Outfront Solution Design

Outfront Solution Design is born out of a desire to bring effective information, work-flow and control systems to organisations ranging from small start-up businesses to large non-profit concerns. We have an extensive shared wealth of business process and data quality management knowledge that serves us well in helping organisations become more effective and efficient.

Generally when you mention IT systems to people, they are thinking of all the “geek” stuff in the basement. Make no mistake, we are on top of all that. We are however capable of much more. What really gets a business (or other organisation) up and running are the things that the founders dreamt about before the bricks and mortar were put in place. The ideas that got people excited in the beginning. Unfortunately there is no “silver bullet” IT system that can turn these dreams and ideas into a viable model. Systems are just tools like spanners and bulldozers. Sadly, the expectation of management is often that these systems will solve all problems with a minimum of effort. This is not the case. I list below some of the levers that can make a system integrate effectively into your organisation:

• Before contemplating an IT system, make sure that you have logical, well defined and documented business processes in place. If you don’t have a good map you are going to get lost for sure.
• Make sure that you have a team of advisers on hand who can speak your language, as well as the other language that is used by the geeks. You need a translator or you will get what the software people want instead of what you have so carefully laid out in your business process documentation.
• IT systems are like machines in that they need maintenance. Make sure that there is an infrastructure in place to deal with any problems that may arise from the running of the system in production. Although systems need to be thoroughly tested before being implemented, there are usually issues that still creep in whilst running in production.
• Make sure that you have a plan in place for managing you data quality and integrity. Your data is your business, so think about how much it is really worth to you and how much you need to protect it.

Some of the other services we can offer as part of our quiver are as follows:

• Consulting on transferring your organisation onto an Open Source platform.
• Document management set up and implementation.
• Asset Auditing and management solutions.
• Process Automation.

We at OSD don’t see Open Source Software (see http://www.opensource.org/) as the Holy Grail, but rather as a very effective tool for getting businesses off the ground quickly and inexpensively. It helps that there are so many organisations out there using and developing Open Source software, as it means you are getting a well maintained, best of breed product.

So if you are as serious about effective and efficient business methods and practises as we are, but have had the wool pulled over your eyes by other consultants who speak a foreign language (even though it sounds like English), you should really give us a call. We would gladly seize the opportunity to come and advise you on a way forward. We are able to run IT projects from the very early planning phase, right through to implementation. We have a passion for designing best practice business processes, work-flow optimisation and data quality management procedures. We will help you start a new organisation or streamline your existing business so that you can begin to truly maximise your profits and quantify your expenses.

I hope to be in touch with you soon to book a zero cost exploration of your needs as a business. We assure you of personal and friendly service at all times.