Deffinity appoints Head of Legal and Corporate Governance
Posted: September 23, 2011 Filed under: Managed Services, Programme Management, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider Leave a comment »Khatija Tootla will oversee global contract and commercial affairs
London, 23rd September 2011 – Deffinity MSA Limited (www.deffinity.com), a leading UK software company providing premium (SaaS) Project and Programme Delivery solutions to IT Vendors, Integrators, Architects, Media Companies, Consulting firms, Local Government and the global Financial Services sector, today announced the appointment of Khatija Tootla as Director of Corporate Governance.
Khatija has been a practising Attorney, Notary Public, Conveyancer and Arbitrator for 16 years, and has more than five years in corporate governance work in South Africa, providing training in King III, the new Companies Act 2008 and JSE Listings Requirements. She specialises in various fields of corporate and commercial law, company secretarial, corporate governance, regulatory, compliance and risk management. Khatija holds a B.A., LLB, LLM (Corporate Law) (Unisa), Post-grad. Cert. (Advanced Taxation), Cert. in Labour Law, MBA – Certificate in Management (U.K), Cert. in Intellectual Property Law (WIPO and UNISA). Khatija was a Group Company Secretary and Legal Counsel (Manager) for a listed company and for a state owned enterprise and is also Moderator for the CIS board exam for Institute of Company Secretaries (ICSA).
Deffinity is a premium web-based Project and Programme Management solution that is taking the market by storm. Deffinity creates a simple, intuitive, collaborative “live” project environment through a web portal, giving Project Managers, Finance Directors, Vendors and Clients an instant snapshot and total visibility of project portfolios in real-time. Unlike conventional project tools, Deffinity is the only cloud service to provide true PPM (Programme and Project Management) capabilities, whilst offering a unique customer service environment that differentiates and adds real value to working relationships.
Steve Pinkney, Global Director of Sales & Marketing said, “Following on from our summer announcement of the fourth international Deffinity office to be opened in 2011 (Houston, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Istanbul), we are delighted to announce Khatija’s appointment at a critical time in our growth. As we engage upon ever larger global contracts and implementations, Khatija’s experience and wise counsel will ensure that our growth is measured and compliant”.
Khatija Tootla commented, “I have been impressed with the Deffinity team’s vision and professionalism, and understand their ambitious plans for global expansion. I was, therefore, delighted to accept their offer and look forward to guiding the company through the legalities inherent to a rapidly expanding organisation”.
Nadeem Mohammed, Managing Director and CTO said, “I would like to extend a warm welcome to Khatija in joining the Deffinity family. She possesses an incredible amount of experience and qualifications that will help us in the years ahead. Her disciplined approach and personable nature will only serve to improve the professional service that we strive to impart to our partners, customers and prospects alike”.
For further details go to www.deffinity.com or email info@deffinity.com.
Deffinity announce new office in South Africa
Posted: March 8, 2011 Filed under: Managed Services, Programme Management, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider Leave a comment »Deffinity announce new office in South Africa
Further expansion will serve as Head Office for Continental Africa
London, 8th March 2011 – Deffinity MSA Limited (www.deffinity.com), a leading UK software company providing hosted (SaaS) Project Delivery solutions to IT Vendors, Integrators, Architects, Media Companies, Consulting firms, Local Government and the global Financial Services sector, today announced the opening of their new office in South Africa. Located at 4th Floor, West Tower, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton City, Johannesburg, the office will be run by Bryan Mutambiranwa, Director of Deffinity UK’s new joint venture company, Deffinity Africa Ltd, and will also serve as Deffinity’s Head Office within continental Africa.
Deffinity creates a “live” project environment through a simple web portal, giving Project Managers, Finance Directors, Vendors and Clients an instant snapshot and total visibility of project portfolios in real-time. Now being used to deliver major projects by many leading UK investment banks, service providers and IT Consulting companies, Deffinity saves up to 50% in project administration costs and allows the user to efficiently manage their IT assets and resources, whilst maximising profitability at all levels.
Deffinity’s simple drag-and-drop functionality, with a choice of hosted or enterprise solutions, allows clients (and their clients) to track all project and service related activities on a “live” basis. Customers can choose from a mix of modules to create their “own Deffinity” including Projects, Programme Management, Resource Planning, Change Control, Audits, Timesheets, Document Management, Tender Management, Training and Service Desk, all of which gives them an affordable, flexible tool that grows with them as the business evolves, on a simple monthly subscription.
