tag:initforthe.com,2005:/blogBlog2024-03-04T12:45:48+00:00tag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/582024-03-12T12:00:48+00:002024-03-12T12:00:48+00:00The Role of Technology in Business Process Management<div>In today’s fast-paced business landscape, organisations are constantly seeking new ways to streamline their operations, boost efficiency, and stay ahead of the competition. Let’s face it, running a business can be extremely overwhelming and stressful at times, so what if there was a way to simplify those things? With Initforthe there is! One powerful tool that has transformed the way businesses manage their process is through the use of technology. In this article, we will explore the vital role that technology plays in the business process management services we offer at Initforthe and how it can drive success for any kind of organisation. </div><h2>Automation: The Absolute Game-Changer: </h2><div>Technology has brought automation to the forefront of BPM. With the help of advanced software and tools, businesses can automate repetitive tasks, reducing human error and freeing up valuable time for employees to focus on more strategic and creative endeavours. Automation not only improves efficiency but also enhances accuracy and consistency across processes. </div><h2>Workflow Management Systems: </h2><div>Gone are the days of relying on manual spreadsheets and emails to manage workflows. The BPM solutions that we offer here at Initforthe offer robust workflow management systems that provide a platform for creating, tracking, and optimising processes. These systems enable real-time collaboration, task assignment, and progress monitoring, ensuring a smooth and seamless execution of tasks. </div><h3>Data Analytics: </h3><div>Technology empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions by leveraging powerful analytics tools. With the ability to collect, analyse, and visualise data, organisations gain valuable insights into their processes. With the help of technology combined with BPM, businesses can make informed decisions to optimise their processes and drive continuous improvement.<br>Technology has become a huge part of the business process management world. From automation and workflow management to data analytics, technology empowers organisations to optimise their processes, drive efficiency, and achieve their goals. By embracing technology businesses can unlock a new world of possibilities and stay ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape. For more information about <a href="https://initforthe.com">business process management</a> or any of the services we offer here at Initforthe, please do not hesitate to get in touch.</div>Phil Collinstag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/572024-03-01T00:00:00+00:002024-03-12T12:00:27+00:00Top Signs Your Business Needs Process Improvements<div>Have you ever wondered if your business could benefit from some process <br>improvements? Well, luckily for you, you have come to the right place! Here at <br>Initforthe, we offer business process improvement services that can simplify the <br>way your business runs. In this blog, we will explore the top signs that indicate your <br>business could use a little boost and efficiency and explain how business process <br>management (BPM) can help you achieve just that. Streamline your business and <br>embrace BPM today!</div><h2>High Error Rates:</h2><div>Mistakes happen, but if your business is plagued by frequent errors, it is time to act.<br>Business process management can help pinpoint error-prone areas and implement <br>measures to reduce these mistakes and errors. This not only saves time and <br>resources but also improves overall efficiency. Reduce errors and increase <br>productivity with BPM.</div><h2>Poor Communication and Collaboration:</h2><div>Communication breakdowns and lack of collaboration can hinder your business's <br>overall success. Business process management can provide a platform for effective <br>communication, streamlining collaboration, and fostering teamwork across <br>departments. Say goodbye to miscommunications and hello to a more productive <br>work environment. </div><h2>Inconsistent Quality:</h2><div>Consistency is key, especially when it comes to delivering quality products or <br>services. If you have noticed a lack of consistency in your business, it is time to <br>consider BPM. Business process management can guarantee consistent quality and <br>keep your customers coming back for more.</div><h3>Manually Entering Data:</h3><div>Manual data entry can be extremely time-consuming, repetitive and increases the <br>chance of human error. Automate your data management with business process <br>management today.</div><h3>Delays and Bottlenecks:</h3><div>If tasks take longer to complete and projects are constantly delayed, you could <br>benefit massively from business process management. By implementing BPM, you <br>can identify and resolve issues more sufficiently, ensuring smoother operations and <br>happier customers.<br><br>These are just a few signs that indicate your business could benefit from process <br>improvements. By addressing these issues head-on, you can optimise your <br>operations, increase efficiency, and ultimately drive growth and success. For more <br>information about <a href="https://initforthe.com">business process management (BPM)</a> please get in touch. BPM is <br>the key to a successful business.</div>Phil Collinstag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/562024-02-15T14:14:02+00:002024-02-15T15:34:04+00:00How Our Bespoke Software Can Automate Your Business <div>Here at Initforthe, we know all too well just how difficult running a business can be. It involves juggling multiple tasks, managing data, and ensuring all operations are running smoothly at all times. But what if there was a solution that could automate some of these processes, freeing up your time and resources? Well, fortunately for you, there is! <br><br></div><div>We offer customised and bespoke software automation solutions that will have your business running with ease without the need for your constant attention. Throughout this article, we will explore the benefits of our bespoke software solutions and how they can revolutionise your business through the power of automation. <br><br></div><div>Take a look below at some of the benefits of bespoke software automation: </div><h2>Improves Customer Experience</h2><div>Our software automation solutions play a significant role in enhancing customer experience. Thanks to our bespoke software, you can automate customer interactions such as customer support and email campaigns. By providing a seamless and efficient experience, you can build stronger customer relationships and drive customer satisfaction, all through our software automation services. </div><h2>Streamlines Operations with Ease </h2><div>Say goodbye to the stress of managing multiple operations and let our bespoke solutions handle them all. By automating repetitive tasks such as invoices and inventory management, you can save your business valuable time and even reduce the risk of human error! All our software solutions are specifically tailored and bespoke to your business’ needs and requirements. </div><h3>Saves Costs and Time </h3><div>At Initforthe, we pride ourselves on saving our customers money and valuable business time. Thanks to our automation services, you can reduce labour costs, minimise errors, and overall boost productivity. You can then use this time saved on improving and evolving your business! </div><h3>How Bespoke Software Can Automate Your Business? </h3><div>We now return to the main question of this blog; how does our bespoke software automate your business? We eliminate stress and free up valuable time you can spend on more necessary parts of your business. By investing in the bespoke software services that we offer here at Initforthe, you can save time, reduce costs, and focus on what really matters when it comes to your business. <br><br></div><div>For more information on our <a href="https://initforthe.com">software automation services</a>, please get in touch. Embrace the power of software automation and unlock your full potential! <br><br></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/552023-11-06T14:30:00+00:002023-11-06T12:05:57+00:00Delving into Sage's 2022 Report on the untapped tech adoption that could boost the UK economy by £232 billion annually. <div>In a rapidly evolving business landscape, technology has become the driving force behind innovation and growth. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United Kingdom are no exception to this trend. The year 2022 marked a significant turning point, as Sage, a leading provider of business software and solutions, released a comprehensive report on UK SMB technology adoption. The report offers valuable insights into how technology can be a catalyst for growth among these enterprises. In this blog post, we will delve into the key findings from the Sage report and discuss how UK SMBs can harness the power of technology to unlock their potential and flourish.<br><br></div><div><strong>Understanding the Landscape</strong><br><br></div><div>The Sage report paints a vivid picture of the technology adoption landscape among UK SMBs in 2022. It highlights the fact that many of these businesses have recognised the importance of technology but still face various challenges. Let's explore the key findings:<br><br></div><ol><li><strong>Digital Transformation: </strong>Approximately 60% of UK SMBs have embarked on their digital transformation journey. However, a substantial number are still in the early stages, and there is significant room for growth.</li><li><strong>Cloud Adoption: </strong>Cloud technology adoption has seen substantial growth, with more than 70% of SMBs relying on cloud-based services. This shift has improved flexibility, scalability, and collaboration for these businesses.</li><li><strong>Cybersecurity Concerns:</strong> Despite the increasing reliance on technology, cybersecurity remains a significant concern for SMBs, with nearly 40% lacking confidence in their cybersecurity measures.</li><li><strong>Data Analytics: </strong>Around 55% of SMBs use data analytics to make informed decisions. However, there is room for improvement in utilising data to its full potential for strategic insights.</li></ol><div><br><strong>How SMBs Can Grow Through Technology Investments</strong><br><br></div><ol><li><strong>Embrace Digital Transformation:</strong> The path to growth begins with embracing digital transformation. As seen in the report, SMBs that have taken steps in this direction are reaping the rewards. By digitising processes, streamlining operations, and enhancing customer experiences, businesses can become more agile and efficient.</li><li><strong>Leverage Cloud Technology:</strong> Cloud adoption provides SMBs with the ability to scale their operations as needed, reducing upfront capital expenses and enhancing mobility. Invest in cloud solutions for better collaboration, data accessibility, and flexibility.</li><li><strong>Prioritise Cybersecurity: </strong>The report highlights that SMBs need to strengthen their cybersecurity posture. By investing in robust security measures, businesses can protect their valuable data, build trust with customers, and avoid costly data breaches.</li><li><strong>Harness Data Analytics: </strong>Data is a goldmine waiting to be tapped. SMBs can harness data analytics to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour, market trends, and operational efficiency. This can inform strategic decisions and improve overall performance.</li><li><strong>Stay Informed and Adapt:</strong> The technology landscape is constantly evolving. Staying informed about emerging trends and being willing to adapt to new technologies is crucial for long-term success. SMBs should allocate resources for ongoing education and technology updates.</li></ol><div><br>The Sage report on UK SMB technology adoption in 2022 serves as a valuable guide for small and medium-sized businesses looking to thrive in an increasingly digital world. By embracing digital transformation, leveraging cloud technology, prioritising cybersecurity, harnessing data analytics, and staying informed, SMBs can position themselves for growth and success.</div><div><br>Technology investments are not merely expenses; they are investments in the future of your business. With the right strategies in place, UK SMBs can unlock their potential and seize the opportunities presented by the ever-evolving tech landscape. The time to invest in technology is <strong>now</strong>, and the rewards are waiting for those who take the leap.<br><br>But why are UK SMB behind in adopting technology solutions....? </div><div><strong><br>The top barriers for investment are cost and understanding:</strong></div><ul><li>The most significant barrier is cost, with 41% concerned about adopting new tech due to cash flow pressure and 24% unsure of the return on investment</li><li>Second is awareness, with 34% stating they are unaware of which solution is right for them</li><li>Almost a third (30%) say that training staff on new processes and breaking habits are also a barrier</li></ul><div><strong><br>SMBs must prioritise investment in digital tools to successfully mitigate against macroeconomic challenges<br></strong><br></div><ul><li>The threat of a recession, continued inflation and increased costs are [significantly] impacting SMBs</li><li>Over <strong>9 in 10 businesses (92%) state that technology is important to their survival and growth</strong>, and 88% say that it is key to business resilience</li></ul><div><strong><br>Data is an important area of untapped potential <br></strong><br></div><ul><li>Technology that generates data (websites, social media, accountancy, and HR software) have been widely adopted by small and medium-sized business – and continue to see high levels of investment</li><li>However, <strong>only 24% of SMBs have adopted tech to collect and use data</strong>, such as data analytics software</li><li>Five sectors with the lowest adoption of data analytics technology are beauty and wellbeing, retail, creative industries, hospitality, and education</li></ul><div><strong><br>The pandemic prompted a fundamental perception shift across SMBs regarding digital technology<br></strong><br></div><ul><li>92% say that digital tools have been vital to their survival through the pandemic </li><li>Of businesses founded in the past two years, <strong>91% credited their creation to new and innovative technologies</strong></li><li><strong>8 in 10 SMBs say that technology is important to achieving their business goals.</strong> This is reflective of every sector and region in the UK</li><li>Over 75% of businesses stated that online reputation information, such as online reviews and ratings (‘Blue Tick Tech’) is important to them</li></ul><div>For the full findings - See Sage Report: <a href="https://www.sage.com/investors/governance/sage-public-affairs#sme"><em>Digital Britain: How Small Businesses are turning the tide on tech</em></a> <br><br>With this in mind, Initforthe is here to help - we understand and recognise the concerns but more importantly, we're experts in helping you mitigate these risks and reap the rewards of investing in technology for your business. Rather than adding costly third-party software to your business we create bespoke solutions that work for <strong>your</strong> business enabling you to grow quicker and with no messy workarounds from using software built for the masses. <br><br>Businesses that have worked with us have seen significantly improved productivity from their workforce, a reduction in operating costs as well as increased revenue and profits. <br><br>We offer free no-obligation consults - get in touch today. We're <strong>Initforthe</strong> future with you.<br> </div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/542023-08-28T10:30:00+01:002023-08-22T11:34:09+01:00Don't Believe The Hype - The Ugly Truth About Using Third-Party Software to Scale Your Business<div>If you're a small business owner looking to scale your operations you've probably encountered countless ads and articles promoting the use of third-party software. They promise to streamline your processes, boost efficiency, and ultimately, help you achieve rapid growth. While it can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon it's important to take a step back and consider the potential drawbacks. In this blog post, we'll shine a light on the ugly truth about using third-party software to scale your business and provide you with some alternative strategies to achieve sustainable growth. So, grab a cup of coffee and get ready for some real talk!<br><br></div><h3><strong>Don't Believe the Hype: Here's Why Custom Solutions Are Key</strong></h3><div><br>While third-party software may seem like an attractive option for scaling your business, it is important to consider the drawbacks and limitations that come with it. Instead of falling for the hype, investing in custom solutions can offer numerous benefits and ensure sustainable growth for your business. Here's why we believe custom solutions are key and most importantly why they typically can cost less, not more than third-party software solutions...</div><h3>Scalability and Adaptability</h3><div>Custom solutions are designed specifically to meet the unique needs and requirements of your business. Unlike third-party software that may not be able to accommodate your evolving needs as your business grows, custom solutions can be tailored to scale alongside your operations. Whether it's adding new features, integrating with existing systems, or accommodating increased user load, custom solutions can be easily adapted to support your business growth.</div><h3>Full Control and Flexibility</h3><div>With custom solutions, you have complete control over the design, functionality, and workflows of the software. You can align the solution precisely with your business processes, rather than having to adapt your operations to fit predefined features. This level of control allows you to optimise and streamline your operations according to your specific requirements, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.</div><h3>Enhanced Data Security and Privacy </h3><div>With your own in-house system, you have full control over the security measures implemented in your software. You can prioritise data security and privacy according to your business requirements, ensuring that sensitive information is protected from unauthorised access or breaches. By partnering with our award-winning, experienced developers, you can implement robust security features and keep your data safe.</div><h3>Seamless Integration</h3><div>Integrating third-party software with your existing systems can be a complex and time-consuming process, often leading to compatibility issues and operational inefficiencies. Custom solutions, on the other hand, can be seamlessly integrated with your current infrastructure, ensuring smooth data flow and compatibility. This eliminates any disruptions or delays caused by integration challenges, allowing your business to operate seamlessly.</div><h3>Increased Productivity and Efficiency</h3><div>Building your own software allows you to optimise and streamline your operations according to your business processes. You can eliminate unnecessary features or workflows that do not align with your requirements, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency. By customising the software to fit your workflows precisely, you can save time, reduce manual errors, and automate repetitive tasks.</div><h3>Long-Term Cost Savings</h3><div>While third-party software often comes with recurring subscription fees, custom solutions offer long-term cost savings. By investing in a solution that is tailored to your business, you eliminate the need for ongoing licensing fees and reduce reliance on external support. Additionally, our custom solutions are built to scale efficiently, avoiding the need for costly upgrades or migrations in the future.</div><h3>Competitive Edge and Unique Differentiation</h3><div>By investing in your own software, you can gain a competitive edge and differentiate your business from competitors. By offering unique functionalities, better user experiences, and more efficient processes, you position your business as a leader in your industry. Customers are more likely to choose a business that provides tailored solutions that cater to their specific needs.<br><br><br></div><div>So yes, whilst investing in custom solutions will require upfront costs and development time, our customers have often found that the benefits and cost savings very quickly outweigh the initial investment and they can significantly contribute to your business's growth and success. By choosing custom solutions over third-party software, you can ensure that your business has the flexibility, scalability, and control it needs to thrive in today's competitive landscape.<br><br></div><div>Read our case study <a href="https://initforthe.com/case-studies/booking-management-software-for-training-companies-initforthe">here</a> and see how our work allowed our client <a href="https://www.train-aid.co.uk/">Train Aid</a> to grow their turnover by 15 times compared to when they started working with us, with minimal new hires....