56 Acquisition International - September 2017 Pemeco is a vendor-neutral consulting firm that leads enterprise software and ERP-related transformation projects. The firm provides assessment, vendor evaluation, implementation project management, and ongoing optimisation services. As winner in the Best for Manufacturing ERP Consultancy, we spoke to Managing Director Jonathan Gross to find out more about the firm’s work. emeco was founded in 1978 and, at that time, carried on business as an IT service bureau. The company transitioned to a consultancy in the 1980s when infrastructure and business applications became commercially viable investments for end- customers. Today, the company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and serves clients across North America. Managing Director Jonathan Gross begins the interview by telling us about the firm’s impressive client base in his own words. “Our client base spans Fortune-1000 multinationals, mid-sized companies, and high-growth start-ups. The common thread that binds our client base is that each is a market leader that leverages complex, integrated technologies to both protect and expand their dominant market positions. “Tokyo Electron is a good example. Tokyo Electron is the world’s second largest manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment. We’ve been leading transformation projects Tokyo Electron’s North American operations for the past 14 years.” Russ Finney, Tokyo Electron Americas’ former CIO, said this about Pemeco: “We had to choose business-savvy, product knowledgeable consulting partners, ready to get into the trenches with the other team members. The Pemeco team has been key to our success.” Barbara Mitchell, Information Systems Manager for Jamesway Incubator Company, said this: “The Pemeco team excels across key disciplines – business process, systems, and plan execution – a combination that’s tough to find in consulting firms. Pemeco quickly delivered an actionable, deep needs assessment, a competitive analysis of ERP vendors, and an implementation plan. We’re now working with Pemeco to optimise our existing business processes and data to make sure we’re ready to hit-the-ground running on implementation.” As another example, Jonathan explains that Pemeco is currently working with the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer and with a next-generation manufacturer of fully-autonomous electric cars. As a final example, Pemeco has been leading worldwide Company: Pemeco Consulting Name: Jonathan Gross, LL.B., M.B.A. Managing Director Email:
[email protected] Web: www.pemeco.com Locations: Ontario, Texas, Arizona, California Phone: +1 647 499 8161 High Standards of Service Delivery Excellence P 1612CV41 ERP projects for Curtiss-Wright Corporation since the mid-1990s. Curtiss-Wright is a diversified leader in aerospace, defense, automotive, oil and gas and industrial markets Jonathan explains, before telling us how it feels to have won the Best for Manufacturing ERP Consultancy award and the secrets behind the firm’s success. “We’re ecstatic to have be awarded Best for ManufacturingERPConsultancy Award, and to have bested our advisory and consultancy competitors worldwide. This award publicly validates our high standards of service delivery excellence. The ERP services industry is marred with unacceptably high project failure rates. In contrast, we’ve successfully executed more than 700 sophisticated enterprise software projects since 1978 with zero failures. “Our firm operates in a highly competitive market. Very simply, our clients choose us over our competitors because they want to sleep at night knowing that their very risky projects have a high probability of success. The Gartner Group – a leading IT research firm – estimates a 70% failure rate relating to transformative technology projects. Meanwhile, Pemeco has delivered more than 700 major transformative technology projects, all successfully. The calibre of our team and the robustness of our methodologies are instrumental to our success. “Our consultants generally hold Masters of Engineering degrees, have decades of experience, and industry certifications in project management and business process disciplines. Many are former CIOs and IT directors with extensive project delivery credentials. Furthermore, our methodologies are proven, published, and supported by academic rigour.” Jonathan brings the interview to a conclusion by sharing his thoughts on the future prospects and plans for the firm. “As our clients increasingly elevate IT to the C-Suite, we’re naturally being pulled in to support their needs relating IT-business alignment, budgeting and planning, M&A integration, and solutions architecture. These service line extensions naturally fit our positioning, and we plan to start formal marketing in the coming months.”