Steve Pinkney, Global Director of Sales & Marketing said, “Following our recent expansion into Scandinavia with Deffinity Nordic Ltd, we are delighted to open our new office in Johannesburg and launch Deffinity Africa Ltd. This is the result of keen interest in our solutions from the Finance and Mining sectors in particular, and we will be announcing significant contract wins in the very near future. We are also engaged on opportunities in the SADC region (Southern Africa Development Community) – Botswana, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Congo and Kenya. These areas will be managed from our Johannesburg operation.”
Pinkney added, “I am particularly pleased to welcome our new Business Development Director in South Africa, Bryan Mutambiranwa (BSc Hons, Information Systems). Bryan is a highly placed and successful professional with a 16 year track record and has extensive experience with global technology companies such as IBM Global Services, Computer Associates, Gartner, Checkpoint, and Visionapp. Bryan has held a series of senior roles within these organisations and was responsible for key growth, technical & business solutions build, project management, marketing and operations within the African market. We consider him to be a valuable addition to the Deffinity community and look forward to many successes in the region”.
For further details refer to www.deffinity.com or email sales@deffinity.com.
Have you found your Cheese? Transforming Your Business from Installer to Managed Services
Posted: January 18, 2011 Filed under: Managed Services, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider Leave a comment »The simple yet powerful story of “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr Spencer Johnson reveals profound truths about change that give people and organisations a quick and easy way to succeed in changing times.
Who Moved My Cheese? is an enlightening story of four characters who live in a “Maze” and look for “Cheese” to nourish them and make them happy. Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry, and two are mouse-size people named Hem and Haw.
“Cheese” is a metaphor for what you want to have in life – whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind. And “The Maze” is where you look for what you want – the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in.
In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with change successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. When you come to see “The Handwriting on the Wall” it’s easier to discover for yourself how to deal with change and enjoy more success and less stress in your work and in your life.
At Deffinity, whenever we come across organisations, particularly Installers, we like to draw friendly parallels with the “two little people” in the story. That’s because so many of these businesses have ended up in the same trap. Similar to the story, these “two little people” managed to get by; finding project work (cheese) here and there. They repeated the same action over and over again because it made them some money and it was exciting. They followed the same path through the maze since the start.
However over time, the “little people” realised that their supply of cheese was diminishing by the day. Yet, although new cheese was staring them in the face, they turned away the opportunity and settled for their daily routine, going still deeper into the maze, compelled by pieces of new cheese here and there. Eventually the cheese dried up and that’s when they decided it was time to find new cheese.
Moving into the field of managed services can be a daunting task for any installer. Managed Services, unlike project work, requires a completely different outlook towards managing, measuring and reporting to customers. The challenge is to transform the business using qualified resources, a change to processes and a suitable solution that underpins delivery; at the same time minimising disruption to the business. Of course, there’s more to it than just that. A fundamental part of the process is a cultural shift throughout the organisation from top to bottom, particularly when dealing with massive change.
The great thing about managed services is, to some extent, you’re almost guaranteed some form of income on a regular basis over the contractual period. In other words there’s a continuous supply of cheese! Provided you deliver a quality service of course. And that’s just the point – Delivering a Quality Service. So what does this mean exactly if you’re still in the position of one of those “little people”?
You need to consider:
- Skills in selling managed services
- Management of the service
- Continuous Improvement and innovation
- Keeping the Competitors Out
- Qualified personnel – Training Programme
If you’ve been selling installation services for any length of time, then selling managed services requires a completely different skill set. Installation of a product/service will naturally be a sub-set of the managed services proposition. However there is a need to consider why a prospect would shift from their current supplier to you. What’s unique to your business that isn’t currently offered by the prospect’s incumbent supplier? It’s difficult enough to knock an incumbent off their perch, but if you aim at the right level with a robust message around delivering efficiency and cost savings, underpinned by a solution that can guarantee such promises, then you have a good chance of being successful.
Haw, one of the two little people in the story, in his search for new cheese, reflected on his experience. In the story, he pondered a return to see his old friend and decides to help him by writing the following on one of the Cheese stations:
Change Happens
They Keep Moving The Cheese
Anticipate Change
Get Ready For The Cheese To Move
Monitor Change
Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
Adapt To Change Quickly
The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
Enjoy Change!
