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Pulsar Insight

Martin Shuttler, Pulasr Insight

About Pulsar Insight

Martyn Shuttler (trading as Pulsar Insight) has been developing high quality bespoke software and database solutions for around 12 years. During this period he has enjoyed a steady flow of work (and income) as a result largely of repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendation.

However, during the latter part of 2007 and into 2008 Martyn found himself in the unhappy position that all small businesses dread – the flow of work dried up. The feedback from his clients and the 12 years’ successful trading suggested that this was not a quality issue.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

What the situation highlighted, however, was the gaps in Martyn’s business management portfolio: he really wasn’t sure how to deal with the problem. If he had considered this as a risk to his business it wasn’t documented and there was no contingency plan to deal with it. He had tried traditional marketing approaches with little success and was not using modern media such as the Internet to good effect.

Despite his business worries, early in 2008 he decided to participate in the Accredit UK pilot and prototyping project. This was in the belief that certification to the Standard would help to improve his business and hopefully put him back on an even keel. As a result of the self-assessment process Martyn started to put in place the necessary framework for more effective business management.

A Joint Approach to Improvement

An Accredit UK Assessor was assigned to Pulsar Insight. The Assessor’s primary role was to carry out the certification assessment visit. This was a one-day process of making sure that the evidence Martyn would present to support his claims met each of the Key Lines Enquiry that make up the standard. These (Key) Lines of Enquiry cover every aspect of both day-to-day business management as well as the activities specific to the Software Product Design and Development Segment of the standard.

The Assessor’s other role was to provide some support to the company as it went through the self-assessment process in preparation for the assessment visit. Working through the self-assessment material, Martyn began to appreciate the gaps in his business strategy. He realised that his business plan needed to be substantially enhanced with a proper financial and business risk assessment. His proposals when securing contracts were generally very good but lacked the final sign off by his clients. This left him potentially vulnerable to claims that the finished product did not conform to the original brief. His terms and conditions of trading were quite sparse and would probably have fallen quite short of his expectations if faced with litigation proceedings.

Business Improvement

In terms of taking on new work, there was not a clear means of ensuring that resources would be available when required in order to complete the work on time (especially if there was a need to use any third-party assistance/sub-contractor support). It also was not clear how the quality of the work of any third party might be maintained to Martyn’s own exacting standards.

With the support of his Assessor, Martyn set about putting more effective processes in place. His business plan was revamped to include more detailed sections relating to quality, health and safety, marketing and financial and business risks.

He produced a new set of standard terms and conditions of trading. He is also in the process of developing new contracts for third-party associates that set out the levels of quality and delivery that they would need to meet. This was supplemented with a coding standards manual that Martyn produced. It is based on Microsoft best practice and can be applied to his own program development and to that of his third-party associates. This ensures a consistent standard of product design whilst guaranteeing effective support post-implementation where this was required.

He introduced a proper regime of programme managementinto which he now puts his various projects, along with his own training requirements and holidays. This also enables him to secure the services of any third-party associates in a way that allows him to give them fair notice of when they will be needed and for how long.

Benefits

Martyn Shuttler completed his self-assessment and, using his improved set of business tools, set about securing new work. The certification and improvements to Martyn’s processes are proving invaluable. They allow him to tackle the day-to-day management of his business with a much greater degree of confidence than might otherwise have been the case. As Martyn said, “The results of my own assessment will help me enormously in the future. I really believe that if I had had all this in place twelve months ago I would not have got into such a pickle.”

Following a detailed assessment of the work Martyn had done he was recommended for certification. The Accredit UK Awards Panel confirmed the certification on 23rd September 2008. Clearly for Pulsar Insight there is still an element of work-in-progress. However, anybody using the company’s services should be confident that they are getting a quality product from a small enterprise that really takes pride in doing a job well.