In this page you will learn about the services that had been delivered to clients by T750. This is split into two columns, the left-hand one briefly describing the service, and the right-hand column giving one or two examples from projects delivered to customers. 

Project examples

Business Plans

Working together with the client's management team, T750 delivered a well researched and constructed Business Plan, usually to be used for expansion requiring external funding. The final product used a proven, successful method of presentation of facts and figures, with a business narrative structure typically containing Executive Summary, Company Details, Products & Services, Markets & Competition, Strategy & Plans, Financial Projections, Management & Staff and relevant detailed appendices.

 

Since founding in 2005, the production of Business Plans by T750 had featured as a major and consistent source of business. In more than one instance, clients, such as Glenhead Engineering and API Software, had returned to have newer or updated plans created for funding of new projects. 

Plans were built for a variety of business types, such as:-
Manufacturing, Software Product Development, Contact Centres, Financial Services, Construction, Skincare, Post Offices, Telephony & Mobile Radio, Fabrication, and Marketing.

Fund Raising for SMEs

Commonly the management of the fund raising would be combined with the production of the Business Plan. John was well versed in dealing with debt, grant and equity funders, from both the private and public sector. 

For public sector funding, T750 deals with national and local government funding schemes such as RSA, SMART and WSFL, as well as the various smaller local government schemes. T750 would normally also deal with the form-filling aspects involved.

 

As you would expect, the main purpose of the business plans mentioned above was as a pre-requisite for any funding of significant value. It follows that funding had been successfully obtained in the same mix of industries as above, both in start-up situations like the RestEazy financial services contact centre, or expansion like Purelogicol which produces and sells collagen based products worldwide. Both examples involved a mix of bank loan funding, private equity, plus public sector loan and grant aid.

Systems Design and/or Specification

The experience in computer software system design and specification spans back from a start in software development in 1980, progressing to systems analysis, design and specification. Although mainly involved in MRP and CRM systems, the principles work for any business system, including business accounting applications.

Experience covers both bespoke and package systems.

 

Within T750, three web-based bespoke on-line services were designed and specified for Fife Rights Forum, both directly and indirectly with Alienation Digital. At the other end of the scale was the project for Ross-shire based Dufi Art: a requirements spec, selection and implementation of a cloud-based financial system. 

With the heritage of experience in manufacturing systems, business requirements for manufacturers had also been turned into a systems requirement specification used to select the optimal MRP packaged solution.

Business Advisor

Business advice was normally involved with most projects involving T750, either in a formal way as part of a project (like building a business plan) or informally (like system specification). This was based on the wide experience gained gained since involvement with clients of Cognos, Initiative and Compertum. As the advice was generally to SME businesses, John Caldwell added value as actually having personal experience of starting and running an SME... not just theory or books! 

 

For 2 years from 2013, John was a part-time Growth Adviser for Business Gateway West Dunbartonshire, on a sub-contract basis, until the service was taken in-house in September 2015.

On a longer term basis, from 2005 for 10 years, John was a trusted Advisor to Glenhead Engineering and had experienced the growth from fledging local business to expanding exporting business.

At a project level, the Enkelt Project was initially to build a business plan for manufacture of affordable eco housing, but developed into a restructure of company plus financial and manufacturing processes. Enkelt Ltd has transformed into an independent technical consultancy operating in the Oil & Gas sector.

Research, Report & Recommend

Research and report generally forms a part of a business plan in terms of markets and competition, but may also involve new ideas when it's a technical project.

On occasions, the project brief may be solely to use the experience of a market or industry to research, report on the findings and recommend actions from the information collected.

 

Using past experience of the contact centre marketplace and working practices, plus previous employment as a teacher and university tutor, John was selected by the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) for the "Contact Centre SVQ Uptake" project to investigate the (then) perceived low uptake of Contact Centre industry related Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs), compared with the number of people employed in the sector in Scotland. The report was used as a basis for recommending the way forward with these qualifications.