Environmental Consultants Role In Modern Business

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The kind of changes that need to be implemented in a manufacturing based business have altered in the last decade. A dramatic shift in focus towards greater efficiency, green technologies and a recycling ethic has given many managing directors across the UK plenty to think about. Changing a process is one thing, but the conception and evaluation elements are beyond a company director, and this is why Environmental Consultants are needed.

The kind of changes that an environment consultant will bring are varied, ranging from lean manufacturing techniques to reduce input against output through to carbon emissions and waste management. The waste management aspect is an area where many manufacturers fall down, having high levels of waste which isn’t treated in the right way. The government are offering big incentives in many formats to help reduce production waste, and a consultant will be aware of these.

With this type of service being a relatively new one when it comes to a business agenda, there are likely to be less firms offering a professional solution. Finding an environmental consultant in London for example is easy, as there are many choices available due to the high number of large organisations in the City. This shows that the population density of an area or county determines how many consultancies can service the region. In North Yorkshire there will be far less options, due to the fact most of the land in the area is not populated.

The best way to locate an environmental consultancy is through a directory, which will show the providers located closest to where you are. Many directories provide ratings and show the past projects, helping you to decide which one has the correct level of experience.

Strategy Consultancy – The Art of Survival in Corporate Mayhem

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In today’s volatile market, you tend to lose focus on what you need and what you don’t need or rather to put it bluntly, not only you but most of us tend to deviate from the focal point or the objective of all our investments that will reap us the true goal, i.e. Profit.

It is not a fault, or not an ailment of some kind that you could treat. It is not a tangible problem also that you could “fix” introducing some kind of factor or by spending more or allocating more resources to some sector while eating into another. Ironically, to solve this period of “lull” that all of us, the business fraternity faces each day, we need to do all, that is, resource allocation plus factor introduction plus policy tuning, everything but in a more methodical way after we get to the root of all the problem.

To put it, we first need to find the leak in the whole system before we can employ a plumber to fix the “issue”. Now to find this “leak” in a jungle of “pipes”, where it is needless to say “pipes” are a culmination of resource flow, allocation, process, policy, everything…even your ware house material movement to your work area falls in to that, we need to analyse.

To analyze a complex process mesh of a complicated corporate structure takes time, just like if you went to check the central water heating unit distribution of your home. What I mean is that you can find the “leak”, and perhaps even you could fix it also…but I feel it is quite needless to say that the “time” you need to accomplish this task is way more than a professional plumber plus the amount of resource you need to allocate for the tools, equipments.

To do a organization overhaul in terms of strategy, policy making or even getting on the right track to get to the focal point, you could do all these internally, but think about the resource you need to allocate in kind of time plus technical manpower, where time is everything in market. This is exactly where a, Strategy Consultancy would come in. They will ask why, where and how, they will find out the root cause of all underperformance. They will review each and every process, and they will identify all the “leaks” in your organization including process, policies everything. As a successful consulting group, with their Strategy Consultancy team, will show you the right track; They should present you a replicable, unique solution that you can really put on practically and not just a business report…only consisting of ink and paper.

The business of Strategy Consultancy constitutes providing clients with state of the art analysis, showing them the right way to do business, getting them result… that is profit. As we all know that it is result that matters the most and that is what a consultancy should provide you with.

The Best And Most Affordable Utilities to Use When Starting A Consulting Business

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When you’re starting a consulting business as a computer consultant who supports small businesses, the utilities that will be most critical for your success will be those that allow you to monitor your client’s systems, and that will allow you to provide instant, remote support for whenever an issue arises.

Fortunately today, the utilities that are available to perform these functions are not only completely reliable and extremely effective, but they’re incredibly affordable… even to the independent computer consultant who is just starting out.

The following are the utilities I use in my own consulting business and the ones I recommend to anyone starting a consulting business of their own.

Network Monitoring:

For monitoring my client’s server(s), I use GFI Max RemoteManagement. Current pricing is about $13/mo per server monitored. You can monitor the workstations as well for as low as an additional $0.10 per workstation per month.

You have the option to completely modify the dashboard and all reporting collateral with your own logo and branding.

If an error occurs on the server or if an alert is generated in the event logs, you can get an instant email alert. You also have the option to have the alerts delivered via SMS. You can also deliver these messages directly to your client, so they can see for themselves the activity and support needs on the server.

