What our Clients Say
"Artaius are a good group of people and we talk the same language. We have created a very good partnership"
“Because relationships matter” - that’s the tagline of international IT consultancy Skura Corporation. So it’s fitting that the company’s collaboration with financial outsourcing specialists Artaius has a productive, positive, professional relationship at its core.
"Artaius are a good group of people and we talk the same language. We have created a very good partnership."
Since Skura Corporation was founded in 1996 by chief executive Chris Skura, it has built up an impressive list of blue chip clients – mainly in the pharmaceutical sector and including Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Roche – in 22 countries worldwide.
Over half of Skura’s customers have their headquarters in Europe, so consultants from the corporation’s 150-strong team in Mississauga, just outside Toronto, Canada, and Princeton, New Jersey, USA, were frequent visitors, flying in for as long as it took to do the job and then heading home.
Eric Richardson, Skura’s vice-president, corporate planning and alliances, takes up the story. He says: “That worked for a while, but we quickly found that we wanted to establish a stronger presence in the European marketplace.
“Just as we started to talk about an office and a presence in Europe, we were contacted by the British Consulate’s local office in Toronto, which was seeking to help Canadian companies expand into the UK and Europe.
“They had links to accountants, bankers, lawyers and market information, and outsourcing specialists – like Artaius – and we started to work with them to seek if there were services we could use.”
Once Skura had decided the UK was the best strategic location for a European base, representatives flew over in October 2006 to interview financial services providers as a future partner. Eric explains: “We knew from the start we were not looking to set up an accounting function and definitely wanted help from an outsourcing perspective. We interviewed four companies and Artaius seemed to be a really good fit.”
That first impression proved to be right. Artaius helped Skura to register the new company name – Skura Europe Ltd – and with introductions to providers of other services they needed, including a lawyer.
Since the five-strong London office opened in February 2007, Artaius has provided support services including payroll, bookkeeping and co-ordinating year-end returns, keeping in touch with the North American parent company through teleconferencing and emails – a system that Skura says works “extremely well”.
Greg Boone, Skura’s Chief Financial Officer, says: “Artaius are a good group of people and we talk the same language. We have created a very good partnership and based on the service, and the feedback we’ve had from the UK team, we expect it to continue.”
Eric points to strong similarities in both companies’ culture and approach to business as factors in the partnership’s success: “We were looking for help and understanding and Artaius have delivered. Sometimes the level of service can slip once a contract has been secured, but Artaius have been very consistent, from sales to delivery.”
