What our Clients Say
Configure One is a company that is going places. The US firm has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2000, thanks to pioneering software that is revolutionising the way companies do business.
The company, which employs 15 staff at its two US offices, close to Boston and Chicago, produces Concept™, web-based software that streamlines the process for configuring or customising products, slashing the time from a customer’s initial request to full quotation from weeks to just hours.
Companies using the software also save on the time and cost of design and manufacture and can offer highly competitive delivery times.
Now Configure One is targeting Europe as a new market for the software, a US top seller, by opening a UK base at Ongar, in Essex – and crucial to the launch of the new venture, in January 2007, has been the supporting role played by financial outsourcing specialists Artaius.
Mike McDonnell, Configure One co-founder and project manager, explains: “Opening our UK office was a significant investment for us, but we decided the time was right after we were approached by UK customers who told us that they could not find a software application that did what Concept™ did anywhere else.
“From when we started planning for the UK office in September 2006, we knew that having the right financial services support was critical. There was no way we could go ahead if we couldn’t pay our staff, invoice our customers, balance the books or fulfil our statutory financial reporting responsibilities.
“Although our US company is largely self-sufficient in support functions, including payroll and accountancy, had we had to build those functions in-house in Essex, the cost would have been too prohibitive for us to have entered the UK market.
“We decided to look for a partner that would make it easier and more efficient to perform those ‘necessary evils’ in-house, so we could concentrate on growing the business and making it successful.
“We interviewed a number of companies and Artaius was the right pick for us. The size of the company was large enough to provide professional services, to the depth and breadth to achieve everything we needed, and small enough for us to know we’d get personal care.
“Artaius offer an excellent menu of services and are flexible in the way they work with us. They’re approachable and easy to talk to and keep us informed of everything they do.”
Configure One hopes the new office – set up with support from East of England International, the inward investment body for the region – will enjoy similar success to its US parent firm in the European market. Mike says: “I certainly expect that for the long-term foreseeable future we’ll be continuing to work with Artaius.”