GFI Max also gives you a web-based dashboard, where you can easily see any problems on the network (backup failures, low disk space, hack attempts, etc). You can give your client viewable access to this dashboard so that they can see for themselves how healthy you’re keeping their network. If they’re having server problems, it helps you to show them why an on-site (billable) service call might be necessary.

You can use GFI Max to collect a workstation and server inventory in real-time, which you can make accessible to your clients at any time through the GFI Dashboard. Besides helping to justify your monthly fee, this inventory is very useful when regularly reviewed to find anything that might be outdated, which will help to generate additional, billable projects.

You can also generate daily, weekly or monthly health status reports to send to your clients to show them how great of a job you’re doing (or how unhealthy their server might be during their free 30-day trial of your maintenance plan).

GFI Max offers a free 30-day trial. I suggest that if you have even one client with a server and small network, that you tell them that you’re starting to move to a managed service model. Offer to install for them a free, no obligation trial of your monitoring system and let them see for themselves how many problems they may be facing because you’re not currently proactively monitoring their system. Then you can show them how monitoring can increase their productivity and reduce expensive, unexpected downtime.

Even if you’re just starting a consulting business, installing GFI will give your clients the impression that you’re every bit as established and professional as any large MSP.

Remote Support:

For logging onto my end-user’s workstations or to quickly check out a possible server problem, I use LogMeIn.

For many years, I used LogMeIn Free. The product is completely free, it supports an unlimited number of workstations, which are easily organized and divided by client.

The LogMeIn client must be installed on each server and workstation you want to access, so you will need to do an initial on-site setup of the application. But once the product is installed, as long as the client computer is on-line, you can quickly log onto it and work as if you were sitting at the desk side-by-side with the end-user.

A few years ago, I upgraded to LogMeIn Central, which is about $300/yr. It works almost exactly like the free product does, with one very useful addition… I can give every end-user their own access code so that they too can access their office computers remotely. (Without LogMeIn Central, if a user wanted to access their computer from home, I would have to remove their workstation from my LogMeIn account and set them up with their own LogMeIn Free account, or I would have to setup an entirely different remote access product for them to use).

Besides LogMeIn Central, I also use LogMeIn Rescue for $129/mo. This product, while a little pricey, has come in handy on many, many occasions. Rescue allows you to access any computer with an Internet connection, without you having to install the client software beforehand. You simply have the end-user go to the website logmein123.com, they enter a six-digit code that you generate for them and you have instant access to the desktop.

On many occasions I’ve had people (non-customers) call me up out of the blue to tell me about a computer problem they’re having and asking if my company can fix it. I’ve said, “Would you mind if I took a look right now, just to get an idea of what’s going on?” and using LogMeIn Rescue, within 30 seconds or so, they were watching the mouse pointer magically float around the screen as I fixed the problem before their eyes.

This little IT Marketing technique landed me new clients on more than one occasion and has easily made back the monthly fee many times over.

Whether you are just starting a consulting business, or you are already an established IT support provider, these two utilities can provide a very effective… and affordable foundation for providing reliable managed services to any small business client base.

Robert Peretson invites you to discover the massive rewards that await you when you start your own highly successful computer consulting business. Give yourself the ultimate advantage by arming yourself with the exact same tools, IT marketing materials, IT templates and personalized training that have helped hundreds of Independent Computer Consultants to fire their bosses and create a life of personal and financial freedom.

A Guide to Recruitment Consultancy

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Recruitment is the process of locating skilled and qualified experienced potential applicants to apply for job openings. Recruitment consultancies attract large number of qualified applicants who are ready to take up the job if it’s offered. Organizations have to recruit people with requisite skills, experience and qualifications to survive in the market from competition. For that they need to tap all sources both external and internal to recruit a skilled and qualified employee.

A recruitment consultancy helps to find and select a suitable candidate for a job opening. They often visit reputed educational institutions, universities, with a view to pick up job aspirants with requisite technical and professional skills. The merits are the organization has the freedom to select candidate from a large source, people with special skills can be hired easily, and often consultancies provide better employment opportunities to skilled and qualified candidates and job seekers.

Recruitment consultancy is a growing and lucrative business in the UK. Firms in the UK like Chase Zander, Vanquish Recruitment consultant, Robert Walters, Mind Bench Consulting, and CIMA, offer specialized employment related services to corporate houses for a fee.

They also have many plus points to their credit. They have many contacts and are especially good at contacting skilled and experienced candidates. They advertise all vacancies, inform job applicants the basic details and job conditions of every job advertised, process all applications with efficiency and courtesy, seek candidates on the basis of their qualifications, and aim to ensure every person invited for interview will be given a fair and thorough hearing. They identify the right candidates in a highly professional way. They also guide and provide advice relating to employment to job seekers and candidates.