</div><div><br></div><div><em>"Tom took the time in the initial consultation stage to really get to know our business. A clear strategy was proposed with specific deadlines for the different stages and ongoing opportunities for us to give our own feedback. We felt really involved in the whole process."</em></div><div><em>T</em><strong><em>om Casserley, Managing Director, Train Aid<br></em></strong><br></div><div>In our next couple of blogs, we'll dive deeper into how UK businesses can utilise R&D tax credits to offset the investment of developing custom solutions and further explore the steps involved in creating a tailored software solution for your business. Stay tuned to learn how you can leverage custom solutions from Initforthe to scale your business effectively.<br><br></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/532023-08-14T14:30:00+01:002023-08-14T13:23:08+01:00Process Automation - Why your business can't afford not to<div>In today's fast-paced world, businesses need automation to thrive. By harnessing the power of software development, your business can transform its operations, free up resources, and focus on strategic activities. The future is now, and it's time to automate. <br><br>One of the biggest benefits of automating your business processes through software development is saving time, money, and headaches. Let me tell you more about how Initforthe can help increase the happiness of your staff and customers. <br><br><strong>Revolutionise your business through automation</strong> <br><br>Automation through software development has revolutionised businesses across various industries. It unlocks countless possibilities and improves efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience. With automation, you can streamline processes, integrate systems, and gather valuable insights from data analytics. This empowers your business to stay ahead of the competition and drive innovation. <br><br>At <a href="https://initforthe.com/">Initforthe</a>, we're transforming businesses across the UK. Our bespoke automation solutions can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, reducing the time required to complete them manually. This increased efficiency allows your business to accomplish more in less time. <br><br>As we all know every scaling business faces challenges - outdated systems and processes can limit your growth - we're here to change that and really deliver on your ROI. <br><br><strong>Cost Savings<br></strong> <br>One of the most common issues businesses face is caused by manual data entry and processing which often lead to human errors. Our automation solutions eliminate these errors by automating your processes, ensuring accurate data entry, and reducing the risk of costly mistakes. <br><br>Automating your business processes also results in significant cost savings. By reducing the time required to complete tasks and eliminating manual errors, your operational costs decrease. Additionally, our bespoke automation solutions optimise resource allocation, allowing you to make better financial decisions. <br><br>We did this with <a href="https://vas-group.co.uk/">VAS Group</a>, a business in the North East of England that specialises in providing valuation reports for lenders, mitigating their risk when making lending decisions. They started trading with 4 staff in November 2017, and have since grown to a multi-million £ business. Our bespoke solutions helped them achieve £300k turnover in just 3 months and employee costs savings of £750k within just 12 months - find out more here. <br><br><strong>Employee & Customer Engagement<br></strong> <br>When manual tasks are automated, employees can focus on more important and strategic activities. This leads to increased productivity across the organisation, as employees spend less time on mundane tasks and more time on tasks that require human intelligence and creativity. Ultimately, this leads to better outcomes and higher levels of customer satisfaction, and most importantly increasing staff happiness and decreasing staff training time. Your HR director will certainly notice the difference! Happy Staff leads to a profitable well-run business! <br><br>Bespoke software development can help provide a seamless and personalised experience to your customers. By automating customer interactions such as customer support, order management, and billing processes, your business can improve response times and accuracy. This ultimately leads to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. <br><br><strong>Scalability<br> </strong><br>Reviewing and automating your systems and processes enables you to generate real-time reports and analytics, providing valuable insights into your operations. With access to accurate and up-to-date data, your business can make informed decisions quickly. This data-driven approach allows you to identify areas for improvement, optimise processes, and stay ahead of the competition. <br><br>Our custom software solutions are scalable and adaptable to the changing needs of your business. Whether you're expanding operations, adding new functionalities, or integrating with third-party systems, our solutions provide scalability and flexibility. This means your business can continue to grow and evolve without significant additional investments. <br><br>Our client <a href="https://www.train-aid.co.uk/">TrainAid</a> was experiencing growing pains having been established since 2009. They came to us to help ease the spreadsheet minefield they’d found themselves in. Spreadsheets for payments, bookings, classroom registers, certificate delivery and more. It was all getting a bit too much and too many mistakes were happening. Find out how we re-engineered their systems to work for them and their team allowing the business to grow its turnover by 15 times, compared to when they started working with us, with only a handful of new hires. Read all about it here. <br><br><strong>The time is now, so what are you waiting for? </strong><br><br>Investing in your business and embracing automation can streamline operations, optimise resource allocation, and achieve sustainable growth. Don't get left behind, the time is now to unlock the full potential of your business, embrace innovation, and let us help propel your business towards greater success. Initforthe is a team of multiple award-winning Manchester-based bespoke process automation experts. <br><br>Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help optimise your business. Check out how we've helped other businesses reap the rewards and increase their profits <a href="https://initforthe.com/case-studies">here</a>.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/522023-07-25T15:30:00+01:002023-08-02T15:31:13+01:00It’s official! Initforthe are the region’s Best Digital Transformation Specialists!<div>We’re delighted to have won our second award in eight months as 'Wealth & Finance International' named us the 'Best Digital Transformation Specialists in North-West England'! <br><br>The competition was close in this year’s FinTech Awards, which have been taking place annually for seven years now, but the Initforthe team came out on top-and deservedly so.<br><br>It’s been a busy time at Initforthe HQ as we continue on our mission to design and develop technology for happier, more productive teams. We’ve been hard at work helping our clients increase efficiency and agility, so it was a wonderful and unexpected surprise to receive the news of our award win.<br><br>Founder Tomislav said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this coveted title in 'Wealth & Finance International’s' FinTech Awards which celebrate the most talented individuals and firms working within the field. “Being up there with the very best is a real honour and we couldn’t be prouder of our success - it’s a true testament to the value we deliver for our clients.” J<br><br>Just eight months ago, we were also named 'Software Development Company of the Year' in the 'Global Corporate LiveWire Awards 2022/23' for building software that delivers excellent results for our clients. Don’t just take our word for it - read some of our case studies <a href="https://initforthe.com/case-studies">here</a>.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/512022-05-20T22:25:39+01:002023-07-25T14:35:01+01:00Another two awards for the team at Initforthe! 🎉<div>It's been a busy month for the team here. In amongst the work we've been doing to help our clients improve processes, reduce stress and increase capacity, we've won some awards!<br><br><figure data-trix-attachment="{"content":"<span class=\"trix-attachment-spina-image\" data-label=\"Alt text\">\n <img src=\"https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBbzBCIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--e395cb44f54dc2e58d3cbf544982faf370e1d34b/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCem9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lKYW5CbFp3WTZCa1ZVT2hSeVpYTnBlbVZmZEc5ZmJHbHRhWFJiQjJrQzBBZHBBdEFIIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--da5325d937f67241af6f0fab540cf0ee1c3bdc91/smenews-award-winner-bespoke-business-software.jpeg\" />\n </span>","contentType":"Spina::Image"}" data-trix-content-type="Spina::Image" class="attachment attachment--content"><span class="trix-attachment-spina-image" data-label="Alt text">
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</span><figcaption class="attachment__caption"></figcaption></figure><br>This time, we've won <strong>Best Bespoke Business Software Development Company 2022 </strong>in the <strong>SME News UK Enterprise Awards 2022<br><br></strong><strong><figure data-trix-attachment="{"content":"<span class=\"trix-attachment-spina-image\" data-label=\"Alt text\">\n <img src=\"https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/representations/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBb3NCIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--baab606968a541dfdb792ceaa462c831ed62a65a/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCem9MWm05eWJXRjBTU0lKYW5CbFp3WTZCa1ZVT2hSeVpYTnBlbVZmZEc5ZmJHbHRhWFJiQjJrQzBBZHBBdEFIIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--da5325d937f67241af6f0fab540cf0ee1c3bdc91/fintech-awards-winner-digital-transformation.jpeg\" />\n </span>","contentType":"Spina::Image"}" data-trix-content-type="Spina::Image" data-trix-attributes="{"bold":true}" class="attachment attachment--content"><span class="trix-attachment-spina-image" data-label="Alt text">
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</span><figcaption class="attachment__caption"></figcaption></figure></strong><strong><br></strong>We've also won <strong>Best Digital Transformation Consultancy - Northern England</strong> in the <strong>Fintech Awards 2022 </strong>hosted by <strong>Wealth & Finance International.</strong><br><br>We're always proud of the awards we win - they are testament to the care and passion we put in to our work, and they show that the hard work definitely pays off.<br><br>Our clients deserve a special mention too, because without them, these awards would be hot air! And that would just be balo(o)ney!</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/502022-03-04T12:11:31+00:002023-07-25T14:31:08+01:00Your business has a people problem. And you won’t solve it with more people.<div><strong>Software has a people problem, and people have a problem with software.</strong> I'm actually talking about how people interact with software and how they engage with it. I've talked a lot about this before - I talk to clients, my team and I talk to anyone who is interested about how people are the hardest part of building great software.<br><br>Most change managers would tell you it's because it's essentially impossible to get everyone on board with the programme and that you just have to accept some losses, but I'm going to tell you now that this is complete rubbish.<br><br>A business is like a rocket. Some rockets are pretty simple. An aerodynamic shell, some propellant and you'll have something that takes off, albeit haphazardly. Some, like the Falcon 9 that SpaceX uses are complex. They have so many moving parts, and they are almost completely automated, to the point that they can bring themselves back to Earth safely for reuse.<br><br>The thing with rockets is that you need to push them (quite hard) to get them to go anywhere, and if you want them to go in a particular direction, then you have to add complexity to them. Then more complexity if you want them to come back down again. Your business is the same, and the fuel is your people, and the complexity is your systems and processes.<br><br>At the point at which those systems and processes need to become sufficiently complex (the difference between starting out with a Saturn V, and ending up with a Starship) to direct your business in whatever the right direction is, your people can't keep up. There just isn't enough available to make it go. So in rocket-speak, you've got a very complex and now heavy rocket, but you don't have the right kind or enough fuel to actually get off the ground.<br><br>So what's the solution? Most business owners think you can just add more people, but adding more people confusingly compounds the problem. The nice thing about rocket fuel is that it's reliable and consistent, something us humans really struggle with. The best possible solution lies in the intersection between the systems (the moving parts) and the people (the fuel).<br><br>If you can leverage the things that each part is good at, and make them work in harmony, then you can push your rocket further than anyone else can. With your business, it's no different. People are <strong>really good at stuff that flexes the synapses</strong>, and really bad at being consistent and reliable. Computers are <strong>really good at being consistent and reliable</strong> and really bad at stuff that flexes the synapses (because they don't have any. AI is a conversation for another time).<br><br>So let's test this idea. Let's allow the computer to do all the repetitive stuff that just has to be done, and have it ask us for input when it can't do something because it requires intelligence. Let's not have levers or buttons for any of it - just let the computer get on with it. How much time would you get back? Most people would save hours if not days per week, because most of us are mired in what we describe as "admin".<br><br>If you've saved hours or days per week, what is the compounded impact of that time-saving? There is a law of compounding returns, which essentially states that your returns grow bigger exponentially as your investment remains at a constant linear amount. Over time, you're saving much more than the sum of the actual time in front of you.<br><br>OK, right at the start I called out the absolute tosh that is the change management paradigm, but I've only really dealt with hypotheticals on merging people with the systems that are in the business. The people <strong>have to want </strong>to use them, and more than that, they <strong>have to be a joy to use</strong>. Those factors are critical. Joy in this context comes from two places:</div><ol><li>An intuitive (or easy to use) system stops your brain from thinking about how to do something, and instead allows you to think about other more interesting things, which makes us happy; and</li><li>If that system <strong>solves your specific problem</strong>, you derive happiness from it having done something for you, because you were part of creating that system.</li></ol><div>Armed with this knowledge, getting people involved and engaged is actually relatively straightforward. Work with them, understand them, help them and solve their pains, and their engagement and interest are now compounded on top of itself. Now your rocket can go faster <strong>and</strong> further <strong>and</strong> in a more specific direction.<br><br>This is all well and good, but you want some real numbers, don't you?<br><br>Assume you could save 1 hour per day per person in a 5 person team (this is pretty conservative, but let's roll with it). That's 5 hours per day, or 25 hours per week, 1300 hours per year!<br><br>If you consider that we humans are productive in our work for around <a href="https://www.vouchercloud.com/resources/office-worker-productivity">2.5 hours per day</a>, then that's 40% of your productive time saved, which means you can deliver 2.5x more work in that same timeframe without adding more people, assuming your systems enabled them properly.<br><br>Here's the compounding returns bit though: because those people are more engaged, their productivity will increase. We've seen over doubling, but again, let's be conservative and suggest that you'll get a 50% benefit to your productive time. That moves your needle to deliver 3.75 productive hours per person per day, so your whole team, who was previously working at a rate of 3250 productive hours per year are now at 4875.<br><br>Now add that 1.25 hours per person per day (50%) to the saved hours, making it 2.25, you're actually gaining a 90% improvement in your capability. Why do you add it to the saved hours? Because you didn't have it there before, so it's extra time you've just got back, still without adding any more people. That's the equivalent of achieving <strong>22.5 hours per person per day! </strong>Before we started, we were delivering 2.5, and we're able to do the equivalent of 22.5 without adding people, and by actually <strong>reducing the level of stress </strong>across the business. That's a 9x increase in the volume of business you do every single day.<br><br>What are your numbers? These are conservative. But if your systems and your people aren't working together, you'll end up with a compounding negative return instead. It works both ways.<br><br>Before I leave you with that thought, let's just look at the salary equivalent of that. To add 22.5 hours per person to that 5-person team without a system would require an extra 40 members of staff (2.5 hours of productive time a day remember?)<br><br>If you paid each person £30,000 a year (let's assume, and let's leave out other overheads like tax, pensions, training, kit and so on), that's an additional spend of £1.2m per year.<br><br>The reason I wanted to leave you with that calculation is because I get asked the following a lot: "How much would it cost to build a system for my business". The truthful answer is that each business differs. But I can categorically tell you that it won't cost you £1.2m per hour-day saved in a 5-person team.<br><br>It will be significantly less.<br><br>If what you've read rings true for you and you're interested in doing the stuff I've shared here, please <a href="/contact-us">get in touch</a> to see how we might be able to help.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/492021-12-09T18:49:52+00:002021-12-09T18:49:52+00:00Initforthe wins Most Customer Focused Digital Transformation Specialists 2021!<div>We're proud to announce that we have won <a href="https://www.corporatevision-news.com/winners/initforthe-ltd-2"><strong>Most Customer Focused Digital Transformation Specialists 2021 - Greater Manchester</strong></a> in the Corporate Vision Small Business Awards.<br><br>We work extremely hard to build long-lasting relationships with our clients, building a deep knowledge and understanding of their business and their customers. We strive to improve the customer experience at every step of the journey, and the software we build shows how much we care about the work we do.<br><br>This is the second award we've won, having won <a href="https://www.corporatevision-news.com/winners/initforthe-ltd"><strong>Best Bespoke Software Development Consultancy - North West England</strong></a> in the 2020 awards, along with <a href="/awards-weve-won">three other awards</a> in 2020 and 2021.<br><br>As a small business, it's great to be recognised in awards that are not "pay-to-play" and recognise real achievement, so we're extremely proud of the awards we've won, and this latest award is further validation that we continue to provide exceptional value for money for our clients.<br><br>The Small Business Awards have been a part of the Corporate Vision awards programmes since 2016, with an aim to recognise innovative and hard-working organisations, and their owners. With so many obstacles to overcome over the last year, it is more important than ever to support small businesses however we can.<br><br></div><div>According to the <a href="https://www.fsb.org.uk/uk-small-business-statistics.html">FSB</a>, SMEs make up 90% of the business population worldwide, and account for 50% of employment. With the economy relying on small businesses so heavily, it’s important to recognise their efforts as they help to shape the corporate landscape.<br><br></div><div>Awards Coordinator Gabrielle Ellis took a moment to discuss the success of those recognised in this year’s programme: “Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and their work should be recognised to match their efforts. We offer our sincere congratulations to all the winners, and good luck for the future.”<br><br></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/482021-11-09T15:46:00+00:002021-11-09T16:40:43+00:00We're growing our team. Senior Ruby on Rails Software Engineers, apply here!<div>We're growing here at Initforthe and we're looking for some great people to come and join us on our mission to <strong>build software that helps people be their best selves at work.</strong><br><br>In simple terms, we’re looking for a self-sufficient senior engineer, capable of working in Rails, Javascript and CSS to work on our client projects.