To celebrate Starboard’s 15th anniversary, we’ll be spending some time over the next four weeks with Starboard’s founders, Karen Buck and Amy Tatum.
Karen Buck, Executive Director for Starboard, has over 25 years of experience providing Maximo implementation services to the Utilities industry, including Electric, Water, Wastewater, and Gas. She holds a Master’s in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s in Accounting.
Amy Tatum, P.E., Vice President of Technology and Solution Director for Starboard, has over 20 years of experience providing Maximo implementation services to the Utilities and Airport industries. She also has extensive knowledge of the Utilities, Transportation, and Spatial industry/add-on solutions and leads Starboard’s project delivery teams. Amy holds a Master’s in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. In 2022, Amy was named an IBM Champion for her commitment to the Maximo community.
What was the impetus for starting Starboard?
We wanted to focus exclusively on Maximo. At the time, we worked at a consulting company that was mainly focused on engineering work. So, with a passion for the product and having built a solid practice within that firm, we thought it would be great to build our own company focused on delivering concrete, tangible results for our clients from beginning to end. Being able to concentrate on Maximo was a key driver; we wanted to be known for implementation excellence.
How did the name Starboard come about?
We were sitting in a restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport across from our boarding gate, talking about starting the company, and of course one of the first topics was what to call our new company. We jotted down different ideas on a napkin while we were brainstorming. Landing on nautical themed names from the beginning, we gravitated to the name Starboard. The name made a lot of sense since starboard is the right side of a vessel, and our goal in starting the company was to always steer our clients in the right direction!
What challenges did you face as a new consulting firm in the Maximo market?
We launched Starboard and we were immediately recognized and accredited by IBM as a Business Partner. Maximo is a community, and we were recognized as being a part of that community because of the 10 years prior that we had been working in the space; we had built a reputation for quality work, so we were immediately accepted.
What do you feel is one of Starboard’s biggest accomplishments?
It’s impossible to pick just one. The work we do, the team of people that we’ve assembled, the culture we’ve built, the customer care we provide, and the care we have for each other. Everybody cares for each other and our clients; it’s very much a family atmosphere. If we had to pick one thing it would be the partnerships we’ve built, and that’s evident in the amazing team of people we have delivering quality work to our clients, some of whom have been with us since day one. We’ve also had employees who have been with us almost since the beginning, which is unheard of in a consulting industry. To us, that speaks volumes about what we do.