On the negative side hiring costs go up and the fees charged by some can be very high, sometimes over 25 to 30 percent of the annual salary for the position to be filled. This is however highly dependent on the type of recruitment consultancy, and the amount of work they will do for the employer. Sometimes higher rates are worth paying for if the candidate pool is one which is highly skilled in nature, and are sought-after. Also, the use of a recruitment consultant should reduce the amount of time it takes to hire a suitable candidate. Today, some recruitment consultancies also help in relation to training, payroll processing, surveys and statuary compliances.

Recruitment Consultancies – An Overview

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Recruitment is the process of selecting the right people for a job at an organization or a firm. When looking for the right candidate, there are a plethora of options. Depending on the job you are posting, you could find it a time consuming and laborious task, as unqualified candidates eat up a lot of your time. One way to reduce the amount of time it takes to find a suitable new employee for your business is through the use of a recruitment consultant.

Often consultancies usually work for several clients. Their main responsibility is to filter the candidates as specified by each of their clients. They can handle the job posting, CV gathering, the first and interview and even the second interview if necessary. Some large employers trust all of their recruitment needs to a consultant, and in this case there will usually be an independent contract between the recruitment consultancy and their client company, and also between the recruitment consultancy and the candidate selected by them for a job. In the case of temporary workers the candidate can sometimes be paid by the recruitment consultancy instead of directly from the final company.

Many recruitment consultancies tend to specialize on one category of job, such as full time, permanent, or executive. They can be categorized as executive search agencies, retained search agencies, contingent search agencies and engaged search agencies based on their specialization. They commonly also specialize on a specific industry, such as medical, information technology or sales. Depending on the industry involved, online applications may be very common. Some recruitment consultants will post new jobs on recruitment sites, and the largest recruitment agencies can afford to wait for candidates to come to their website thanks to their brand name.

The relatively strong labor market and economic opportunities of the United Kingdom attracts a large number of professionals from all over the world. Some consultancies help foreign candidates with certain formalities, like getting visas and work permits etc, but this is still quite rare except in the highly-skilled or medical sectors.

What Type of Consultant Are You?

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Are you interested in becoming a consultant with a direct sales company but aren’t sure if you will do enough with it to make it worthwhile. Direct sales companies are looking for all sorts of consultants, so don’t feel that you are out of place! There are essentially three levels of consultant, so see where you fit in. Just make sure you let the person you signed up with know so they are not always hounding you to do more than you want.

Hobby – The hobby consultant does one or two parties every few months, just enough to keep her active and maintain her discount. She is mainly in this for the personal discount, and to make a few dollars. She likely isn’t going to work too hard to get bookings or recruits, and may pass this onto her up line to pursue. You may hear from her whenever she has an event going on to find out the current specials and anything else she needs to know. Hobby demonstrators may also be people who have signed up but aren’t sure about the business or just need a chance to get out once in a while.

Part time – This is a demonstrator that does several parties a month. She could be in the business to make a bit of extra income for bills or just for some fun. It is easy for her to make a few hundred dollars a month by having a show once a week, or doing a few a every month. She likely is informed of what is going on with the company, but may need a bit of a refresher to make sure she understands how exactly things work. A part time consultant may easily move up to a full time demonstrator if something occurs in her life where she needs more money. These are people who want to get out of the house on a more regular basis, people who need more money or people who just love the product and want to share with everyone.

Full Time – The full time demonstrator is someone who is hosting as many parties a month as she can to maximize her earnings. She could be someone who is trying not to return to work after maternity leave, or someone who was downsized and is trying to replace her income. This lady has a “can do” attitude! The full time consultant is going to be attending as much training as she can to make sure she is doing everything she can to earn as much as she can. She will be working on getting her team built up, and have them all working to get some good income from them. This person is going to have to be organized or learn some ways to keep everything in place and on schedule.

Do you fit into any of these categories? You do not have to be a full time consultant doing parties every day of the week to be a consultant within direct sales.

The Independent Computer Consultant – 3 Benefits of Proactive Monitoring

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For many Independent Computer Consultants who continue to operate on an hourly-rate billing model, being proactive in maintaining their client’s networks can be a challenge.

Rationally, the small business owner is aware that to get the most out of the network, it should be monitored and maintained. But when there’s an hourly fee involved to do extra work when everything seems to be working just fine, emotions overtake rationality and proactive maintenance is often put off.

