Consultancy
A "Consultant" can be different things to different people, so to clarify our position;
A Jigsource Consultant is an intervention expert specialising in change management; an independent and objective project manager with the skills to bring your specific requirements to fruition.
Our main areas of focus are CRM systems, Quality Management (with or without ISO 9001) and operational change.
Consultant services are available on a day-rate basis and a project is usually scoped and costed with appropriate billable milestones scheduled at the outset. We are Prince2 practitioners and recently trained in Agile, but we are open to follow any in-house project management procedures you may have in place. Project management approaches aren't a one-fits-all solution, in our opinion, and we do understand the need for flexibility and adaptability, within the required level of control.
CRM/Data Management Systems
We have worked extensively with data management systems, and for most of our clients those have been Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems for a product or service sales environment (for example; Salesforce.com, Zoho, BigIn, Capsule, Pipedrive, HubSpot as well as some industry-specific packages for coaching, property management, and health and wellness).
Understanding what you want a CRM system for is essential to successfully designing, developing and implementing the right tool. We can help you scope out what your needs are, and provide a comparative analysis of the different market solutions and do a full customisation of your chosen package. We can take a look at your existing system, do a full SWOT analysis and make recommendations for improvement to help re-align your systems with your operational processes. So whether you're new to CRM and need to upgrade from your good old spreadsheet, or you are struggling with a legacy system, we can help to get you fit for purpose with your CRM.
Getting your staff on board can also be a
challenge. Engagement throughout a CRM project is essential for buy-in and we'd strongly encourage staff consultation and involvement as part of your change project. We have also created user guides and training modules for the appropriate use of CRM tools to maximise user onboarding.
Quality Management
For many, the phrase "Quality Management" immediately brings to mind ISO 9001 - and for us to. We do help businesses attain and/or maintain their ISO 9001 certification, however, Quality Management principles are an invaluable tool for any business, large or small, with out without accreditation.
We haven't yet met a business that would not benefit from using a Quality Management System (QMS) in some way, shape or form. A QMS is basically a business's handbook for how they run their business with efficiency, consistency and a commitment to continuous improvement. A formal QMS often comprises of a Quality Policy, some Quality Objectives, a series of Quality Procedures and a systematic review of all of the above (normally, internal auditing). Some businesses could see huge improvements in their operations just from focusing on the last two elements in that list. A formal QMS is fundamental to attaining ISO 9001 accreditation but even if that is not your goal, a version of QMS can revolutionise your business.
We have experience of writing and implementing a QMS in a design, manufacturing, sales and service environment and have successfully achieved ISO 9001 accreditation through British Standards Institution. We can help you start from scratch, or we can review your current set up and provide a gap analysis for ISO 9001 or recommendations for improvement outside of certification. We also offer an Auditing service to help maintain your QMS.
Operational change
Businesses need to adapt and change all the time. Evolution can be a business' best friend, but goodness, it can be hard work! Change for change's sake is trap we don't want any of you to fall into, nor do we want you to embark on costly change projects that will not be sustainable or beneficial to your business long term. We can help you determine which projects are going to add value and improvement; either by way of efficiency, revenue or fulfilling your business objectives - or all three!
We often start our consultancy interventions with a situational analysis of your business. This can sometimes lead us to an overhaul of your processes and procedures, a review of your business objectives and those that cascade down to your staff, but if nothing else, it gives you an objective snapshot of the context of your organisation; it's place in the market, strengths and opportunities and hopefully give you some direction and an understanding of where your next operational changes might give most benefit.
If you don't have a Continuous Improvement Agenda, we'd recommend you consider developing one. It's like taking your business strategy and amplifying it; understanding what the next step will be, the next iteration, the next evolution. Troubleshooting and problem solving can be a normal basis for making change within a business, but what if you were able to proactively make change before anything needed "fixing"? Change doesn't have to be because something negative happened. What if you didn't just keep doing things the same way because no one has complained yet, and instead you enhanced what you did; made it better for your business and even better for your customer?