ADECS-TRA

Welcome to the first issue of the ADECS newsletter – ADECS-TRA!

We hope you will find the articles included both interesting and informative, as we attempt to keep you updated on the recent events and achievements from within ADECS’ three business divisions: IT Services, Business Consulting and Design & Print.

The newsletter is intended to be a ten minute read, with many of the articles offering links to further information. To ensure that we continue to capture the most important issues from across the IT and business solutions arena, we are keen for our readers to send us newsworthy articles for future editions.

We are already looking ahead to our next issue and would welcome any articles you may wish to include. These, as well as any feedback you may have on this issue, can be sent to news@adecs.co.uk.

ADECS News Team

Message from the management team at ADECS

While ADECS delivers many business solutions, initiatives and projects, it would be impossible to accomplish much singlehandedly. Teamwork and collaboration is essential to maintaining a stable technology environment for our clients. With this in mind, we would like to start by taking this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our employees. We truly appreciate the dedicated service of all employees, from administrators and senior consultants, to support and frontline staff. Your hard work has helped maintain a constant level of service and support through the recent operational changes.

For IT Services, one of the primary objectives has been to meet and improve the level of satisfaction for our customers. Therefore, we are working to develop comprehensive customer satisfaction surveys with each of our clients to ensure we understand your needs. As part of our regular business improvement review sessions this summer, we have begun developing in-depth feedback processes. We hope the open format will allow us to discuss any issues or concerns and collect feedback on a wide variety of services.

In addition, ADECS has entered into an agreement to merge with a local professional services firm – Advantage Business Agency - who specialise in business consulting, corporate finance and general business development services. This will strengthen our Business Consulting division. ADECS and Advantage Business Agency (ABA) share the same commitment to excellent service and complement each other exceptionally well in both capabilities and markets. ABA strengthens our ability to bring specialist IT services and business technology solutions to our clients, while the increased combined size of our joint venture will allow us to deliver even larger and more complex integrated solution to businesses.

As you read through the rest of this newsletter, we hope you enjoy learning about our projects and relevant business news that may be of interest.

ADECS-TRA will become a standard feature of communicating with our clients and stakeholders.

As always, we welcome your feedback or suggestions on how we can better serve the business community.

We wish you an enjoyable and successful summer.

The Management Team at ADECS

ADECS can help your organisation shape IT in 2010

The year 2010 will be challenging for UK organisations across all sectors, public and private.

When downturns hit, there is a certain inevitability to their impact on IT. Declining profits will place tremendous pressure on IT budgets in most sectors and regions. Businesses will be called on to rationalise projects, downsize divisions, renegotiate contracts, and seek out other cost-reduction opportunities.

Much has changed, however, since the last big downturn in 2001: technology budgets are larger, businesses have automated more processes, employees make greater use of tech-based productivity tools, and e-commerce has moved to the core of day-to-day operations. At the same time, IT services businesses such as ADECS have established better mechanisms to govern their clients’ IT decision making and have consolidated local IT operations to cut costs.

Taken together, this combination of cost pressures and the economic climate means that IT organisations such as ADECS, organisations that are leaner, larger, and more efficient will be vital to businesses that are looking for cost effective IT solutions in 2010.

ADECS can help you play your hand in 2010.

ADECS appoints Rudi Kesic as Director

ADECS has appointed Rudi Kesic as a Director, effective from 1 August 2009. Rudi will further strengthen ADECS’ executive team, bringing new skills and capabilities, which will ultimately bring more benefits to our customers.

Rudi has spent the past seven years in business consulting, including setting up and running his own business – Advantage Business Agency – and has also held a variety of other leadership positions, including managing director of Fund House. He has also held posts in the financial services and the legal industry.

ADECS are delighted to welcome Rudi to their team. One of his main roles will be to lead the Business Consulting division.

UK recovery 'to take five years'

The NIESR predicts unemployment will peak in 2011.

A leading think-tank is predicting it may take another five years for income per head to return to the level it was before the recession hit in early 2008.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) sees total UK GDP falling 4.3% in 2009 before growing 1% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2011.

This echoes earlier NIESR forecasts but suggests a slower rate of recovery.

NIESR expects government borrowing to hit £165.7bn this year, less than the £175bn the government predicts.

The research body sees income per head - GDP per capita - taking until March 2014 to return to the level it was in the first quarter of 2008, when the recession kicked in.

The Business Growth Programme from ADECS

GET YOUR £500 BUSINESS GROWTH VOUCHER TO REALISE YOUR PROFIT MAKING POTENTIAL

The Business Growth Programme (BGP) is a flexible package of business support, complex consultancy and practical help, designed to allow high-growth potential and early stage companies to tap into the resources of ADECS’ consulting division and its wealth of experience and know-how in growing a business.

BGP has one aim - to help the owners of innovation-led businesses to grow faster and make more money - now and in the long term.

To access support from BGP you'll need to be:

• A knowledge based or innovation-led business with high-growth potential • A established business or a small/early stage business

• Based in the West Midlands

So how do you benefit?

