Digitwell Solutions

DBI BAME Awards 2023

DSAdmin — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 20:56:05 +0000

The Diversity Business Incubator, DBI, is a Plymouth based organisation which wants to enhance and inspire ambitions Minority communities within the South West Regions. With a key focus on nurturing and championing young talent, there is no age limit to apply for one of the services that DBI offers, just be passionate, willing and eager to learn.

DBI work with local businesses, including self-employed people and non-profit organisations, to find the right guidance and support to help their business work smarter and develop. They are anchored by their faith and willpower to help local communities and individuals to grow and gain knowledge in the business sector.

They constantly challenge themselves to grow and cannot wait to see what amazing adventures the future holds for aspiring entreprenures on the DBI programme.

On 27th Jan 2023, DBI hosted their annual Gala and Awards.

They are created to highlight the great work BAME businesses achieve daily in Plymouth and the surrounding area. It is centred to meet this need and recognise, celebrate, and reward the success and commending improved business for BAME communities.

It was a great night and I am pleased to say that I won the FINTECH Award!

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There’s no place like home

DSAdmin — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:48:13 +0000

We have moved!

After what felt a year of driving up and down the M4/M5, we (and Digitwell) have finally permanently moved to Devon.

As much as I have enjoyed both living and working in Bedford, it was always going to be short term. And now 6 Years after arriving, we have relocated from Central Bedford to a hamlet just outside of Holsworthy. Just 20 mins away from the coast at Bude (Cornwall).

It feels as if we are part of a current migration out of the major conurbations, but our move was always planned and had been interrupted by COVID.

Digitwell is still be operating at full strength, after some minor hiccups with movers and internet, and I’ll be moving into the Shepherds Hut office, just as soon as I have built it.

I made some good friends and some great connections in Bedford and I will still be returning from time to time. Given the nature of this business it has always been mostly remote, so most of you who I work with, you will probably not notice much difference.

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Are you still using a spreadsheet to run your business?

DSAdmin — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 12:18:04 +0000

Spreadsheets are great. I use them all the time; Collecting data, Cash Flow Forecasts, Combining research.

So why the title of this post?

The problem is, I use spreadsheets way too much. They are like Pringles, once you start, you can’t stop.

Spreadsheets have a way of becoming monsters. I keep adding to them over time until the original simple purpose is purpose is lost behind a wall of additional complexity.

And worse still when I come back to one of these spreadsheets after a period of time I realise I have forgotten how it works!

What is the alternative?

Depending on what you are doing there are a wide range of options. For most it is also possible to find either Open Source or an intial Free tier

Storing Customer contact data? – Look at a using a CRM e.g. Hubspot has a free tier
Creating invoices and storing financial data? – Look at a simple bookkeeping system e.g. Wave
Capturing Customer data? Take a look at a Form Builder tool. e.g. JotForm
Something a bit more complicated. Try NoCode@Digitwell

Is NoCode a solution?

The advantage of using a spreadsheet is that it tends to be quick, as you already know how to use the spreadsheet, and usually you don’t need to spend any money up front.

In many cases this is more than outweighed by the longer term problems.

If you would like to talk through how you can migrate from a spreadsheet to something more robust, you can contact me.

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Do it Yourself? – No Code Revolution

DSAdmin — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 11:06:25 +0000

Every Business needs an app

Not a very surprising statement from an app development company, but the evidence from the market place shows that this is true. This article in Entrepreneur from 2018 puts it much better than I can. Does your business need a mobile app?

If you’re a small-business owner ..., it may well be time to build a dedicated mobile app for your business. But simply building an app is not enough. Focus on delivering tangible benefits to your customers, and the hard work you put into building your app will pay off, time and time again.

Tim Smale, Entrepreneur online magazine

But I'm not a Tech Geek

Developing a high quality native app for both Android and iOS used to require a professional coder (or team).

Over the past few years a new set of tools have appeared which will allow the novice to produce high quality apps that serve real business purposes or will allow you to get your entrepreneurial concept off the ground without a full blown technical team.

What is No Code?

No Code is aimed at Citizen Developers. Instead of using a language such as Python or Java to write a list of instructions, you build the app by selecting from a range of components and linking them together, usually using a graphical tool of some sort. All of the complexity is hidden; issues around storage, scalability, security is handled in the background. Changes to the UI, the look and feel, can be made to personalise the finished product but only in the ways proscribed by the service and the components.

No-Code solutions are very varied, WordPress, which this website has been developed in, is considered to be a No-code solution – you can build quite complicated websites by just adding and configuring various plugins.

Low Code as its name suggests does not remove the need for writing computer code, but it is much reduced. They usually provide a graphical tool which operates in the same way as a no-code environment., but they then provide you with the ability to add/modify behaviour through additional scripts. Some even allow you to develop new components to add functionality which is not available out of the box.

Side Bar : Citizen Developer

Gartner defines a citizen developer as:
“a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT. In the past, end-user application development has typically been limited to single-user or workgroup solutions built with tools like Microsoft Excel and Access. However, today, end users can build departmental, enterprise and even public applications using shared services, fourth-generation language (4GL)-style development platforms and cloud computing services.”

How do I get started?

There are over 200 tools different tools to choose from. Each of which has its own advantages and capabilities. The best choice depends on the type of app you want to develop.

I’ve put together a series of webinars that will take you through the process from laying out your idea toyour own app in the store.

I look forward to seeing you.

Booking Information

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Best Specialist Mobile App Company

DSAdmin — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 11:23:39 +0000

I’m proud to announce that we have been awarded “Best Specialist Mobile App Company – Bedfordshire” in the SME News – Southern Enterprise Awards 2020.

We have been a finalist a couple of times for Best Mobile App awards in previous years, but this one is in recognition of the work that the company has done overall in developing apps.

