Elkera provides business consulting services to help medium sized organisations who want to review their operations to reduce costs, adapt to changing market conditions or improve product or service delivery to customers.

What challenges do you face?

• Dissatisfied customers?
• Excessive operating costs?
• Obsolete software systems?
• Unreliable data recording and inadequate business reports?
• Difficulties onboarding new staff – unclear responsibilities and processes?
• Excessive manual tasks?
• Inconsistent processes and outputs?
• Overworked staff – low morale and burn-out?
• Poor internal communications and coordination between workgroups?

Those challenges arise because of problems with organisational structure, unsatisfactory workflows and processes, and inadequate software tools.

If you are a medium-sized organisation in a knowledge or service based industry, a not-for-profit or a smaller government agency facing any of those challenges, Elkera can help.

Elkera’s expert business analysis consultant will undertake a thorough, top-down, systemic analysis of your business and recommend new ways of working that are supported by a clear business case.

With Elkera’s assistance, you can expect:

• Business operations aligned to evolving market conditions and technologies.
• Reduced operating costs
• Improved customer service
• Better employee experiences and wellbeing.

Getting started on business improvement

Commonly, senior managers see many problems in their organisations but they are not sure how they relate to each other and how to start fixing them. Without being able to see the big picture, decisions to effect change may be piecemeal, ineffective and wasteful.

The ideal way to start is to develop an overall picture of the business so all problems are understood as part of a larger system. At Elkera we call that a ‘functional model’. A functional model is a high level view of your business functions, main business processes, the roles given responsibility for those functions and processes, and the contributing or dependent stakeholders. It is described in our blog article Growing pains for medium businesses: Why you should clearly define internal business structure.

With a functional model, you will know exactly how the business works. You will understand your challenges and be able to prioritise them according to business value. When you act to solve a problem, you will know how the proposed solution should relate to all your business processes and stakeholders.

The time to act is now!

The costs of delayed action are real and they compound over time. They undermine the future prospects of the business and the returns to the business owners.

You may be concerned about the risks of finding the right consultant or you may be concerned about the value a consultant can provide.

Elkera’s way of working removes those risks. Elkera follows a step by step approach that minimises the common uncertainties that prevent organisations from acting in the most effective way to address cost pressure and productivity problems.

From the outset, Elkera’s consultant will be focused on finding improvements for your business that will provide a positive return on your total investment in the project.

We provide a continuously evolving business case for our work that gives you confidence about the way forward and removes many of the traditional barriers to hiring a consultant. Elkera’s way of working ensures that:

• you will be able to assess our understanding of your business before you make a financial investment, and
• at each step in the process, you will be able to assess the value of completed and proposed work before making a commitment to proceed further.

The key to this approach is to determine very early in the project if you can expect potential benefits that will justify your likely investment.

What we deliver

Elkera will definitely help you on the path to improved profitability and sustainability.

We will work with all your stakeholders to understand your business and the root causes of the problems you face. We will help you to devise and implement improved ways of working that will overcome those problems. Your business can produce better results and become a better place to work. You can expect at least:

• A clear picture of how relevant parts of your business work, the problems it faces and where there are opportunities for improvement.
• Recommended improvements to your internal business structure so that roles are optimally aligned to how your business ought to work.
• Identified changes for smarter, more consistent and automated processes that reduce cost and effort.
• Clear requirements for new software that may be required to support your business.
• A change plan that will guide implementation, including for any software procurement.
• A business case for any required investment.
• Assistance through any software procurement process.

Why Elkera?

• 20+ years of experience analysing business processes and systems, and helping clients to streamline and automate business processes.
• Innovation mindset with a practical understanding of how to implement new technologies.
• Extensive experience at senior levels across a range of businesses.
• Experience as the founder of several software businesses that developed completely new, innovative products.
• Extensive experience as a supplier and consultant working with government.
• Expertise leading complex software development and software procurement projects.
• Clear, professional, independent advice with no affiliation to any vendors.

Please follow the links below to detailed service descriptions, or book an appointment for a free, introductory consultation.