Happy New Year!

by Lee Porter 2. January 2014 10:49

Happy New Year!  We hope you have a successful and prosperous 2014. 

Business software approach: is yours right for you?

by Lee Porter 28. May 2013 12:33
The Software development approach is often overlooked but it is the main reason why your business software investment fails to deliver its potential.

The approach is how the designers of your chosen software product choose to bring their style of software controls to your business while managing ease of use, delivery costs and all the time fulfil their particular remit.  It's a complex maze to navigate but in general it is approached in a number of different ways:

Blank page approach

This approach doesn't limit your input or guide your answers and it doesn't apply any controls or rules on your records. It is a blank book with almost limitless applications although usually sold under one guise such as HR.  It sounds great but in reality its next to useless.

It doesn't help your business improve its process management, deliver better guidance to your employees or help you apply corporate or legislative governance.  It is however a cheap and simple way to deliver a business software solution with minimal to no investment from knowledgeable professionals in the field or experienced developers favouring college graduates instead.

The benefits are that costs are usually low or absorbed in to a separate paid services which is not surprising considering the limited success this software will actually have.  It’s also true that the software will be easier to use in the same way standing still is easier to do than driving a car.

You will find that this type of software has considerably more effort applied to its appearance for 2 reasons.  Firstly its developers are youthful, inexperienced, simplistic in thought and secondly they need to mask the lack of detail below - knowing that some clients will be sold on simple design features alone.

The re-write approach

It is no surprise that the world in which we live is a complex and convoluted one.  No one person is the same and that goes for the company’s in which we work too.  It is especially the case as layer upon layer of influence from one employee to another twists and turns the internal processes and new government guidance adds more complications and yet we expect our business software to be a quick to setup, easy to administer, thorough in its ability to manage any one business - especially yours.  Unfortunately easy and flexible are conflicting pressures on software.

Some software developers approach these pressures by making all areas of their software managed by the same, all encompassing, overly simplified process.  This rewritten process can then take events that can just as well record a disciplinary or complete an appraisal as they can register an asset or record training.

Obviously this limits the development required but also makes the software appear simpler to use.

This restricts future development capacity as a development requirement for training has to be approached with all business areas in mind.  In most cases a specific development in one area will not have a suitable place in another.

The CompanyControls approach

We write our business software to meet the needs of each business area, in a way that is not only independent of other areas but that fully and unquestionably meets the needs of that specific area and that area alone.  Our Training module, for instance, provides specific and key functionality to our clients that is focused on the delivery of training within their business.  While a company can simply record what training all employees have they could also make extensive use of all levels of this module if required to do so.  

This approach allows us to meet the very specific needs of your business, providing key business improvement tools across your company regardless of its size and we are able to add client requested features to further enhance our already powerful and useful business software.

In short while some business software expects your business to come to them, we come to you.  We build software to meet your specific needs while focusing the software specifically on the business area in question.

We do this with security and reliability as our main priority while ensuring that our software is ultra competitive in the market place.  Additionally we offer our software in a modular format so you can have and only pay for exactly what you need.

Get your 3 month trial of CompanyControls for up to 100 staff so you can see for yourself.  Simply start your CompanyControls site by completing the form at https://companycontrols.pro/client_new and I look forward to showing you how it really should be done.

Partner/Reseller benefits

by Lee Porter 5. May 2011 10:48

We have many years’ experience developing smart and reliable online business applications to undertake critical and non-core business activities. MyWebWorkplace is the culmination of that focused effort to create a broadly available system to manage many aspects of a business' core and non-core efforts.

MyWebWorkplace.net's scope is to include many business modules, each of which are available independently of one another to allow our clients to choose and pay for just those areas that will make a significant impact on their business efficiency. Our software is designed specifically to streamline their business procedures, improve accuracy across their company, reduce time wasting and implement their company policy fairly across their entire workforce. Employees of our clients have found our software to deliver a more open communication between them and their line manager and the managers have been able to make quicker and better decisions that directly affect their business. HR have found their ability to properly manage complex business areas now takes a great deal less time and they are better informed of problem areas and are able to take a more informed action when necessary.

Our clients come from all sectors and industries and range from 5 employees to 2000+. Our intelligent and versatile software is built to manage all types of business with a variety of options and settings in place to fit neatly into their business and adapt to their needs.

Typical partners include accountants, business associations, employment law specialists, Human Resource agents, Project Management teams & social media advocates. Primarily, service companies that provide an annual or 'if required' service can also offer our system, amongst your existing services, under your own brand that is visible to all your clients and their employees on a daily basis.

