Kocho, the UK-based provider of cyber security, identity, cloud transformation and managed services, has announced the appointment of Tony Simmonds as Head of Business Transformation. Simmonds will lead Kocho’s growing team of industry practitioners and expert consultants, which has been assembled to support and accelerate clients’ digital transformation plans, ensuring that their technology deployments always deliver the desired business outcomes.
Under Simmonds’ leadership, Kocho’s Business Transformation team will ensure that clients’ technology deployments provide a frictionless experience for customers and employees, and are built for long-term business success. The team will be responsible for overseeing user and stakeholder engagement, resistance analysis, process improvements, user adoption programmes, training programmes, communications plans, and more.
Simmonds brings 15 years of digital transformation and operational change experience to Kocho, which was formed in April 2022, following the integration of cloud transformation and managed service provider, TiG Intelligence, and cyber-security and identity specialist, ThirdSpace. He has held senior level positions across a variety of industries, including publishing, utilities and telecoms.
Prior to Kocho, Simmonds was Operational Change and Improvement Director at Future Publishing, where he was responsible for streamlining financial, editorial and sales operations following a series of acquisitions. He has also served as Senior Business Analyst and Change Manager at OVO Energy, where he oversaw the development of an app for pay-as-you-go customers, which was designed to make their experience as user-friendly as possible.
“Business transformation is a key element of the project that we deliver. I’m delighted to welcome Tony to Kocho, where we know he will drive transformational change for our clients, creating long-lasting results for them and Kocho alike,” said Des Lekerman, Kocho’s CEO. “Tony’s experience of working in senior operational roles in industry means he truly understands the pain-points associated with large scale technology deployments. It also means he has first-hand experience of how to make sure operations are geared up to meet user and business needs. His operational skillset will be of enormous benefit to our growing number of clients.”
“It’s fantastic to be joining Kocho at such an exciting time,” said Simmonds. “The company is on an ambitious and exciting journey as it helps more and more companies embark on widescale digital transformation programmes with security at their core. My role will ensure that these programmes focus on more than just the technology in order to deliver the tangible return of investment that every company is after.”
About Kocho:
Kocho combines the power of Microsoft cloud technology with world-class identity and cyber security expertise together with managed services to steer UK organisations on a course to secure cloud transformation.
Founded in 2001 and previously known as TiG Data Intelligence and ThirdSpace, the company rebranded as Kocho in 2022, following the acquisition of security and identity specialist, ThirdSpace in March 2021. Headquartered in London, it also has operations in Cardiff and Manilla. Customers span mid-market organisations up to large enterprises, operating in the financial services, health, manufacturing and professional services sectors. Brands relying on Kocho include BUPA, AVIVA, William Blair and Liontrust Asset Management.
