Blueberry Systems

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Company Secretary of Hunt Staff Benefit Society

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A Registered Friendly Society regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority providing personal pensions for Hunt Staff employed in the United Kingdom.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Blueberry Systems to accomplish?

• To produce a database system for managing everything needed for operating a pension scheme for the Society's Benefit Members.

SOLUTION

How did you find Blueberry Systems?

Online Search

Why did you select Blueberry Systems over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Blueberry Systems were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The software development, delivery and testing of the software and the other deliverables.  The new system is based on an existing system and replicates that to some extent.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Although the project took a considerably long time to be developed and to go live, it now provides an enhanced replication of the original existing system with far more security and support that was not available for the existing system.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The project management did prove to be a bit of an issue with too many changes of personnel dealing with the project resulting in considerable delays and also a lack of developer time.  The complexity of the system that needed to be developed was not realistically assessed at the time the software development agreement was produced.  As a result the project took nearly seven years to be finalised rather than the six months quoted at commencement.

What was your primary form of communication with Blueberry Systems?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Once Blueberry Systems put the correct person in place to manage the project it then moved forward much more quickly.  In addition, they have honoured the original quotation they provided for the project although it must have cost them considerably more than anticipated to get the project to a stage where it could safely go live.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Blueberry Systems could have done differently?

Blueberry Systems probably should have taken more time to analyse exactly what was required in the first place and to then put into place enough development time and management to get the project finished in a sensible timeframe.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Manager of an ISP Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an independent Cornish-based internet service provider, bringing high-speed broadband to homes, businesses and communities throughout Cornwall.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Blueberry Systems to accomplish?

• Automate the IVR phone system.

SOLUTION

How did you find Blueberry Systems?

Online Search

Why did you select Blueberry Systems over others?

They had previous experience with an IVR we were working with.

How many teammates from Blueberry Systems were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The primary objective of this project was to streamline, define, and simplify the companies IVR process by merging three different platforms into a one. This change would improve the overall customer service experience and enhance the performance and work efficiency of the companies internal Customer Operations Department, as a result providing more effective support for the rapidly growing business.

The new process would also result in shorter training periods for new team members, allowing for more growth in our internal customer-facing teams. As well as supporting the internal teams, the implementation of these changes would also significantly reduce the monthly/yearly costs incurred by the business, allowing the funds to be reinvested in business development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Visible progress on the font (agent and customer facing) and back end (development).

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Although the project lost its viability and had to be closed prematurely, Blueberry were a great company to work with and they met all set deliverables! They supported us every step of the way and provided consultancy on the project they were working on as well as a few other pieces of work. 

What was your primary form of communication with Blueberry Systems?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Great communication, honesty and transparency.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Blueberry Systems could have done differently?

No, they were a great company to work with!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Operations Manager of an environmental services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

https://www.4-rail.com

Our mission is to enable a safer working environment for all. We’re proud of our client focused scientific approach, and recognise that every business faces separate and diverse challenges in creating and maintaining the best working environment.
Whether operating alongside your employees on site, or providing specialist analytical support from our fully equipped laboratory, you can rely on our leading edge expertise and advice.

We always work with your budget in mind, but will never compromise on the safety of the individual, so that you can be confident our solutions are the right for your business.

We've been helping companies keep people safe at work for over 20 years.
How can we help yours?

Extensive scientific expertise and experience
Laboratory, site and consultancy services
Professional services delivered by a highly qualified and experienced team

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Blueberry Systems to accomplish?

• Build an electronic web application for airborne fibre monitoring site works

SOLUTION

How did you find Blueberry Systems?

Online Search

Why did you select Blueberry Systems over others?

Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from Blueberry Systems were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Blueberry built a custom web application to generate identical certification to the proforma manual inputted documents that were being used in our system. This incorporated drop-down menus, built-in calculations for fibre concentrations, a diagram/drawing tool and the creation of a pdf document that is sent to a virtual machine on our company server.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Successful implementation fo electronic custom certificates for our UKAS-accredited monitoring works (Airborne Fibre Monitoring, Asbestos).

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Stewart, Deputy Support Team Manager at Blueberry, was a fantastic project manager throughout the process. They were always flexible and available to support us.

What was your primary form of communication with Blueberry Systems?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Availability to support at very short notice and great communication and updates via the Blueberry PTS portal.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Blueberry Systems could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Enhanced Homes Ltd is an online retailer of furniture, trading under the name furniture.co.uk. My role is Accounting and Operations Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blueberry Systems?

We hired Blueberry to build bespoke software to manage the whole business, from ordering stock from suppliers right through to delivering product to customers. As a small business a lot of our work was spreadsheet based, with our existing processes being inefficient and generating a lot of paper.

What were your goals for this project?

