NetMonkeys Philosophy and Approach to Information Management Projects

Our Philosophy

1. Most of our business comes from referral and word of mouth. We have a growing base of 50 customers who rely on us to support their IT systems.
   It is no co-incidence that we continue to expand, with little marketing activity. This is because everything we do is in the best interests of our customers. By playing a part in customer success, means that our customers grow and we grow with them; they talk to their acquaintances and we get referred business.
2. Our pledge to customers is to constantly look for ways to improve their business by using technology.
   This is why we have significantly invested in an Information Management Practice; a team that are expert in the deployment and usage of Microsoft’s flagship Sharepoint information management platform.
3. Netmonkeys’ also uses Sharepoint in house, and have proven case studies, so customers can be assured that what we offer will give them a robust, futureproof platform that will deliver significant benefits over the next 5-10 years.
4. Our philosophy is to think big, but start small. In this way, our advice and solutions fit in with a strategic programme that will ensure all information is managed in the optimum way. However, by taking small steps, the chances of success and user adoption are greatly enhanced.

Our Approach to Information Management Projects

There are a number of key aspects to our approach:

1. Visualize wherever possible – customers are experts in their own business and not IT. For anybody, information management can be a difficult concept to grasp UNTIL customers see the solutions in action with representative processes and data that they are familiar with. Therefore, we accompany all our projects with prototypes, mock ups and other presentation material
2. Information management projects are primarily business change projects. Technology solutions merely support this change.
3. “Anyone can come up with a complex solution, but sometimes it takes a touch of genius to keep things simple” (Albert Einstein). IT projects are often blighted by technicians finding fiendishly clever solutions to often trivial problems that users cannot easily use. In fact, it is often simple things that make a big difference on a wider scale. We always look for the big issues that can be addressed easily, and we are not afraid to propose simple solutions even if they only bring 80% of the benefits of a complex solution.
4. Use best practice – a decade ago, the content management industry was like a cottage industry, lead by technicians who would construct solutions based on their best endeavours. This often lead to solutions that had limited short term success but could not be used by most users, nor were they robust, nor could they be reused from one department to the next. Over time, it has become clearer that solutions need to be built on “best practice”. This means that the way documents are attributed, or workflowed, the way information lifecycles are used, and the way information is presented etc is done in a very standard way that works in all scenarios. This often means that the “bells and whistles” that a software developer would focus most attention is omitted until the base system is in place, and control of information is established.
   This best-practice is acquired through industry research, but also from experience with large organizations, on both a technical and business level, who have worked hard for years to develop workable frameworks
   Crucially, best practice also entails the way a project is run and managed. This is not just “strong project management”, but also ensuring key activities like testing, analysis and training are undertaken professionally. It is common to find IT companies that still do not fully understand the way projects should be run!
5. Focus on the major business problems and where benefits will be obtained, and structure project activities around those
6. Be very clear about what we will deliver, and what the customers responsibilities are. We have a clear “customer charter”, which outlines what we assume we will be responsible for, and produce very clear, unambiguous statements of work.
7. Fixed price work is not the best way to run a project. We will work to a fixed price contract, but we strongly believe that it is in the customers’ best interests not to do this. We are very experienced, and generally very good at estimating. However, more importantly, information management “projects” are rarely one-off projects. We know we will be more profitable in the long run with successful early projects with our customers. Best results usually mean a degree of flexibility on both sides. Time and Materials work allows for this providing the controls and management set up support this.

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“NetMonkeys speak to us in a language we understand”

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