Over an extended period of time, our team of experienced business consultants will work with you to plan the development of your business and to pro-actively identify and access resources to support you in driving your business forward. Just to give you a flavour, in practical terms this means:

• Developing and executing an action plan to achieve your business objectives; • Getting your business investment ready;

• Formulating your business growth and sales strategy; • Accessing funding to grow your business, including grants and equity;

• Refining your marketing strategy or implementing your sales plan;

• Taking your product to market;

• Conducting market research and feasibility studies; • Restructuring your business to ensure growth potential;

• Supporting growth of your business by acting as your management team; • Managing your finances;

• Developing new products and services;

• Supporting international trade of your products and services;

• Providing an operational base to give you credibility.

Obviously there are many other areas of business where we could support you, but it's firstly a matter of understanding the nature of your business, the crucial issues to be tackled and a plan of action to start the ball rolling and then to maintain the tempo.

If I want to join - what's the next step?

Inevitably with such an attractive programme as this, there's a strong demand. Our time resources are finite and we, therefore, select those companies who are serious about starting or growing their businesses and are therefore likely to make best use of our resources. If you want to engage ADECS to support your project, please call us to arrange a kick-off meeting to agree how we will work together.

Call the team on 0845 310 9400 or email Rudi Kesic on rudi.kesic@adecs.co.uk

Six tips for companies to weather the economic crisis

These could charitably be called uncertain times. Among those feeling the heat of the financial meltdown are manufacturing companies in the West Midlands area that face the tricky task of balancing their existing customer base with business development. So, how can companies weather the financial storm and economic crisis and still see their businesses grow?

For answers, ADECS offers a six-point plan that — by our estimation — every Director at every company needs to put in place right now. Here’s a rundown:

• Forget the long-term and focus on the next six months. Too many business plans have growth coming in year two, year three, etc, and that’s when you get the cash flow profitability for start-ups — all those plans have to be thrown out the window with a focus on cash-flow profitability now being central to any business case. Growth for growth’s sake is no longer in fashion.

• Cash is now king. Those companies that have cash will not only be able to weather through current credit issues, they’ll also be able to buy companies that are less solvent than they are. So, we think you’ll see some real opportunities where cash-rich companies will be able to buy and merge with great companies that just didn’t get financed or for whatever reason didn’t have the wherewithal to raise money at the time it was needed.

• Double-down and focus on your existing customer relationships. It’s expensive to get a new customer — and your most profitable customers are your existing ones. Getting into deeper, more profitable relationships with your existing base — and hunkering down with them — is a wise course of action.

• Raise finance today — and keep your pride in check. There’s money to be had, it’s just that the terms are much more onerous — entrepreneurs will have to keep their pride in check and not worry about valuations. Right now many funds and most individuals’ portfolios are down significantly and it would be naive to think that valuations of many companies haven’t been affected right now . So, our advice is: take the money and don’t worry about the valuation.

• Look at your business with a third-party critical eye. Look at what is “must-have” versus “what’s nice to have”. If you have three product lines, and one is very profitable, one is marginally profitable, and another one is just being rolled out and is eating cash — even if you like the product and customers like the product — it’s time to either go to one product or two products. The “nice to have’s” in your business are no longer worth it and every Director has to be really hypercritical on what they really need to get to the next phase of their business.

• Be brutally honest and ask yourself: is your company going to make it? We’re in that time period where it will be survival of the fittest, so we can see some businesses who don’t have cash literally almost stopping operations now — getting things down to the bare bones — just to wait until it gets better. Because, if you run business as usual you will run out of gas and be out of business. We offer a scenario: many times entrepreneurs, through force of will, will try to make a venture happen. So, let’s say an entrepreneur has £1 million in the bank and he’s losing £100,000 a month, but his business plan says that by month six he’ll be losing £50,000 a month. The entrepreneur needs to ask himself now: is that outcome really going to happen? If not — because sales may be affected now — the entrepreneur might be better off keeping that £1 million, stop marketing his product, and retool the business. So, have ten people in the company and try to figure out how to live to fight another day, recommends ADECS.

Half Price Prints Offers In July

It's July… it's Summer… which means only one thing – our scorching hot July Summer Sale! We've loads of great offers, with big savings on our most popular items…

Our Premium Gloss Leaflets, and Folded Gloss Leaflets are Half Price all month – how about promoting your own special offer? Stylish SmoothWove and attention-grabbing StarMarque Business Cards are also Half Price - top up, refresh your design or use them as mini-flyers. And don't miss the chance to stock up on stationery – grab 1,000 Corporate Letterheads for just £99.

Businesses are still buying. They've just changed the way they buy, making it more important than ever to create the right impression. If you prepare pitches, quotes, tenders, estimates, sales letters or send brochures, create a better impression by enclosing them in high-impact (and Half Price) Corporate Folders. Time to update your catalogue or sales brochure? Our über-cool Silk Booklets with Thick StarMarque Covers are Half Price in July.