Somo
Delivering Digital Product Ambitions at Pace and at Scale

The last 18 months have witnessed a universal acceleration in digital transformation. And it will remain one of the top global business priorities for the foreseeable future as organisations reach different stages of digital maturity. However, to drive real structural change in an uncertain post-pandemic future, businesses need to see technology as an enabler for improving customer experiences and internal processes and creating business value. Further, there is also a need to de-risk digital transformation initiatives and investments to ensure effective and timely outcomes.

Enter Somo—a digital product agency.

Founded in 2010 by mobile visionaries, Nick Hynes and Carl Uminski, Somo shifted its focus to digital transformation in 2015. Today, the company is well-positioned to help organisations tackle common challenges such as the creation and implementation of digital business roadmaps, integration and platform complexities, and embedding a digital-first mindset and culture. “By being leaders in product thinking we bring together design and technology to build value for our clients’ businesses and their customers," says Carl Uminski, Co-Founder & COO at Somo.

Ushering a Digital-first Strategy

Integral to Somo’s approach is delivering the digital ambitions of brands at pace and scale. "At the heart of this is product thinking, bringing together user-centred design, technology solutions and business needs," mentions Carl.

Somo also helps organisations mitigate risk in their objectives. Carl adds "We know that investing in digital is often a large financial commitment for our clients. So we de-risk their approach through processes that involve users to reduce the risk of building the wrong thing, and to optimise the delivery of the right thing.” As part of this process Somo recommends and builds future- proof solutions to enable companies to adapt and be responsive to changing needs as well as embedding a digital culture and ensuring there is the right operating model in place.

“By being leaders in product thinking we bring together design and technology to build value for our clients’ businesses and their customers “

The Preferred Partners for Digital Transformation

By focusing on these capabilities, Somo has achieved considerable success for a variety of brands since its inception. Here are just a few examples.

Audi has been a Somo client for over 10 years, across multiple markets. Along that journey, it has helped the carmaker to redefine not just its customer experience but also the way digital becomes a service provider to the wider organisation. Key to this successful relationship has been staying true to Somo’s design and development beliefs and working in a truly collaborative way with Audi’s internal teams.

As one of Vanguard’s digital partners, Somo helped to accelerate the design of a new consumer-facing advice portal in 2020. While Vanguard had developed the onboarding experience, they needed a partner who could design and build out the rest of the customer journey while integrating with complex financial products. The result was an MVP designed, tested, and delivered in just 12 weeks.

And for European energy giant E.ON Group and their E.ON Next transformation programme, Somo delivered a new digital self-serve hub to support the migration of millions of customers onto a single platform, in just 8 weeks, during peak pandemic lockdown.

Apart from its agile, collaborative way of working and creating products people love to use to build business value, what differentiates Somo is its people. "Somo really is a special place to be part of. We attract the best talent in the industry, and they stay with us due to the innovative, creative and highly technical projects they get to work on as well as the inclusive and people-first culture Somo has nurtured over the years" says Carl. "Somo offers great benefits for its people from mental health support to health and life insurance but it’s the small special moments that our people really love like the celebration of our value awards - Create Success, Lead with Knowledge, Love Innovation and Be Brave. No wonder Somo is currently growing with almost 300 employees across its five offices—London, Bristol, Washington D.C., Charleston, SC, and Medellín, Colombia. What's more, its Colombia site is a success story in itself. In February last year, Somo became the first independent agency to open its doors in Medellín and was recently certified as one of the best places to work in Colombia. As of September 2021, Somo Colombia had 74 employees — which represents an almost 400 percent headcount increase year on year — and it continues to go from strength to strength.

Carl further mentions that the recent months have witnessed Covid accelerating digital adoption for consumers globally. And whilst by geographic region there are varying levels of sophistication, Somo anticipates that digital transformation will remain firmly as a top-five business priority for CEOs. He predicts that more companies will be seeking digital partners who can enhance internal processes and make them more digitally focussed on improving efficiencies. "And that's where we can be their preferred partners, helping them throughout their digital journey," concludes Carl.