Nothing quite beats a 'thanks-for-saving-us-money' smile…

Company A were planning a project that would involve a pan-European roll-out of a new finance package across approximately 35 sites. Their budget was £210,000. The project involved three suppliers: 1) cabling, 2) PC/Printer and software installations, 3) the installation of the network infrastructure (ourselves). We felt the £210k was a high price to pay, and could see that co-coordinating three suppliers to go on site in the correct order and meet deadlines, was turning into a logistics nightmare for the project manager.

At this point, we stepped in and offered to fulfill the entire project ourselves, which included our being trained to use a special software package in order for the project to be successfully completed. Three weeks ahead of schedule, we completed the project, with a massive saving to the customer - down from £210,000 to just £95,000.

Company B were about to spend £850 on a software package they had been hankering after for several months. After finally receiving the approval of their MD to purchase the software, they asked us to order it. We tentatively enquired what they wanted it for, and then told them how they could do the same, for free! They're now going to use the money they've saved to upgrade one of their systems.

Company C is now saving a minimum of £7,500 per year, simply by controlling the internet usage of its 20 employees. This followed an exercise to monitor the websites visited by employees during working hours, over a period of one week, which flagged up the need to implement a content-filtering solution. Now, employees can only visit websites such as Tesco and Sainsbury's before and after working hours, and over their lunch period. The £7500 equates to 12 minutes per day, per employee - 20 work-shy hours previously lost on a weekly basis. This saving more than justified the £230 per annum cost of the solution.

The new controls have also provided the senior management team with additional peace of mind, because employees cannot visit websites of ill-repute, for which the management in any company is ultimately responsible.