Keeping in the pink
A ubiquitous brand in the realm of ITIL and ITSM, VitAL editor Matt Bailey talks to Pink Elephant UK’s new chief executive Marcus Harris about the trials and challenges in the service management industry as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century.
Established over 30 years ago, as an independent, global professional services organisation for IT managment, this year Pink Elephant celebrates 21 years in the ITIL experience business. It is the world’s number one supplier of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education, consulting and support services. According to the company, to date, close to 200,000 IT professionals have benefited from its expertise. It has championed the growth of ITIL worldwide since its inception in 1989 – longer than any other supplier – and was selected as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL v3 project – as authors of v3’s Continual Service Improvement book and through representation on the International Exam Panel.
In January this year Pink Elephant UK appointed Marcus Harris as its chief executive. As a former director at the BCS (British Computer Society) and prior to that, i2k – both organisations with a close relationship with Pink Elephant - the company was aware of the range of skills and experience that Harris had to offer.
Defining a clear vision and strategy for the next five years, Harris is responsible for leading the organisation through its next level of growth. His appointment shows that despite the appalling market conditions in 2009, Pink Elephant is going from strength to strength.
Harris is an enthusiastic and passionate advocate for quality IT Services through the development of individuals and organisation. His experience in combining Continuous Professional Development with SFIA plus tool sets and professional accreditation means he has a fantastic understanding of the market Pink Elephant operates within. “Pink Elephant is a strong and enduring international brand, synonymous with quality and service delivery for over 20 years, and I am looking forward to the challenge of developing the business further,” he commented on his appointment.
A history in IT
“I set up i2K up a few years ago with a colleague after working for Wave Technologies, an early adopter in educational video apps training,” remembers Harris. “We offered a coached front end, managing a programme of development for the highest professional levels, in Microsoft as well as ITIL applications. We worked very closely with our partners offering professional coaching and managing back-end delivery with Pink Elephant as one of our partners.”
Indeed Marcus Harris first came into contact with the guys at Pink Elephant working with them as a partner. “Pink Elephant supplied all i2k customers with ITIL training while we supplied Pink Elephant with their internal induction programme. It was a highly successful and genuine partnership.”
The relationship was so close that when Pink Elephant moved into new premises i2k took the top floor so Pink Elephant was effectively their landlord. “Apart from our rowdiness, the arrangement worked very well.”
Ultimately i2k grew and blossomed into a desirable outfit delivering professionalism to the IT community. Seeing its potential, BCS acquired i2k in 2007 and merged it with its membership business and its SFIA Plus business.
“When I moved on from BCS, I got a call from Alan McCarthy, Pink Elephant’s director of EMEA who had kept tabs on my progress,” explains Harris. “He informed me that he had decided to take 60 percent retirement, and asked me to step into the role of CEO. Knowledge of Pink Elephant’s reputation, customers and team ensured that I found myself parking in their car park and picking up the reins. That’s how I how I ended up here.”
Outside of work, Marcus is also an established speaker, presenter and part-time actor. Indeed his acting credits go back to 1978 and readers of a certain age may remember his starring role as Julian in ITV’s adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Famous 5. His side interest in the dramatic arts has continued to this day with roles in adverts, dramas and documentaries.
A changing business
“My arrival at Pink Elephant coincided with the company taking a significant step forward with their business,” says Harris. With major upheaval in the market coming out of 2009; and companies such as Parity Training going into administration, Pink Elephant UK is in the right place to surge forward. “My task is to see the business double over the next four years and then achieve steady growth after that and on into the future,” says Harris.
Planning for this growth, Harris has so far doubled the size of sales force with the introduction of a telesales / telemarketing team. He has increased the number of consultants and moved operations to new premises in the middle of Reading where he says there is plenty of space for expansion. At the same time Pink Elephant is launching new training centres in various regional locations, and will be Platinum sponsors at this year’s itSMF Annual Conference & Exhibition.
“We have our northern launch taking place around September this year. It will consist of a new training centre in the region,” Harris explains, “and thereafter we will open another four regional training venues, one a quarter over the next year.”