Link to showcase page: Showcase

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Cranfield StartUp Fair

DSAdmin — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 20:36:22 +0000

Some of the entrepreneurs

12 and 13th of March was the Cranfield StartUp Fair. It had been reduced to 2 days from its more normal 3 days due to the Cornavirus outbreak.

I was one of 5 mentors who worked with the group, helping them develop their ideas.

The attendees were drawn from current MSc, MBA and PHD students within the university.

Dr Shai Vyakarnam, Former Director of Cranfield’s Bettany Centre for Entrepreneurship, led the activities on Friday.

The event ended with all members of the group having the opportunity to perform a 2 minute pitch of their ideas to the mentors who provided feedback. (I’m there on the far left)

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Biz Tech Awards 2019

DSAdmin — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 15:11:00 +0000

I am pleased to say that I have been shortlisted as a finalist in this years BrightSparc Awards in the Green Tech Award category.

This is for my new Map Your Event digital Festival guide

I was a finalist last year as well. Here’s hoping that I manage to go one better this year!

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State of Mobile Report – 2019

DSAdmin — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 15:19:00 +0000

App Annie have recently published their new report, “The State of Mobile – 2019” and as always it is packed with useful stats about the Mobile Apps.

Mobile Spend

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Do we glorify innovation?

DSAdmin — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 15:32:00 +0000

What’s wrong with innovation?

As you would expect, I am a believer in innovation and how it can help businesses both big and small to grow. I read lots of articles describing what innovation is, how to innovate, how to apply innovation within your business.

But sometimes it is important to get outside of the filter bubble we create for ourselves.

I came across this article with a differing view of innovation.

We need to stop glorifying innovation. Here’s why.

The author posits the idea that:

…if we want to create a balanced society, which can sustain itself while continuing to progress, it’s time we come to terms with the reality of innovation, and stop neglecting the other components of a productive, progressive society.

and what is that other component – maintenance.

…our obsession with innovation leads us to devalue or deprioritize maintenance, which is necessary to keep our world running. It’s far more appealing to invest money in a new tech startup that has the potential to change the world than it is to invest in repairing a bridge, or making upgrades to a highway system.

The guy writing this post did so before the Genoa Bridge collapse.

The Business Heirarchy of Needs

You may have come across the “Heirarchy of Needs”. It is a theory of Human motivation first proposed by proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943. I won’t go into a detailed explanation, that can be found here, but one of the key tenents is that the lower needs must be satisfied before a higher level need can influence behaviour.

In the bottom layer, Physiological, there will be things such as : Food, Sleep, Shelter. In the Safety layer there will be things such as: Financial Security, Health and wellbeing.

I have a view that there is a Heirarchy of Needs for Business as well.

In that Heirarchy, the bottom layer should contain: Customers, Thing to sell (Product or Service)
The next layer should contain things such as: Maintenance
Innovation would appear higher up, in layer 3.So what is wrong with innovation?

So what is wrong with innovation?

I’d say nothing, innovation is an important aspect of a business, but to start to work on innovation, it is important that a business has some other block in place first. So what is wrong with innovation?

What do you think? Does your company glorify innovation?

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Digital Transformation for SMEs – Inertia or Innovation

DSAdmin — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 15:41:00 +0000

VISA issued a report recently called “Digital Transformation of SMB’s – The Future of Commerce” . It’s 53 pages, and it contains some quite interesting findings for anyone who is interested in supporting Small Businesses in their Digital Journey. Whilst the report is US focussed, the core findings hold up in the UK as well.

Online Presence

80% of customers say they are motivated to shop at a business if they have an easy to use digital presence

81% will browse, research or compare products digitally

70% will then make the purchase online

50% of businesses don’t have an online presence

Most businesses do actually appear online – through the plethora of online directories. But these will at best list phone number and address, maybe opening times. In a search for local printers, the top 5 results were online directories. But my eye was immediately drawn to the results below these which were for individual businesses.

I speak to businesses all the time, quite often I still hear people saying that their customers prefer the personal touch, to talk to someone, try things on, obtain their item immediately and so there is no need to do anything digital such as a fancy website or mobile app. Also, they point out that they appear in a couple of online directories so anyone looking online will find them. All these things are true, but as we know in a very competitive marketplace, they are generally not enough to find new customers.

Another point that is not covered well in the report, is that digital transformation is not only about finding customers it can also be about cost saving automation.

An example:

My local car mechanic posts MOT reminder letters to all his previous customers. When I quizzed him on why he does this, he says that his customers like it. I personally, like the reminder, but I would be just as happy with an email or a text message reminder, which would be much cheaper for him than the 58p second class stamp (I had to look that up!) plus admin time. Perhaps he should ask his customer what they would prefer.

The digital solution can also contain a Call to Action, such as “Click here to Book”.

Shopping Local & Offers

87% of customers think it is important to support local businesses

Customers want to buy from local businesses, but we need to make it easy for them to do so. The report identified offers and loyalty programmes as a way of attracting customers.

In the report only 20% of businesses offered loyalty programmes. Those that did agreed that it improved both repeat business and order size.

There are serveral digital loyalty solutions available. I even offer a starter version free on my website https://www.digitwell.co.uk/index.php/prebuilt-apps/free-loyalty-card-app The report offers some case studies of the benefits of loyalty programmes.

Where next?

The report provides some useful evidence of how Digital Transformation can improvide a Small Businesses outcomes. It also helps to address the Value objection by providing some useful case studies. I would have expected some more research into “mobile first” as well as “digital first” as there is anecdotal of evidence that customer will check pricing / availability on their mobile, even while they are in the shop. But it was good to see the report consider services as well as bricks and mortar retailing.

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