Enterprise Ireland covers System Dynamics Pernod Ricard deal and UK expansion
System Dynamics raise a glass to new deal with Pernod Ricard
System Dynamics, one of Ireland's oldest IT services firms, recently scooped a significant twelve-month contract with Pernod Ricard in the UK, using experience gained here to land the deal
"We opened an office in the UK early in 2009 and we were very focused on finding the right niche into the market in the UK. We leveraged off our position in Ireland where we have a lot of expertise in distribution," says MD Tony McGuire.
System Dynamics will implement a tailored JDE implementation, providing the drinks brand with an integrated solution for financials, sales, procurement and inventory, while also integrating it with Pernod Ricard's other backoff ice systems.
From a standing start to a year ago, the UK will account for 15 per cent of System Dynamics' revenue this calendar year, McGuire adds. "UK companies need companies like us who are prepared to give them the kind of service, skills, and cultural knowledge that is needed to make projects a success. One of the things that was obvious from the very first time we met Pernod Ricard, there was a cultural fit. It wasn't just about the process and the price, but the people," he insists.
McGuire believes the company can tap into the gap where the trend towards offshoring IT contracts to locations like India has been a "failure".
Adds Nigel Sylvester, System Dynamics' UK sales director: "What we found - a little through trial and error - is that focusing on the broad market is very much the wrong thing for us. Our success is focusing on what in the UK sense are niches but are still massive markets in their own right. That's where we can really compete against the UK and European large systems integrators." Those specific vertical markets include renewable energy, Pharmaceuticals and the public sector.
This article appears in the December/January 2012 edition of 'The Market' magazine published by Enterprise Ireland.
