First Consulting launches technology firm: First Technology

First Consulting has taken a new step in its growth, with the launch of its sister company. The consultancy's counterpart – First Technology – will focus on the IT side of digital transformation work.

Speaking on the news, Geert van den Goor, Managing Partner of First – the umbrella behind First Consulting and First Technology – said, “Technology is increasingly at the heart of transformations. This increases the demand from customers and projects for a further strengthening of our technological expertise. With the establishment of First Technology we have created a place in our company where we can further grow expertise in the field of technology by bringing in the right skills and knowledge and further to develop."

The two wings of First’s operations will serve customers and projects jointly. First Technology will contribute technology expertise, while First Consulting focuses on industry-specific knowledge and advice for the translation of business processes into IT solutions, supplemented with project management and change management knowledge.

In-house expertise

“Although First Technology is a new business unit, we are building on the knowledge and expertise that we currently have in house,” stated Martijn Smeets, the Partner responsible for First Technology. "The technology expertise that we have built up in recent years in Lowcode (Mendix), RPA (UiPath) and Data & Insights (Power BI and Azure) will be built upon with the transfer of specialist knowledge from the previously acquired Smartrules in the field of BPM (Pega and Appian) to First Technology.”

The wide array of aforementioned platforms form the Chapters for a new agile organisational structure which has been chosen to ensure First Technology hits the ground running. A number of ‘Guilds’ will then provide further specialisation in the field of Architecture, Cloud, Integration, Software Engineering and Test Automation.

In addition to the further development of its technology expertise, First is committed to expanding its services portfolio. According to Smeets, First has been helping its customers realise projects for years, but with First Technology it can now cover the entire lifecycle of an application, from design and project realisation to further development, and 24/7 management in a DevOps model. This is something Van den Goor believe means that together First Consulting and First Technology can offer “a complete end-to-end service for digital transformations."

Growth strategy

First Technology already has ambitious plans for growth. After starting with 70 employees, while First has a total of more than 300 employees, the goal is now to grow the new wing to approximately 250 employees in the coming years. The expansion of the workforce will enable First Technology to quickly win work as an outsourcer, with clients nearshoring it projects to tap the talents of its skilled staff.  

“Nearshoring will further strengthen growth and in particular our DevOps proposition,” explained Smeets. “A precondition for the growth is that the DNA of First remains guaranteed. We grow by recruiting top talent which matches that identity. First's DNA can best be described in our six core values. This is not an identity we ‘would like to have’; it is a matter of who we are. ”