Company Update - April 2024
We are now well underway with 2024, Spring is finally here and Summer is just around the corner, well hopefully as recently we seem to have as many as 4 seasons in a single day! We are now into the second half of our financial year and despite the turbulence in the UK and wider economy, we have managed to remain steady and have weathered the storm without any impact to the underlying size and shape of the business. We continue to service our existing client base to the high levels they have come to expect and have converted a number of new clients this year including McCarthy Stone, IAG/BA, Stellantis and Qinecsa, all of which came from referrals from senior leaders across each of these businesses. It is also good to see such a wide spread of sectors we work in, meaning a huge variety of interesting and exciting projects for our Associates to work across.
A major focus for the entire business over the past few months, and will continue to be for a few more, is the implementation of a new ERP platform. We mentioned in our last newsletter that we were in the process of reviewing a number of platforms that best suited our business needs and have now selected our new platform and are deep into data exports, imports and testing. The team here are working hard to ensure business disruption is kept to a minimum and that changes in process to aspects such as time sheeting are communicated effectively. Alongside the ERP implementation, we continue to strive for ISO27001 certification, with a vast number of new cyber controls, processes, and tools/technologies in place to support this and improve our security posture. The ERP implementation is due for completion in June and then the focus will turn to completing the required steps for our ISO27001 certification.
Following years of rapid growth, we recently embarked on a process to review our brand, vision, and mission. This was not an exercise to review our logos or a marketing exercise but one that looked at the very essence of Platform Smart and what makes us tick. We looked at the journey to date and the underpinning business principles and foundations, reviewed our values, aspirations and as a team refreshed our brand and the very core of what we are in business to do. The outcome is not a major shift away from where we were, and it is still very much the same, however, as we have grown and lots of new people have joined we wanted to ensure that everyone understands the vision and mission of Platform Smart. We will soon be launching a new version of our website and as part of this, you will see the updated brand essence as well as a number of useful documents that support it. Having seen the website in its final stages I am very much looking forward to it going live.
Finally, as we enter our next planned growth cycle, we are looking at a number of areas within the business, and how we operate and organise ourselves to maximise our potential. One of the areas we will focus on is new business development as a follow-up to our brand work. As most of you know, the majority of our business comes from ad-hoc referrals, from clients, colleagues, associates, and old contacts, this is something we will continue to leverage and encourage. Alongside this we are looking at ways in which we can achieve a more proactive and consistent approach to new client acquisition without changing the way we appear to clients, so think consultative selling rather than traditional salespeople and definitely no cold calling or pointless campaigns.
As you can see lots has been achieved over the past few months and lots of interesting things are to come, we will of course keep you updated through the normal channels.
Finally, I would like to wish you all a happy, warm, and joyful summer. If you would like to contact any of the Platform Smart for any assistance, ideas, feedback, or anything then please do, we love to hear from you all.
SHANE COLOMBO
Co-Founder & CEO
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