Three stages of engagement
While Pink Elephant is a well known and trusted training partner for ITIL, it also has a very sophisticated consultancy business which it is Harris’s ambition to develop and push forward. “We have brought on board a number of key people to help in this area too. We’re also going back to our roots – offering resource on either short- or long-term contract, putting people into businesses to help them achieve their full potential. This isn’t just providing ‘bodies’, Pink resources have the support of a global ITSM organisation and have access to all the tools we use in our consulting assignments. In total this gives us three stages of engagement: education; consultancy; and resourcing. We are here to help our clients do it for themselves. Of course we run the ITIL training which we are renowned for, but we offer a pure consultancy service where we go in and help the client move to another level, creating the environment for them to achieve this goal; and with our resourcing programme we bring people on site to help them do what they want to do.”
It is a very busy time for Marcus Harris and Pink Elephant. “We are putting together a full mirror of Parity’s schedule to fill the gap left when they went into receivership. And we are continuing the core business of Pink Elephant in rolling out best practice to the IT services industry.
“An awful lot of people know ITIL,” Harris adds, “they know its value and a lot of organisations have been through the training courses. They now talk about service desks rather than help desks, for example, but how many people live and breathe the ITIL approach and really engage with it on a daily basis? It provides real tangible business benefits for organisations. In principle it’s about helping IT to change business and deliver business value.”
Approach to the market
Pink Elephant has to be one of the best known brands in the ITSM sector. “The level of awareness of the Pink Elephant brand and the affection in which it is held in the market are a massive bonus,” says Harris. “I was recently talking to a client about a COBIT/ITIL crossover programme and he immediately made the connection, he knew people in the organisation. Key members of our staff are well known out in the industry and our branding is well known too. It all helps to perpetuate the Pink Elephant name. A key part of Alan McCarthy’s role since the re-launch of Pink Elephant in 2004, has been to get the name back out there after the tumult of the late 90s – early 00s, and we have certainly benefitted from this approach.
“We’re raising the level of our communication with the client too,” expands Harris, “and have recruited a new team of telemarketers – to call through and touch base with our clients on a regular basis. We are building, cementing and developing our client base all the time, PinkLink (our e-Newsletter) is a key part of this process.”
A dynamic environment
Clearly in the last six months the UK and indeed, the wider world has changed dramatically. “All I can say is that since arriving here at Pink Elephant in January, things have developed and changed, not just inside the company,” says Harris. “We have been in the ascendancy – we had success and growth in 2008, but 2009 was a bad year for us as it was for most people, but business is now revving back up. We’re currently on a trajectory that looks like 2009 didn’t happen, we’re back on the growth line of 2008.”
Despite the rockier conditions in 2009, Harris says the company was to an extent insulated against downturn, so it could emerge aggressively in 2010. “I believe the UK economy is on the up now and lots of housekeeping is being done and bad debt is being cleared, there is an emphasis on excess cost being cut away at UK plc,” he comments. “We should see significant growth next year. Having said that, it is still a difficult market, all the symptoms of last year’s recession are still around, but the business indicators are on the up – fingers crossed that the UK doesn’t have a double dip.”
Pink Elephant benefitted from the recession to an extent. “Because there was significant damage done to our competitors, and we have performed better, we are picking up business and recruiting good people. We are in very good shape compared to many in the industry.”
The IT services world seems to be pulling through as well. “I haven’t heard of any project not happening because the budget has been removed. To my knowledge we haven’t lost any business because the budget isn’t there,” says Harris. “If as an organisation you want to deliver effective and lasting business change you have to improve your technology; your systems and processes have to take up the slack of any headcount reduction. And if you have to invest in technology, it makes good sense to invest in supporting processes.
“There is an exciting programme of reinvestment in IT processes, companies have to get more out of their existing systems and maximise their use of licenses. Change has to be handled properly, with consistency and competency. We offer support to people reaching these business objectives,” says Harris. “We are currently seeing expenditure to achieve gains. I haven’t seen much evidence of any cut backs as yet. People are spending to save – to extend their reach and create better products and better service. I’m enthused by what I’m seeing.”