<br><br>You will work directly with our clients, sometimes solo (but with support from the broader team), so great non-technical communication skills are imperative; experience in client work is a major plus.</div><div><br></div><div>Initforthe builds line-of-business software; you might not be building the next Twitter or Uber, but the code you write will be used every day by real people, usually as a core part of their daily lives. A strong focus on the user experience, and frequent collaboration with the people using our software, are both key to our success.</div><div><br></div><div>This is a <strong>fully remote</strong> role, but is only (sorry!) open to those based in the UK at present.</div><h2><strong>What you’ll do</strong></h2><ul><li>Work directly with clients & users <em>(not necessarily the same people!)</em> to build great software.</li><li>Understand the underlying <em>user need</em> behind a feature request. Solve that user need -- don’t just “tick a feature box”.<strong> If you’re not sure, ask! The client is </strong><strong><em>part of the team</em></strong><strong>.</strong></li><li>Break down larger “projects” into user stories.</li><li>Keep the client in the loop; frequent demos and status updates make sure we’re solving the <em>right problem</em> in the <em>right way</em>, and not burning time unnecessarily.</li><li>Write high quality, appropriately-tested, maintainable code in Ruby and Javascript.<ul><li>We use Rails, Hotwire and Tailwind as our core stack.</li><li><a href="https://initforthe.com/blog/why-you-should-have-tests-for-your-software-projects">We strive for <em>enough, appropriate</em> test coverage</a>; knowledge of testing frameworks such as RSpec and Jasmine is a must.</li><li>We ask for senior engineers because we grant a lot of latitude; in general, we will trust you to own the codebase you’re working within, know your tools, practices and patterns, and get on with delivering value for our clients.</li></ul></li><li>Review (& get reviewed!) pull requests as needed on more complex features.</li></ul><h2><strong>What is it like to work here?</strong></h2><div>As Managing Director, my role is so different from the day to day that I asked my team to put it in their own words:</div><blockquote>Working with the team at Initforthe is like a breath of fresh air; my previous engagement was with a large multi-national organisation and I was simply treated as a number. We, as engineers were kept at arms length from the end users and this soon became tedious. However since joining Tomislav and the team I now feel a sense of value in my work, I can see the results first-hand and I speak directly with the users of the software.<br><br>The client I'm currently working with is very engaged and knows what he wants but not necessarily how to achieve it, that's where we come in; we are part of their team and we're treated like it. Being included in strategic conversations beyond the scope of our project is part of what we do; not only because it helps our clients achieve but it also allows us to understand their medium to long-term aspirations, therefore we can (if required) cater for these earlier on. We're not afraid to ask questions.<br><br>Our workload is ultimately defined by the client. We will work together to define the tickets required to complete a piece of work, then I'll go in and add in the acceptance criteria and relevant time estimate. From then it's down to the client when this is done as they're partly responsible for the priority of tasks.<br><br>As tickets are completed and reviewed with the client, they're merged in and deployed to live immediately which allows us to cater for clients needs both quickly and efficiently.<br><br>We're a small but dedicated team who take pride in our work; trust, honestly and flexibility are a given.<br><br>— Paul Durbin, Senior Ruby Engineer</blockquote><h2><strong>What skills do you need?</strong></h2><ul><li>4+ years as a ruby engineer, across multiple engagements or employments.</li><li>Experience working on the frontend in at least one Javascript framework, and basic CSS knowledge.</li><li>In general, ask yourself “Do I have the technical skills necessary to build a well-architected, well tested order processing system from scratch?”<ul><li>This type of system is the closest match to the types of “business system” that Initforthe focuses on building.</li><li>Further reading: <a href="https://www.shopify.co.uk/enterprise/order-management-system-oms">https://www.shopify.co.uk/enterprise/order-management-system-oms</a> </li></ul></li><li>Prior experience owning a project from start to finish.<ul><li>This could be a large feature in a large application, or an entire application, or an open source project.</li><li>You might have been leading a team or working solo.</li><li>What we’re looking for is the ability to take something unspecified and complex, and break it down into a set of <em>specific, achievable technical tasks</em>, by working <em>with</em> <em>people</em>.</li></ul></li><li>Prior experience working with non-technical stakeholders.<ul><li>This may be the same project as discussed above.</li></ul></li><li>Great verbal and written communication skills.<ul><li>We know this is in <em>every</em> job description, but when working with users directly this is a must.</li><li>Can you describe what you’re going to build, and how it is going to work, in a way that a non-technical person can understand?</li><li>Can you interpret what <em>other people say</em>, and turn that into a clear technical plan of action?</li><li>Without the ability to communicate clearly and effectively, you can’t be sure you’re building the right thing.</li></ul></li></ul><h2><strong>What does the interview process look like?</strong></h2><ol><li>We’ll have a quick initial chat for about 30 minutes about your skills and experience.</li><li>We will ask you to complete a technical assessment, in Ruby on Rails and Javascript. We’d expect this to take no longer than about 2 hours. <strong><em>If you have any open-source projects in Ruby or Ruby on Rails, you can send those to us instead.</em></strong></li><li>We’ll have a longer conversation with you (about 90 minutes), where we’ll discuss your technical assessment (or open source projects!), and have a longer chat about your experience.</li></ol><div>This will include about 45 minutes pairing on <em>either</em> an enhancement to the technical test, <em>or</em> a small self-contained ruby task, depending on what you sent us in step 2.</div><h2><strong>How much are we paying?</strong></h2><div>We're looking for people to stay with us for the longer term. We have two options:</div><ol><li><strong>12 month contract</strong> with option to renew: £350-450 per day</li><li><strong>Permanent full-time</strong> position: £70,000-90,000 per year</li></ol><div>If you're looking for flexibility, this is available too, so please let us know when you're applying what you're looking for in that regard.</div><h2><strong>What are the "perks"?</strong></h2><ul><li>The standard 28 days holiday (not a perk), plus bank holidays, plus a 2 week shutdown over Christmas (the bank holidays and Christmas don't count towards the 28 days)*</li><li>A computer (Windows, Linux, macOS) - Macbook Pro or equivalent*</li><li>35-hour week</li><li>Calm, stress-free environment to work in. We don't do pressure-cooker development</li><li>Completely flexible working arrangements - if you need to pick your kids up or want to take your dog for a walk, or spend a few hours in the middle of the day doing something different, that's fine!</li><li>Honest, open, friendly culture where discussions and opinions are encouraged. We're not a family, but we are a great team</li><li>Remote. <strong>Permanently.</strong></li></ul><div><em>* permanent positions only</em></div><h2><strong>How do you apply?</strong></h2><div>Send your CV and covering letter explaining clearly why you believe we are a good fit to <a href="mailto:jobs@initforthe.com?subject=Senior+Ruby+Engineer">jobs@initforthe.com</a>.<br><br><strong>PS. If you're a recruiter, we don't need help filling this, so please don't get in contact.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/472021-11-08T11:05:20+00:002021-11-08T11:05:20+00:00Agile means.... big business<div><strong>Every small business knows that they can change faster than their larger competitors.</strong> The flip-side of that coin is that most ambitious business owners would love to have one of those larger businesses, but don't want to trade the agility of being small. A big tanker can carry more containers, but doesn't have the turning circle of a small and nimble speed boat. It's the turning circle that gets you places when you're small.<br><br>Interestingly though, it's also what gets you places when you're big! So, the purpose of this post is to show you just how important it is to practice Agile across your whole business.<br><br>To start with, I'm going to tell you about a company some of you may have heard about: <strong>Blockbuster</strong>. Who remembers them? That's right, they went bust and by 2014, they had no stores remaining. Who took them out? The plucky little (back then) Netflix. What was even more frustrating for the Blockbuster board was that they'd had the opportunity in 2000 to buy Netflix for a meagre $50m.<br><br>Netflix started out as a mail-order DVD service. I was a member back then and I paid a subscription where you could choose how many DVDs you wanted each week. I had a list I curated of things I wanted to watch, and as long as I returned the DVD I had watched, I'd get another in the post the following week. If I didn't, I wouldn't get another one until that one had been returned.<br><br>In 2007, Netflix started to transition to a streaming service (did you know their original DVD-by-mail service <a href="https://dvd.netflix.com/">still exists</a>?) as broadband became more readily available, and then in 2013 started to develop its own content.<br><br>The way they have adopted an Agile approach to an ever changing landscape, as other contenders (Disney+, local TV streaming services, Amazon Prime etc) have come up, is in a big part the reason for their resilience. The Netflix "brand" of agile is even <a href="https://medium.com/scrum-alliance/the-netflix-brand-of-agile-6ea9a0e7f2b8">written about</a> by Scrum Alliance, the largest association of Agile professionals in the world.<br><br>By focusing on continuous improvement, iterative and short cycles and clear feedback loops, and by putting people first (whether that be customers or staff, depending on the project), they've found new ways to innovate and deliver what many consider to be an excellent service. They have fought battles against the likes of Apple, have you noticed that they don't let you sign up in-app on iOS? They have integrated with TV manufacturers, Google, Apple and others across a whole ecosystem of devices, and were early to deliver the best possible resolutions in their own content. That's not just in the delivery, but in how they film and produce that content.<br><br>At every step along the journey of the company, from small fledgling to large behemoth, you can see the agile approach at play. That's because it's part of their culture. So Agile is definitively a people thing. You can't do it if the culture that comes from the top doesn't support that style of work. It won't work if your company has a distaste for curiosity and for questioning the status quo. It won't work if you or your company suffers from "that's the way we've always done it"-itis.<br><br>And here's the kicker. If your business doesn't support a truly agile approach to doing business, you're unlikely to reach heights the kinds of which Amazon, Netflix, SpaceX, and <a href="https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/10-companies-killing-it-scaling-agile">so many others</a> have been able to do. Why? Because the people across the organisation hold the keys to the kingdom. They're the ones to listen to, and to enact the change that is required. They can and will have the company's best interests at heart, but only if you let them.<br><br>So how do you start? Look at your customer experience. Note down all the ways that you could improve it, if there were no barriers to that change. For example, if your immediate thought is "I'm going to have to send another email", don't worry. That can all be automated. Now consider how much of the process could be automated, and what parts of it would give you the biggest gains by being more streamlined.<br><br>I imagine you're already finding that you're getting your time back and that of your teams. Let's say you save 80% of your time through automation. That means you can now do 5x more business with the same people. What does 5x your business look like? Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal might just have got a tad bigger.<br><br>Want to find out more? <a href="https://initforthe.com/contact-us">Get in touch</a> with our team today.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/452021-10-21T12:17:00+01:002021-10-15T12:19:18+01:0017 years in business: a reflection<div>We turned 17 years old in September, so I thought it would be interesting to write about the changes that have happened in the business, about where it started and how it's going now.<br><br>Initforthe started life as a protective jacket around me, and to make me come across as more "professional". This would be the second business I'd have set up (the first was me as a sole trader, and it lasted a year before I'd decided it wasn't one to pursue), and I felt that setting up as a Limited company would give me some of that kudos that I perceived as being needed.<br><br>I had been asked to build a virtual learning platform for a language school based in the South of England - a friend of a friend's parents ran it and needed a way to communicate with, teach and mark the work being done by their students who were often not in a face to face environment (we didn't call it remote back then, but that's what it was).<br><br>And with that, Initforthe was born in September of 2004. I was at university at the time, and as I moved into the world of work, the business was really just a bit of additional income from time to time and so I moonlighted as a software or web developer while I worked a "proper" job. I didn't realise the value that those proper jobs would add to my later taking the company full time and flying the nest of security that having a job gives you. Those jobs included being an estate agent, an investment broker and finally a web developer once again.<br><br>Fast forward to 2008. I was working as the head of the development team at a small agency in London. The agency used to outsource some of its work to other companies (they were called "production houses"), and one particular supplier was delivering particularly poor quality work. Not only that but they were trying to steal clients from under the nose of the agency by going direct to them. Unethical, much?<br><br>At the same time I was starting to feel "stuck" in my job, and the company started to treat the people around me in a way I disagreed with. I <strong>really</strong> wanted to have my own business, so I resigned. I put myself through a PRINCE2 project management course (on credit card of course!), went on holiday, and came back to the daunting task of building something from the ground up. I had a mortgage and a credit card with enough runway on it to last me 2 months. It was literally do or die.<br><br>I set up as a production house - the idea came to me while I was on that holiday - I could do a better quality job, and run an ethical business at the same time; one where we would white label for other agencies and do their work, but sit quietly behind the scenes. I found just enough work to get me started, and then it started to pile in! I hired my old team from the agency, and we were off to the races. Or so I thought.<br><br>Here comes lesson 1: don't give away your equity too early. I was lucky that I was able to get myself out of a bad partnership. I'm not going to go into the detail of it to save the embarrassment of others, but suffice to say it was stressful.<br><br>Over the years, we started to build some really interesting systems and tools for our clients, often consulting with them on their briefs to make sure that what the end client received was a real return on investment and we had some really major successes for brands such as LG, EasyJet, Jaguar Land Rover, Nintendo, Cadbury and many many others. At the same time, I was getting a little frustrated with how fickle the industry was and how planning more than 2-3 weeks out wasn't possible. Another stress I eventually decided I didn't like. We were however starting to work for clients directly, and building some really amazing platforms, apps and websites for them. And we were growing, but that in itself proved hard when you didn't know whether the work you were pitching for was actually even going to happen!<br><br>I nearly sold the business at this point (and not for very much money), but a good talking to from those close to me gave me 11th hour jitters and I pulled out of the deal, only to discover a few months later that the company I was planning to sell to had gone bust.<br><br>2014 came and I moved to Manchester to set up family. Moving a business today might look like childs play - we have so much enabling technology. Even then, everyone used to say "you can work from anywhere with WiFi". In business though, whilst the doing of the work and doing it well matters a lot, getting work to do matters more. And at the time, people just didn't have meetings over video! In 2015 my daughter was born, and following a particularly toxic project I realised I had to make some changes. No more websites, no more white labelling, no more agency work unless we were named partners and had a direct financial relationship with the client. Instantly, that was 70% or more of our business. Gone, overnight. What to do now?<br><br>Sometimes in business you need to hit the reset button. We kept the clients we wanted to work with - those that matched our ethics, our morals and our values, and for whom we were building tools that made a difference to the people who used them. We had some difficult conversations with some others, who we said farewell to. And we started to build again, solely focused on building business automation systems, but <strong>for people</strong>.<br><br>We've been growing steadily ever since. We're picky about the clients we take on. We have hard and fast rules about the kinds of businesses and people we want to be involved with, and those are baked in. We've had to say goodbye to clients when they breach those rules in the past, but these days that doesn't feel as difficult as it once did.<br><br>On the other hand, the clients we have today are just wonderful. I wake up (mostly) free of stress, because I know our clients are here for the long haul with us, and I know that we strive so hard to deliver the best possible value for them.<br><br>The adjectives I could use to describe various parts of the journey so far would be frantic, dangerous, scary, stressful, exhilarating, blissful and exciting. I've learnt how to communicate, work with others, lead, listen and make difficult decisions in the face of an uncertain outcome. My team today are amazing and we're only just getting started. And in the last year or so, we've won no less than 5 awards for that work, including Best Bespoke Software Consultancy twice in a row.<br><br>They say it takes 20 years to build an overnight success. Today I feel successful, looking at where we've been and where we've come to. This is by no means the final destination though. There is more to come from us, and more work to do. <strong>We're here to change the world, and that takes time.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/462021-10-15T12:17:00+01:002023-07-25T14:35:50+01:00Agile means.... more time<div>If you could wave a magic wand and have one wish granted, my guess would be that you'd ask for more time. Most of us would! We spend a huge proportion of our time just "surviving" - working to earn money to live, or doing jobs to try and make a better life for ourselves outside of work.<br><br>So what if I told you there is a way? A way to put that time back on the table. Would that interest you? If so, keep reading.<br><br>Back when computers were a new thing in companies, the world was told they would save us time doing our jobs, that we'd have paperless offices, and that we'd be working less than we've ever worked before. Perhaps that was just the stuff of sci-fi books I read as a kid, but it seemed to pervade into real life too.<br><br>The truth is that all too often software and technology has served to eat up more of our time, rather than to give it back. Some of that technology does it by accident. Those are the hundred different systems you have to use to do your job, designed badly, by someone who has never tried to sit in your chair, and who has never asked you any questions about the way you do your work. Some do it intentionally: social media is the prime example here - spend more time on Facebook, Instagram etc, and they can show more ads and generate more income.<br><br>How does that lead to agile? Let's start with what agile means in business. Agile is an iterative approach to project management, often used in software development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between people across different business functions, where those people self-propel their change process, focusing on the benefit they need.