Proper proactive maintenance of a network will improve your client’s productivity, increase the reliability of the systems, and quite possibly save them money in IT support costs.

For me, my Proactive Maintenance Plan includes:
- monitoring all server event logs
- monitoring for proper AV updates and activity
- monitoring backup status, whether on-site or remote
- monitoring firewall activity, hack/spam relay attempts
- monitoring system bottlenecks (system processes, processor/ram utilization, etc.)
- monitoring application services (Exchange, ISA, IIS, etc.)
- Real-time Inventory collection and web-based reporting
- remote support for most issues

Monitoring is performed 24x7x365 by configuring the hosted software that you select to perform these tasks to send you an email or sms alert whenever an event occurs that needs your attention. The software I use, GFI Max, performs all of these tasks as well as provides many more features not listed above for a low monthly fee.

The benefits your client gets from having this level of monitoring is:

1. Improved productivity – Most problems display warning signs of some sort before becoming critical issues. Check the event logs of any unmonitored server and I would bet good money that they’ll be more than a couple of red X’s that warrant some level of attention. Same goes for the odds of an unmonitored backup system having more than an acceptable amount of failed backups. Or an AntiVirus system that hasn’t updated in weeks. Or even the possibility of having a hard drive in a drive array completely failed without anyone being aware.

Any one of these examples, or countless others, if gone unchecked could easily develop into a crisis situation where there could be very serious and possibly unrecoverable losses to productivity and to the finances of the company. Proactive monitoring gives you the ability to prevent these unexpected emergencies.

Besides being able to save the day from disaster, you’ll also be able to improve performance on a day-to-day basis.

Too often, performance of equipment is allowed to degrade to the point where the device is no longer functional or usable. You’ll be improving your client’s productivity by more closely examining inventory reports for outdated or inadequate equipment or applications and performing upgrades before productivity can suffer.

2. Improved reliability – If you can identify and correct small problems early, before they have a chance to develop into larger problems, and most small problems are addressed by you remotely and therefore immediately, your client will have very few complaints about their systems. Providing that you keep your client constantly informed about the status of their network and the services your providing through excellent reporting (a MUST!), they will have little reason to ever consider replacing you (and a lot of reasons for recommending you to someone else).

3. Save them Money – Hourly based, reactive support for a small business customer is typically unstable. There will be very busy months, often off-set by quiet periods where everyone (including the computer consultant) is just happy that things seem to be working nicely for a change. And once in a while, one of those crisis situations I mentioned earlier will occur and the consultant delivers an invoice that could be relationship changing. This is a tough pill for the client to swallow after suffering through whatever downtime was just experienced.

Average out the cost of hourly support long-term, taking into account both the good and the really bad times, and the average monthly costs should actually be somewhat reasonable from both the computer consultant’s and the customer’s viewpoint.

If proactive monitoring can be delivered at a similar cost to hourly, reactive support, there is little reason for a small business owner to opt for the old model of hourly support.

Factor in any financial benefits as a result of increased productivity, or the prevention of a single disaster, and a flat-fee, proactive monitoring plan should be easily justified as a valuable and cost-effective solution.

If you can convey this to your potential customers when starting a computer consulting business of your own, you should be well on your way to expanding your client base.

Consulting – Principles For Effective Consulting

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Every consultant has different perspective on effective consulting. In this article, I wish to share with you the guidelines that you might find useful as you reflect your own principles:

1. The solutions to every problem lie between you and your clients. Contrary to popular beliefs, consulting is not a process where clients will talk about their problems and consultants will provide solutions or recommendations right away. The involved parties need to think it through, weigh their options, and go with the best one that will benefit the organization or the company as a whole.

2. Consultants should recognize and even encourage diverse values and perspective within an organization. Every employee is unique and they see issues in the organization in a very different manner. As a consultant, you must know how to accept this fact and use it to your advantage. Keep in mind that different perspective might dramatically help in problem solving.

3. Get all angles of the problem. Start from where your clients are at the moment. Ask about their pressing issues/struggles and their causes, what they have tried so far, what worked and what didn’t work, and their ideas as to what could be done now. Although this might take some of your time, this can keep you on track when designing your action plans.

4. Consulting isn’t about blaming. It is very rare that a client or a consultant is out to hurt somebody in an organization. Although some people might be the reasons why the problem occurred, blaming them will surely not help solve the problem. As a consultant, your focus should be to help your clients find the solutions to their problems.

