Business understanding. Engineering expertise.
We bring the people shaping the strategy closer to the people building and integrating the work. Consulting judgement and hands-on delivery belong in the same conversation. We are product agnostic and independent, and the advice is ours.
People, process, technology.
In that order, and together.
People
Build around the teams, customers and decisions the work is there to support.
Process
Understand the work before choosing the tools. Make ownership and handovers clear.
Technology
Choose and connect the right tools for the problem, with independence and practical judgement.
A consultancy that ended up building the thing.
We started by advising companies on technology. Then we advised them on AI. Then a client asked us to build it, and we did.
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The beginning
Founded by someone who had run the IT function.
Antonio Silva started his career at HP, implementing systems in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and across South Africa, then became IT Executive at Nando's in 2007 and CIO of Taste Holdings in 2011, where the business grew from a mid-sized pizza chain into a multi-brand group through four acquisitions and the Domino's and Starbucks licences for southern Africa. PPT Group was founded on one idea from that time: the client needs someone on their side of the table who has done the job.
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The consultancy years
Strategy, process and delivery for retail and restaurant groups.
Howdens, Starbucks, Massmart, Blue Label, Famous Brands, Spur, Bulldog, Tamela. Putting 1,300 stores on one set of procedures. Launching apps to 3.5 million customers. Telling a client not to buy the ERP.
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August 2023
We adopted the AI tools before we advised on them.
PPT Group signed up for Microsoft Copilot early and said so publicly. The coverage in ITWeb, EngineerIT, Channelwise and IT-Online was the first time the firm was in the press for AI rather than consulting. The point was simple: you cannot advise on a tool you do not use.
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December 2023
Howdens: AI visualisation and a hackathon.
Howdens, a FTSE 100 company, designs bespoke kitchens across 800 depots with 2,000 designers, a scarce and highly skilled resource. We built AI-powered design automation that adapts a design to the client's needs and then produces the bill of materials, the fitting guide and a visualisation of the kitchen, so a customer can see the space before it is built.
Alongside it we structured a hackathon with Microsoft on Azure OpenAI for Howdens' own development teams. Four teams, four working solutions, two going into production.
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April 2024
The visualiser reached the press.
MyBroadband wrote up the AI-generated visualisation tool for customers' kitchen designs. Search for AI kitchen visualisation and PPT Group is on the first page.
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Today
The visualiser is becoming a product. The consultancy carries on.
The work that began for one client is now being built as a product in its own right, with its own team and its own name. PPT Group remains the consultancy that got it there, and keeps doing for other clients what it did for Howdens: find the problem, choose the tools, build the thing, hand it over.
See your kitchen before it is built.
The visualiser takes a retailer's real, orderable products and renders the customer's own room with them. For Howdens it meant faster turnarounds, fewer fitting errors and customers who said yes sooner.
The founder
The insights call is with him.
Started at HP implementing systems across the Middle East, Nigeria and South Africa. IT Executive at Nando's from 2007; CIO of Taste Holdings from 2011, through four acquisitions and the Domino's and Starbucks licences for southern Africa. Later a director at Entelect.
What we believe
Six things we hold ourselves to, written before any client reads them.
Transparency
Complete openness in the work, and a willingness to give and take honest feedback.
Accountability
We follow through on commitments and work hard to deliver value. Sometimes things fail; we own that too.
Collaboration
Teamwork and partnership over silos, with the client's people as part of the team.
Resilience
Difficult problems faced with courage. Mistakes owned, fixed and moved past.
Continuous learning
Knowledge built steadily, so the advice is better next year than this year.
Meritocracy
Good work and cultural fit are what get rewarded, in a structure kept deliberately flat.
Working here
We hire slowly and for a long time.
PPT Group is a small team by design. When we do hire, it is for people who have delivered inside a business, not just advised one, and who would rather be measured on the client's result than on hours billed. There are no open roles listed today; if you think you belong here, write to us and say why.
Talk to the founder, not a salesperson.
The insights call is free and it is with the person above.