<br><br>What it means in practice is that you focus not just on your own job or process, but how it interacts with the rest of the business; who you talk to, give information to, receive information from and what happens beyond the boundaries that you can see. All that can be done without any technology, but software can and should be used to manage and govern the processes that come out of it.<br><br>You might currently have a process that requires a human check that you've added some numbers up in a spreadsheet correctly, before going to another manager to sign off and then on to another department to do something else with it. With software, you can ensure that the first person enters the numbers right, and it can go straight to the other department without involving the other two people in the old chain. The old chain was there because the technology wasn't up to the task of verifying, validating and providing governance over the process. We've seen so many occasions where something is double and triple checked by a person, only because there have been mistakes made in the past and rather than leveraging technology, we've used people as robots.<br><br>Now here's an interesting conundrum for you to think about: does practice make perfect, or does practice breed complacency? Studies show that there is an efficiency plateau followed by a large cliff. When we learn how to do something, we get progressively better at it, until such a time as we deem ourselves good enough or worse, better than, the process itself. Then we try and cut corners, thinking we're saving time. What we're actually doing is wasting time, because we're going to have to come back later to fix it. And in doing that we're going to have to multi-task, or context-switch. Humans don't actually multi-task - we're incapable of actually doing two different things at once. Or at least, we're incapable of doing two different things at once <strong>well</strong>.<br><br>Instead the answer lies in software, built right, fit for purpose, to solve a cross-functional problem the business has, and that you are trying to perform. Here's where agile fits right in. Instead of you trying to come up with all the possible things that this software needs to deliver you, just focus on the one. Don't multi-task! Make it work, and the requirements and solutions will evolve naturally from that. Focus not just on one role in the business. Software is no good at replacing people, and it should never be built for that purpose. It's there to serve the people, to make their lives easier, and to benefit them.<br><br>If you focus on, and deliver, one benefit at a time, you'll see a much faster rate of change, <strong>and</strong> a much faster rate of adoption across the business too as others see what you have achieved and buy in all of their own accord. You'll be able to quantify the value of the benefit in terms of ROI; the direct saving you make by not spending that time any more, and as a result, the potential uplift to the business because it can now be filled with more purposeful (and hopefully billable) work.<br><br>The intangible results you will see are happier staff (we see very emotional reactions to the software we build) who stay longer (lowering your hiring and training bill - the average cost of having to rehire after someone leaves is a staggering £130,000 in the UK, counting lost earnings, the impact on the remaining team, training, fees and the lack of productivity that new hire brings in the short to medium term). Those staff are less stressed and so their productivity goes up naturally (ever wondered why your team don't <em>just work harder?</em>)<br><br>Eventually, you will also see a transformation in the way your business model works. Where once, you made less profit per person for each hire you make (more management to manage the people, more expense to keep them happy, and the natural churn of staff), you're now making more profit per person for each hire, because each person you take on is better suited to the role, and the robots keep the ship moving.<br><br>So <a href="https://initforthe.com/how-we-work/benefits-of-agile">Agile</a>: more time, more money, better people, better business. And if you don't? Well, that doesn't bear thinking about, does it?</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/442020-10-15T11:50:39+01:002020-12-09T10:20:03+00:00Working with Initforthe: What does a successful software development project really look like?<div>We've been spending a bit of time recently reflecting on the way we work, and how that translates into highly successful projects for our clients, and ones that our team love to work on. I wanted to share some of that learning because it really does highlight some of the important aspects of our process and culture that make us "us", and what you should expect if you choose to work with us, either as a client, or as a part of the team.<br><br>We've written about our <a href="https://initforthe.com/blog/the-benefits-of-using-agile-software-development">Agile</a> <a href="https://initforthe.com/how-we-work/our-process">development process</a>, and how we follow the <a href="https://initforthe.com/agile-manifesto">Agile Manifesto</a> before. Those things might tell you about the day to day operation of a project, but they don't get to the nub of how we actually end up with a project that <a href="https://initforthe.com/case-studies">everyone can be proud of</a>, and better still, smile at!<br><br>Let's dive in...<br><br></div><h2>Never making assumptions</h2><div>Never making assumptions is the backbone of everything we do. Humans are brilliant at making assumptions about all sorts of things, so it's quite a challenge for us to actively fight against that. We assume what others are thinking, about what particular behaviours mean, and we find ourselves projecting those assumptions on to others without those beliefs necessarily being accurate. When it comes to our work, this becomes a two-way truth.<br><br>We <strong>will not</strong> make assumptions about our clients' businesses, their people, customers or ambitions. This translates into us asking lots of deep and challenging questions about the business, and prying into its inner workings. Clearly that takes a lot of trust; we're learning about our clients' innermost secrets and those <strong>do not</strong> want to be laid bare for all to see, at least not by us.<br><br>In asking those questions, it's important too that our clients don't make assumptions about our current level of knowledge in the answers that they give, because any assumptions made only leave the door open for misinterpretation, and thus: <strong>project failure.</strong> Not a good outcome for our client. Not a good outcome for us.<br><br></div><h2>Understanding your business</h2><div>Learning about the business of a client is the beginning of any project. If you ask any builder, the first lesson they teach their apprentice is this: <strong>measure twice, cut once.</strong> What that really means is you have to have a detailed, well written plan. So here comes the barrage of questions. We really do ask a lot of them (sorry, not sorry)!<br><br>We want to learn about the business. What does its future look like? What goals and aspirations are there? What does it do today? We need to understand that in real depth. How does the business work? How do you get from one place to the other, with a happy customer at the end of it. And is the end really the end, or is there something that comes after that? What parts of that are difficult, or frustrating right now?<br><br>I've written before about <a href="https://initforthe.com/blog/how-to-get-started-with-automation-in-your-business">understanding the value of automation</a>. How long do those frustrating things take to do? How many times do they happen in a day/week/month? How much money does that cost? What is the opportunity cost - how much more business could be done if that time was freed up?<br><br>Getting answers to all these questions gives everyone a key piece of knowledge: <strong>what part of the business can we disrupt in order to get the maximum return on investment as quickly as possible? </strong>This will invariably lead to yet more questions around decision making and how the information flows between the business and individual people. This helps to document your actual, real world business processes into process maps. We're not trying to document your whole business (yet), but rather the area we're focusing on, and its touch points with others (people, departments, suppliers, customers).</div><div><br></div><h2>Understanding "the customer"</h2><div>As to getting to the bottom of exactly how the job gets done, we need to speak to the people who are involved. We call them "the customer" because ultimately they're the users who interface with the system in some way. They could be a member of the team, an actual customer, or part of the supply chain, but if the business needs to communicate with them in some way to get the job done, they are "the customer".<br><br></div><div>To that end, what do we need to learn about "the customer"? We need to understand where they might be at the point at which they come into contact with the system, and what else might be on their plate. We need to learn about their priorities, so that we can slot in to their task list in the least disruptive way. We need to learn about the technology they have to hand at that point in time, so we can design an interface to suit that purpose (it's no use building a desktop screen full of form fields if the user is going to have a mobile phone to hand, or narrow mobile view if they're sat at a desk).<br><br>And then we need to learn about what that person is trying to achieve, both in work now, and in life longer term. Because part of our role building automation into businesses means helping people transition into different, more fulfilling areas of work. Our clients don't get rid of people off the back of the automation work we do. <strong>If they do, we fire them.</strong> People carry knowledge around with them that is the most valuable asset a business can possess. As a result, those clients who leverage the skill and ambition of its collective team make the biggest returns on their investment.<br><br>How do we actually learn about the customer? Literally, by talking to them, and asking them lots more questions to find out about them and what we can do to make their lives (certainly at work) easier.</div><div><br></div><h2>Building in collaboration</h2><div>So we know what we need to build now, right? Hold your horses! These cats won't skin themselves, and there are a million and one possible ways to do it! What we do have now is a hopefully fairly solid understanding of the business problem we're trying to solve, the people and processes involved in that problem (and by extension, the solution), and we've probably built up a mental architecture as to how we're going to make the solution a reality.<br><br>Now for <strong>user stories</strong>. For those not in the know, User Stories are little instructional requirements that begin the conversation of "how" and "when", given we now understand "why" that solution needs to be created. Take for example the following user story:<br><br></div><blockquote>As a customer I want to receive a notification when my lease is near to expiry</blockquote><div><br>It creates a whole load more questions: what is "near"? How does the customer want to receive the notification? Do we want to give them a choice? How do we present that choice to them? If we send an SMS, what options do we have for sending it and do we want to handle any responses? That's the first few that came to my head, but the list of questions is a long one, and until we have answers to all the forks in the road, we won't be able to get going. That's the collaboration - we can't answer those questions, but we can advise on best practice, and help guide a positive customer experience.<br><br>Once we've done that, we start to build. Usually for more complex stories, we will stub out a mock version of the interface at each point along the way so that we can get immediate feedback from the customer (remember, that's the user of the system at that point). We'll work with that person (or people) to make sure that it works for them, and once everyone is happy that the problem at hand is solved, we build it out and move on to the next problem. Rinse, repeat.<br><br>Usually, we're in almost constant dialogue with our clients and the people in the organisation. We're usually in less constant dialogue with their own customers, but we do engage with them to make sure that what we're serving them works for their needs. <strong>Ultimately, our client is part of our team, and we're part of theirs.</strong><br><br></div><h2>Test, test, test, then test again</h2><div>Here's the interesting thing. In a previous job, back in 2000, we used to have a bank of computers of varying shapes, sizes and operating systems on which we tested websites we built. The heady days of making a change on the 7th floor, and having to go down to the 3rd to test that one liner on 7 different machines, across 4 different browsers each. These days we automate much of that, and most browsers today are based on the same underlying architecture (something called WebKit for those in the know), which means that Safari, Chrome, Edge and Opera are now pretty much the same browser, with Firefox the outlier.<br><br>By automating tests, we can validate that the system works, but it also provides a number of other benefits down the road. When you want to build a new feature, the classic problem we hear from clients is that "their old developers broke the system" whilst building the new thing. Automated tests help to prevent that by ensuring that what works continues to work. If it fails the tests, it isn't allowed near a user.<br><br>Further, because software is a forever changing world, we often need to upgrade the underlying dependencies (libraries of code that the project relies on to function) to newer versions. Without automated tests, there's no way to validate that the upgrade was successful and that nothing broke, but with them, not only can you determine if everything works, but if it doesn't, what specifically broke, and what needs to be done to fix it. That makes upgrades much less painful, and allows the system to be kept up to date more regularly and with more confidence. Which in turn means that it never has to become so old that it just needs to be thrown away and started again. <strong>And that gives you business continuity.<br></strong><br></div><div>Our expertise, and where we add value for our clients, is really all about learning, applying that knowledge by using (or specifically not using) technology to solve the need, and testing against that learning. Whilst there has to be importance placed on money (its availability) and deadlines (typically external, and outside of your control), for us at Initforthe, the measure of success for a project is not defined by either of those things, but rather by the raw human emotion created - has it fulfilled a need that existed, has that need been accurately understood and solved, and does it spark joy for those who use it? If not, that's a failure in my book.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/432020-09-24T15:52:02+01:002020-12-14T16:16:11+00:00You probably don't care about software testing. Here's why you should.<div>To give some context to this post, we've recently inherited a number of projects built by other developers. In each case, we've been asked to finish off work that was incomplete, or to take over because of a relationship breakdown. In every one of those projects cases, there is one constant: a lack of an automated test suite.<br><br>In business, relationships usually break down because of a mismatch in expectation versus reality, often compounded by a lack of communication. Testing, communication and expectation are inextricably linked to one another, and over the next few minutes, I'll explain why.<br><br></div><h2>What are tests in a software project?</h2><div>Testing traditionally was done by putting a person (or people) in front of your product with a documented series of tests. A manual test suite. You'd tick each one off as you went, or mark failures with what went wrong and hand back to the development team to resolve issues.<br><br>When the changes were made, you'd do it all over again. You can't just test the one failing test, because the changes might break something elsewhere.<br><br>All this testing adds time to a project, and time is money. So if you have one company bidding for some work and they don't do formal testing, they appear to come in a lot cheaper than the one that does.<br><br></div><h2>What benefits are there for software testing? And why write tests for software?</h2><div>The benefit of tests in a software project are clear: they reduce the risk of breakage. Breakage happens both in the moment - whilst developing - and later, when adding or changing functionality in the future. The latter is called a regression, and the software world is rife with regressions. Consider how many times you've been involved in a project that involves software (including your website) where you've asked for a change and it's broken something seemingly unrelated. That's a regression.<br><br>It also makes upgrades easier. There isn't a piece of software in the world that doesn't use third party libraries or frameworks for at least part of it, and updating those can have an impact on the stability of the system. Having a well defined test suite makes it <em>easier </em>to upgrade that over time, without risking those breakages hitting your users.<br><br>The value of having a good coverage of tests won't necessarily become apparent right at the start of a project, at least not to a non-developer. If that's you, you'll realise the value down the road; weeks, perhaps months after the system has been built and been running. You'll ask for a change, and it will just happen, and won't break something else. Or if you find a bug and you report it, a test can be written that proves it (bugs need to be replicated by the developer to be fixable), and then once fixed, it can't happen again. Without tests, that bug can rear its head many times into the future.<br><br>So the value proposition for having tests is stability, and that means a robust part of your business operating arsenal. With an unreliable system, people lose faith in the system and find workarounds, and those then take additional time and cost more money. If they trust the system, their requests instead create further benefit to themselves and the business as a whole.<br><br></div><h2>Why your software development project should have automated tests</h2><div>You can probably see why automating your tests is useful; it saves a huge amount of time manually testing each and every line in your test suite. A test suite of several hundred tests can take a matter of a few minutes to run, and you can run all or part of it whilst developing to make sure those tests don't get anywhere near a real user. <br><br>So taking the above statement that testing costs time and money, we can see that automating those tests now means a lot less time is spent actually <strong>doing</strong> the testing. But someone still has to write the tests. That's developer time, and so 1 hour of development time might add another half an hour in writing tests.<br><br>Writing automated tests allows developers to test the really deep parts of the system - the bits where numbers are crunched - to make sure they're rock solid. It also provides documentation for new team members, or heaven forbid, completely new teams. Handover with tests is clean, and it means that the incoming developers can take the project on knowing they have a working base. That means little to no disruption. On the other hand, as we've found with all the projects we've taken on without a test suite, those systems come with their own hidden mysteries. Things that come out of the closet as you start to work on them, and those cost more time and money than writing the tests in the first place.<br><br>Writing automated tests also makes for cleaner code. They allow for refactoring (reworking) of code to be cleaner and more maintainable, and also give clarity of purpose up front, meaning a developer will often write less, and better formed code. Again, that's a long term maintainability win, all of which means more time and money saved.<br><br></div><h2>What happens if your software project doesn't have an automated test suite?</h2><div>Honestly, you're in trouble. Without wishing to put too fine a point on the stick I'm prodding you with, a lack of a test suite screams future problems even if it doesn't show current ones. We've just taken on a project that has cost several tens of thousands of pounds to build over a number of months, and we were told that there were a never ending list of issues that couldn't seem to get fixed.<br><br>So a direct outcome of a lack of tests is a lack of trust, and that means a catastrophic failure in the relationship between the business and its development team. That could as well have been an in-house team - the outcome is the same.<br><br></div><div>More than that, any new development team that takes on the project will be questioning whether they want to weather the risk of the project, and whether the risk should be weathered by the client too. It's a commercial decision at the end of the day, but one both parties will need to make, and not one to be taken lightly.