Consultancy
My consultation services are designed to leverage the knowledge you have of your business. However, when it comes to the field of IT and the internet, it can be difficult to make plans and decisions affecting the way you do things if you don't really know what the options are. In the past 15 years I have worked with a wide variety of businesses and have introduced ways to help them get the most out of their IT and internet presence as well as providing insight into ways to use technology to improve their services and efficiency.
Whilst my specialty is in improving and developing IT and web infrastracture, I am only to happy to bring a more general experience to the table, gleaned from years of experience in consulting on IT and web provision.
My consultation services are affordable and can be conducted remotely or by face to face meeting depending on geography and logistics. Further more, if you decide to engage my services further, I will discount the invoice by the cost of the consultation, effectively making that consultation free advice.
Case Studies
Bespoke Kitchen Manufacturer (UK)
I was first approached by the owner of the business to provide an online storefront for a bespoke kitchen and cabinet making business. I had a few conversations with them about how they were doing things and the nature of the business. It became apparent, very early on, that they were on the higher end of the price range, and rightly so, they were producing an equisite product, from design, sourcing the best materials and high quality build and finish.
From the conversations I had with the owner and his staff, it became apparent that a storefront site was not really what they were after. They weren't selling an 'off the shelf' product and to that end would unlikely 'sell' directly off the web. What they really needed was a high-class online brochure that would communicate the passion that they had for quality design and delivery.
Further to this conversation it became clear that pricing was an issue in that they really didn't have a handle on costs. They were making money, but it was very difficult to get an idea of profit until after a job was complete. I spent some time with them, discussing ways of quantifying labour and time and materials, cost of sale and other factors.
Finally a corporate database was designed to dovetail many disparate systems that they were using to manage records and accounting information. The end was result was a happy client who had a better eye on their bottom line and a website that acheived the goal of drawing in new business. In addition they made some great efficiencies in terms of administration, further allowing them to promote sales in the business instead of spending that time administering the business.
Online Course Delivery
I was contacted by another IT provider who had a requirement from a long term client to provide an online learning experience to supplement their already successful distance learning business. It's always a little more difficult to work in these situations as firstly the client already has a succesful relationship with the provider and direct contact with the end client is sometimes not possible. In this case I did have a direct contact with the training provider and via a series of meetings and discussions we developed an online training and examination platform. Part of this work was to examine a number of open source, or other commercial offerings to see if they would fulfil the requirements of this case. After some consideration, it was decided that the cost of development would be cheaper in the long run and more tightly focussed to the client's needs if a bespoke solution was developed.
In addition to providing this facility, a major revamp of their website was conducted to ease the experience of searching for and booking into courses, as well as a high quailty online store including bundling discounts and other bespoke requirements.