Split into three main categories (Product Strategy, Engineering and Audits), our team of highly experienced professionals helps companies to make better business decisions, apply technology and improve customer experience.

In this article, we take a look at some key takeaways about how the IT consulting services work and their benefits to potential customers, from a third-person perspective.

Future Processing – Background

Future Processing is a technology consultancy and software delivery partner. The business was founded in 2000 as a software development company and currently boasts more than 1000 staff who deliver end-to-end IT services.

With over 20 years of experience, Future Processing has a lot of excellent expertise when it comes to software engineering. The company fosters a warm and nurturing environment for its staff which leads to high retention and career development for individuals, many of whom have more than 10 years with the company.

Due to this success, Future Processing has transitioned from what was a traditional software house into a fully-fledged delivery partner.

Most services at Future Processing are currently offered on a consultancy basis and are focused on achieving success for the business’s clients. All staff members strive to combine their many years of knowledge and expertise to go above and beyond when it comes to delivering the best final product possible.

There are many typical roles at Future Processing, including business analysis, UX design, security cloud operators, DevOps, data solutions, solutions architects and agile delivery teams.

The value of Future Processing’s consulting services to their clients

IT consulting has become more prevalent and widely adopted in recent years. Companies are finding that they need a consultancy partner to help them navigate new technologies in the digital sphere and Future Processing helps to fill this gap.

Their consultancy services range from acting as an advisor, helping to define digital strategies, identifying problems, validating ideas, helping to find opportunities, verifying the direction of product development and even research.

It is not necessary for customers to bring their own defined solutions to the table because this is exactly what Future Processing’s consulting services are for. They define the problem, consider possible solutions and then use data and technical analysis to discern the best possible course of action to achieve success.

This approach helps to alleviate pressure for the customer by placing the onus on Future Processing to come up with the best possible solutions to solve issues they may be facing and to improve their business.

Consulting versus working with clients’ own ideas

Wherein ‘consulting’ normally consists of engaging in discussions with companies regarding their technical needs, issues they are having and potential solutions to try to address these, clients do sometimes approach Future Processing with their own pre-thought-out ideas and strategies already in place and ready to be implemented.

While it is not ideal from an efficiency standpoint for customers to have rather fixed ideas and strategies in mind before approaching Future Processing, they always do their best to take these ideas on board and work with them. In the first instance, it is necessary to check the viability of these possible solutions and see whether they effectively address the problem and bring value to the situation. If so, fantastic!

But if not, then it is necessary to consult with the customer to show them the data and analysis of their ideas and how they might not be the best solutions, along with more effective proposals.

In general, the best approach is always to engage with Future Processing as a consultancy by coming to the table with your ideas, problems and requirements and working together in close collaboration to find the best solutions possible.

Future Processing’s technical services

Future Processing is proud to have a wide range of technical skills and services. In fact, with more than 1000 staff members, you would be hard-pushed to find an area of technical expertise that they are not experts in!

Some examples of technical services that Future Processing can assist with include securing business data from attacks, shielding legal or sensitive information, IT security services, keeping the software and hardware safe and secure, and much more.

In particular, Future Processing works tirelessly to keep companies’ data safe. These days, data is everything. Businesses have data relating to their operations, their finances, their analysis, their clients’ information and so on, so it’s extremely important that this data is protected by a rigorous and robust system. The data solutions department at Future Processing can help to protect companies’ data and give them the peace of mind that their information is safe.

As well as data security, Future Processing is also a leading cloud services partner who is an expert in cloud solutions, making the digital transformation leap, adopting modern applications and using cloud technologies to run services for the business. They help companies to implement new projects in the cloud and modernise existing infrastructure using cloud technology.

Another key area of Future Processing’s technical expertise is DevOps expertise. As DevOps specialists, they offer smooth delivery of new technologies in accordance with current industry standards and methods. Utilising DevOps in a business offers a real boost and can potentially bring untold value to the company.

Successful consultancy case studies

Case Study 1 – Creating a CRM for sales

This project was quite significant as it involved between 30-50 people to complete due to the range of services and tasks that needed to be completed.

Future Processing helped to build the product processes, as well as introduced best practices on how to create and manage documentation, which directly resulted in shortening the feedback loop to the customer from four weeks to just three days by implementing a new cycle entirely, mapping out a brand new process using more refined tools.