<br><br>One alternative is a complete rewrite of the application from the ground up. That's not something I would usually recommend, and there are <a href="https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/">plenty</a> <a href="https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/6268/when-is-a-big-rewrite-the-answer">of</a> <a href="https://www.leaseweb.com/labs/2014/09/lies-nessecity-big-rewrite/">articles</a> around the web pointing to it being absolutely the wrong decision. However, if you're dealing with a brand new service, and it's a mess from the start, sometimes you can make some big changes by rewriting. However, in that situation, it's not a rebuild of what is, but a build of something completely new - it's still not a rewrite really, but a completely new product.<br><br>The other is to spend time and money investing in the project properly, building out the tests, documentation and cleaning up bad code or architecture. If all the code is bad? Perhaps refer to the first alternative. It's still a colossal waste of time and money to have built something without tests in the first place.</div><div><br>Earlier in the article, I touched on upgrades. With an automated test suite you can test an upgrade of one part of or all of a system's dependencies by performing the upgrade and letting a server run the tests while you continue on with your work. When it's done, you'll know what breaks, what needs fixing, and can form a plan as to how to do that and keep the application running the latest versions of everything it depends on.<br><br></div><h2>What VALUE do tests bring to your project, and to your business?</h2><div>Testing your systems is critical. You can't run a successful long term software project without them. If you have already started without them, make sure you add them in.<br><br>If you haven't started your project yet, make sure it's at the top of the list of questions you ask your prospective developers, along with what their average code coverage is. Code coverage is the amount of the code that is covered by tests, which gives a good indication of how well tested it is.<br><br>At Initforthe, we aim for 95% which is <strong>very</strong> high in the industry. We achieve 85%+ on all our projects and regularly hit 90%+. We write tests for every single bug that a user comes up against and prevent any regressions in the future. And the remainder of the tests cover the vast majority of the code we write to make sure it always works, can be upgraded easily, and you'll have minimal complaints or support requests from your users.<br><br>Let's also be very clear, and relate this directly to the image at the top of this post: 346 people died as a direct result of a lack of software testing when two Boeing 737 Max aircraft crashed. Further, the aircraft has been grounded ever since March 2019 causing untold billions of dollars in losses for both Boeing and its customers.<br><br>So in conclusion, it's less about whether there is value in testing, and more about what can happen if you don't have tests in your software project. Caveat emptor.</div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/422020-08-27T14:55:26+01:002020-08-27T14:56:11+01:00What's in a name? Why name projects?<div>When we start out on a new project with a client, we get every member of staff involved in a mini competition to name the system that we're building. This article will explain the reasoning behind this and why it's so critical to the process of delivering a successful project.<br><br>We humans name things. We name our cars, plants, <a href="https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/your-amish-friendship-bread-sourdough-starter-needs-a-name/">sourdough starter</a> and of course we name our children. Naming things gives us an immediate bond with that thing or person. Granted, when my own children were born, my wife and I didn't know their genders, but we did have name choices. But I also understand the desire to know, because for one, you can form an immediate bond with your baby through its name. The other thing about naming things is that it is entirely in your control. No one else is there saying "this is its name, so you can't change it".<br><br>And so it is the same with software. Usually, when buying software, you're told its name, and it's not usually much fun either. You've had no control over it, so you have to develop a relationship with it over time. That relationship could go in any direction, depending on whether the software in question is any good or not, but it's never a tight bond. You never look at Xero and smile, or Zendesk and have a chuckle, or reminisce about SAP.<br><br>On the other hand, we put that ownership into the hands of the people who will use it, and it creates an immediate personal bond. You no longer talk about "the system", but instead find yourself talking about Dave, Hugo, The Oracle, The Abyss, Jordan or whatever your name is (these are actual names our clients have given their systems). And each of these names has a story. Dave is named after the late father of the founders of that particular business, with a unanimous decision to raise new Dave in his memory. <br><br>Hugo came about because the system was originally called BOS and every time the name came up, the staff thought about, well, Hugo. So the name was changed, and stuck. The Abyss is a service desk platform for an IT support company, and it's where all your tickets go.<br><br>What they all have in common though is that initial bond. And that bond carries through to execution because those same people who named it feel empowered to help guide it on its development journey. As a result, those staff feel a loyalty to both the business and the people in it, and so they stay longer. But they also find themselves smiling at Dave, for reasons beyond my comprehension (because if you think about it, smiling at software is weird and unnatural). And it turns out the best place for your support tickets really is The Abyss.<br><br>Because people smile at the software we build, they are less stressed, more productive, and more engaged with the business, more than just their specific task or role. That means the business has lower overheads as the software helps guide and handle all the boring work, leaving staff clear to work on continuous improvement. Further, we find that because people stay, the business doesn't suffer knowledge loss, or rehiring costs, and the staff become evangelists for the system meaning zero system training for new starters.<br><br>And so to the business, and its staff, the spoils. More time, less stress, more profit, lower overheads, a jump (more like a giant leap) up on the competition. And the opportunity cost (ie. what if you didn't?) doesn't bear thinking about. </div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/412020-08-20T22:36:48+01:002021-01-20T10:06:55+00:00X Marks the spot: Without a map for your business, you're lost.<div><strong>When we go and see clients for the first time, we spend a lot of time understanding the detail about what the people in the business to in order to get their job done. Sometimes business owners will want to skip the step of documenting those processes because "we know what we do".</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Let's take the perspective of a new member of staff, and let's give her a name: Jenny. As a business owner, you want Jenny to get to grips with her role in the organisation as quickly as possible, and in your mind, that's fairly straight forward. But you've been doing it for years. Jenny on the other hand has never seen your business before, and as it turns out there are lots of if's and but's in your processes.</div><div><br></div><div>It's the same thing if you want to end up with a successful software project. The best software does as much as possible for you, so it's important to map out the parts of the business you're trying to automate.</div><h2>How do you go about mapping your business? </h2><div>This is a fairly exhausting exercise for most business people because they've never done it before and it requires some deep thinking about the way things are done. But the rewards are huge - you will uncover all sorts of areas where you plaster over the cracks, but most importantly, everyone will know what to do at each step of the business journey, and so your consistency will improve.</div><div><br></div><div>It also helps to uncover complexity in your processes. Sometimes it's there for a reason and other times it's just the way it's always been done. By uncovering these areas, you'll be able to more easily identify the parts of the business that you can gain the most value from when it comes to automation - typically, you want to start with smaller, simpler processes that have a big impact. By mapping your business out, you can see these clearly.</div><h2>How to start mapping out your business</h2><div>Even better, you'll need to document your processes if you want to go for any of the ISO standard certifications - 9001 in particular, but also 27001. If you don't know what these are, ISO9001 is a standard for quality management, and means a business delivers a consistent level of quality which is tracked and measured. ISO27001 is a security standard and proves (amongst other things) that you have secure processes for storing and managing data as it flows through the business. They're often marked as an achievement target by businesses because they can often open doors up to much larger contracts than would otherwise be attainable by the business.</div><div><br></div><div>If you want some tools to help you along the way, <a href="https://www.lucidchart.com/">Lucidchart</a> provides all the shapes you need to get started, but it's worth reading up a bit on how to <a href="https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/process-mapping-guide/">map processes</a> if this is all new to you.</div><div><br></div><div>I'll be honest though - documenting your whole business top to bottom is a daunting and likely thankless task until you want those ISO standards. You're better off looking at areas you have a gut sense can be improved and document those to make the whole lot a bit more visual for you. That way, you can look down on it and see where there are gaps, or sections can be removed or moved around a bit to make the flow a little less complex.</div><h2>Next steps...</h2><div>Armed with a map, the next step is to work out what parts of the process can or should be automated, and that's where the beauty of the map really lies - the map is just a guide, but the real treasure can be found through always looking for the next better way to do something.</div><div><br><strong>To discover how initforthe can improve your businesses productivity, </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/support"><strong>get in touch</strong></a><strong> today for a consultation.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/402020-07-23T13:35:34+01:002021-01-20T10:30:55+00:00Should you buy bespoke or off-the-shelf software?<div><strong>There are so many options available to us when buying software for our business. It's often hard for us to know where to turn. In this post, I'm hoping to show you how to determine when to go off-the-shelf and when to bite the bullet and go bespoke.</strong></div><h2><strong>When to buy off-the-shelf</strong></h2><div>Off the shelf software comes in a couple of flavours. You can buy a subscription to a cloud platform (sometimes known as SaaS - Software as a Service) or you can buy a licence for software that you install on your own servers. Sometimes, providers who offer a SaaS service also offer a self-installed option, but that's usually reserved for extremely niche tech products or large organisations who have very large data requirements.</div><h3><strong>Cloud Software (SaaS)</strong></h3><div>With cloud software, you pay your subscription and you use the system. Some platforms allow you to integrate with them either by building plugins or by making different systems talk to one another using something called an API (Application Programming Interface). When you use the system, we use a UI (User Interface), so an API is just what computers use because they need a more rigid structure, and us humans are better with visuals! Just being able to pay and go is one of the biggest pros for cloud software.</div><div><br></div><div>You can get going almost instantly, just by registering, but you can't usually change what it does or what it looks like, though you can sometimes make other systems you might have talk to it. That said, some of them have lots of configuration options that allow you to do some quite complex things with them. That's also one of their downfalls, but more on that later. The other big pro is there are no additional support fees and the system is (usually) kept updated by the vendor.</div><div><br></div><h3><strong>Self-installed / Managed Software</strong></h3><div>With a self-installed service (don't worry, the vendor will often manage that install, or your IT service provider will be able to), it's not quite as quick to get going, and the cost is usually somewhat higher. Some self-installed systems can be modified more heavily than others. You usually pay a support/maintenance contract, which will include upgrades of the system, and you may have to pay for training for staff to use it. Some systems work as they are, and some need heavy modification to use in any sensible capacity.</div><div><br></div><div>The ability to modify the system to better suit the business is probably one of the reasons you might want to go for a self-installed system over a cloud service because all the changes are built into your version that's installed on your servers. The other key benefit over cloud is that you're in control of the location of your data.</div><div><br></div><div>There's a big potential downside though if you do have modifications made: you could very easily become version-locked. You might have heard of vendor lock-in: being tied to one vendor so intrinsically that you can't use another. Version-lock effectively turns your support contract into a worthless piece of paper. You are still forced to pay a support contract which includes upgrades, but the changes made to your system don't allow you to upgrade to the latest version without some substantial work, with a cost attached. As a result, your system gets older and older and left behind as you stop investing energy into it.</div><div><br></div><div>The time where off-the-shelf software works best is where it solves one specific problem very well. In the tech world, we use tools to notify us when errors happen. IT support vendors install agents on PCs so they know when things start to go wrong with user machines before the user. They're singularly focused on doing one thing, one thing only, and doing it very very well. The vendors often know it's part of a bigger toolchain and provide comprehensive documentation and integration capability.</div><div><br></div><div>Personally, the only other tool I wouldn't particularly like to reinvent is accounting. It's been done, it works brilliantly, and the challenger businesses have been able to solve a big problem for the vast majority of SME businesses we work with. They also provide excellent integration capabilities and documentation, as outlined above.</div><h2><strong>Bespoke Software</strong></h2><div>But then there's the other side of things. And it's in tying all the pieces together and completing that puzzle that off-the-shelf software of any kind can fall down. In those situations, your best bet is to go bespoke.</div><div><br></div><div>Let's look at the pros and cons of developing a bespoke solution.</div><div><br></div><h3><strong>It's yours</strong></h3><div>You own it, so you can build whatever you like. As long as it doesn't break the bank or the laws of physics, but most things really are possible. On the flip side, you need to be prepared to maintain it, or at least pay someone to maintain it for you. Better still, you should look to invest further into the system to continuously improve your business and its processes. A good software development firm will include maintenance in with that. However, you never run up against version locking if you do maintain it, because it's always kept up to date under the hood. And it can always be modified to suit the business as it changes and develops too.</div><div><br></div><h3><strong>You gain an asset</strong></h3><div>If you have an exit strategy for your business, then bespoke software can be the asset that makes the deal more appealing to a purchaser. Businesses don't really buy others for their contract books any more. Certainly not larger businesses swallowing up smaller ones. They buy them because they see something they want, usually some asset. And an automated, streamlined business process that only you have, putting you head and shoulders above the competition is a very powerful Ace card. Having spoken to lawyers specialising in this field, it can add several 0's to the end of your valuation.</div><div><br></div><h3><strong>Your staff will love you</strong></h3><div>Now this one's a hard one to swallow, I grant you, but great software, built with your team rather than in the traditional "doing IT to people" approach works wonders on staff moral and loyalty. Our clients have seen an increase in staff longevity, and as a result, lower hiring and training costs. It's got to be done right, but the right software can make your dream team permanent winners.</div><div><br></div><h3><strong>It might cost less than you think</strong></h3><div>We buy off the shelf software because we believe it's cheaper than building our own. Sometimes that's right. I mean, I wouldn't want to build my own car (actually I would, secretly, but it wouldn't be my daily driver). It's a complex piece of machinery, but it can certainly be improved. Hence why Tesla is now the largest (by market cap) manufacturer in the world. And it's also why companies relying on transportation as part of their business are investing heavily in research and development in that field.</div><div><br></div><div>The problem is we're spending money and it's not an asset but a liability at this point. If we switch to investing in an asset that powers the business, we not only gain the benefits of better staff morale, but also funding options such as R+D tax credits which could mean the <a href="https://initforthe.com/blog/how-you-can-get-bespoke-software-developed-for-free-yes-really">cost of your software might go to zero</a>.</div><div><br></div><div>Big companies often buy off-the-shelf software because there is a perception that it's harder to maintain a bespoke system. I'd argue that it's easier and cheaper to maintain a bespoke system, though it will change a lot more than the off-the-shelf one over time. That's a pro, not a con by the way. It can mould around your business instead of you having to change what makes you unique to suit the system. You don't have to put staff through training to use it either, and you don't suffer the costs of people leaving because they're fed up with being told to do things a certain way.</div><div><br></div><div>There are clearly times where an off-the-shelf tool is the right one for the job, but when it comes to interacting with people in different places, times and parts of the business, there is no substitute for bespoke.</div><div><br><strong>Looking for a bespoke software development solution tailored to your needs? </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/software-development-manchester/bespoke-software-development-manchester"><strong>Learn more</strong></a><strong> to discover how initforthe can help.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/392020-07-14T20:20:27+01:002021-01-20T11:14:12+00:00How you can get bespoke software developed for free! (Yes, really!)<div><strong>Off the shelf software is faster to implement and cheaper than a bespoke system, right? Well, wrong. There are two things to take into consideration when buying software: the direct cost to your business for implementing it, and the potential benefit to your business.</strong></div><div><br></div><div>But it's also important to consider the potential downside. What if it goes wrong, and what if it doesn't work? What would you lose? How much would that cost your business?</div><div><br></div><div>When we speak to prospective clients, it's often the potential downsides that are front and centre, often because of a bad previous experience with software, whether off-the-shelf or bespoke. The potential uplift or benefit is often missed entirely. It's not an unhealthy approach, but it is a flawed one, particularly where bespoke software is concerned.</div><h2>About bespoke software</h2><div>Bespoke software was traditionally procured by the business farming out a set of requirements of which suppliers would quote, and the cheapest won the job. The problem here is that most of the time the requirements are a set of needs based on existing systems and processes, which could be significantly different were they to be considered a different way: from the viewpoint of the user - the people who will actually use the system to enhance the business.</div><h2>Why bespoke software?