Just like the IBM brand, Aaron Smith has been changing with the times. For just like IBM, who have moved from being a hardware-based company to essentially a service-led provider, Mr. Smith, who combines his roles as president, chief operating officer and principal of the Igility Group of companies and general manager and president of Bermuda Computer Services (BCS), the agency for IBM on the Island, is striving to meet the needs of the consumer in the computer and information technology (IT) industry.

He has experienced a lot of changes throughout his time in the sector, but believes things have never looked better for the future of IT in Bermuda.

Mr. Smith is from Bermuda but was brought up in Canada, where he went to school and got a BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology before going on to attain an MBA in Business Administration.

"I was interested in both science and business and my thought was that going into computers and the information technology sector would be a good way to combine the two passions I had," he said.

He left business school and started working for IBM in Canada, where he stayed for 11 years before being headhunted by the then general manager of BCS, Barry Wilson, who was keen to recruit a young and enthusiastic Bermudian businessman.

"It was almost 11 years ago that the general manager of BCS, who always knew I was Bermudian and had Bermudian ties, invited me to come back and join the firm," he said. "I got a two-year leave of absence from IBM and I asked if I could go and explore this opportunity.

"I was offered the position of sales manager, which I took, and sales manager turned into general manager and president, and that goes back to 1998, and five years ago I became an equity partner."

Mr. Smith is currently heading up the Igility Group of companies, which consists of group flagship BCS, IT consultancy Sbi, Internet service provider Transact, website directory E-moo and cabling business Fibre Net Communications, as well as Transact Business Solutions - an information and document management agency and a number of property interests in addition to Igility Canada and an operation in the Cayman Islands. There are currently 80 employees across the group, including 60 based in Bermuda and 20 abroad.

Meanwhile Igility has just launched its newest business venture - IBM's Cayman Agency, which complements its ownership of BCS and makes it IBM's premier partner in the Caribbean region.

"These companies were built around Igility and this is one of these things that grew out of the strategic partnership between myself and Jamie Thain, who held Sbi (Systems Business Integration) interests and I was very interested in improving BCS," he said.

"The chairman and CEO of BSC, Donald Lines, encouraged this partnership and we have not looked back since - it has been very good." Mr. Thain has assumed the role of chief innovation officer, while Mr. Smith runs the operational side of things, and Robin Hammill is the chairman and CEO.

"Our strength is being able to manage these entities and bring them into the group, while allowing them to be autonomous, but able to enjoy the benefits of being in the Igility Group such as the back end administration work, and to allow these organisations to relieve themselves of some of the costs as well as the ability to have a shared customer base," Mr. Smith said.

"By definition, although they are technically related, they have a nice diversified portfolio. and at any given time at least more than one of the companies is performing well and make up for a shortfall for those that aren't performing so well, in what is no doubt a cyclical business organisation."

Indeed the Igility group's success has been in growing with the rapidly changing market, as reflected in the fact that they took advantage of business from the raft of new insurance and reinsurance companies which started up in Bermuda in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The various businesses in the group are interlinked in that consumers or companies can source their cabling and IBM hardware and software equipment from Fibre Net Communications and BSC respectively, get their Internet service from Transact and have their business solutions managed by Sbi.

"That is beneficial to the consumer, who, in a sense, has a one-stop shop where they can get all of their products and services, but it also gives them a choice to do the whole thing or just get things individually and we believe we offer them a higher level of service and expertise that they value," said Mr. Smith.

He believes one of the biggest changes he has seen during his time in the computer and IT sector is, just like IBM, the transition from hardware to service provision.

"I look at BCS in the last year and reason why we are embracing companies like SBI and Transact is so important because the shift has been to software and services," Mr. Smith said. "We are now a 60-percent based services-based company, with the rest made up of hardware provision, but I think we provide the best hardware you can buy."

And Mr. Smith reckons the biggest challenges facing the industry now are getting hold of and keeping Bermudians workers.

"Specifically to Bermuda, our biggest challenge will tend to be able to attract and retain well-qualified Bermudians, and that is a big challenge in a small place like Bermuda," he said.

"In Bermuda there also has to be the ability to be price competitive to the global options from other computer and IT businesses that so many of the consumer and companies here look at.

"Many of our customers, especially the internationals, look at offshore options, not only for their services, but also their hardware and, as much as it disappoints us, it is a challenge and we have risen to that challenge. As a local company we have to do that balancing act between competitive pricing and being a profitable entity and it is a tough walk to take sometimes."

He cited Transact as an example of a flagging company that has turned into a profitable enterprise. "Transact was clearly the weakest component of the group and it was an entity that was losing money on a weekly basis," he said. "But I looked at it with Jamie (Thain) and we were able to turn it around in six months.

"First of all, we upgraded the technology infrastructure and then we made it into a price leader to gain market share and in a period of six months we had begun to make a hold and within a year Transact was returned to profitability and is now the number one new subscriber for new customers." E-moo has also proved to be a winning formula, initially being used as a means of advertising Transact as a company, it has now blossomed into one of the most popular online facilities in Bermuda, getting two million hits a month, which is more than Google, according to Mr. Smith.

His message to any young Bermudians wanting to get into the IT industry is to get the right training and qualifications, but, above all, the proper experience.

"First of all, the good news about our industry is there are so many areas you can participate in - you can be a technologist, a sales manager, an accountant or financial controller - they are all jobs in IT, but we have different people from all kinds of backgrounds," he said.

"To be a technologist, get a solid background in education and certification, specialise if you will, but don't just necessarily go down one path and then what you have to get is experience.

"But there is nothing that beats international experience - if you have the ability to work outside Bermuda you can contribute so much more which you can learn from the different environments of technology and business that you can come back to Bermuda and apply."

Mr. Smith, who is 43, is married to international triathlete Karen Smith with two children, a son aged nine and a four-year-old daughter, and balances his career with family life. He also enjoys a number of sporting pursuits including golf, where he has a handicap of 12, and has, himself, also competed in the world championships for Bermuda in the triathlon.

In addition he is also a board member at Somersfield Academy where his children go to school, charity The Family Centre, and Riddell's Bay Golf Club, as well being actively involved in the Bermuda Chapter of the Young President's Organisation.