Sarand Services

Profile

Sarand is an IT consultancy specialising in the design and development of desktop and Internet-integrated applications. We provide a range of services that are designed to supplement our clients’ in-house expertise with the skills that are generally only required for a limited period during the preparation, development and implementation phases of projects.

Our approach is designed to ensure that the correct solution is deployed in a cost effective manner that provides the optimum benefits to your business. This is achieved by encouraging the participation of the users at all stages, particularly when defining requirements, monitoring progress and testing the results. Our objective is that your business should be confident in the result and as self-sufficient as possible in your use of the system and its on-going maintenance and support.

System Implementation

Sarand has comprehensive experience in the specification, development, deployment and management of IT projects, focusing on:

Helping the business and the system’s users to specify their requirements and to understand both the costs and benefits that should be expected,
Planning and control of the work that is required with regular user liaison,
Selection of hardware, suitable reuse of legacy equipment and introduction of appropriate new technologies,
Building practical prototypes to demonstrate functionality and provide a working solution in extremely short timescales,
Technical design and development of the database and software,
Testing, training and support during and following implementation,
Preparation of documentation and support procedures to ensure that the system and users are as self-sufficient as possible.

Package Enhancement

Every software package that you can buy and many that you may already have deployed can be enhanced to extend existing functionality and add new features. Often this can be accomplished simply by configuring the software to your own specification, but where this falls short of your requirements we can help by:

Where possible, add functionality and data content directly into the package,
Implementing a simple application to sit alongside the package and provide your business with alternative views onto the data,
Enhance the data content to more closely model your business by implementing a separate database that holds the additional information but that is automatically kept up to date with the core data,
Build an application 'wrapper' around the original product to retain its underlying functionality while improving on the front-end, eg. to make data entry more efficient.

These techniques work effectively with both applications that you may have purchased 'off-the-shelf' and those that have a more limited customer base. We frequently help clients who rely on software whose original authors are no longer able to provide support for one reason or another, even where the original source code is no longer available.

In particular, we have built up a wealth of experience in providing enhancements to the Sage range of products and more details are available in the following section.

Data Management and Publication

With information being generated and published in volumes that are growing at an exponential rate, Sarand can help you devise and implement a suitable strategy that provides the following:

Data and document repositories that are designed to accept and publish their contents in a range of formats,
Preparation and automation of process and work-flow procedures,
Flexible data maintenance through direct or remote access using local or web-based interfaces,
Managed archiving and revival of older material in both electronic and paper formats,
Interfaces to other systems and the web to publish and retrieve information.

Complimentary Business Activities

Sarand supports their clients’ technical projects with associated services:

Recruitment	specifying roles and responsibilities, filtering suitable candidates and providing training.
Marketing	design, proofing and publication of brochures, newsletters and technical material.
Seminars	selection of venues, coordination of attendees and event management.

Sarand is a member of the following business organisations:

Ascendnet	Association of IT professional service companies dedicated to delivering effective Business IT solutions.
East Anglia IT Net	Network of local techology businesses that includes companies with a proven track record in a range of complimentary IT services including procurement of computer hardware, graphic design, networking and training products.