</h2><div>These days there is a growing number (including us here at Initforthe) of software consultancies who focus on building things using an <a href="https://initforthe.com/how-we-work/benefits-of-agile">Agile philosophy</a>. The way we approach things here is to focus on the people who will ultimately use the system and work with them to develop a solution that fits their needs in their part of the business, helping management join the dots between departments or individuals. This approach by definition involves more people, but it doesn't mean that there are too many cooks. In fact, the more people in the business we can work with the better for a number of reasons:</div><div><br></div><ul><li>you get buy-in to the project sooner by more people, giving the project a much higher chance of success (it's rarely the system itself that is at fault, though bad systems are everywhere, we've found),</li><li>you get a better picture of the processes the people in the business follow to get the job done,</li><li>you get more input as to what could be improved and are able to make those improvements earlier in the project; and here's the bit for you commercially minded people:</li><li>you can put more staff costs down on your R+D (Research and Development) tax claim.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>We've talked to clients for years about R+D, so it's nothing new. However, it's the approach we take - the user-focused one - that allows our clients to maximise their claims at the end of the tax year. And we've got clients who are recouping almost all the direct spend they made with us through their claims.</div><h2>What’s the difference between traditional and bespoke software?</h2><div>Let's go back to that traditional way of doing things, and play out the differences. The owners/directors of the business procure a new system. Those directors most often pay themselves a small salary and top it up with a dividend because it's the most tax-efficient means of moving cash from the business to the individual owners. The staff in the business are rarely involved save for a cursory "is there anything we've missed on this document?". The problem there is it's almost impossible to capture the actual processes and work on simplifying them from the top, because the top doesn't actually do them.</div><div><br></div><div>Worse, when it comes to an R+D claim, because you can claim 130% (at the time of writing) of staff salaries, and 65% of subcontractor costs against the corporation tax, enhancing any losses or reducing taxable profits. So those dividends are now worth diddly squat in your R+D claim, and because no one has been involved in procurement or delivery, your claim is pennies on the pound compared to what it could be if you involved your team.</div><h2>Take control with bespoke software solutions</h2><div>Instead, let your staff take control of their aspect of the process, allowing you to benefit from their knowledge of their specific area of business (dispatch, finance, sales, repairs, or whatever the specific role is the individual does). Your team can focus then on improving their own processes to save time and reduce stress levels, both of which will have a direct positive net impact on the business profit and potential turnover.</div><div><br></div><div>At the end of the year, whether the project is an overall success or deemed a failure (which is highly unlikely), you're able to recoup those costs through an R+D claim, and in a large number of cases, these costs could be completely offset by your claim.</div><div><br></div><div>So what's to lose? You will learn about your business and its processes (and most likely simplify them), your people will feel better about working in it, and so work harder and stay for longer (your costs will drop through the floor just because you don't need to replace departing staff members), and you may (read will; our track record has delivered this 100% of the time) end up with a system that changes the game for you and puts your business head and shoulders above your competition.</div><div><br></div><div>And the risk? If the entire project is a failure (the Agile process mitigates against this by not trying to build the whole ship at once), you've potentially spent nothing on it, and have taken a huge amount of learning away from it, to try a different way next time.</div><div><br></div><div>Truth be told, it's not all sunlit uplands, and you will encounter elements of failure along the way, but if you stick to these basic principles, it's almost impossible to fail. Those failure points are really not failures at all, but tests. Some will work, and others won't quite so well, but you now know, instead of guessing at, what works and doesn't to improve your business and its processes. That's still no failure in my book, but a resounding success with its own return on investment.</div><h2>Are you ready to get started?</h2><div>You've read this far, so this probably doesn't apply to you, but if you're the kind of boss who just won't let the people in your team help you better the business, all of the above is for nothing. So in that case, don't bother starting. On the other hand, if you're the kind of boss who wants your people to thrive and to grow and to work with you to grow the business, then it's a bit of a no-brainer, don't you think?</div><div><br><strong>Custom software can deliver rapid returns of investment and create a stress-free work environment. Want to discover more? </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/consultancy-manchester/software-consultancy-manchester"><strong>Get in touch </strong></a><strong>today for a consultation.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/382020-07-06T10:46:48+01:002021-01-20T12:03:57+00:006 reasons you might need new software in your business<div><strong>Do any of these statements ring true for you?</strong></div><ul><li>Your business has grown</li><li>There's a lot of repetition going on</li><li>Mistakes are made when following processes (or not following them properly)</li><li>Your business seems less efficient now as you add new processes</li><li>You've got lots of new software each trying to do different jobs</li><li>Your last software or process audit was way back when you had time in your life!</li></ul><div>In this article, we'll delve into what to watch out for with each of the above points and how to determine if better software could help solve the problem.</div><h2><strong>Your business has grown</strong></h2><div>When you first start, you can keep a lot of knowledge on paper, spreadsheets or other single-user tools. You might have built a spreadsheet that does quotations for you. Once you start hiring other people to do that work, you might find that they all use different versions of the spreadsheet and make their own changes, so you lose the consistency that you once had. Or your knowledge gets lost in single-user silos - one tool for one person and something else for another member of your team.</div><div><br></div><div>All this adds up to more mistakes being made. And as new people come on board there is an ever-growing list of tools to learn and places to find things. If you find yourself in this position (or better yet, recognise that time is looming ever nearer), it might be a good opportunity to spend some time streamlining processes and systems down to a more manageable and usable set of tools. Some of those tasks that people do could perhaps be automated, and that leads me nicely on to the next area to focus on.</div><h2><strong>There's a lot of repetition going on</strong></h2><div>Every business has a significant amount of repeatable work. It might have slight variations, but it'll be repeatable. You'll do the same thing over and over and get a slightly different result, or even the same result. Those areas are ripe for automation. Often, a really simple software solution can take away the pain of repetition, and replace it with time that your team can spend on improving processes across the rest of the business.</div><div><br></div><div>Because humans are terrible at repeating things without making mistakes, we find ourselves putting plasters to cover the cracks in our fallibility. Try saying "red lorry, yellow lorry" quickly repeatedly as a really basic example of this, versus a computer repeating:</div><div><br></div><div><strong>while [1]; do echo "red lorry, yellow lorry"; end</strong></div><div><br></div><div>That code will repeat forever until the computer is told to stop. What's most interesting here is that the computer won't jumble up the words or letters in any repetition. It'll just keep on keeping on. We can use that to our advantage. We've talked a little about making mistakes following processes. What’s next:</div><h2><strong>Mistakes are made when following processes (or not following them properly)</strong></h2><div>How often do you (or individuals on the team) forget to do something whilst following a process?</div><div><br></div><div>It might not be critical to the business, but every difference impacts on your customer experience. If you can provide a consistent customer experience, you'll have better, longer-term customers who spend more with you. It might be as simple as whether or not you send customer feedback requests after each order is placed, or whether you communicate delivery schedules with your customer. Those things can most likely be automated and be done on your behalf instead of someone having to remember to do them.</div><div><br></div><div>You're not necessarily gaining time here if you don't do that thing already, but you'll almost certainly improve the experience your customers have, so your opportunity cost is perhaps greater.</div><h2><strong>Your business seems less efficient now as you add new processes</strong></h2><div>Coming back to having lots of systems, tools or processes. As you add them, there is usually something else for people to do which takes away time from doing what we're all there for. If you find that your new process actually makes things slower, there could be a couple of reasons:</div><div><br></div><ol><li>You need to slow things down to make sure mistakes aren't made, so it's planned inefficiency; or</li><li>You didn't anticipate the additional workload the extra process needed and it's hurting the business</li></ol><div><br></div><div>In both these scenarios, the software could be used to either ensure that quality is kept high by automating the repetitive jobs or in taking away some of the workloads that is inherent in having to input data. The information could just flow automatically from one place to the next, according to your business rules.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/software-development-manchester/bespoke-software-development-manchester">Discover more about bespoke software solutions</a></div><h2><strong>You've got lots of new software each trying to do different jobs</strong></h2><div>Do you have a myriad of different pieces of software and you're finding that none of them talk to each other?</div><div><br></div><div>Let's say your business offers support services for the product you sell. Does your support team need information from sales and vice versa to make the best decisions, but the people have to log into lots of different systems to get the information? Wouldn't it be easier if it was right at their fingertips? This is called context switching, and whilst the human brain is really good at switching contexts (doing different things), it's really bad at juggling them at the same time. We often say we're multi-tasking, but in truth, we're not, because we can't! And when you do need to get back to what you were doing after a distraction, it takes on average just under half an hour.</div><div><br></div><div>So really great software can help you join those dots and bring the information to the person who needs it, instead of having them go and hunt for it. </div><h2><strong>Your last software or process audit was way back when you had time in your life!</strong></h2><div>If you have an ageing car, you'll recognise this metaphor. Imagine you didn't service your car every year, or get an MOT. OK, so you don't have to fork out today for that work to be done. Then you start to hear a knocking sound, but you just leave it. Then the boot won't open properly, and before you know it, your car won't start. It's entirely possible that the causes aren't interlinked, but in business, they most often are. So you end up causing yourself more problems by not having a continuous improvement programme in place where you focus on understanding the underlying requirement for the process and how it fits into the various parts of the business - finance, sales, support, engineering, etc.</div><div><br></div><div>Taking a look at one aspect of your business once a month might sound like a lot of work, but once you've solved the big issues, this is really quite a small task and doesn't have to take a long time. The rewards for doing that improvement are phenomenal.</div><h2>What's next...</h2><div>By focusing on improving things for your customers, and for your staff, you'll end up with a leaner, more streamlined business that does more for the money you invest in it. Your staff will be happier, they'll stay longer, and be more productive. Your processes will be more efficient so you won't need to hire so many staff in the future, but the ones you do have will be able to grow into new roles as the business develops.</div><div><br></div><div>And your business will be worth more when it comes to selling because you'll have an edge on the competition. Quite a big edge in the case of some businesses who really go to town on this.</div><div><br><strong>Not sure whether your business will benefit from bespoke software? </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/contact-us"><strong>Get in touch </strong></a><strong>today for a consultation to discuss your options.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/372020-06-26T23:31:12+01:002021-01-20T11:43:18+00:00What is the human impact of the wrong software in your business?<div><strong>All business software, bespoke or off-the-shelf, is bought to service some kind of need the business has. What doesn't usually get taken into account is the mental wellbeing of the people who are being asked (read told) to use that software. Traditional business change management was born out of a desire to make businesses become more efficient, and technology was seen as the means to achieve that.</strong></div><h2>The process of implementing new software</h2><div>Prior to change management, and to be quite truthful ever since too, businesses have adopted a top-down change approach. What that means in practice is that a senior executive makes a decision to implement some new software (sometimes with some cursory "research", but mostly without) into the business, and embarks on a hellish journey of trying to get everyone in the business on board with the change. The idea behind change management was to alleviate that by trying to make people feel comfortable with the impending "update" to the business and its processes. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to be learnt from change management, so it's not all been in vain.</div><div><br></div><div>The myth that is propagated is that humans don't like change. But if I asked you if you enjoy going to new restaurants, seeing new films, trying new gadgets, holidays, cars, or anything else new to you for that matter, I would wager that the answer would be yes. </div><div><br></div><div>The truth is that we all revel in change, but only when we feel like we're in control of the choices we make before and during the change process. So in our example above, the only people bought in are usually the senior executives who made the decision in the first place because they were in control of those choices.</div><h2>What is lost when you take away the sense of control?</h2><div>The most harmful impact on a business is a drop in morale. If your staff enjoy their work, you'll end up with a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47911210">presenteeism</a> problem at best (and it's on the rise), and at worst, you could find that a significant percentage of your staff up and walk. In the presenteeism case, you're carrying what you perceive to be dead weight, which no business can afford. In the loss of staff case, you're going to suffer <a href="https://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/recruitment/it-costs-over-30k-to-replace-a-staff-member/50677">significant costs to rehire</a>, and up to 8 months in loss of productivity. Not to mention the knowledge gap you now have as a result of those people leaving.</div><h2>What could you gain from bespoke software?</h2><div>This is the really fun part. It involves working with your team to understand their needs. They know what they need to do to get the job done, and they also know what would make their lives easier. It stands to reason, surely, that if you are able to make their lives easier, you'll be saving time, and time in a business brings options. If your staff are constantly working longer hours than is healthy, they're going to be tired, stressed and unable to give their all. They may end up in much worse positions, some downright ugly.</div><div><br></div><div>On the flip side, if your staff are stress-free, well slept, and generally healthy and happy, you'll get more out of them. Sometimes up to twice as much, just from those changes alone. Just look at the <a href="http://blog.idonethis.com/distractions-at-work/">body of research</a> that's been done on this topic. Those distractions can be work-related, but if someone has external stresses, those will impact on work too, and if they're not given the time needed to deal with them appropriately, it will only exacerbate the problem.</div><h2>Reduce distractions</h2><div>So we now know that we need healthier, happier staff. And we know that we can help to achieve that by giving them control over change in their working practices. Given direct distractions like handling email and phone calls asking "can you just..." are some of the biggest detractors along with context switching between different software packages, we can make a good best guess that if a person doesn't need to keep changing what they're doing and where they're doing it, they'll be able to do it faster.</div><div><br></div><div>That's where good planning (and some <a href="https://initforthe.com/services/consultancy/process-optimisation">external oversight</a>) comes in. You need to understand what it is that needs to be done to complete a job, and see if those tasks can be done in a different way that's easier, less prone to switching, and saves time. It's also time to assess whether the existing tools in the toolbox are helping or hindering the process.</div><h2>Get your team involved early</h2><div>I'll level with you: it's really hard to think about your role outside of the context of the systems you use, and to pretend they don't exist. We have to ask a whole heap of questions to get to the bottom of what it is that you do, so we can help you figure out how to do it better. But it's those questions and having a genuine interest in the wellbeing of your staff that makes the difference when it comes to change. It doesn't matter whether you find the perfect piece of off-the-shelf software to suit your needs (for the record, it doesn't exist), or you need to get something bespoke built that works for your business and its people the way you need it to. What does matter is that now your people are in control of the changes that need to be made to make their lives, and ultimately the business, better and more fulfilling.</div><div><br></div><div>We do lots of little things to get that early engagement, but there is nothing quite like spending time with people, learning and understanding to engender trust.</div><h2>The right solution for your business</h2><div>If you have got this far, you'll have realised by now that the typical "feature list" you get given by software vendors isn't going to help much. It's not that a job can be done, but how it is done that matters most. So if you're finding that generating quotes is taking a lot of time and you find a piece of software that has "Quote management" in its feature list, you might buy it and find it now takes longer and makes people even more stressed and unhappy. Oops!</div><div><br></div><div>We like to talk about the single source of truth - your business should have one, and it's the one place where your whole business lives. Both data and people. As a result, your staff don't need to leave it to do their work. Of course, that's only useful if the system is helpful enough in the first place to actually save them time. That's where bespoke software development really comes into its own. Your single source of truth can and should look and feel different to the next business that says they do what you do. Because in truth, they don't. And only a bespoke software solution can deliver the exact mix of ingredients that means a business can deliver more with less - but it starts with the people in it.</div><h2>What’s the impact of the wrong software?