a trusted external partner to deliver the project.
The use of external specialists is part and parcel of modern business. “If you look at what is involved in building a company or a new product or service for a company, there are so many things you have to take into account,” O’Shea explains. External partners can offer that guarantee along with delivering excellent value for money. “It’s about buying the commodity and building the differentiation,” O’Shea points out. “We don’t build everything for our clients. If there is good open source software available for a particular aspect of the project, we will use that.The BoatyardX approach is to work so closely with clients that they share the same goals and objectives. “We take an integrated team approach.
“GST was created to fill a gap in the marketplace,” Carroll adds. “We deliver content and bring better utility to loyalty programmes. For example, we have done a deal with Ticketmaster to allow people use their loyalty points from different programmes to buy tickets for events and earn loyalty points when they purchase tickets in the normal way with their credit card.”
The relationship between the two companies has become very close. “We have been working with BoatyardX for just over a year and the quality of their work has been beyond our expectations. The way they work they almost become part of your business. They constantly look for feedback. I asked our head of user experience and our CTO to rate the relationship with BoatyardX on a scale of one to 10. They both gave it 10 out of 10. That’s a remarkable score from two very different individuals.