Shaun Barnes Named as New MD UK and EMEA at IT and Critical Facilities Consultancy i3 Solutions Group

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, February 09, 2013 (Press-News.org) I3 Solutions Group the vendor neutral critical IT and facilities consultancy - established by well-known industry veterans Ed Ansett and Mike Garibaldi last year - announces the appointment of banking sector IT guru Shaun Barnes as its UK and EMEA managing director.

Announcing the appointment, i3 Solutions Group managing partner Ed Ansett said, "because i3 Solutions Group is trailblazing the concept of fully integrating IT application architecture, technology infrastructure and critical facilities at the design phase of projects such as data centres and trading floors, it was imperative for us to get away from the conventional consultancy model of only one or two 'names' constantly on aeroplanes to meetings.

"With the appointment of Shaun Barnes as md for UK and EMEA, we are underlining our mission to have very senior consultants permanently on the ground in each territory - able to interface at ministerial and C-levels into governments and major enterprise - and to take all necessary business decisions. This will mirror the capabilities we already have in North America and AsiaPac."

Barnes comes to i3 Solutions Group with a track record that includes critical facilities, IT, networking, M&E (mechanical and electrical) and corporate real-estate with Barclays Capital, ABN Amro, Royal Bank of Scotland and most recently consultancy firm ITPM where he ran the global data centre and corporate real-estate practices, delivering large programmes of work for ICAP and DBS Bank.

Barnes, who was based in Singapore for several years but is now operating out of London said, "I'm looking forward to re-establishing many UK contacts and making new contacts in the UK and EMEA. I will be attending many industry events in the coming months."

One of i3 Solutions Group's unique points is that they bring the normally siloed disciplines of IT applications, IT infrastructure, Facilities Management and M&E together in equal weight in one consultancy.

According to Ansett, though, "only a small percentage of CIOs and CEOs currently 'get' this concept -- there are massive advantages to having IT, FM and M&E co-planning and co-designing critical facilities like data centres, trading floors and new corporate offices."

"There is a lack of consistency across technology strategy, design, implementation and operation in the market. There is also inconsistency across the IT stack. The major consulting firms tend to focus on business process and applications consulting and less on technology infrastructure. Similarly systems integrators concentrate on technology hardware and have little ability in critical facilities," said Ansett.

"Naturally the large OEMs have expertise in many areas, but are predisposed to their own hardware or software products. This continuation of 'silos' of expertise can often lead to GBPmillions of additional downstream costs because the design thinking was not properly 'joined-up'. As an independent consultancy with expertise in each field we engage at any point in a project."

Barnes concluded, "I'm happy to explain the advantages of silo-removal and joined-up planning for critical facilities - be they data centres, trading floors or even corporate office. It's going to be several years before this thinking is adopted by the conservative mainstream - but we are here to help enlightened companies set new trends."