</h2><div>Without the people in your company on board, the software will fail. Get the wrong software and businesses can go bang in the night. Get the people in your business driving the ongoing change that bespoke software allows and the business can achieve astounding things. Case in point: <br><br>One of our clients achieved a 90% reduction in their order processing time through this approach. From 1-2 hours per order to between 5-10 minutes. That translates to the business being able to deliver 9.72x more business without hiring any new staff. But that wasn't the end of it. As a consequence of having less stress and fewer distractions, the productivity levels of the staff went up two-fold. </div><div><br></div><div>So technically, without hiring more people, the business can deliver 19.44x more business. Of course, then the staff are back to their old stress levels, so we're not recommending that. Rather, a modest increase of around 12x would be achievable and still maintain a very healthy and happy workforce.</div><div><br><strong>To discover how bespoke software solutions can positively impact your business, </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/software-development-manchester/bespoke-software-development-manchester"><strong>get in touch</strong></a><strong> today for a consultation.</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/362020-06-18T11:49:18+01:002021-01-20T11:25:21+00:00How to get started with automation in your business<div>You've heard people talking about automation, but most likely you've got some questions. The ones I hear most often are <strong>"How can my business benefit from automation?"</strong> (or I get told that the business <strong>can't</strong> benefit) and <strong>"How do I even start?!"</strong>.<br><br></div><div>Over the next few minutes, I'm going to show you how not only can your business benefit from automation but also how you can get started.</div><h2>Identifying pain</h2><div><figure data-trix-attachment="{"content":"<span class='trix-attachment-spina-image' data-label='✍️ Automation headaches - Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash'> <img src='https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkQT09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--7adb88aa4743d71f932c51bedc5e4d6ed4c498d7/aaron-blanco-tejedor-VBe9zj-JHBs-unsplash.jpg' alt='Automation headaches - Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash' /> </span>"}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content"><span class="trix-attachment-spina-image" data-label="✍️ Automation headaches - Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash"> <img src="https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkQT09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--7adb88aa4743d71f932c51bedc5e4d6ed4c498d7/aaron-blanco-tejedor-VBe9zj-JHBs-unsplash.jpg" alt="Automation headaches - Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash"> </span><figcaption class="attachment__caption"></figcaption></figure></div><div><br>The very first thing you need to do is figure out where your business can benefit from automation. Most companies don't have the kind of data available in a format that allows them to analyse this easily, so I often start with what I call anecdotal evidence. It's not confirmed, but most of us have a good <em>sense</em> of our business or our role within it. We might not be able to see outside of that bubble so it's important to do this company-wide to get a really good playing field.<br><br>Now you need to ask everyone some questions (if you're a large company, you should break this down into smaller groups - perhaps by the department, or by some other aspect in how you work):</div><ol><li>What are the things in your day to day working life that frustrate you, which would provide less stress if you didn't have to do them?</li><li>Which aspects of your work are repetitive and boring;<strong> perhaps most importantly</strong></li><li>Which aspects of your work do you make the most mistakes in?</li></ol><div><br>That last one is important, but it needs to be asked with kindness - you're not trying to berate someone for making mistakes. We're only human after all. Alexander Pope gave us the famous saying "to err is human; to forgive is divine", and it's really important to hold that close when you ask questions of this nature.<br><br>Make a big list - put it on a wall chart or some shared document so you can all collaborate together on this. We often use <a href="https://trello.com">Trello</a> boards, particularly at the moment when we have to be remote from our clients.</div><h2>Calculate the value of automation</h2><div><figure data-trix-attachment="{"content":"<span class='trix-attachment-spina-image' data-label='✍️ Bespoke software cost savings - Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash'> <img src='https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkZz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--09e6167443d51ca293595f168df7d15328c38766/damir-spanic-vwaTtIhCjVg-unsplash.jpg' alt='Bespoke software cost savings - Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash' /> </span>"}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content"><span class="trix-attachment-spina-image" data-label="✍️ Bespoke software cost savings - Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash"> <img src="https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkZz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--09e6167443d51ca293595f168df7d15328c38766/damir-spanic-vwaTtIhCjVg-unsplash.jpg" alt="Bespoke software cost savings - Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash"> </span><figcaption class="attachment__caption"></figcaption></figure></div><div><br>Now you've got a big list of things that you and your team could do to remove from their day to day working lives and automate with software. This is usually where the question <strong>"How do I decide where to start?" </strong>gets asked. Now you've got your list, this bit is surprisingly easy to figure out. There are three parts to calculating value: Direct savings, opportunity cost and indirect savings. Whilst I'm probably teaching grannies to suck eggs, for those that haven't done this before, I'll explain each one in a little more detail, and this will start to help prioritise what you do first.<br><br>You'll need to do this for each item on the list; it's a lot easier than it seems though, so don't be daunted.<br><br></div><h3>Direct Saving</h3><div>For any item in the list, the direct savings are calculated in time and money saved. Ask the person or team who brought the item to your attention to answer: <strong>"How much time do you spend doing this thing in a day/week/month?"</strong>. Back that off to 80% (follow the Pareto principle and aim for solving 80% of the problem. Anything over is a bonus). So if it takes 10 hours a week, work it all out based on getting 8 of those back.<br><br>Let's take those 8 hours. How much does 8 hours cost? Let's say you pay your staff £15 per hour, those 8 hours cost you £120 if one person is involved in that process. Multiple as appropriate for your situation. Clearly this is a simplification, but hopefully the intent is clear.<br><br>On top of that, what are your fixed overheads for those 8 hours? That's possibly harder to quantify, but if you're able to, add this into your direct savings, because the theory is that you don't have to spend that money on those 8 hours any more (at least for the purpose of doing this specific job). That might be training, computer costs, office costs, paper (you might not need it any more if you print a lot) and so on.<br><br>Work it all out over 3 years. So if we ignore the fixed overheads, that means we're saving £18,720 over a 3 year period for this specific job.<br><br>Now you've got this, order your list based on the direct savings. That's where a spreadsheet is probably really useful. You'll see very quickly where you can get the most benefit in the way of direct savings and that's a brilliant starting point. But that's not the end of the process.</div><h3>Opportunity Cost</h3><div>This aspect of calculating value is as important as the direct savings. Most businesses are interested in growth, but growing costs money, so having more time means less money required to grow, and therefore more profit available. Ask yourselves <strong>"If I didn't have to do this job, how much more work could I undertake?"</strong> and put a monetary value on that - it will literally be how much more business you can bring in to fill that time back up. Back it off by 20% so you follow the Pareto principle again. We've got clients who have been able to increase sales nearly 10-fold through automation, but we only arrived at that by doing this exercise. At that point, the return on investment is clear.<br><br>Once you've got this, you can add that opportunity cost to the direct savings. Sort your spreadsheet again by the sum of the two.</div><h3>Indirect Savings</h3><div>By far and away the most difficult aspect to calculate are the indirect savings you get from this kind of work. When we work with clients, they often find they have to hire fewer people which means lower fixed overheads, training and recruitment costs as well as the time that a new member of staff requires to get up to speed with things (that's about 8 months per new starter). On top of that, the time saved will result in lower stress levels and better personal wellbeing, and that will almost always translate into better productivity per person in the team.<br><br>I like to think about the indirect savings as the icing on the cake. You don't need them to make the value proposition stand up, but when you see them, you wouldn't want to be without them.<br><br>To give you an indication of how much value this adds, one of our clients who went through this exercise calculated their average productivity levels were around 2.5 hours per person per day. Following the implementation of a bespoke system that saved them 90% of their time (which resulted in a 9.72x increase in capacity without hiring any more people), they discovered their productivity almost doubled overnight, translating into a total increase in capacity of nearly 18 times. <strong>Imagine being able to turn over 18 times more business than you did last year without hiring any more staff!</strong></div><h2>Getting buy in</h2><div><figure data-trix-attachment="{"content":"<span class='trix-attachment-spina-image' data-label='✍️ Buy in for bespoke softwate - Photo by Joel Mott on Unsplash'> <img src='https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkdz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--a0434d3a157aee1322e3c66a1cb97a4f55341a2b/joel-mott-O9Ogddfvl-U-unsplash.jpg' alt='Buy in for bespoke softwate - Photo by Joel Mott on Unsplash' /> </span>"}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content"><span class="trix-attachment-spina-image" data-label="✍️ Buy in for bespoke softwate - Photo by Joel Mott on Unsplash"> <img src="https://initforthe.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBkdz09IiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--a0434d3a157aee1322e3c66a1cb97a4f55341a2b/joel-mott-O9Ogddfvl-U-unsplash.jpg" alt="Buy in for bespoke softwate - Photo by Joel Mott on Unsplash"> </span><figcaption class="attachment__caption"></figcaption></figure></div><div><br>Finally, we get on to the trickiest part of all. If you've followed the steps above you're probably 80% of the way there already. You've engaged with your team and you've given them control. As humans, we're socially conditioned to believe that people don't like change. That's bunkum. The truth is we all <strong>love</strong> change, but we only do so on our own terms. If it's on someone else's, we find ourselves fighting against it no matter how good the change actually is for us.<br><br>The problem is that to get automation to really benefit your business and the people in it, everyone has to be all-in. Otherwise, it just won't work. So to get people to buy in, we need to do things on their terms. That's why we ask about the things that frustrate them individually, and then we solve those problems for them.<br><br>The biggest fear people have is that they are going to lose their job to a machine. At Initforthe, we have strong principles in that regard. If you're looking to cost cut the people <em>out </em>of your business, <strong>do not </strong>approach us to help you. On the other hand, if your intent is to grow and keep the knowledge that those people have to help you grow quicker, then we're all ears.<br><br>The truth is that people don't have to lose their jobs to machines. Sure, the nature of their work will change with a machine doing all the boring stuff, but that's only going to enable that person to use their brain (pro tip: we're really good at critical and lateral thinking, and really bad at repetitive tasks; computers are exactly the opposite of that), and will engage them far more in the business than any other job ever will.</div><h2>What's next to automate my business?</h2><div>So you've figured out where the value lies. The only thing you don't know about that is how much it costs, so you don't have your specific return on investment. We can help with that, by helping you plan and develop a bespoke software platform that answers the problems you've found. That's the final sort - which one thing on your list gives you the fastest and biggest ROI? <strong>That's your starting point</strong>.<br><br>Some things you'll be able to automate using tools like Zapier, but truth be told, you'll quickly run up against barriers that don't really match the way you want your business to run. The most dangerous thing you can do in your business is change your processes to match an off-the-shelf system. At some point the vendor will either go away, change the process, or you'll change system, and you will lose your advantage all over again.<br><br>Moreover, your business is unique precisely because of your processes and people. Please keep that uniqueness - it's what got you going in the first place and it's the thing that will help you grow tomorrow. That's where a bespoke app comes in. It will do what you want, in the way you want to do it, and you can encapsulate your business processes in it so it does them instead of your team and it always gets them right.<br><br><strong>With over 11 years of experience, initforthe can help you through your automation journey. </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/consultancy-manchester/automation-manchester"><strong>Get in touch</strong></a><strong> today to learn more</strong></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/352020-06-12T12:31:34+01:002021-01-20T12:15:29+00:00Welcome to our new brand identity<h2><strong>History of initforthe</strong></h2><div>Initforthe has been going for a long time. The company was incorporated in September 2004 when I was at university, and my first project was building a virtual learning environment for a language school bringing kids from overseas to stay with families and learn English.<br><br>I took the business full time in March 2008 after saddling myself with a mortgage at the very peak of the financial bubble and only a couple of months of runway on a credit card. It was do or die (probably not literally, but certainly for the business).<br><br>When I started out full time, I'd spent quite a number of years in the advertising and marketing world as a web developer. I joined a thriving London agency at the start of the dot com boom at the age of 17, and whilst there, built everything from BTCellnet (now O2)'s website to a search engine. When I left, I wanted to learn about the world outside of software, so ran a parts department for a while before heading off to university to study anything but computing. <br><br>As it turns out, my interests led me to International Relations and Global Politics; business on a macro scale. I engaged with the human aspect of the course most, and that's still true today.</div><h2><strong>Initforthe now...</strong></h2><div>Fast forward some years: we have morphed (all businesses morph) into a very different kind of software company to those that existed before (and many still exist today). We forge our relationships with our clients as partners, almost becoming part of their business. For those of you who are clients, you'll know we passionately care about helping your people get more out of life than boring admin drudgery. For those that aren't (yet?), we spend crazy amounts of time forging relationships (even friendships) with the people across the whole business. We learn what it is to be in your shoes, and we never make assumptions about anything. That means we ask a lot of questions.<br><br>Working with us means challenging the status quo. Why is this thing done this way? Is it because it's the right way or because that's how we've always done it? If it's the latter, perhaps we can help you get to a better, cleaner, friendlier way to do things. If it's the former, wonderful!</div><h2>Values we stand for</h2><div>Our values of knowledge, inquisitiveness, honesty, approachability, and simplicity mean that we're always trying to understand more about you and how you do things so that we can help you make the right choices for yourself and the team around you.<br><br>So the new brand identity speaks to those values. It's honest, like we are (we don't pull any punches), and it asks questions. What are you in it for? Certainly, for us, money isn't the motivator, and for me personally, I thrive on seeing my clients smile at the work we deliver them. Genuinely, how many times have you found yourself smiling at a piece of software. I'm going to guess it's a rare occurrence.</div><h2><strong>Why change a company name?</strong></h2><div>We spent some time last year thinking about whether we should change the company name. It's memorable, but hard to spell and pronounce on the phone. But it is who we are, and we couldn't find a name that better describes our values, so we decided to stick with Initforthe and just go with a visual refresh. Even our tone hasn't really changed because we are who we are, and our brand identity didn't <em>quite</em> match that.<br><br><strong>I'd love to get your views on the new look (my bum probably does look big in it, but frankly, I don't care). And if you'd like to </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/contact-us"><strong>get in touch </strong></a><strong>to discuss a project, then please do.</strong></div><div><br></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/342019-12-17T12:33:16+00:002021-01-20T12:25:44+00:00What does your 2020 look like?<div><strong>So we have reached the end of the 2010s with innovations, changes and growth. Around this time of December, Directors of companies all sizes focus on two things.</strong></div><div><br></div><div>A; the Christmas party for the staff and partners, and B; How to navigate a profitable new decade with new challenges and new circumstances around every corner.</div><div><br></div><div>As a Director, you are faced with wanting to expand into new areas but maybe not sure of how to navigate that, especially with uncertainty over the future of businesses just on the horizon.</div><div><br></div><div>The answer to your future may lie in a software solution to help you get ahead.</div><h2><strong>Business Process Automation</strong></h2><div>Automation is the current buzz word floating around most businesses and for good reason. The automation of repetitive daily tasks has proven time and again to provide incredible company growth to businesses that fully embrace the technology.</div><div><br></div><div>As a Director, you may be looking at implementing a new division in your business to handle a new product or service. What you are looking into is either recruitment costs or training costs for this new venture. It's a lot of time you don't necessarily have. </div><div><br></div><div>What you do already have to hand is the staff. You have a handful of staff members tied up doing repetitive admin, stock control etc who would like to feel they are being promoted to a new role and would feel appreciated to be placed with that responsibility. They would benefit from automating their current roles that can take up around 70% of their daily tasks.</div><div><br></div><div>Happy staff, software doing the work and direct staff cost savings for the year. Straight away you have a winning solution all around.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/consultancy-manchester/automation-manchester">Discover more</a> about automation</div><h2><strong>Off the Shelf = Off the Rails</strong></h2><div>There are hundreds of off the shelf solutions out there for businesses to consider. Therein lies the problem. 100's of solutions means that there is not a singular 1 that does everything needed. </div><div><br></div><div>When buying an off the shelf solution you automatically begin to bend your company to its limitations, meaning at some point you will need to buy another to handle the areas the first system cannot. This then leaves you with two systems that you now want to communicate with each other.</div><div><br></div><div>Straight away you have even more problems that affect you and your staff who hate the thing. Plus, you also have subscriptions which is dead money every month.</div><div><br><br></div><div>A bespoke system is designed with the company and staff's involvement to do exactly what they want, which has proven to have full staff engagement as they have had a say in the design to make their job easier. Also, a bespoke system built for your company qualifies for R&D Tax Credits from HMRC which you can claim for each year work is done. not just your time/expenses on the project, but also the developers as a subcontractor, giving you a bigger return on investment.