18 technology
Content Guru: A company that’s going down a storm with B2Bs
Sean Taylor is CEO and co-founder of a company that is growing at 20% per year, but he’s not happy because it could be growing at over 50%. Content Guru’s significant growth potential is being restricted by the UK’s lack of IT technology recruits, writes John Burbedge
“It is probably the most substantial thing holding us back, the scarcity of ‘human capital’. We haven’t been able to hire enough good quality graduates fast enough to help cope with our expansion,” explained Taylor who began the cloud-based communications integration company with his brother Martin in 2005.
“I’m a great advocate of the Thames Valley. It’s a tremendous place for business, and Content Guru has invested a lot of time and money within it to back up that statement. We are always enthusing to our international clients about ‘Tech Valley Europe’. However, we must do more to attract technology talent into the region.”
Taylor speaks from a position of company strength and market knowledge. Hundreds of the world's largest organisations are powered by storm, Content Guru's Communications Integration platform, in sectors such as finance, media, travel, utilities and public services.
Most people in the UK will have used storm, whether making a secure automated payment for charity appeals such as Children in Need and Comic Relief or contacting the myriad cloud contact centres that use this world-leading technology.
Content Guru’s development teams are based in the heart of Tech Valley (in Bracknell) and Silicon Valley in the US, plus the company has operations in Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and Malaysia.
Content Guru’s achievements have also been recognised through numerous industry awards. On November 18, Content Guru will be a triple finalist at this year’s UK IT Awards challenging strong competition for Cloud Provider of the Year, the Best Use of Cloud Services Award (with client National Rail Enquiries) and will see engineering services team leader, Charlotte Prior, competing for Young IT Professional of the Year.
“We are delighted once again to achieve UK IT Awards recognition, not only for our technological prowess and project delivery excellence, but also for the quality of our team members, who are ultimately responsible for the organisation’s continued success.”
That core of talent and loyal staff (many from its founding workforce) has been a strength of Content Guru – along with a proud culture of customer-focused service and high-quality performance.
The Taylor brothers actually began building their communication solutions group – Content Guru, Redwood Technologies, Radius Communications
www.businessmag.co.uk Sean Taylor (left) and brother Martin
– in 1993. They set a naïve £1 million turnover first year target, achieved an admirable £900,000, and then learned some harsh lessons through their business mistakes. “We were not maximising the full commercial value of what we did best. We were selling ourselves, our abilities, incredibly short.”
Around the millennium turn, having built a proven skilled team, the Taylors took the seminal decision to start creating their own product technology, and became an early advocate of cloud when forming Content Guru. “We still look to bring cloud to blue-sky thinking,” quipped Taylor.
Assisted by proven technical solutions know-how provided by its sister companies, Content Guru today controls its own future and is now reaping the harvest of a promising millennium-planted crop called storm, delivering services such as multi-channel Cloud Contact Centre.
Despite his recruitment concerns, Taylor remains ambitious for Content Guru, setting a “hard but achievable” growth target of £400m turnover by 2020. Training and upskilling within the company is now well established, along with a culture encouraging creativity and personal engagement with customer service.
“As companies grow they lose their sense of urgency and flexibility. We’re still trying hard to maintain that start-up feel, responding rapidly, being proactive and keeping our agility – all qualities that have made us successful.”
Content Guru pays well but expects commitment, says Taylor. After all, clients include critical-service and emergency responders.
Countering the allure of London, Content Guru provides a friendly yet personalised working environment, flexible hours, social activities and career advancement opportunities, set alongside the attractive wide-ranging lifestyle choices of a vibrant Thames Valley.
Although very much a global IT company, Content Guru’s Thames Valley roots are very important to the business.
The company supports the charitable Berkshire Community Foundation. Taylor, a trustee, also helps organise its Business Philanthropy Club.
This year he co-founded the self-help group Business United (
www.bizutd.com) to assist £1m-£100m turnover Thames Valley businesses in networking and resolving business challenges. Through its ‘think-tank’ resource and local core of excellence it aims to build a UK ‘Brittelstand’, similar to the successful German ‘Mittelstand’.
Taylor concludes: “We’re now seeing widespread investment in the Thames Valley which will enable it to continue developing into a highly attractive area to live and work. There is still a large amount of work to be done, but looking forward I am confident that our continued commitment to one of the world’s most exciting technological regions will provide us with the resources we need to fulfil our growth potential.”
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – OCTOBER 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64