SIMON THOMAS
Technical Consultant
“Helping businesses adopt new technologies, increase profits and find new revenue streams”
- Understanding your mission
- Specifying your project
- Assessing the providers
- Assisting with the technical change
- Monitoring the outcomes in line with objectives
As a qualified mechanical engineer, past technical director with P&L responsibility and a further 22 years Internet and web related experience, I’ve worked with many businesses and seen most struggle with the adoption of new technologies at one time or another. Working with such enterprises on specific projects to help them get the best outcomes is a very rewarding challenge for me. From codifying the business needs to assisting with the deployment of the chosen solution should be a satisfying journey for all. For some however it is a natural challenge and a worrying step into the unknown.
If the business is expert at say facilities maintenance, it doesn’t make them an expert on choosing the best project planning software or the best rugged in-field tablets.
If the skills within an enterprise are such that there’s inadequate understanding of the new technology that they need to embrace, then having someone on your side as your technical lead to guide the process will enable you to more confidently make those critical decisions; fewer sleepless nights and better outcomes.
If this strikes a chord with you and you’d welcome an opening chat to sound things out and see if we’d be good for each other, I’d love to hear from you.
Data recall and processing for a call centre
When a business gets to a certain point in its growth, the spreadsheets on which the business process was developed and is managed become a considerable time overhead to maintain and reference. Also unless there are validation macros, there is the risk of human input error at every step. Operational time and errors are all costs that the enterprise has to bear. At some time a pragmatic decision needs to be made to move such process operations to an application that manages the data and process in a practical way.
On each incoming call the call centre had to find and recommend a suitable operative in a region. They used daily updated spreadsheets of available operatives in various regions and for different time periods, then there was a complexity layer of the type of operative required and special associated requirements relevant under certain conditions. This involved the call handier managing their call handing software, plus multiple spreadsheets to get to the information required.
The proposed solution is a bespoke web app that presents the call handler with steps through simple questions and then presents the suitable operative. This will represent a significant time saving on call handling, saving the business time and enabling more calls to be handled with existing resources. This can further be expanded by integrating SMS and email services direct from the app.
This is a typical example application of a bespoke programming solution to massively improve a business process.
Web app to streamline the online publication of courses for a training college
During the project planning to redevelop the college’s website it became apparent that the existing manual system for updating courses was both time consuming and a lengthy process involving remote web development. With systems I build I align with the client’s business needs and this was no different with a requirement for:
- faster updates and changes
- time saving
- direct control
After scoping out a solution with the client I developed a relational database system for courses, tutors and the master calendar such that courses can be created and published within a couple of minutes. One of my prime aims in most projects is to empower the clients team to take direct control of everything that they need to mange on a day to day basis – digital empowerment.
This is another bespoke web app development behind a public website.
National membership organisation management platform and websites
When The 41 Club of Great Britain, a membership group of some 18,000 people, needed a new website it was apparent that there was a basket of new needs to be accommodated that went beyond the public facing webpages. It had a fundamental marketing requirement to increase membership, but it had to be editable by literally hundreds of people with responsibility for various sections of the site and the club microsites that were automatically created from the 850 local club’s data. The whole platform had to be put in the base platform that was both resilient, secure and scalable so that it could ultimately provide the club’s membership management system.
The system had to integrate with an existing third-party membership management system on a legacy platform.
This is an example of a project where there is significantly more happening behind the scenes to manage processes via the web app than is visible in the public facing website.
I was invited to be part of the 41 Club Board as the National Communications Officer for the year of this project.
Data recall and processing for a call centre
When a business gets to a certain point in its growth, the spreadsheets on which the business process was developed and is managed become a considerable time overhead to maintain and reference. Also unless there are validation macros, there is the risk of human input error at every step. Operational time and errors are all costs that the enterprise has to bear. At some time a pragmatic decision needs to be made to move such process operations to an application that manages the data and process in a practical way.
On each incoming call the call centre had to find and recommend a suitable operative in a region. They used daily updated spreadsheets of available operatives in various regions and for different time periods, then there was a complexity layer of the type of operative required and special associated requirements relevant under certain conditions. This involved the call handier managing their call handing software, plus multiple spreadsheets to get to the information required.
The proposed solution is a bespoke web app that presents the call handler with steps through simple questions and then presents the suitable operative. This will represent a significant time saving on call handling, saving the business time and enabling more calls to be handled with existing resources. This can further be expanded by integrating SMS and email services direct from the app.
This is a typical example application of a bespoke programming solution to massively improve a business process.
Web app to streamline the online publication of courses for a training college
During the project planning to redevelop the college’s website it became apparent that the existing manual system for updating courses was both time consuming and a lengthy process involving remote web development. With systems I build I align with the client’s business needs and this was no different with a requirement for:
- faster updates and changes
- time saving
- direct control
After scoping out a solution with the client I developed a relational database system for courses, tutors and the master calendar such that courses can be created and published within a couple of minutes. One of my prime aims in most projects is to empower the clients team to take direct control of everything that they need to mange on a day to day basis – digital empowerment.
