Services and Processes
We provide various services aimed at different types of businesses and non-profit organisations, with the goal of achieving real benefits that result in improved efficiencies, lower costs of operation, increased scalability and leveraging business growth.
Every organisation today uses DATA and is usually capturing and recording it from clients, customers and users. This DATA is then processed and often further data is generated by the business in fulfilling a service, product or operation, which concludes with delivery in some form to the client or user making the request in the first place.
There are lots of different way to manage this lifecyle of data, some of which are more efficient and productive or profitable than others.
Technology is often used nowadays to facilitate this data lifecyle, whether using mobile apps, backoffice systems, CRMs, legacy systems or general purpose applications like spreadsheets or documents. Whilst these tools and systems help an organisation to function, they often are not easy to update or maintain, don't cover the full set of functionality required or are perhaps cumbersome or not intuitive to use.
We have experience at solving many business challenges, using various technologies, including a few common ones briefly detailed below:
Bespoke Software Development
Bespoke software development is a custom, tailor-made solution that meets the specific needs of a client.
Each organisation is different in shape and size and all have processes that are necessary for a system to operate. Bespoke software is purposefully designed to fit exactly to the requirements of an organisation, much more closely and effectively than an off-the-shelf software solution.
A new, bespoke software system should look to be a vast improvement on your old legacy system. It should also function with automation running in every process possible within the system. Finally, the bespoke system should be fully fit-for-purpose with your company processes.
Is bespoke software development necessary for my business?
Depending on your business needs, bespoke software is heavily focussed on the processes of the organisation. Each process in the business should be evaluated to determine if it can improve efficiency through software.
When considering bespoke software some of the determinants could be the cost of development, from internal costs through to the costs of the creation and adoption of the new software.
Maintenance and new updates are also important factors to consider with internal changes within an organisation as well as external changes such as technology and customer needs.
Bespoke software vs off-the-shelf software
The cost of bespoke software is much less than you may think compared to the off-the-shelf alternative solutions.
Despite off-the-shelf being initially cheaper, it will never be able to customise to your exact needs. It will potentially cost more to customise an off-the-shelf system and doing so will never truly deliver the focus bespoke software development offers.
A bespoke software solution will be much easier to maintain and keep in step with any changes to current or new business processes. Organisations end up paying more money in maintenance costs for an off-the-shelf package as it moves further away from your initial specification.
HMRC provides tax relief benefits to innovating your business software processes. We can help you with your application, saving your company a substantial sum for your software development project.
Mobile Apps
A mobile app is a software program designed to run on mobile devices such as phones, tablets and watches.
Mobile apps are designed to make the best use of the power and capabilities of mobile devices, which are consistently growing with new advances in software and hardware technology.
Technology users are now more likely to be accessing and using your app on a tablet or smartphone than compared to a laptop or PC, therefore responsive design is a requisite to building a multi-device mobile app.
How much does it cost to develop an app?
There's no quick and easy answer to this. Apps vary in the level of complexity and so will require different levels of development costs. Costs such as maintenance, feature improvements and marketing need to be considered when budgeting for app development.
Another cost factor to consider when developing an app is to know what devices you are targeting. Are you focussing on iOS and Android users or just one of those platforms?
There are different ways to develop Mobile Apps which are much more cost effective and don't have the same high costs of development and maintenance of 'native' mobile Apps. We can help identify the most suitable and cost effective technologies to use to achieve your requirements to help ensure you are maximising benefits and revenues, whilst minimising development and maintenace costs.
Web Applications
A web app is a software program that performs a function or set of functions for a client, all exclusively through an internet web browser.
It is the most common software concept and the starting point for nearly every modern software solution. The majority of leading web apps have responsive design.
Web apps are becoming increasingly common and businesses adopting web technology can exploit a wealth of opportunities for innovation and integration.
We can help identify how to migrate your existing business systems, data and processes over to a web based platform, whilst ensuring security is maintained and discuss opportunities for streamlining and integration that you may not have even considered possible.
How much does it cost to develop a web app?