Savour the taste of new Cheese!
Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again & Again
What Haw wrote applies to anyone in the Managed Services industry. If you fail to recognise and adapt to change, it opens the gates to competitors to prove they can deliver something better. Therefore you need to anticipate change all the time. One of the ways to achieve this is through excellent Account Management. In other words feeling the “pulse of your customer” and continually monitoring what’s going on around the client’s environment and changing your delivery to meet their requirements.
Another equally important and fundamentally important principle in managed services is to stick to the contract and review it on a regular basis with the client. Measuring how the team perform by transaction, and reporting back to the customer in real-time is where the greatest level of change is required. Spreadsheets work to some extent and you can get by. But anyone who has been in the game will tell you that when the customer needs a new or immediate report, historical data held in Excel spreadsheets is not the way to go. What is needed is a “live” project environment where status is updated on the fly, for all to see.
Providing managed services requires an on-going effort to improve products, services and processes. These changes can be small and referred to as “incremental” improvement, or can often be radical “wholesale” improvements. Customer delivery processes should be constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility. Innovative service delivery solutions help to improve communication with internal teams and suppliers, and provide a means to report back to customers in real-time. They also allow for integration into the client’s environment. By continually monitoring the service and introducing service improvements, you will lock customers in and ensure that you retain a healthy long term relationship.
Steve Pinkney
Director
Deffinity MSA Ltd
www.deffinity.com
Sontel launch Springboard – CRM for Service Delivery
Posted: June 25, 2010 Filed under: Managed Services, Programme Management, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider | Tags: Cabling, CRM, Dashboard, Helpdesk, MAC, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Desk, Voice, Wireless Leave a comment »London 25th June 2010 - Outsourced technology infrastructure provider, Sontel Network Communications, have launched a new customer relationship platform called Springboard aimed at providing customers with live service information whilst reducing internal project administration by over 50%!
Sontel design and install voice and cabling solutions for the Local Government and Retail sectors. Staying on top of project delivery whilst maintaining high standards of quality across a number of concurrent projects is a challenging task. From an Operations perspective, managing a large pool of permanent and sub-contract staff and dealing with the administration behind it adds to the demands of the business. Furthermore, customers demand immediate information which means that a burden is placed upon project managers and their attempts to multi-task with all parties.
Like many other businesses that attempt to run their operations with spreadsheets and disjointed applications, Sontel found themselves in a predicament. They needed a solution that was cost- effective for their business, would seamlessly integrate with business operations and, most importantly, deliver real-time information to customers wherever and whenever they needed it.
Springboard is based on the Deffinity.com platform, and it has allowed Sontel to regain control of their business and deliver a truly unique customer experience. A birds-eye view of every customer- related activity including projects, incidents, requests for new services and auditing for compliance, has enabled Sontel to better manage their workload, and at the same time deliver an innovative and highly efficient service. Customers are provided with a login to a unique dashboard from which they can view up-to-the-minute status reports. This level of information means that the customer is assured that their demands are being met, and that they are consistently receiving agreed levels of service from the contract.
Sontel Network Communications are a leading provider of cabling and wireless networking technology as well as unified messaging solutions, based on Siemens HiPath OpenOffice. For 15 years they have been a key installer of voice and cabling solutions to the Local Government and Retail sectors.
Deffinity.com is an on-line platform for Service Delivery and Project Management. It is aimed at mid-tier and large Systems Integrators, as well as blue-chip organisations who are looking to standardise service and project delivery, whilst consolidating all relevant data, so delivering exceptional value to their customers.
Contact: Chris Amies – camies@sontel.co.uk
DDI: 01280 822 801
Mobile: 07900 98 00 78
Deffinity select The Full SP as their UK Platinum Partner
Posted: May 18, 2010 Filed under: Managed Services, Programme Management, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider Leave a comment »Deffinity, a privately owned City-based company, was formed by a group of senior professionals with extensive experience in major project and service work within the UK banking and IT markets. Their integrated, customisable solutions provide powerful management and analysis tools that include:
- Vacation Tracker
- Health Checks & Online Audits - Asset Register & Tracking (with MAC co-ordination)
- Change Control
- Document Library
Nadeem Mohammed, Managing Director at Deffinity said, “We are absolutely delighted to confirm this appointment. We have worked with Steve and his team many times over the years, and they are the ideal company to lead our sales effort within the City. Our combined knowledge, contacts and enthusiasm for our subject will help us deliver a superlative service, and we have already been selected by five leading investment banks in the UK. We look forward to many more satisfied customers in the years ahead”.
