I provide IT knowledge and expertise to smaller organisations, based on my experiences working in the IT departments of multi-national companies. If you have a task that you repeat on a regular basis, then what I do is create a solution that does the task for you, saving you time and money. Most of my client time is spent in analysis and then on making changes that provide measurable improvements.
Most of my work is done when a client identifies an area where they repeating a task over and over, be that editing spreadsheets or taking customer orders. If you have identified an issue within your organisation, I can analyse the issue and design and implement a low cost solution.
Example One: Excel SpreadsheetsMost small businesses rely on spreadsheets such as Excel to keep track of sales, expenses, stock, etc. As the business grows the number and complexity of these spreadsheets can grow and grow, as does the time, effort and money/profit that goes into keeping them up to date.
A recent example, was with a client I worked with who maintained a log of sales made in Excel. As the business had grown so had the work involved in maintaining the spreadsheet, in fact several spreadsheets had come into creation, all filled in by different people for different reasons. This had over time resulted in 3 staff members spending about 2-3 hours a week putting info into 5 different spreadsheets with only minor differences in what was being recorded.
When I became involved, everyone knew they were repeating the info and that it was taking up valuable time, but they did not feel comfortable moving from the system that worked to a new one, they did not have the time to do so either.
I spoke to the staff and mapped the data being recorded in each spreadsheet along with the calculations that were made to the data, for each person. I then created a single spreadsheet that collected all the data in one place, I added a simple data entry form that made entering the information easier. I created a page that made all the calculations and another that charted much of the results.
In this specific case, they also wanted seperate files that only showed some of the information, so I created 2 new Exccel files that linked into the data recorded in the main file and presented it in different ways.
Almost all businesses have standard documents they reuse over and over again with only minor changes to the text. Automating the creation of these documents can save you time and prevent dreadful errors, like when you forget to change a company name in the middle of the text and you end up sending a letter to a prospect with another prospects company name in it.
I can create for you templates that will ask for the required information and then place it automatically in the text, removing the room for error.
Recently I have created template letters, question sheets and meeting minutes templates along with others. If you have a document you reuse over and over, let me turn it into an automated template for you.
Example Three: Web Based SoftwareMost people now have websites, too often they are what I call "advertising billboards" rather than places where business can take place. I am able to put software solutions on your website to automate many business tasks.
My client had a well designed website, with good traffic and it resulted in frequest email enquiries. However, being a professional services firm, they did not take online orders, all bookings were done over the phone.
This organisation had a relatively small number of clients being served by a larger number of part-time expert staff, all bookings were for half or full days. I spoke with several of the staff and several of the clients about how bookings were handled, I took this information and designed an online booking system that allowed clients to tell the business what days they were available and what consultant services they wanted over the internet.
In the initial version of the software, this created an email to the business which allowed them to check diaries and then email the client back confirming or asking for a change to the proposed dates. Later revisions we have planned will involve synchronising Outlook claendars.
This solution has decreased the time spent on arranging appointments by approximately forty percent, freeing considerable staff time for other activities.
Example Four: Video Conferencing NetworkCommuting and travelling to meetings affects most of us, I was recently involved in a project to help reduce travel costs in the Higher Education sector through the use of videoconferencing.
The project involved implementing video conferencing hardware across 10 sites and LANs, 7 independant organisations, 3 MANs and one WAN.
The systems had to traverse multiple firewalls, be integrated with multiple cameras and displays. I worked with the local LAN support teams as well as working with senior staff and also presentedted at national conferences and wrote reports for staff and for HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England).
The solution saved people in Bromley having to fight rush hour on the M25 to attend meetings in Bournemouth, and Vice Versa. In increased the communication between sites and saved many hours in travel.
Example Five: CRM Software CustomisationThe key to getting the best from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is ensuring that it is customised to meet your needs.
For the past two years I have helped a leading UK business make the most of their SalesLogix CRM system. SalesLogix is a SQL based system with a highly flexible client, both the database and the client can be modified to make it more applicable to your needs.
I have created custom views, custom reports, developed macros using the scripting language within SalesLogix (Based on VBScript in 5.2 and using proper VBScript in later versions). These customisations were all implemented to make sure that the software handled as much of the sales (and post sales) processes as possible.
I have experience with many CRM systems including SalesLogix, Access, Excel (!), SugarCRM and the web based Salesforce.com, please contact me for a chat about how CRM customisations could help your business.
Linux & Open Source SoftwareFor the growing business, software costs can soon become a major expense as the number of staff grows. An example of this is the popular MS Exchange email server software, with only five users it is approximately five thousand pounds, just to have email! A Linux alternative, that includes SPAM and Virus scanning costs... nothing.
Linux and other Open Source software can provide small organisations powerful tools at a fraction of the cost. Typically the software is entirely free and the costs are solely those of implementation, this allows you to invest more on getting it to work as you want it to rather than on the software itself. Taking our example of MS Exchange, that five thousand pounds could have gone on installation, configuration and testing rather than on the software, which would still need installing, configuring and testing.
Please do contact me on 020 7871 9516 to discuss Linux & Open Source, there are alternatives for all the well known software packages and I am happy to help you find the ones that suit you.