Totalamber was established in 1997 by Alan O'Neill with an objective to be the leading specialist IT recruitment company for the Cyborg application in the HR and Payroll market. The strategic focus of the Totalamber business was to provide a more professional service to the Cyborg community. This approach required Totalamber to supply services to the market in a different way from the more traditional 'agency' approach and Totalamber very quickly established a reputation for a more professional proposition for service delivery and quickly formed a core team of 35 consultants, with a variety of specialist skills and experience, capable of delivering the full range of project lifecycle services.

During this period, the core business focus which started with Cyborg was extended to cover both the Midland and Peterborough applications in the HR and Payroll market.