IT Company: Business Operations Consulting

Establishing solid operational infrastructure to support organizational growth of an IT company

IT Company: Business Operations Consulting

Establishing solid operational infrastructure to support organizational growth of an IT company

Project Overview:

Our client had a successful IT Company and was working with top producers in her industry, often flying around the country to meet with them and participate in events. Her challenge was that when she traveled, she was unable to produce the work, which limited her company's ability to grow.
Our client had a brilliant woman with a successful IT company that provided services for many of the top producers in the industry that she served. There was a great deal of repeat business and she was very good at making sure that the product she delivered was on time and very high quality.  The challenge that she faced was that she didn’t have a company – she was self employed and the number of hours she was working was sustainable for any sort of lifestyle. Further, her business didn’t have the infrastructure to support growth, so that as the market and the needs of the market changed, the organization would have a very difficult time adopting and maintaining its market position. She was the producer, sales person, marketer, finance person, IT person and tried to maintain a lifestyle outside of work.

Challenge

Create

Utilizing the Aepiphanni Strategic Framework, we worked through the IT company and identified both strengths and weaknesses, evaluated market potential and positioning and looked for trends in her market space to indicate some new opportunities for innovation and growth.  We saw a lot of work that was being done manually and being written into very large notebooks. While there were a number of concerns that were simply gaps – the business didn’t have a true architecture, the underlying issue that prevented her from bringing in other people was the lack of systems and processes that would allow her to be able to bring people into the business and train them.  She knew how to do everything and was quite regimented in her process.  However, she needed to have other people on the team that would take away certain parts of her role and allow her to focus on doing the things that only she could do. Further, the idea of letting go of critical steps in the process can be quite unnerving the first time a business owner does it.
As a result of the assessment, we were able to work with her to develop a business infrastructure for the IT company that would divide some of her tasks and create roles within the company.  Further, we were able to demonstrate to her that by bringing on the other team members, it would increase the company’s overall capacity, allowing them to take on more business and increase revenue. Lastly, we recommended bringing in software tools such as an accounting software and a CRM system that could be customized to automate the workflows, keep track of clients and prospects and give her 24×7 visibility on the work that was being done in the company. She agreed to the directions we recommended to the business and we built a business transformation plan that we would help her execute.

Design

Build

We decided to implement the solution in a multi-phased approach as we know that implementing too much change in a short amount of time is very difficult to manage, especially if things don’t go exactly according to plan.  We had designed a new business architecture for the IT company and developed job descriptions and worked with her to document the processes that would be used to train the new team.  We also designed the software architecture that would be used to assist with running the business. We assisted with hiring new staff and brought an accounting firm on board to help her to keep her finances up to date and provide her with regular financial reporting. This also reduced the amount of time it took to get her taxes filed and pay any taxes she needed to pay.  We also addressed an important missing element in the client’s business – a brand. Our team designed a unique brand for them that represented the work that they did and she was able to use on the various pieces of collateral and SWAG she would give away. Lastly, we helped her develop a more robust marketing program that expanded her reach beyond the social networks the client was using. As a result of what we were able to CREATE|DESIGN|BUILD, the client enjoyed the following results: 
  • Increased revenue & profit
  • Lower accounts receivable by 56% 
  • Capitalizing of new opportunities 
  • Significant company growth with more staff and a COO on board 
  • More capable of adapting to market changes 
 

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