Influential Software

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Compassion UK is a leading Christian children’s charity founded in 1952. We connect individuals and partners to the church around the world to end poverty in the life of a child, in Jesus’ name. Partnering with over 8,000 churches in 25 countries, we help more than 2 million infants, children and youth, be empowered to overcome poverty and thrive both now and into the future.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Influential Software?

We were managing our information in different environments with over 600 sharepoint site. We wanted to migrate our information to one place while creating a retention and disposal programme to improve our records management and connect teams better. We specifically sought a Microsoft Partner that has extensive knowledge of SharePoint to assist us in creating this.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We came across Influential Software online as we were looking for a Microsoft Partner to help us. We gave them a call to discuss our requirements, and they were helpful in explaining how they could deliver a solution. After discussing with a few different consultants, we felt their expertise and ability to work with us in a timely manner was what we needed.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Influential Software were brought on to provide expert advice on our process to make sure we built our workflows to use Sharepoint effectively and efficiently for records management. They delivered an interactive wiki as one of the deliverables to document the working guidelines and provided recommendations on best practise on using SharePoint that would benefit our teams.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a project manager, MS365 expert and sharepoint designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

This project was very successful and is now completed. We are confident in their SharePoint expertise and have recently approved additional work with them which involves templating and build of our intranet. They delivered a comprehensive and easy-to-navigate centralised wiki as an information hub for our teams to use. This wiki is will be used across our organisation by various teams and departments.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We are extremely satisfied with the work delivered in the timeframes given and their teams are both knowledgeable and easy to get a hold of when we needed to contact them.

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

We were very impressed with Influential for the positive meetings and collaboration between our two companies. As a result, we are continuing our partnership and extending further SharePoint requests to them.

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

We were very satisfied with the way Influential worked and their communication. If I could mention one point, they could have been more efficient with providing in the requirement documentation that had been pre-agreed at the beginning of the project otherwise, they were very good at what they do.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Andy Le Grove and I am the Managing Director of A&A Training, established in 2002. a leading provider of healthcare training in the UK. A&A Training provides training for senior nursing and medical clinicians. A&A Training tailors its courses for all of its customers, while ensuring the highest quality of learning and teaching standards. Our company is both proactive and reactive ensuring that the training we deliver is relevant and up-to-date.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Influential Software, and what were your goals?

We came to Influential looking for a way to replace our legacy systems with something a little more bespoke for our business needs and to enhance our customer experience. At the time, the booking process, and additional admin tasks all had to be completed manually. This cumbersome process was negatively impacting our team's productivity, and affecting our overall customer satisfaction.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We reached out to them after reading a blog post about a similar project, after a few face-to-face meetings discussing our requirements, we were happy to choose them to assist us. Their initial work was impressive and the quality of work was well proven to do a complete rebuild of the portal.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They suggested a tailored solution using .NET and their PearDrop portal framework. The admin portal gave us complete control over security and user permissions. We were also able to enhance mobile performance, meaning instructors could collect trainee feedback from a single iPad. Automated email notifications and confirmation dashboards were also put in place, something we used to do manually via a spreadsheet.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

For the project, Influential provided us with a blended team of developers, testers and DevOps engineers, as the work required. We had a primary contact point with an allocated Engagement Manager, who kept us informed and scheduled regular contact points as the delivery progressed. With our ongoing support requirement with Influential, we have a 24/7 helpdesk available, with support analysts able to answer any questions we have during UK business hours under a pre-agreed SLA framework.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

When we approached Influential about the work, we had several core goals in mind:

• Be able to work together on documents in real time
• Remove the risk of deleting and incorrectly saving documents
• Become completely paperless

I’m happy to report that we’ve achieved all of the above.

Our staff and instructors have a better view of what they’re doing on the day-to-day AND month-to-month - giving them the opportunity to manage their time better. We found onboarding to be a really easy process, staff were able to get through admin training and focus on work quickly. On top of that, we’ve mitigated the majority of our initial logistical errors - likely saving us thousands of pounds every year.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Agile - there’s no other way of phrasing it. We were consistently kept in the loop by the whole team and the feedback loop between all parties was consistent.

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

Hands-on service from start to finish. They really kept us informed of all the key milestones and changes. We are so impressed with the quality of work that was done, we’re currently having conversations about further work.

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

None that come to mind. They had an excellent project turnaround time. They went the extra mile to ensure we were kept in the loop and were aware when work progressed to the next stage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own and operate a phone repair and IT support business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Influential Software?

We required both Apple and Microsoft training for our IT teams to upskill their existing expertise. Team members needed to acquire official certification to deliver on upcoming projects. It’s hard enough to find reliable, certified training providers in one technology, but ideally we wanted to find a single training provider that was certified to provide such training in both technologies.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was referred to Influential Software’s training services by a client who highly recommended their high quality training services. Indeed, having scoured the market, we established that Influential are the only training provider in the UK to offer both Apple and Microsoft.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our teams have finished their training courses with Influential Software and we are very pleased with the quality of training and professionalism. All of our delegates went on to complete their official exams and get formally certified. Influential also provided support for us even after we had completed the courses.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Influential Software has a team of very professional, certified trainers who each specialise in a specific vendor. In this case, we had a trainer for Microsoft and a trainer for Apple.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our team members successfully completed the training courses and passed the subsequent official certification courses. Influential Software were happy to provide on-going support for us when we needed it after the training had finished.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They clearly understood our training requirements and were able to recommend the courses that we would need to take in order to achieve the official certification thereafter. We had peace of mind knowing Influential understood our needs.

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

The training courses were well structured and delivered by certified trainers that were very thorough, knowledgeable and professional. The trainers have many years of experience and it shows through their teaching.

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

None that I can think of.