Team-a-Go-Go
The growing trend for large organisations to use small, specialist consultancies with specific expertise presents both opportunities and issues for those companies. Flexibility and responsiveness are the distinguishing benefits of using such specialists, but keeping track of projects and ensuring that costs do not run away with profit can be problematic.
Background
Team a go-go is an innovative young design consultancy based in Liverpool. The company was conceived by Steve Threlfall in 1997 following his success in winning an international design competition. In the first year, Team a go-go achieved a turnover of £5K, increasing to £50K in Year 2. The company now employs 5 full time staff and 6 freelancers, with a current turnover of £600K.
Approach
Team a go-go offer interior design consultancy in a variety of markets including local authorities, education, regeneration partnerships and NGOs. Their success is based on their philosophy of providing true consultancy services based on the involvement of the people who will experience the end product rather than just the decision makers. The company's services include interior design and refurbishment, workflow analysis and ergonomic assessment.
Business Drivers
Team a go-go clearly needed to exploit technology to cope with these issues, but their core business is design, not Information Technology as such. Whatever solution was adopted would have to deliver immediate benefits; the company could not afford to wait 6 months or a year for benefits to flow. The company's main objective was to improve the internal project management process and increase profitability. This involved reviewing their:
- Ability to manage multiple projects in different locations
- Need for daily staff meetings to 'white board' projects and allocate responsibility
- Monitoring of freelancers' availability and time spent on projects
- Measuring of time spent against budget and resulting profitability
The Solution
Team a go-go selected iomis based on a number of criteria:
- No internal IT resources required - iomis is web based
- Intuitive nature of system
- Remote access to central diary and timesheets enabled
- Efficient monitoring of projects, tasks and responsibility - Key Performance Indicators
- No capital investment - paid for on monthly rental basis
The Result
Kate Stewart, one of Team a go-go's Partners comments "iomis has radically changed the way we work. It has eliminated the need for time consuming daily meetings for 'whiteboarding' of projects and tasks with huge cost saving implications. Being web based, we have no responsibility for IT maintenance and the central diary means that we can be more efficient when dealing with customers. I can't imagine our lives without it". iomis has delivered:
- Improved image with customers and partners
- Improved control of the business
- Clear understanding of time allocation
- Significant costs savings - approx £80K estimated in the first year
The Future
The new efficiencies achieved have enabled Team a go-go to set some aggressive targets for the future. The company plans to increase the number of staff to 10 and to move to a new City Centre location with space for a combined studio and showroom. The company also plans to develop its consultancy offering and expand its role as a Design Champion and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant with major PFI consortiums within the education and health sectors. iomis will be a key element in the company's strategy to achieve these goals.
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