Southernwood Consulting - Technology for a Connected World

Within a small business, it is crucial that every resource and staff member be as effective and efficient as possible. There are many ways for individuals and small businesses to improve productivity, including the effective deployment of technology solutions.

Southernwood Consulting can work with you to identify where off-the-shelf and customized productivity solutions, or even changing or tweaking a business process, can make a difference in your business.

Growth, often rapid growth, is a reality for many small businesses, and it can be a painful experience. More customers, more staff, maybe more offices and suppliers. And more work! You will find your communications and technology infrastructure taking strain with the additional load, and maybe even collapsing when you need it the most.

There are many ways to ensure your technology keeps pace with your growth without excessive costs, so let us help you create a technology and telecommunications strategy that will help ease the pain.

How do you communicate with your customers, staff, suppliers and other key stakeholders?

Although email has become a tremendously important way of communicating, voice (i.e. phone) is still by far the heavyweight of communication technologies. Small business are best positioned to take advantage of changes occurring on a daily basis in the field of telephony, as VoIP and other internet-based technologies become a reality.

Southernwood Consulting can help you by assessing where existing and new communications technologies are best used in your business, ensuring your actual requirements are catered for, while overall costs stay in check.

If you are looking to expand, change the way you communicate or do business, or replace your PBX / Phone System, give us a call so that we can help you plan and execute the most appropriate course of action.

Are you familiar with the advantages (and disadvantages) that VoIP (or IP Telephony) in it's many guises can bring to your business?

Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Telephony can deliver both significant cost-savings and flexibility to any business, but it can also be a very costly exercise if not planned and implemented correctly, or implemented in a way that is actually unnecessary.

Southernwood Consulting can help you assess if you actually have a need for these technologies, whether there is a sufficient benefit to implementing it (i.e. if there is a business case), what needs to be in place beforehand, and what the actual requirement is. We can help with the architecture, dimensioning (sizing), customization, purchasing process and project management.

The world is going wireless. From mobile phones to WiFi and Bluetooth. Wireless technologies can change the way you do business, but it can also be a security risk and a costly undertaking.

Southernwood Consulting can help you by working with you to understand where wireless technologies are best suited within your business. Wireless technologies and solutions include, but ar not limited to:

• WiFi (extending your LAN within your business premises)
• Mobile phones and devices (including plans and packages for use locally and while travelling)
• Communicating with your customers and other stakeholders through innovative technologies such as text and picture messaging
• Ensuring your company's presence is visible on the mobile internet
• Extending your telecommunications infrastructure through your wireless LAN

Are you planning an overhaul of an existing website? Are you suffering the dirge of no traffic to your website? Perhaps you are planning to move your business online to effectively grow your market from local to national or even global.

Southernwood Consulting can assist you with your web project, including Content Management Systems (CMS) and e-commerce, and advise you on what direction to take to achieve the goals you have set for your business.