Integrella celebrated its 10th anniversary in September. Marcus Davies CEO, reflects on where we’ve come from, some highlights, and the changing industry.
Marcus founded Integrella along with 2 co-founders right before the financial crisis in 2007, and puts our initial successes down to a need for efficient and reliable integration services.
Marcus says, “The three of us had worked in consulting for 10 years, and seen many examples of how poorly customers were being served by the large systems integrators – paying too much, often for integration projects that did not deliver. We knew we could improve the way these projects were delivered by developing our own methodology for projects and support, intellectual property, artefacts and accelerators and by providing a great boutique service.”
The future is digital
These days the challenge for organisations has moved on from leveraging data and process through integration. Our focus is now on creating digital experiences for clients, partners and the public at large. The demand for complex integrations involving ESBs and SOA principles is giving way to API strategy and API Management. Re-engineering using Microservices and creating efficiencies by implementing DevOps are now key elements of any digital transformation project. Our established expertise in traditional integration has set us up to move confidently in to these new directions.
Strong experience across sectors and technologies
We’re proud to have built up a profile across UK sectors, from retail to banking, healthcare and utilities. While we continue to develop our skills in cutting edge best-of-breed and Open Source technology, we have also maintained our skills on legacy platforms such as JCAPS – which often form a crucial part of integration environments.
Testing is often the hardest part of an integration project, and we have built our own tools to automatically compare data. This saves time and brings down the risks involved in any integration project.
The company has delivered many exciting projects over the years, highlights including integrating one of the biggest procurement portals in the world, helping a water company with integration work as part of the UK Open Water initiative, supporting mission critical systems for international investment banks, and helping several of the top UK high street retailers build an effective API strategy.
We’ve built strong partnerships with some of the top players in the industry. These partnerships have evolved to reflect changing trends in the industry, including the shift towards digital transformation.
Presence across NHS Trusts
We’re proud of our presence among NHS Trusts across the UK, and of the systems we’ve built to process millions of messages which help ensure patient safety.
We leverage our strong partnership with InterSystems, and our deep knowledge of Ensemble and HealthShare Health Connect to deliver superior project and support services to Trusts. We compliment this with consulting services such as best practice, governance, DevOps and Centre of Excellence.
Integrella has become one of the leading suppliers of Long Term Support to NHS Trusts, in part due to the success of our own proprietary integration monitoring tool which sets us apart from other consultancies in the market.
Specialist resourcing
Having grown from only 5 employees to around 30, another key area for growth has been our resourcing service. We’ve developed a large network of trusted associates to resource our own projects, and recently launched a ‘Virtual Bench’ which extends this service to companies that need expert resources in niche technologies.
Marcus is optimistic about the future: “I’m delighted we’ve reached this important milestone. The continued need for our traditional integration skills as well as the push towards digital transformation puts us in a great position for continued growth. I’m grateful for the excellent staff, customers and partners we’ve had over the years which have made our sustained growth possible.”
The occasion will be marked with a party on the banks of the Thames in London, with old and new friends, customers, employees and partners in attendance.