Your MWWP Partner portal gives your complete control over your clients using MyWebWorkplace.net and your dedicated branded signup page allows for quick and simple setup of a new client. We will provide any initial and on-going support.

We also offer significant discounts on our already generous pricing structure (per employee/year) and give you complete control of your final cost to your clients through your partner portal (from free i.e. built in to your annual service costs, to an increase on our RRP).

To summarise, we are an experienced team of developers of a broad variety of online business software who have developed an enterprise grade, core and non-core business application for small to medium sized businesses. As a partner your brand can be seen by all your clients’ employees on a daily basis even if your current service only reaches 1 or 2 employees at the moment, perhaps on an annual frequency. Our software could be used to encourage contract renewal and to differentiate between you and your competitors. It could also provide you with an additional revenue stream.

Call Lee Porter on 0844 736 1820 ext. 3 to discuss partnering with MyWebWorkplace.net. We look forward to speaking with you.

Happy new year!!

by Lee Porter 4. January 2010 15:59
Wishing all our clients and happy and prosperous 2010.

Tags: ,

General

A big Christmas thank you to our newest clients

by Lee Porter 18. December 2009 15:54

MyWebWorkplace.net - Absence Management has smashed all expectation after it was released on the 7th December 2009.  Needless to say we are extremely pleased to see it being so well received after working so hard to develop and test it over the last year.

For those of you who don't know, MyWebWorkplace is a powerful business process automation system.  Being a self service system, all your employees have permission based access to complete the many mundane and costly procedures that fill our business lives.

MyWebWorkplace will be a multi modular system, each of which will focus on a specific business area.  Right now we have developed the answer to ineffective absence management which manages all aspects of leave & sickness in your business.  In the near future we will be bringing expense, time-sheet and project management and each of these will be available separately so you can pick and choose the ones that suit you.

It's free to sign up and take a look for yourself.  You can even add up to 3 employees to test its compatibility with your own processes.  Just go to http://mwwp.me/client_new and register for your free trial.  You will get access immediately.

As a special thank you to all our current clients and any future ones that sign up before the end of March 2010 we would like to offer you 6 months free use of MyWebWorkplace - absence management.  This is a great opportunity to see for yourself what it can do for your business. Just register at htp://mwwp.me/client_new as normal and follow the guidance in the getting started guide below.  It couldn't be easier.  If you have any questions you can always contact our friendly and brilliant support team on 0844 736 1820 ext 2.

mwwp Getting Started.pdf (624.12 kb)

Failure to implement

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 17:07

It doesn’t matter how good a design is or how wonderful the solution has been build: unless it’s implemented successfully it will be deemed a failure…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Business process impact ignored ie changes to associated business processes  •Failure to formally define and agree ‘acceptance’ •Failure to approve / sign-off completion / handover
•Failure to manage the business change associated with the implementation     

back to Why do projects fail?

Failure in funding

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 16:48

Everything costs something, you need to have adequate funding available at the right time. If funding cuts occur something has to give…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Inadequate funding •Reduced funding without changes to scope / quality etc •Failure to update business case with actual costs
•Delays in releasing funding •Failure to manage external costs, leading to overruns / need to reduce scope  
•Failure to agree contingency funds    

back to 'Why do projects fail?'

Failure to get the right people

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 16:07

Projects are run and delivered by people: if you don’t get the right people at the right time you won’t succeed…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Skills mismatch of project team (technical, functional, style) •Poor interpersonal skills of project team •Failure to adequately transfer knowledge to operational staff
•Assigning under-skilled managers •Poor capability of business resource assigned to project  
•Inadequate staffing •Communication breakdowns  
•Failure to independently validate team capability    
•Failure to ‘flex’ staff / skills to meet complexity changes    
•Failure to maintain continuity between phases    

back to 'Why do projects fail?'

Failure to match requirements

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 15:33

Failure to ensure that the design matches the requirements will lead to the building of a solution that isn't fit for purpose…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Technology / architecture choices wrong •Poor / wrong architecture chosen •Failure to sign-off / approve design
•Design does not meet stated requirements    
•Inadequate review / validation of design by users    

back to 'Why do projects fail?'

Failure to implement controls

by Lee Porter 25. June 2009 15:24

Failure to implement and utilise appropriate methods and tools means the project is driving blind…

At the Beginning During the Project At the End
•Failure to define and agree Governance Model •Project Management disciplines not followed •Failure to review and learn from the past and build it into future activities
•Failure to adopt project methodology •No quality management in place  
•Poor estimating (schedule, cost, benefits, risk) •Failure to comply with project methodology ie cutting corners  
•Failure to adequately plan •Failure to ‘manage the plan’  

back to 'Why do projects fail?'

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