You’d Be Nuts Not To!
Posted: May 14, 2010 Filed under: Managed Services, Programme Management, Project Management, Service Delivery, Service Provider | Tags: Collaboration, Dashboards, Family Business, ITIL, Project Management, Service, Service Delivery Leave a comment »The squirrel in the cartoon Ice Age desperately clings to the same acorn as if it was the only nut in the world. Throughout the film he undertakes an extraordinary series of adventures fighting off all attempts to wrest it from his control. In business it is easy to become equally obsessive over holding on to cherished processes and procedures. In family business this can be magnified to try and hold on to processes and procedures that span the generations. Of course older doesn’t mean less appropriate but the fact remains that technology, business and customers have changed over the years. Clinging on to the family business practice acorn may soon begin to look a little obsessive.
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for acorn abandonment comes in the form of communication. Ok so here we go again with the email argument? No, not so, one of the failings of the IT era has been to shoehorn too many inappropriate technologies into the wrong places. Taking an outdated process and wrapping it with email is tantamount to sticking the acorn in your pocket and pretending you have moved on.
The point about technology and communication is that, used correctly, they allow you to achieve understanding and be innovative in a way that you couldn’t do before. This isn’t a one size fits all world but looking around shows what can be achieved. Take, for example, Amazon, the online retailer. Without a single face to face interaction to impress a single customer they have achieved a net promoter score of 74%[1]. A combination of keeping customers up to date with what is being done on their behalf, together with well managed service allows them to delight their customers without the human touch.
The point is not that every business should strive to match Amazon’s model. The point is to look at the way that product and service are delivered and question whether the appropriate use of technology can help:
- Provide better control of internal processes in order to reduce administration to a bare minimum
- Track exactly how much you are making on any project at any time in the project’s life
- Reduce the headaches surrounding timesheet management
- Show your customers that you have something unique ….something with the X-Factor
- Make sure the family business can operate without the owner
Perhaps the easiest way to use technology to wow customers and reduce cost at the same time is by brining service delivery under control. Whether your service is delivering a product on time or carrying out a complex engagement, wasted time and poor communications can lead to the double whammy of increased cost and decreased customer satisfaction.
It may not feel like acorn abandonment, but the first step towards stemming the flow of money and customers can be to simply set out your promises to your customers and then to demonstrate that you are keeping those promises. A good online service delivery system will allow you to do this in a way that:
- Shows you where every hour of effort and every penny of capital is being spent
- Show your customer what is being done on their behalf, by how many people and in what timescale
Better still, such a system allows everyone to log in themselves to see what’s happening, so the number of phone calls to get an update falls. Of course, in a similar way, progress reports are produced at the click of a button leaving your people managers to manage people.
Yes of course there is a cultural shift that needs to take place to trust in technology to help you deliver your promises. More especially in family businesses this can cause some discomfort. When your name and reputation has been built on delivering great service it can be hard to break the reliance on trusted long term employees and fellow family members. The point is that you are not throwing away old principles. A good service delivery package is just another tool. It is a powerful tool that, used well, will help keep customers loyal. It is also a tool that can free you from the drudgery of chasing everything through by phone calls and face to face meetings.
So where our friend the squirrel from Ice Age desperately clings on to the whole acorn, the wise squirrel would take out the kernel and discard the encumbering shell. Good service delivery systems recognise the heart of your business is the skill and enthusiasm of the people in the business. They then free you of the burden of day to day task management, cost tracking and reporting. By involving your customers in your process they help customer retention and provide an excellent tool to help win new business.
Deffinity.com helps businesses to manage their operations more effectively using a simple yet powerful suite of web applications that are fully integrated. Deffinity has a proven track record to help service providers win substantial new business from a branded version of the solution delivered to their customers. A business can start from as little as they like and add modules as and when their needs evolve. Freephone UK: 0800 680 0215
[1] The 2009 NPS® benchmark, Satmetrix, cited on www.netpromoter.com
