Independent Consulting Solution, Fifth Step Join
Independent Consulting Solutions [ICS] Bermuda and Fifth Step London announce that they are joining forces under the Fifth Step brand to provide global IT and business alignment consulting to insurance, reinsurance and financial services companies who require cross-jurisdictional strategic support and implementation.
The development brings together a close group of experienced professionals, all with international backgrounds in the insurance, reinsurance and financial sectors, to deliver a range of C Suite services focused on global governance and compliance, Solvency II, IT strategy planning, *ITIL v3 processes and procedures, review of global Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans, program and project management, ISO 27001 security, infrastructure and service desk outsourcing, plus a range of other mission-critical business solutions based on a Continual Service Improvement [CSI] framework.
The Fifth Step group includes well-known individuals in the Bermuda and London markets who came together 18 months ago with the shared belief, based on client conversations, that there is a clear need in Bermuda for very senior advisory professionals to assist the C Suite with analyzing and validating key strategic technology drivers of wider business plans.
In London, the team delivers to clients within Lloyds [where the work they perform for the syndicates has to be signed-off by Lloyds itself]. Additionally the team has joined together to deliver projects where the sponsor resides in Bermuda, the CIO in London and the delivery teams on the US East Coast.
“Fifth Step’s name comes from the ‘fifth step’ in the ITIL process – Continual Service Improvement,” says Darren Wray, CEO of Fifth Step. “We feel that this is a reflection of our core beliefs and illustrates just how much these best practice approaches form part of the very DNA of the company.
“What we deliver helps businesses in the insurance, reinsurance and financial services sectors achieve their full potential. We do this by providing highly experienced senior IT managers, using best practice approaches and a co-sourced model, to create IT as an asset. This is delivered through the alignment of business and IT strategies and implementing continual service improvement – all without the need to increase headcount.”
The alignment of ICS with Fifth Step directly reflects conversations with CEOs and CIOs keen to identify resources in their key jurisdictions outside of Bermuda, especially when Executive Management and business strategy planning is driven locally. ICS’s International Director of Client Relationship Management, who is based in London travels to Bermuda every 6 weeks.
“She has been visiting the island for the past two years, on behalf of ICS, talking to clients in international business about their challenges and their needs to have a single access point in Bermuda to the ‘big’ IT and business thinkers with senior corporate experience,” says Stephen Bull, ICS’s Managing Director. “What we are announcing here today is in direct response to those impassioned requests for highly-skilled help, via people they already know and trust, who truly understand the landscape of the local and combined international environment.”
The Fifth Step team includes Bermuda insurance and financial services industry veteran Pete Ramsdale, who has already delivered a number of projects for the group locally. Together they help clients surface their business objectives, and in-turn identify what skills and expertise they might need from the group to help deliver global initiatives. “Pete has been pivotal in making the introductions to Fifth Step enabling us to develop very close bonds,” says Mr Bull. “Aligning our two companies and adopting the Fifth Step brand for the Bermuda market indicates just how close our relationship is. We are all highly experienced individuals who genuinely enjoy working together.
“Whether it is an insurance or reinsurance start-up, or a company preparing for an Initial Public Offering [IPO], we can call from a pool of 100 + highly skilled consultants to work locally, or remotely, on specific projects,” says Mr. Bull. “In Bermuda Pete has already delivered a number of governance and audit engagements for our clients and he acts as the technological bridge between the Bermuda and London consulting teams; with senior relationship management in both places. These capabilities really differentiate us in both markets and we are also seeing a growing interest in our abilities to deliver in New York, and along the Eastern Seaboard, in the same way.”
The adoption of the Fifth Step brand in Bermuda aligns with ICS’s long-term strategy of adding tangible value at the C Suite level while still being able to focus on caring for existing clients managing their day-to-day IT operations. The ICS brand will continue in the Bermuda market as a separate identity, sitting under the Fifth Step umbrella, continuing to provide technology consulting which focuses on Microsoft solutions and licensing, Check Point and HP [the Company is an HP Preferred Partner and HP Authorized Service Centre].
“The Fifth Step brand will encompass all our strategic, transatlantic services for the insurance, reinsurance and financial services sectors, while ICS, and its sister company, Fort Knox, which provides data warehousing and telecommunications solutions, will continue to implement more functional support to those clients who require this level of service,” concludes Mr Bull.
The alignment with Fifth Step also provides Bermuda ICS employees with the possibility of extending their careers in London and New York in particular. “Inherent in all of this is a strategy to deliver opportunities for growth and success for all our clients and our Bermuda team, who now have the chance to develop their expertize beyond the Island,” says Mr Bull. “We are collectively very excited at working together in this way and truly enjoy collectively assessing the opportunities that are increasingly showing on our radar.”