There are many factors that can influence the cost of an app, such as what functionality you require, whether you have any existing data to migrate into the new system and the quality of that data. Other costs include maintenance, feature improvements and integration with other systems.
However, we use methodologies that mean we can deploy functionality incrementally so you can begin using and benefitting from features in the new system much sooner, and gradually roll out functionality in phases - we can discuss and explain how this has been done successfully in many other businesses.
Business Consultancy
With clients nationwide, across the UK, for 2 decades we have provided business focused technological consultancy services to small businesses, SMEs, corporates and multi-nationals.
Innovation
We can help use technology to eliminate bottlenecks to your business growth. We provide consultancy after first understanding your business and giving advice that could add value to your organisation.
Speed up processes
We provide consultation with flexibility according to your needs. We can work with you to analyse your business requirements and then evaluate and put forward what costs could be saved, processes optimised and new innovations that could increase value to your business.
Whether you're looking to reduce costs, speed up processes or needing new innovation, we provide insights on user experience technologies, commercial viability, security risks and infrastructure. We'll also provide an action roadmap and estimated time frame for any strategy that we propose.
As a result, your company will benefit from being at the cutting edge of business best practice with its streamlined processes and minimal waste on unnecessary costs such as loss of productivity, staff training time and business practice disruption.
Legacy Software Reengineering
Legacy software reengineering is the redesign and upgrade of old software technology, whether this has become difficult or expensive to maintain and update, or no longer meets the changing needs of the organisation which is out-growing the system. Every organisation goes through this process of modernising their technology infrastructure. Your legacy software may have had its day, resulting in maintenance costs becoming more and more expensive.
Investing in your business systems
It is a big decision when deciding to invest funds into a key asset like a software system, as it has to be right for your company with the risk of negative consequences on practices that keep the business operating.
Whether you are looking for a new complete software system or a step-by-step functionality integration, there are plenty of reasons why your old system could be ready for legacy modernisation.
We can help manage the migration of functionality and data from your legacy system in a way that means you don't loose the valuable data accumulated and in a way that minimises the disruption from the transition from the legacy system to the new slick and quick platform that will transform the organisation.
Business Automation
Business process automation is the action of enabling technology to self-operate critical business processes. This can be applied through both software and hardware technology.
Software automation is becoming standardised within many businesses today, streamlining repetitive and time-consuming processes to its benefit. We can use artificial intelligence(AI) and devise smart algorithms to automate business processes.
How can business process automation improve my business?
Some of the benefits of business process automation include:
- Increasing service quality efficiency
- Restructuring labour resources to more intellectually challenging tasks
- Improving service delivery
- Reducing time on key business processes
- Eliminating human error
- Facilitating the human touch where it's needed
The growth in automation
Business process automation can be performed across many different aspects of a business. Any process in your business should be considered for automation. The use of AI is constantly changing this landscape and will continue to change the sophistication of the software.
Customer Portals
A customer portal system is a secure, gated entry system which can provide value to customers with information regarding the service interaction between the customer and the business portal provider.
Scale your business growth
If your business is in the position of growth a customer portal could be the right system to increase your ability to scale up your customer base, growing your business and simultaneously minimising the manual staff processes.
Tasks such as billing and payments could be completed by your customers instead of your staff, saving you precious time and money. If one-to-one interactions are not necessary to complete tasks and customers are looking for self-service at all hours, then this may suggest that a customer portal will be a good fit.
Adding value to your customer
Customer portal systems ultimately add value to your customer. It can facilitate private and personal communication, as well as information like data records, calendars, bank details, files, images, videos and additional software applications.
Customer support can also be better managed by staff through giving quick access to information that is private and personalised to the specific customer. Portal systems are very common. If you are guaranteeing added value to your customer then on-boarding your customers onto your portal system will be welcomed.
Adapting to new business challenges
As a business grows and finds itself with new challenges such as an increased user base, your ability to be in contact with your customers will require a scaling of operations. A customer portal system may provide the perfect solution for customers who are wishing to interact with your business 24/7.
