How Digital Can Help Your Business
Digital Growth
Digital was made for marketing. It gives you a reach almost impossible with any other channel. But it's not just about a nice website and SEO. There are opportunities to really engage with your potential customers and serve your existing ones.
Digital Efficiency
When you're seeing growth the next stage is to drive efficiency. Digital can bring new tools to your team and automate processes that don't need to use up your resources.
Digital Transformation
Organisations can reach a point where digitally enabled startups begin to disrupt their established markets. If you're an organisation seeing your edge diminish, you need to look at how digital can put you back on top and keep you there.
What I Can Do For You
I provide a holistic digital consultancy service. That means I take a broad view of your business and what challenges you have. Then I look for opportunities where digital can help you grow and introduce efficiencies. These can be found in many places including:
- Marketing
- Sales
- Operations
- Customer Support
- Client Management
- Payments
- HR & back office
- Integrations with 3rd parties
By staying broad it means that you don't miss any digital opportunities, but once we have identified your digital needs, I then provide practical help getting them implemented in your business. This process is the same regardless of what area is identified:
- I work with you to come up with a solid set of requirements
- I then review off the shelf options that could do the job
- If there is something suitable I help you to set it up in your business
- If it requires something custom I help you find the right supplier to build it for you
Who I Can Help
Managers
If you don't have a technical background you can still find yourself embroiled in technology. Perhaps at a team or department level, perhaps even at an organisational level.
Whatever the situation, unless you have a a lot of time to invest in catch up, you're going to be making decisions based upon what you know right now. That means you could be making poor choices without even realising it.
I can offer you the help & support you need to be confident in the technical decisions you are making. It's an impartial expert view on your specific situation, not generic advice.
Business Owners
Everybody is telling you digital can help transform and grow your business and you know it can, but it isn't the only thing you need to spend time on.
You want to make sure the decisions you make are the right ones. You can't afford the time or the money to pick the wrong solution or hire the wrong developers.
This is when I can help you. You get impartial help & expertise to give you advice and guidance on which tech to use and sometimes when tech is just the wrong thing all together.
Startups
You have an amazing concept, you've validated the market, you've got a plan to get you launched. Now you need to find the right developers.
Whilst an MVP doesn't need to be over engineered, you do need to make sure it is built in a way that will allow for growth. Finding the balance between just getting the job done and planning for the future is tough. If you're not from a technical background you're going to rely on your developers.
So you'd better choose the right developers and make sure they understand exactly what you want. I can help. Think of me as your CTO on demand.
Why a Digital Consultant?
I've been creating web software for over 20 years, a lot has changed in that time! Gone are the technical barriers that once made technical innovation the exclusive domain of big business. There are more developers than ever and there is more software than ever. So why do so many people still struggle to find solutions for their business? This was a question that started me thinking.
Could I help companies and organisations find the right technical solution for their exact needs?
The answer is that I was already doing this for my clients. From big names like O2 and Virgin, through to marketing agencies and smaller businesses. I've been helping people decide what they they need and then helping them find web technology that does the job.
Because I build software, I also know what clients should be asking for when they undertake a custom project. I've seen what happens when the requirements are not thought through and I've had to clean up the mess when a supplier fails to deliver. It's frustrating, it's a waste and I'd like to help stop it happening.
Who Is Chris John?
Having run a boutique digital agency in Winchester for 10 years, I now find I don't really fit any "standard role". Yes I can write code, yes I can define user journeys, yes I can write a requirements document, yes I can hire technical people, but I can also do customer support, business coaching, book keeping, marketing and sales. And yes, I make a pretty decent cup of coffee.
Enter the digital consultant. A person with a deep understanding of how the internet can be used to help a business grow, improve and transform. And it's not just your website, digital can impact every aspect of your company providing automation and efficiencies in all the business functions you have.
Happiness, for me, is finding the right solution for the problem. That and bottle of ice cold Peroni.
My Other Companies
Besides consulting I run a number of businesses all in related fields.
Jelerang is a web development agency, specialising bespoke software solutions.
Smart Little Web is a web design agency based in Hampshire, specialising in helping smaller business get a professional online presence.
Clientform is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for small businesses who need to capture client information online.
Chris is really easy to work with. He's very responsive to our requests and understand the commercial needs we have - often making creative suggestions on how to help us make the most of the application. He makes complex technical stuff easy to understand and has a can do attitude.