Key Features of Small Business Consulting Services

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The term “business” is derived from the word “busy” and resembles the company’s or individual’s state of being seriously involved in a professional work aimed towards client satisfaction and long term profits.

Every business is seriously taken up to offer best products and services to consumers. However, it’s not easy to setup a perfect business strategy easily. Many concepts and strategies are required to get best output. Further, due attention is to be given towards deep research and analysis. A systematic research and analysis is performed on a number of facts and considerations to lay the foundation of the most prosperous and smart business.

Capital investment in any business is the first thing. It is estimated keeping in mind a vast number of factors which include:

- quality of services to be provided
- time required for setting up the business
- promotion required for the business, etc.

Starting a business is not a tough task, but to let a business develop into a successful one is surely a daunting task. For reaping the best benefits of a business, services of small business consulting services are very important.

Following are the key features of small business consulting services:

a) Web Design Services and Internet Marketing

In the modern world of marketing, online marketing also known as virtual marketing has gained real significance. Companies like to get immediate and effortless services through online companies. A Small Business Consulting Services firm takes care of this point deliberately by designing and developing your company website as per contemporary standards. Moreover, such consulting firms provide facilities for instant business growth, such as Paid search Management (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email Marketing, etc.

b) Strategy Planning and Marketing Services

For running successful company operations, perfect planning and successful marketing campaigns are highly important. The consulting services have a number of well thought out and proven marketing plans for your business. They can provide ideas on launching new products/services or for enhancing the sales of your present ones. Whatever the case may be, aim remains the same-the growth of your company.

c) Hire Social Media Tools

In the present Internet world, everything goes online. Thus, it is essential to have online social media connects as they serve as the best platform to promote your website products/service on world wide scale. A good small business consulting company realizes the importance of social media tool and puts efforts to boost your company on major social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and so on. Having an account on any of these platforms connects you to millions of users, eventually increasing sales and growth.

There are many Small Business Consulting Services companies in the market, which are specialized in providing best consulting services to the clientele. Choose a company that offers the best services according to your budget and quality requirements.

What is a Risk Management Consultant and What Do They Do?

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We live in a very uncertain world. Everyday in our routine work, and lifestyle, we are vulnerable to various risks, and liabilities. We can manage, and avoid many of these adversities personally. Although, like environment, our businesses, things, and us that are vital for our survival, are also at risk at most times from various known and unknown factors. This is where Risk Management comes into effect.

Risk management is the recognition, evaluation, and prioritising risks followed by harmonised and cost-effective submission of resources to decrease, supervise, and be in charge of the prospect, or contact of ill-fated events. Risks can come from vagueness in financial markets, project failures, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes, and disasters as well as premeditated attacks from an antagonist.

Techniques, characterisation, and ambitions vary extensively according to whether the risk management method is in the framework of project management, security, engineering, industrial processes, financial assortment, actuarial assessments, or public health, and safety. The line of attack to manage risk include reassigning the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the downbeat effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the penalties of a meticulous risk.

People who study, or work in the Risk-Management consultant are usually referred to as RM Consultants. The post of risk-management consultant is one of the main arrangements in the resourceful panel of any business venture. While they may not be as eye-catching as the other supervisory in the office, risk-management consultants are employed, and are paid high-quality money to be the intellect behind precise promotions for improving company procedures.

The job of risk-management consultants is to expose, analysing, and evaluating risks. They make recommendations regarding various business sectors. These cover business improvements, administrations, loss controls, and various financing mechanisms. In addition, they manage marketing and selection of business insurances, and hazard related services.

In addition, they provide ongoing counselling and specialised services such as claiming audits and review, over viewing of safety programs, serving as expert witnesses, litigation support, and valuation of third party administrators. Other services include enslaved probability studies, captive management, loss amendment aid, broker selection, broker review, agent selection, agent review, disaster planning, employee benefits, and providing evaluations of potential risk, and losses to business professionals.

As autonomous professionals, risk-management consultants supply perspective, and objective analysis, and are not concerned with financial profit, or loss. They provide reporting regarding market factors to their client, in addition to working with other business professionals such as accountants, and lawyers. Mostly there are no commissions involved in a risk-management position.

Similar to any sports or game, people investing in businesses if do not take bigger risks, they cannot go further on. It may be advisable for to play safe for sometime, but risks have to be taken now, or then. It is up to risk management consultants to find out when to take these risks, and how much should be taken. Working hand in hand, with risk management consultants mostly proves fruitful for business ventures, and they can also be helpful in solving current business problems, and predicting any future threats.