</div><h2><strong>Return on Investment</strong></h2><div>As a Director your first concerns will be "Will I get a return on my investment?", or "Can we afford this, realistically?"</div><div><br></div><div><strong>The question really is "Can you afford not to?" </strong></div><div><br></div><div>Chances are your competitors are already planning and looking into solutions to get ahead and reap the benefits. Any professional developer will be able to convey a return on investment for your company with the implementation of software, and it really comes down to being brave enough to take the step out of the comfort zone and instigate change for the better.</div><div><br></div><div>A bespoke system can begin generating results the day it goes live, and most companies see the ROI come back within a few months, if not sooner.</div><div><br></div><div>Combined with the R&D tax credit, direct staff cost savings and elimination of human error during daily tasks, you have all the tools to grow your company competently and confidently into the 20's.</div><div><br><strong>If you have any questions our team at initforthe are here to help, </strong><a href="https://initforthe.com/contact-us"><strong>get in touch</strong></a><strong> today to learn more.</strong></div>Andrew Carsontag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/332019-11-12T10:57:17+00:002021-01-20T11:19:29+00:00Quick Fixes = Quick Failures<div>Okay, let's be honest...</div><div><br></div><div>Most companies are going to try and be cheap and cut corners. 70% will rely on an off the shelf solution to put a plaster over their knife wound. Around 6 months later they will have fresh frustrations from a solution that has become more of a regret.</div><div><br></div><div>Failure can be hard and fast when automation is implemented as a quick fix, but used as a strategic approach in implementation over time saves your company big in time and money as well as vast benefits moving forward.</div><div><br></div><h2>Simplification before automation</h2><div>By Identifying and documenting your businesses current processes, you can pinpoint how to apply automation correctly and to its potential, at scale. This will clean up any redundant measures that might be slowing your organisation down, while identifying business areas that will benefit most from automation. </div><div><br><br></div><div>This optimise first, and automate later approach is crucial to ensure you address the right problems, rather than simply doing the wrong things, faster.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>Modelling matters</h2><div>It is critical to use modelling as a means of driving implementation. After all, it’s easier and cheaper to test and fix a model than to realise an implemented process isn’t working as intended. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Modelling allows you to simulate which tasks within a process meet a specified rate of return. You can then use this information to implement to other areas of your business. In short, models help you prioritise and guarantee the dependability of your final automated process. </div><div><br><br></div><h1>Warriors in the workforce</h1><div>It’s a common misconception that automation is implemented to replace human workers. In reality, digital workforces are best suited to work alongside real people because they augment human behaviours. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Having employees onboard with automation is vital to success. When implemented in the right way, automation can have a positive effect on the workplace, as employees are liberated from repetitive tasks to focus on more engaging work suited to their talents and interests. It’s important to stress that automation cannot replace creative thinking, strategic planning, long-term projects, product development or customer research. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Build internal support for automation by finding employees to champion the implementation among staff. While every staff member should be informed about the automation process, honing in on a handful of passionate individuals to share the benefits of automation will help avoid speculation and rumours about the intentions behind introducing such a solution.</div><div><br><br></div><div>The earlier this happens, the better! Capturing existing knowledge and insights from staff before implementing automation is of key importance within a business. If they’re informed, they’ll be more receptive to providing feedback, which will lead to a stronger foundation for automation. </div><div><br><br></div><h2>Track and trace</h2><div>Once the automation rollout is complete, it is crucial to monitor it. Any return on investment can only be proven by measuring results over time, so monitoring the results of your automation against its expected value is crucial to ensure value for money is being achieved.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Complacency is detrimental to automation, a neglectful attitude will quickly see your optimised processes fall out of date. Ongoing monitoring of your automation solution will also mean issues can be identified and resolved quickly, and the processes themselves can be continually refined. The best way to successfully scale your business is to start practicing a regular cycle of optimisation as you work towards increasing efficiency across a broader range of processes.</div><div><br><br></div><div>It is a long journey to achieve enterprise-level automation, but the benefits of implementing it properly far outweigh the short-term and unsustainable results you’ll see from a quick fix. Patience will lead to RPA longevity; you just have to learn to appreciate the process first. </div><div><br><br></div>Tomislav Simnetttag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/312019-09-18T13:35:00+01:002021-01-20T11:17:36+00:00The Importance of Being Challenged and Challenging Yourself<div>As people, we have a weird design flaw. We love to learn new things, but we hate or fear change.</div><div><br></div><div>We love the thought of change yet find every conceivable way to hold off from it. It could be a fear of the unknown, confidence in a new direction, but most of the time it comes from being stuck in the comfort of routine.</div><div><br></div><div>This is not just in a home life scenario, this is even more prominent in business. Most businesses adopt the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentally with the attitude of "It's worked for us for years."</div><div><br></div><div>So let's look at why being challenged is a good thing.</div><div><br></div><h1>Creativity</h1><div>Nobody gets into a business to be last and the economic change forcing most companies to adjust to innovation to stay ahead opens up areas for creative thinking.</div><div><br></div><div>Time, capacity and patience are all high areas for challenge, so surprisingly a creative approach can be triggered which also acts as an area of excitement. New projects and outside the box thinking come from time when things feel stagnant.</div><div><br></div><div>Heck! This is how the wheel was invented.</div><div><br></div><h2>Social Growth</h2><div>Meeting over new avenues and opportunities sparks an increase in your social networking, getting to know new contacts as well as becoming educated to new areas of business.</div><div><br></div><div>"You take something from every meeting" is truth. The more you engage in talks about the future, the you learn and want to learn more. </div><div><br></div><div>Not only is your intellect growing but you are also able to discuss your expertise with others instead of pitching to potential clients. This allows other businesses to refer your company with a knowledgable insight.</div><div><br></div><h2>Identifying Goals</h2><div>Stepping out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself opens up many new areas to develop further. When you learn new things, meet new people, change old beliefs and discard useless thoughts, it exercises your thinking power to the extreme.</div><div><br></div><div>From here you begin to feel like new challenges and an attitude of 'Can I Top This' month by month, beginning to automate yourself into different routines that gives you more freedom to achieve something you believe right now to be unachievable.</div><div><br></div><h2>Challenging Yourself</h2><div>The Greatest people and businesses achieved their success and longevity through periods of challenge and innovation. Along the way they developed skills and knowledge to overcome the position of being just like everyone else.</div><div><br></div><div>Everyone thinks of being better and is in love with the thought of being number one, but many choose to sit and wait for an opportunity to come get them or stay believing they are the best which allows their competition to breeze straight past them.</div><div><br></div><div>If there is only one of you, wouldn't you rather it be the best version of you? </div><div><br></div><div>Some stay where they are out of fear of failure. What if you were told that you cannot achieve success without the risk of failure, and you cannot achieve success if you fear failure?</div>Andrew Carsontag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/322019-08-22T17:27:56+01:002021-01-20T11:18:28+00:00What Return On Investment can I expect from automation in my business?<div>With companies considering automating their business processes, one of the biggest stumbling blocks comes from the human tendency to overthink or, alternatively, not think at all about the return on investment.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Automation is not so much about the technical aspect that directors find themselves intimidated by, but more about the current processes in the business and how they hold the company back from reaching their full potential.</div><div><br><br></div><div>So let’s use this space to think about your business.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>What Stage is your Business at?</h2><div>Let’s look at your business as it is right now. </div><div><br><br></div><div>You have a steady flow of customers and business is good but you are always thinking that there are new areas you want to branch into. In your head you are thinking new areas = more staff.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Already you are seeing costs in your head over the potential new business, then you segue into how much your business is already stretched staff and time wise. You are trying to justify in your head exactly how to work it all out. </div><div><br><br></div><div>You believe you need more staff to launch this new area of business. In truth, you already have that staff willing and able to do it.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>Working with Staff to identify areas to solve</h2><div>Currently, your staff are playing catch up with the repetitive daily tasks and it seems like they have to make a space within that to accommodate anything new. These frustrations of theirs are also a shared frustration with yourself and soon new clients also.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Generally office staff have frustrations due to the repetitive nature of “The Way we have always done things” or the “Ain’t Broke, Don’t fix it approach.” In pretty much any job, the office staff want to be using their time more productively and not spending countless hours updating records. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Maybe you have some off the shelf software which the staff utilises but does not aid them, finding they work for it instead of it working for them. The thought of not having to do this repetitive pattern and being given something with an optimistic outlook would be met with relief and full staff buy in.</div><div><br><br></div><div>This is where Bespoke Software Development begins to work for you.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>What to tackle first</h2><div>Sitting down with a software developer to discuss automation is about accepting the current way of doing things is holding you back. The key to success comes from delving into your business and discovering areas you didn’t know were a factor, which is where your staff comes in handy as an extra internal voice.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Automating the repetitive daily tasks such as email, invoicing, updating records or stock will free up your current office staff to move into your new venture, thereby saving you money on new staff wages, training (as the staff will have had a say in how the system works for them) and usual time spent by your current staff.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>Don’t try and solve everything at once</h2><div>The developer is there to help you identify and calculate value of the key areas to automate. Initial ideas you may have of what to automate may not pay off in the short term and the developer is there to ensure the solution is cost effective, so some areas you can hold off automating.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Spending money upfront on areas of a system that you will not fully utilise could be viewed as dead money for a long period of time. You may find that you hardly ever utilise it at all. It may be nice to have but it’s not making you any money, so it makes sense to leave it until a necessity if it ever becomes one.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Used correctly and fully utilised, automation of processes gives direct cost savings in man hours, staff retention, recruitment and new focus on growth. Many businesses now realise that the long term investment into automation catapults their profits far over their expected turnover and giving a no brainer return on their investment.</div><div><br><br></div>Andrew Carsontag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/302019-05-13T11:34:45+01:002021-01-20T11:15:18+00:00The Benefits of using Agile software development<h1>What is Agile Software Development</h1><div>Agile software development (such as Scrum) is about collaboration with a focus on a disciplined approach to project management. Frequent inspection and adaptation are implemented to ensure that each stage of the project is effectively accepted, developed and completed within a strict timeframe.</div><div><br></div><div>With transparency between the client and development team on the various stages (known as Sprints), Scrum encourages involvement and effectively manages expectations whilst virtually eliminating the chances of absolute project failure.</div><div><br></div><div>By implementing iterative and incremental practices, Scrum is used to manage complex software and product development. With a focus on significantly increased productivity and reduced time, Scrum processes enable organisations to adjust smoothly and present a product that meets growing business goals.</div><div><br></div><h2>Quality</h2><div>Regular check-ups are a part of the cycle through integrated testing, which not only showcases the product working through the development but also allows the product owner to make changes whilst also informing the team of any key issues. </div><div><br></div><div>This also factors the ability to hold team retrospectives regularly to continuously improve the work and processes involved.</div><div><br></div><div>By working in sprints, small incremental releases are often released earlier in development instead of waiting for the whole product, allowing businesses to generate results.</div><div><br></div><h2>Risk Reduction</h2><div>No company likes the thought of risk involved, and indeed many shy away when faced with the prospect of it. </div><div><br></div><div>Scrum and Agile ensure having a working product, starting with the very first sprint, so that no project fails completely. Risks are identified early and are easy to respond to in quick succession. </div><div><br></div><div>As change is inevitable in any project, so too is it expected and accepted through the methodology. Risks are regularly reviewed and reduced by the Scrum team and decisions made at a suitable time, ensuring a flexible work pattern to ensure the project can overcome any unexpected changes that come along.</div><div><br></div><h2>ROI</h2><div>For companies in fast-moving markets, long delivery cycles are often a problem. </div><div><br></div><div>With Agile/Scrum, the team understands what’s most important to the client’s business, and can deliver features in the most valuable order. By allowing the client to determine the priority of features, a functional market ready product can be realised early while the product is in the development process.</div><div><br></div><div>This process allows for a business to begin to generate results and a quicker return on investment by being able to make alterations accordingly and ensure the vital parts of the project are running to their satisfaction.</div><div><br></div><h2>Effect on team</h2><div>By using a team-based methodology, there is a shared sense of ownership and responsibility to reach the goals set. When teams feel a sense of purpose they tend to set a faster pace of working.</div><div><br></div><div>This grows a greater sense of teamwork and learning, leading to a collective understanding of problem-solving and planning through daily roundtable meetings to address the project going forward.</div><div><br></div><div>In the fast-moving and rapidly evolving world, Agile software development is a key component in the accelerated growth of forward-thinking businesses looking to stay ahead of their competition. </div><div><br></div><div>Company directors want fast solutions and faster results with little room for human error which can set them back months.</div><div><br></div><div>Agile and Scrum give company directors transparency, cost control and business value whilst greatly reducing the risk of writing off expensive and time-consuming projects.</div>Andrew Carsontag:initforthe.com,2005:Spina::Blog::Post/292019-01-29T12:28:00+00:002021-01-20T11:07:02+00:003 Ways Automation Can Make Your Company Money in 2020<div><a href="https://initforthe.com/services/consultancy-manchester/automation-manchester">Robotic Process Automation</a> (RPA) is big for any company. It is big in implementation, it is big for productivity and most of all it is big on returns for those smart enough to use it to its full potential.</div><div><br><br></div><div>Many directors have recognised this and embraced it's improvements to their company. Others have swayed away from understanding and incorporating it due to misconceptions or threat of replacing their human workforce.</div><div><br><br></div><div>RPA is not designed to replace the human element. In fact, most directors have stated that it makes the human workforce more productive by eliminating the mundane daily tasks that take up unreasonable time.</div><div><br><br></div><div>As an example, let's look at automating within three internal departments that have been a major factor in employing a happier workforce and a quick return on investment.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>Finance and Accounts</h2><div>One of the biggest areas that has benefitted from automation is within the financial and accounting departments. Companies have incorporated various areas such as invoicing, reporting and data management to be fully automated, followed by accounts payable/receivable and creation of new accounts and records.</div><div><br><br></div><div>These areas can take up to five or six employees with reporting and waiting on each other, whereas the automation of these processes handles them automatically. This has resulted on back office employees concentrating on areas of company growth instead of constantly queuing up updating records and eliminating human error.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>Human Resources</h2><div>Automation has been a valuable aid for companies within the HR department. Prime examples where this has been implemented has been to take care of employee on boarding. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Other companies have also implemented automation to handle performance appraisal management, as well as leave of absence management. Many companies also use automation to populate employee data into multiple systems.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>IT</h2><div>IT departments have had a huge benefit by adopting automated processes to aid them in creation of new accounts and batch processing. One of the key aids automation takes care of is automatic software installations and updates. Sufficient time and effort is also freed up with automation taking care of printer set ups.</div><div><br><br></div><h2>A System that Truly Pays for itself and More</h2><div>There are hundreds of areas that can be automated within a business and many companies start small so that the system can be live and generating a profit. </div><div><br><br></div><div>Businesses that have fully embraced automation as a valuable work force have benefitted from not only having a fast and reliable area of business generating large profits, but also the benefits of tax credits for investing in innovations and appreciable improvements to their processes.</div><div><br><br></div><div>2020 is a year to be excited about RPA, having robots taking successful charge of areas of the business that falter from human error in inputting and processing data. Smart companies know how to best utilise their employees whilst the robot element take care of stabilising their business.</div><div><br><br></div>Andrew Carson