Situated in the creative Cuba quarter of Wellington, the office commands impressive views over the cafes and culture of Cuba Street. On our arrival coffee is offered and accepted. It proves to be the equal of any from the many cafes in the Quarter. “Caffeine is still the fuel that drives the IT industry,” claims Eamonn Kelly, playing up to the IT stereotypes in a light-hearted fashion. Beneath the humour lies an insight into Capella IT Consulting. The three directors have moved past the stereotypes they share a dynamic bond and outlook on business and consulting that sets them apart.

According to Julie Allison the three directors’ history together is a long one, “we worked for Team Comtex on the ACC account back in 1989, which was a benchmark client in the early IT industry for many people. We then contracted together and kept in touch over the years.” In 2001 Julie and Eamonn started Capella IT Consulting and later joined by the third director, Kerry Eade in 2003. With impressive combined experience, all three directors still have loads of enthusiasm for the IT industry.

What is most interesting is their unique partnership approach toward their services and customer relationships, a noticeable point of difference with Capella. Customers are referred to as ‘partners,’ and the three are focused on strategic relationship building that underpins an innovative new information management system they have created, based on a concept of information and ‘reporting fusion.’

Like many IT consultants they offer a range of services and products, but one in particular, Management Reporting System (MRS) is creating something of a buzz in government departments and the financial sector. Not wanting to give the game completely away, the Capella directors remain tight lipped on some of the organisations using MRS. But, one notable area of success has been with a major computer industry vendor, which has become a ‘strategic partner’ with Capella and uses MRS as reporting platform across their customer base.

The Capella directors agree that many organisations seem trapped in an ‘Excel culture’ of information management and share the same associated business problems. The 2008 Gartner Report describes these problems as is “when users extract data from internal systems, load it on to spreadsheets and perform their own calculations without sharing them companywide. The result of these multiple competing frames of reference is confusion and even risk from unmanaged and unsecured data held locally by individuals on their PCs”. According to Capella these are familiar problems for many organisations dealing with a high degree of information management, but ones that MRS solves.

MRS evolved from an earlier system designed to provide consistent and uniform reporting for the different projects they were engaged in. The system has grown into an integrated information management system being used by 23 New Zealand organisations, each one capable of generating over 1,500 reports daily. Some organisations are using the daily reporting capabilities as a means of monitoring the ‘health’ of the company and can quickly identify, focus and address the areas of the business that are not performing.

“It’s a tool that allows you to design, visualise, manage and deliver real-time reports via the web, it can combine multiple data sources into one report and publish these reports to anyone, anywhere, anytime. MRS sits on top of your systems as a presentation marker with a web interface, and builds those reports.” Eamonn says.

Kerry adds that, “historically there has been a period of waiting if you need a report. If you wanted a three monthly report you would make a request to the reporting people and they would say ‘okay here’s another reporting request,’ put it to the back of the queue and maybe two weeks later you get the information you were after. MRS allows you to run that report yourself and takes away the user frustration,” Kerry says.

Julie feels that by removing some of the human element through MRS, the information process becomes more streamlined, efficient and economical. In some instances organisations “would have one or two report writers engaged for three to four days, we found some were flying in contractors from overseas to do the report and get it out to customers. With MRS you can build the required reporting templates information and every month it will automatically produce a report. Essentially you regain and retain control over your knowledge without the expense.”

It’s still a changing business landscape, yet Capella remain excited about what MRS potentially means for redefining information management and are confident of its potential success with its benefits to businesses. In regards to the future, “the current economic climate means we need to stay focused on our core competencies, doing what we do best and making sure that our partners and customers see a return on their investment with us. So in real terms it’s business as usual but with more focus on working smarter, ensuring that we show our true value as a business partner to our customers”, says Eamonn.

With coffee and IT industry stereotypes aside, Capella leaves me with this final thought for businesses. It’s said knowledge is power and now more than ever, businesses need good information and reporting to make critical decisions. Businesses using systems with the ability to produce, analyse and distribute real-time information have a much needed competitive advantage.