This is another bespoke web app development behind a public website.
National membership organisation management platform and websites
When The 41 Club of Great Britain, a membership group of some 18,000 people, needed a new website it was apparent that there was a basket of new needs to be accommodated that went beyond the public facing webpages. It had a fundamental marketing requirement to increase membership, but it had to be editable by literally hundreds of people with responsibility for various sections of the site and the club microsites that were automatically created from the 850 local club’s data. The whole platform had to be put in the base platform that was both resilient, secure and scalable so that it could ultimately provide the club’s membership management system.
The system had to integrate with an existing third-party membership management system on a legacy platform.
This is an example of a project where there is significantly more happening behind the scenes to manage processes via the web app than is visible in the public facing website.
I was invited to be part of the 41 Club Board as the National Communications Officer for the year of this project.
Business Process Innovation and Automation for franchise operation
We had the occasion to be recommended to a franchise with about 80 franchisees as their website was overdue a makeover. The web project requested was a relatively straightforward project, however the processes managing the enterprise and providing management reporting were all largely driven by email and spreadsheets. Now this is fine when a business is growing and processes are forming but once the prototype is proven it needs streamlining and embedding properly.
The net result was that this simple web project expanded into an enterprise wide management facility including:
- Managing the franchisees
- Allowing the franchisees to manage their own pages and classes on the main website
- Allowing customers to purchase from the site and attribute commissions to the individual franchisees
- Allow franchisees to purchase online at special rates and with access to bulk quantities
- On the fly management reporting of franchise sales and commissions for HQ and individual franchisees
- Integration with fulfilment house
- Order processing notifications to the customers
The project specification grew out of my reviewing of the existing processes and considering how I could build this as a secure web app behind the website. The net result was a system that saved significant company time, made for big process efficiencies and provided the company owners instant performance figure and cost savings. The platform was also extendable to accommodate any additional requirements as the business grew and demands changed dictating the need for new and changed automated processes.
Product innovation for the human genome project
Whilst visiting research scientists at the Wellcome Genome Campus they were bemoaning the lack of fine control they had on a piece of vacuum filtration equipment that was critical to their process. Since there was one of these pieces of equipment in most of the labs there and around the UK this was worth reviewing further. Having all the resources at my fingertips – knowledge of the process, the market size, the equipment and a pretty good idea how to innovate I redesigned the equipment, sourced the material suppliers and with my lead engineer we drew up and developed a successful revised microtiter plate filtration system.
Resources provided:
- materials engineering
- product development
- specifying
- pneumatics
- suppliers
This went on to have very successful product sales for the scientific instrument company that I was involved with and the replacement product was then used in hundred’s of research labs in the UK.
This is probably a good expression of the value I bring to a project – putting together innovative technical solutions from knowledge of what should feasibly be possible and doing this across different disciplines. I join the dots for people who know what end point they want but can’t grasp the technologies to get there on their own.
Product Development for NHS engineering
Every hospital will have a number of large sterilisers to ensure that all the surgical equipment is bug free. For these to be safe they need to be validated to published standards so the sterilising cycles reach the right temperature and the steam is at the right pressure.
If a sterliser fails to meet specification then surgical equipment and alike will not be totally sterilised which leads to cross infections and serious health risk.
The way this is checked requires a traceable temperature source. I designed and built what’s called a secondary portable temperature reference unit. This is a piece of equipment that provides a stable reference heat source that has a calibration linked directly to the UK’s national temperature standard at Teddington and is accurate to 0.05C
This product was supported by an automated data acquisition and reporting system. On both of these I wrote the working specifcations and then built the equipment, including the programming of the automated data acquisition system.
These are typical examples of envisaged outcomes where I put together the steps to make realistic and commercial successful outcomes.
Business Process Innovation and Automation for franchise operation
We had the occasion to be recommended to a franchise with about 80 franchisees as their website was overdue a makeover. The web project requested was a relatively straightforward project, however the processes managing the enterprise and providing management reporting were all largely driven by email and spreadsheets. Now this is fine when a business is growing and processes are forming but once the prototype is proven it needs streamlining and embedding properly.
The net result was that this simple web project expanded into an enterprise wide management facility including:
- Managing the franchisees
- Allowing the franchisees to manage their own pages and classes on the main website
- Allowing customers to purchase from the site and attribute commissions to the individual franchisees
- Allow franchisees to purchase online at special rates and with access to bulk quantities
- On the fly management reporting of franchise sales and commissions for HQ and individual franchisees
- Integration with fulfilment house
- Order processing notifications to the customers
The project specification grew out of my reviewing of the existing processes and considering how I could build this as a secure web app behind the website. The net result was a system that saved significant company time, made for big process efficiencies and provided the company owners instant performance figure and cost savings. The platform was also extendable to accommodate any additional requirements as the business grew and demands changed dictating the need for new and changed automated processes.