The majority of the application needed to be refactored, as it was outdated and used inadequate technology. To address these issues, Future Processing created a bespoke solution that involved a complete re-write of the application, new technology adoption and a brand new lead acquisition process that helped to finalise purchases much more effectively.

In the end, a brand new application was created that was highly successful and catapulted the customer to become an industry leader in their field.

Case Study 2 – Market analysis

This client approached Future Processing to help them to analyse the market and decide between keeping their current bespoke content management system or switching to a readily available commercial solution. The customer asked Future Processing to evaluate all possible solutions from an independent and professional standpoint in order to make the best decision possible.

This is exactly what they did – Future Processing cross-referenced the current market trends, the company’s business model and their plans for the future, and they provided a set of recommendations based on their findings.

The final report included several scenarios that could be used to support the decision-making process by recommending to the C-level executives whether or not pivoting to a different CMS was justified. The report detailed the potential ROI for changing and keeping their CMS systems, identified all the potential risks involved and offered deliverables for each scenario.

Based on the information Future Processing provided in their report, the customer decided not to change their CMS, which later turned out to be the right decision as it saved them untold amounts of money and energy that would have otherwise been spent unnecessarily.

Case Study 3 – Redesigning a data ecosystem

This client worked in the tourism industry and needed to redesign their data ecosystem because the business owners wanted to make more well-informed decisions when it came to the products that they were able to offer to their customers, as well as to limit their operation costs.

This was a tricky case because there was a lot of different information around from a range of company departments that tended to result in the company making a lot of conflicting conclusions as to the best routes to follow.

Future Processing’s goal at that time was to limit the amount of information so that they could focus on the most important data only and provide the best solutions possible.

Future Processing did just that and was able to suggest a range of technological changes to the digital ecosystem and advise the company on how to migrate their data from the on-premises cloud model to a multi-cloud solution, which was much more efficient.

Consultancy timeframes and client involvement

The time it takes to complete a successful consultancy and the number of staff members the client is required to contribute will entirely depend on the nature of the project itself.

Some projects are shorter and much simpler to complete so they will require fewer people and can be done in a shorter time, and conversely, some projects are the opposite.

As an example, if it is necessary to conduct a strategy workshop, a product success workshop, or a requirements gathering workshop, then to achieve the maximum possible benefits, as many stakeholders from the client’s company as possible should be involved.

These should include the decision makers, project managers and domain experts so that those present can explain their use case and any potential issues they face and understand all perspectives of the company.

Future Processing would provide a full roadmap of all activities in order to understand each step of the proposed process and know what to expect at every turn.

The roadmap not only includes the major steps of the process, but these big complex steps are also broken down into smaller steps so as to minimise every involved’s engagement with aspects of the project that aren’t to do with them. This allows staff members to carry out their own tasks efficiently and effectively.

Lastly, it is really important to have a defined communication strategy to inform what, when and who should be informed. It is important, especially because of the fact that the plan for the service might change because of this feedback.

Typical problems Future Processing can help clients solve

Future Processing helps clients at any stage of their idea or product development through its IT consultancy services. When a business has a specific challenge to overcome or has identified a gap in the market they want to exploit, this is a fantastic time to approach them and work on researching the issue and coming up with a good strategy.

The number one aim of Future Processing’s consultancy services is to find the best and most effective solutions to achieve success for businesses.

Other typical challenges that Future Processing’s clients are often related to existing products and how to improve their performance and usability. They work closely with clients to find ways to improve these aspects and to incorporate new technologies and processes into their client’s businesses.

One of the most common requests is to replace a company’s legacy software. This is fairly typical for software development companies, but when carried out from a consultancy standpoint, the client’s journey is quite different because new software should mean new possibilities and new products without the old issues.

Therefore, again, a good strategy and action plan, awareness of previous problems and decisions based on real data are most important. For all of those examples, Future Processing adjusts the approach they take and uses appropriate technical and business services.

Future Processing’s clients can rely on them to create a comprehensive action plan that they then carry out in order to solve all technological and business problems.

Summary

Future Processing’s two-plus decades at the forefront of software engineering, and more recently IT consultancy, has led them to have an excellent understanding of how companies in a wide range of sectors work, the problems they are facing and how to overcome them.

With such a vast array of talent, an industry-leading knowledge of new technologies, digital transformation strategies and problem-solving strategies, Future Processing has access to the best minds in the business. Combined with a proven track record of delivering successful projects to very happy clients, they are definitely well-prepared to solve any issue thrown at them!