The aim was to automate and record all aspects of business operations within one tool. This tool then allowing us to operate more efficiently whilst also generating easy to access data that we could leverage to make better decisions in the business.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Blueberry Systems were chosen by the owner of the business after he invited pitches from 3 similar companies. He was impressed by the knowledge and preparation that was apparent in Blueberry Systems pitch and as such selected them above the other vendors.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Blueberry Systems took a list of high level requirements and broke this down into subtasks to give a manageable hierarchy of actions required to deliver the project. We broke the project into modules, broadly being stock ordering and control, customer orders and delivery logistics. Blueberry Systems took this away and designed a bespoke cloud-based application that was able to logically and effectively deal with these tasks.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager Chris Bevan and an assistant project manager Karen Spencer who were supported by their development team in weekly sprints.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Due to a necessary warehouse move, we went live with the stock control part of the system early. There was an element of risk in this as we had not exhaustively tested the system, but the move was the ideal time to barcode and record all of our stock so we took the plunge. Blueberry Systems supported us throughout the implementation and were extremely responsive when we encountered any kinks which needed ironing out. Implementing this module has been transformational for the business as we now know have precise stock figures and precise locations for every item in our warehouse. This has saved hours from our daily picking process and highlights the additional benefits we will gain when all other modules are finalised.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We had a weekly or bi-weekly face to face meeting which was supplemented by constant email and phone exchanges. Blueberry Systems provided twice weekly project updates to highlight which items were in the sprint for that week and their status. We also used their web-based project management tool PTS to record progress on specific tickets and to communicate when items were ready for testing, feedback from testing and sign on off individual tasks. More recently we have replaced the face to face meetings with Skype calls due to social distancing requirements.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Due to some resourcing issues we had internally, the project moved very slowly initially and for a number of months. Blueberry Systems were very patient with us and did not try to make us rush things through. When we were able to dedicate sufficient resources to support their work, they quickly ramped up their development accordingly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only item I can think of is to give the back office developers more real life information. When developers develop code they understandably approach a problem in a logical way to find a technically strong solution. However, we found that sometimes real life requirements differ and subsequent tweaks were required to enhance usability.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacture bespoke vehicles with over 700 employees. I am the IT Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Blueberry Systems?

We wanted one system to track our sales flow from Order Inquiry to Production start. Our current process involved several systems and was a manual / paper based process. It was also difficult to see where an order was and what was holding it up.

What were your goals for this project?

To stream line the process and put work flow in place so everyone could easily see what stage the project is at. Reduce paper being printed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had 3 vendors look at the project, after several meeting the solution Blueberry was proposing was exactly what we were looking for. Blueberry also had an impressive portfolio of customers and applications.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed and configured a new Web Application to streamline the business process from Inquiry to Production starting. The process started with a site visit to gain an understanding of our business and the current processes that were in place.

They then provided screen mock ups to ensure they had captured all our requirements. They then started with weekly sprints so we were aware of how the app was progressing and allowed testing as it was being developed.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of 3 key individuals with several people providing input as required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project was managed well with a dedicated Project Manager. Several conference call and web demos.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We worked well together as we had clear lines of communication and a dedicated project manager, who was professional and informative at all times.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their professional approach was great, and they were always easy to get hold of.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Very little they could improve one, we are now looking towards the next project with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Commercial Manager of Self Pour Solutions Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provider of self pour beer and drinks dispense tables to the hospitality sector

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Blueberry Systems to accomplish?

• Write new bespoke software to perform easy operational functionability for our customers
• Understand concept
• Challenge design for improvements and efficiency

SOLUTION

How did you find Blueberry Systems?

Referral

Why did you select Blueberry Systems over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Blueberry Systems were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

From an initial old fashioned piece of paper with a written concept, Blueberry Systems were tasked with understanding thoroughly the concept and then writing the code from our joint discovery day session.

Blueberry Systems were given a test rig of our equipment which the new software was to operation. Over the coming months, Blueberry Systems were able to use and prove the effectiveness of the new coding to make the test rig work remotely.

By the end of the process Blueberry Systems had designed and developed new bespoke software which would dispence beer by selected volume and integrated this into a card payment system too. There was a module developed for M.I. As well as customer interaction and control.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The fact that the software works and controls the card payment and beer dispense process with ease

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We were appointed a Project Manager who was always available for contact. He would question the process all along to ensure that the logic was correct and relevant.

The project manager held regular update meetings and kept us informed of the progress of the development until the project was completed. The Director also kept an eye on the progress and was always available for comment and input.

What was your primary form of communication with Blueberry Systems?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The ability to understand our marketplace, work at our pace, and not overrun us with "well we usual do this ....." or " that should be good enough" kind of comments. Their understanding of the end product and how it should look and feel once delivered was most refreshing.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Blueberry Systems could have done differently?

We are not professional computer literate people and if we were then we would not have employed Blueberry Systems in the first place, would we?

There is a tendancy for some of Blueberry Systems team to speak in technical computer speak during a customer conversation when there is absolutely no need to due so. Major technical comments can easily turn your customer off and dispute being given this feedback, their attitudes didn't change. Shame really as the good ones are really very, very good.