Product innovation for the human genome project
Whilst visiting research scientists at the Wellcome Genome Campus they were bemoaning the lack of fine control they had on a piece of vacuum filtration equipment that was critical to their process. Since there was one of these pieces of equipment in most of the labs there and around the UK this was worth reviewing further. Having all the resources at my fingertips – knowledge of the process, the market size, the equipment and a pretty good idea how to innovate I redesigned the equipment, sourced the material suppliers and with my lead engineer we drew up and developed a successful revised microtiter plate filtration system.
Resources provided:
- materials engineering
- product development
- specifying
- pneumatics
- suppliers
This went on to have very successful product sales for the scientific instrument company that I was involved with and the replacement product was then used in hundred’s of research labs in the UK.
This is probably a good expression of the value I bring to a project – putting together innovative technical solutions from knowledge of what should feasibly be possible and doing this across different disciplines. I join the dots for people who know what end point they want but can’t grasp the technologies to get there on their own.
Product Development for NHS engineering
Every hospital will have a number of large sterilisers to ensure that all the surgical equipment is bug free. For these to be safe they need to be validated to published standards so the sterilising cycles reach the right temperature and the steam is at the right pressure.
If a sterliser fails to meet specification then surgical equipment and alike will not be totally sterilised which leads to cross infections and serious health risk.
The way this is checked requires a traceable temperature source. I designed and built what’s called a secondary portable temperature reference unit. This is a piece of equipment that provides a stable reference heat source that has a calibration linked directly to the UK’s national temperature standard at Teddington and is accurate to 0.05C
This product was supported by an automated data acquisition and reporting system. On both of these I wrote the working specifcations and then built the equipment, including the programming of the automated data acquisition system.
These are typical examples of envisaged outcomes where I put together the steps to make realistic and commercial successful outcomes.
Resources and associates
The ability to deliver world class solutions is down to having suitable resources and that spans:
- training
- experience
- capabilities
- the right people
I’m privileged to have built up a wealth of resources and associates that enable me to take clients ideas and engineer them into solutions. Recently this is predominantly in the digital arena where there is an abundance of answers to so many things we struggle with. Any engagement will be considered to see if I can deliver value, not necessarily just digital solutions.
Meet > Assess > Engage > Explore > Consolidate > Review > Conclude > Implement
The right people are crucial to a project success and I’m continually expanding my teams and contacts as projects demand more diverse resources from trusted specialists.
Active networks include:
- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoncthomas/
Why
Engaging someone who has a technical problem-solving background and aptitude mixed with board level business experience and a very good hands-on grasp of the Internet and digital technologies puts someone on your side who will assist you on your business journey to making the right choices for your enterprise.
A technical lead who can help you join the dots and see dots you didn’t even know were there and so make better founded technical decisions.
Values
Whatever engagement is entered it must be with an “open hand” stance of honesty and trust. If after the first meeting, we feel we can deliver value and work to a common aim with shared values the outcomes will be inline or exceed expectations.
Struggling to grasp a technology deployment in your business?
Maybe I can join the dots for you.
If this strikes a chord with you and you’d welcome an opening chat to sound things out and see if we’d be good for each other, I’d love to hear from you. All contact details are above.
Resources and associates
The ability to deliver world class solutions is down to having suitable resources and that spans:
- training
- experience
- capabilities
- the right people
I’m privileged to have built up a wealth of resources and associates that enable me to take clients ideas and engineer them into solutions. Recently this is predominantly in the digital arena where there is an abundance of answers to so many things we struggle with. Any engagement will be considered to see if I can deliver value, not necessarily just digital solutions.
Meet > Assess > Engage > Explore > Consolidate > Review > Conclude > Implement
The right people are crucial to a project success and I’m continually expanding my teams and contacts as projects demand more diverse resources from trusted specialists.
Active networks include:
- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoncthomas/
Why
Engaging someone who has a technical problem-solving background and aptitude mixed with board level business experience and a very good hands-on grasp of the Internet and digital technologies puts someone on your side who will assist you on your business journey to making the right choices for your enterprise.
A technical lead who can help you join the dots and see dots you didn’t even know were there and so make better founded technical decisions.
Values
Whatever engagement is entered it must be with an “open hand” stance of honesty and trust. If after the first meeting, we feel we can deliver value and work to a common aim with shared values the outcomes will be inline or exceed expectations.
Struggling to grasp a technology deployment in your business?
Maybe I can join the dots for you.
If this strikes a chord with you and you’d welcome an opening chat to sound things out and see if we’d be good for each other, I’d love to hear from you. All contact details are above.