A portal allows your company to provide customers with an opportunity to get in touch when and where they wish. It also allows your organisation to gain invaluable feedback through the portal regarding your products and services with suggestions of how they can be improved upon.
Database Systems
Have you found that your old database and spreadsheet system has had its day and now its time for a new system?
We specialise in producing reliable and modern databases for our clients. We build modern SQL-based database systems that replace Access databases in a really scalable and future-proof way.
If you wish your database to provide true scaling and mobile-friendly access then replacing Access is the only way to go. More modern systems can provide full real-time reporting and data analysis, to suit any business need.
If you need help in optimising your current database solution we can help.
Choosing the right database for your organisation can be very time consuming, especially when you have many other things to do and you are not sure what is available or possible that may benefit your organisation.
Migrating to a new database?
Data migration is common practice. With any new transfer of data, security is of the utmost importance, but often the data being migrated is littered with duplicates, missing or stale data and may not be of great quality. We have tools and practices that can help to cleam up and dedupe your data to get this into a more useful state and give a new lease of life to your accumulated data and even provide useful marketing opportunities in the process.
If you would like to discuss more on how we can help your business, please get in touch by filling out the form below or through email at projects@creativeintelligenceuk.com or by calling us on 0203 915 5300.
Such breadth of experience allows us to better understand, design and implement integration between disparate systems which often leverages the value of technology to an organisation, tremendously.
Our Process
All the new systems we develop, should provide immediate business benefits by efficiently providing a structured repository for important business information to assist the functioning of the organisation and in managing it’s business.
Costs are usually one-off costs for analysis, design and development, with a modest annual fee for hosting and unlimited support, which means the organisation will not bear large on-going costs for a tailored system, even though the system should provide ongoing benefits over time.
The development methodology underlying our projects is based on the Agile methodology as distinct from the Waterfall methodology. One of the key differences between Agile and Waterfall is that Waterfall requires extensive planning and analysis of requirements before commencement of development and is not typically accommodating of changes to the specification until the full system is developed. In contrast, Agile prioritises requirements and focuses on analysing detail in a modular, incremental fashion, just to the extent required to develop each module in in turn. It is important that you understand the methodology so that you will be aware of the style and approach used in development and that your expectations are correctly matched.
Each development cycle generally progresses through three phases, as shown below.
Learning Phase
During this phase, we are gaining an in-depth understanding of the processes and workflows of your organisation. Who does what, when they do it, how they do it, and WHY they do it. As business consultants with extenisve experience, we challenge existing processes to indentify and discuss the most efficient way to achieve the aims of the business. We don't want to simply 'systemize' how you work today, we want to help streamline the business to prepare for the ever changing world we live in.
Although we are learning about your business and the team/users, we are also shedding light on HOW we could improve the way you work, and often, clients find this phase both stimulating and revealing, as they learn more about what's possibly and realistic with technology today - often far more than you realised!
Building Phase
Based on the analysis and information determine from the Learning phase, we commence design and development, or the Building phase. Often the development itself consists of multiple strands as we need to develop the interface, database, back-end code, front-end code, business control logic, etc. Suffice to say, that we use at least 5 different industry standard programming languages to design and develop most systems, and sometimes, several others too, with each language being used to achieve specific aspects of the functionality required in a flexible and efficient way.
We like to provide regular demos to you whilst we're building, so you can see how it's progressing and provide valuable feedback. This is how we guarantee the system should meet your needs when going live and you don't get a shock to find the system is NOT what you expected because you only see the system very late in the project, as is sometimes the case with other methodologies.
Go Live Phase
By the time you're ready to go live, whether in incremental phases or in total, you will have seen, tested and checked the system to the point that you will feel comfortable that it WILL achieve your needs.
Having said that, we recognise that it is only WHEN you start using a new system in earnest, that you start to notice little tweaks and changes that you didn't quite envisage during the design and build stage. This is normal and expected human behaviour, and we can tweak and adapt the system to ensure it's optimised for your needs.
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