Shiva Technology gained clearer vision and focus, a move towards a formal business plan, and bolder ambition with better tools to assess opportunities.
Shiva Technology was established in 2007 and is a total IT and Communications solution provider with a wide range of clients both local and national, single site to multi-site and across a wide variety of market sectors. Shiva Technology has a sister business, Shiva Computers, which was established in 1994. The business is based in Electric Wharf in Coventry and employs up to 5 staff depending on capacity and demand.
The business had not recently accessed business support, and the support that had previously been offered did not seem to be particularly relevant. The owners had worked with the Business Engagement Manager in the past, and maintained regular contact. They were attracted by the offer of a sounding board, 'bouncing ideas around' with someone independent of the business, who can 'play devil's advocate – when you're too close, you don't necessarily see everything.'
The owner has had a number of one-to-one discussion meetings with the Business Engagement Manager and has attended a number of workshops facilitated by the project. The interaction with other participants at these sessions – who form a broad cross-section of SMEs, all being faced by similar issues – has been appreciated as providing an opportunity for networking and a chance for learning from the experience of others.
The business has only had time to fully go through Stage 1 of the four stage process, and started to look at Stage 2, although they understand, in broad principles, the process and how they should be proceeding.
The Receptivity for Change Toolset was received positively, in that it facilitates a different way of thinking about things, leading to useful feedback.
An important piece of feedback is that they 'wished we'd known about it earlier' and that they had had greater opportunities to network and build stronger ties with the other owners. The owner is more aware of the need to keep informed about the growth programmes run by universities and other providers.
World-leading ideas and innovation, founded on engaged scholarship, from research to application.
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