The Waverley Lane Blog

What thanks do we get, those of us who run a business, for stepping out of line and going our own way? For taking on commitments and risk, working bloody hard, adding value, paying salaries and taxes, and taking responsibility for regulatory compliance?

Nothing, zilch, nada.

I do wonder if the powers-that-be and those who work for them remember that, without the business sector buying, adding value, and selling there would be no “non-commercial” funding of anything. That is, no public sector institutions or employment, no public services, hugely diminished support for arts and culture, and much-reduced funding for the third sector and the health services.

Julie Meyer started the internet and new media networking group First Tuesday at the height of the dotcom boom. I’ve not been persuaded that she has actually built any business and worked in it for the long haul, but she has hit the nail on the head with the concept of “Entrepreneur Country” – read about it here in The Independent.

Two points arise from this – firstly, I agree with Julie! The media needs to stop knocking business and realise that business pays everyone’s wages and much else besides, whether it’s trendy to admit it or not.

Secondly, how can we at Waverley Lane meet the needs of people who are running their own business?

What we do is help people work together, online and offline, whether in the same office or far-scattered around the globe. If we continue to do that effectively and efficiently and market our expertise to the right people, there will be a demand which we know how to meet.

Came across an article in the Times Online about the “Threat of Tangle with Outsourced IT“. It’s a short article and a bit lightweight for the complex corporate world it refers to, but one of the quoted comments is worth looking at.

David Bickerton is chief information officer for British Gas and he says in the article: “The investment is around having the right people and capabilities internally to develop the relationships and provide the kind of integration you need” and this just about sums it up from our side of the fence as well.

At Waverley Lane we ask that our clients nominate a single point of contact to work with us. That person doesn’t need to be especially technical – it’s more to act as a conduit for our client to raise issues with us and for us to work with either on immediate issues or, especially, on the bigger picture for the longer term.

Yes, of course we make allowances for people being on holiday and for emergencies when the contact person can’t be found, but the real point is that outsourcing your IT shouldn’t be a “pay the bill and forget about it” matter. As the provider of outsourced IT services we need to be gently managed by our client and a dialogue needs to take place; that is the way in which a trusting and productive working relationship gets to be built up over time.

Hello and welcome to the new Waverley Lane blog!

Why, you might wonder, do we want to add to the digital media overload – bloggers and tweeters all throwing their tuppence-worth into the great digital pond, mostly to sink without Google-trace?

Two reasons really – firstly, we hope our blog will give you an insight into our team here at Waverley Lane – what we do, why we do it, and the good ideas and some of the really stupid ones we come across along the way.

Secondly, of course, it might just be fun to have a platform for our thoughts and views!