A TECHNOLOGY expert with experience of Silicon Valley has come to Bournemouth to advise business on avoiding IT glitches.

Steve Orr has provided training and project support to a host of well-known companies and management consultancies.

He is now managing director of Bournemouth-based Capiro, offering to “help customers understand the problem before they acquire a solution”.

In California, he was a director of Chordiant Software, a successful tech startup specialising in software for customer relationship management and other critical processes.

Headquartered in Cupertino, he led the company’s training and development ahead of a NASDAQ listing and a 161m US dollar buyout by fellow US software provider Pegasystems.

Now at the helm of Capiro, he said the way businesses operate “must align the strategies behind growth, information services and technology with innovation, agility and compliance”.

He was this week due to begin delivering three separate courses for business analysts in the south, with participants from companies including JP Morgan and Old Mutual.

He said lessons learned in Silicon Valley were just as valid for UK companies striving to innovate and improve efficiency while complying with regulatory requirements.

He added: “There are different approaches to building and operating a technological process in a business. If you don’t get the requirements right, and if there is not general agreement and understanding as to what business problem is being solved by each and every project, the risk is that all the money spent is wasted.

“When you are looking at investing in software, within a necessarily broad project portfolio, you need particular focus on those strategic projects that are going to add real business value, help you achieve business agility and maintain compliance with your regulatory regime.”

Mr Orr has also worked as a consultant in programme and project management for blue-chip companies including Capgemini, HBOS, Axa Wealth, All Pay, T-Mobile, RBS, Halfords, the German travel giant TUI, air traffic organisation Eurocontrol, and Goddard DAAC, provider of the earth sciences data centre at NASA.

Forthcoming Capiro courses include a Certificate in Requirements Engineering, at the Hermitage Hotel, Bournemouth, December 8-10, and Foundation Certificate in Business Change, Jury’s Inn, Southampton, December 15-17.