Consulting

Who’s responsibility in your organization is it to ask all the right questions, do all the necessary research and keep in touch with industry users, suppliers and technology to ensure that you are always well informed before making decisions?

Any company making a large investment in technology needs to allocate the necessary staff and time to research that purchase. There are many products on the market and more continue to come, making it harder to make informed decisions. If you don’t have these resources, you should speak to an independent consultant who deals with this on a regular basis. Without ties to a vendor or manufacturer, the recommendations are based on your companies’ needs rather than driven by the sale.

"Darren has provided us with a number of independent solutions. The understanding of both technology and our business gives me the confidence that I'll always get the right cost effective solution for our needs" - Simon Brennan, Director - Abaris Printing & Publishing

The consulting process can address current and future technologies, work practices, systems integration, business-to-business applications and Internet strategies. It involves meeting with staff within your company and may also include input from your clients and suppliers. A report is presented detailing the results and recommendations for future improvement and if desired, an implementation plan where Hit Ink will work in partnership in managing and providing development or systems integration to act on the recommendations.

The consulting and reports generally addresses items such as:

• Computer Hardware, Software and Licensing
• Equipment layout and floor plan
• Network performance and configuration
• Fileserver and Storage
• Backup/Archiving strategy
• Production/PDF workflow requirements
• Digital Asset Management
• Colour & Digital Proofing
• Staff Training Requirements
• Client connectivity and communications
• Service and Maintenance Plans
• Usage & Wastage

Choosing the right technologies is dependent on having a strategy that is based on an understanding of the rate of change in products and the relative market positions of the manufacturers and suppliers. This takes more than your general marketing hype from suppliers and web sites. It takes an objective view based on many years of industry experience and a good understanding of where these technologies are going in the long term.

"Whenever we’ve wanted to move into a new sector we’ve employed someone with a lot of relevant experience. We didn’t keep trying to guess our way through it – otherwise we would have been dead in the water"

"It’s very important to be connected to what’s happening outside, to the people who are at the forefront of change."

Design Graphics – Number 70 2001 William Travis – Attik

 

For more information, contact Darren Milne.