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| Laurence Shafe |
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Contact Laurence Shafe by email at sales@shafe.co.uk.
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| Laurence Shafe |
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Laurence has carried out commercial and technical audits and due diligence for a number of private investors and venture capital organisations.
In the course of what is typically a very short assignment ranging from three to ten days Laurence can understand a new application area, analyse a market and advise on the risks and opportunities faced by a company.
A due diligence report is usually from 30 to 120 pages and includes a summary of the companies position in its chosen market place, the opportunities offered by the market, the companies ability to exploit those opportunities, the views of existing customers and partners about the company, the technical architecture and design of its products and the risks associated with the development processes employed.
Business and Marketing Strategy
Laurence advises companies on business strategy, exit planning, competitive position, pricing strategy and channel marketing.
His approach to IT strategy is based on Geoffrey Moore's seminal book "Crossing the Chasm". This
approach highlights the need to identify a clear, narrow target market, establish the stage of the market,
to focus the company on a specific value proposition relevant to the market, to
offer a 'whole product' and then to achieve genuine market leadership before expanding into associated areas.
Market Analysis
There is a wealth of market information available but it is often in a form that is not directly
applicable to a single company. Laurence will research published market information and produce a
summary of the market opportunities relevant to an individual company and the technology and services it has produced.
It is often possible for Laurence to spot new opportunities that do not require substantial investment
based on exploiting existing products in new ways and by collaborating with other companies.
Technical Audit
Often software systems are developed rapidly and then extended to cope with unforeseen requirements.
Laurence can advise on the overall architecture with respect to scalability, security and extendibility
with a view to deciding whether to redesign and rewrite or continue to extend the existing system.
Laurence understands a number of programming languages but typically focuses on the design and
overall architecture and the use of standards including Internet enablement, XML and web services.
Development Process Audit
Sometimes, particularly when a company has grown rapidly or changed its business strategy
there is a poor match between the technical skills needed to achieve the business objectives
and the team that has grown over the years. The audit can focus on the people and their skills
and the development processes used and their effectiveness, responsiveness to changing
business needs and the likelihood of them delivering quality products to time and to budget.
Supplier Selection
Laurence advises companies on software selection, choosing the right software supplier and whether to outsource their IT function entirely.
Supplier selection can consist of advice about the market and the leading suppliers through to managing the complete selection process including presenting the findings to the board.
Offshore Development
Over the last few years many companies that would not have previously considered off-shore development have successfully moved all their development overseas. In fact, in some cases the new disciplines this imposes have actually improved the ability to deliver on time and to budget and to an agreed specification.
In particular India offers low cost development and very well trained software engineers. Laurence believes that over the next few years a large part of UK software development will be implemented overseas and UK software companies will focus on understanding the customer requirements, developing clear specifications and managing the overall process.
Typical Assignments
- Supplier selection for a multi-million pound project for a financial services company.
- Strategic advice on marketing focus and fund raising for a financial services software company
operating in the credit card and retail investment markets.
- Advising on the commercial opportunities and technical architecture and development processes
used by real-time trading exchange and settlement service within a virtual marketplace for supply chain management.
- Carrying out commercial due diligence and auditing the technical staff and development methods
used by an ERP company offering software for enterprise capital project development, supplier management
and infrastructure asset management.
- Advising one of the leading UK content management companies about corporate strategy and positioning
with a view to maximising value on exit.
- Carrying out due diligence for a venture capital investor on a company planning to launch an innovative,
patented telecommunications product.
- Evaluating the effectiveness of the software development process for a Cambridge-based company that
carried out all of its programming in India.
- Market analysis and producing reports for web services, peer-to-peer computing, speech recognition
software and security.
- Advising a CRM company that specialises in speech enabling call centres on market positioning and overseas expansion.
- Working with one of the UK's leading business directories advising on marketing strategy, international
expansion, positioning and web marketing.
- Helping a French software company reposition itself from a technology company to a sales-led,
benefits-oriented marketing company.
- Carrying out a knowledge audit of all the skills in a software company, their relevance to the business
objectives and made over a hundred recommendations about changes to personnel, processes and procedures to minimise the risk.
- Auditing the software development process used within a software supplier in order to assess the risk
of not achieving a critical product delivery date.
- Assessing the viability of a new type of telecommunications product and assisting the company write a
business plan for early stage funding.
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Wednesday
03 December 2008 |
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