You may recall I was a little confused about the acquisition of Hampshire-headquartered, Adobe-focused bespoke solution design and development agency, RMA Consulting by NTT DATA last October (see here). Well, I think I am beginning to see the light.
I met up recently with NTT DATA EMEA SVP, Heather Moore (ex-EASAMS, ex-Parity, ex-Keane et al). Moore runs the Public and Financial Services UK business and is in the finishing stages of integrating the UK operations of NTT DATA’s various and varied acquisitions into a coherent delivery and go-to-market organisation. The ‘jewel in the crown’ may well be RMA. As I heard more, I realised that RMA seems to be of a similar ilk to Brazilian ‘Design Thinking’ consultancy, MJV (see MJV gets creative with ‘Design Thinking’).
I must admit I still have much to learn about what I will generically call for now ‘design-led consulting’ but I am feeling more convinced that it is a very powerful process for front-end business process and user experience design. It’s the conversation you have with the business leaders, rather than the CIO.
If NTT DATA can stake a claim in design-led consulting, then it may be able to fashion a defensible niche for itself in the UK market (and beyond) belying its modest size (RMA’s revenues were believed to be sub-£10m). As such, this could give NTT DATA brand visibility beyond its parent company's roots in telecommunications - and that will be very desirable if it is to be perceived as a 'value-add' IT services player.