Laurel Icon Ltd would like to offer its services to small businesses who are considering the feasibility of starting a new project. Whether you need help from an expert or to bolster your existing team, we can help.
A single PM can run multiple projects at once. The time required to manage a project is much less than those “doing” the work. Also, different projects don’t have to be for a single client.
LiL has been providing key services to companies to help deliver projects and programmes based on TIME-COST-QUALITY for 20 years.
TIME – Reducing the amount of time spent by a PM doesn’t always mean an increase in time to deliver!
COST – Your standard 5 days a week contract could be reduced to just 2, 3 or 4 days per week cost.
QUALITY – We can provide professionals at all levels of experience.
Laurel Icon Ltd will help review your project with you to determine how much actual PM time is required. With an agreed Statement of Works, we will provide the PMs to help deliver your project for the agreed amount of days.
For more information, please send your details to enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk or send us a message via our Contact us page.
Alternatively, you can connect with Alan via his LinkedIn profile.
Over the past year, LiL’s two roving Junior Project Managers have managed 85 office conversions, travelled tens of thousands of miles and earned lot’s of respect . Their first steps into project management ended on 31st March 2023 but by no means will it be their last. It’s time to look for new opportunities! They were brought into the company for a very specific programme and they have performed admirably. With an eagerness to learn, they have gained much experience, delivered a critical programme well and with great professionalism.
Had additional work been available at LiL, we would have been more than happy to continue working together. Sadly however, Liam and Connor are now looking for other opportunities.
If any of our connections have any roles that require either Junior PM(s) or Junior Implementation Managers, we’d be happy to provide recommendations for both.
LiL wishes Liam and Connor the very best for whatever comes next. This is just the beginning of what we hope will be long and fruitful careers.
Happy New Year to all our friends and colleagues from all of us at Laurel icon Ltd. We wish you all the best for the year to come!
We hope you’ve all had a restful and enjoyable break. 2022 was our 22nd year in business and has been a very successful year for us. We signed our first MSA and doubled our personnel.
With the onboarding of two Junior Project Managers we were able to sign up to our first major Security Deployment Programme. As we begin 2023, Laurel icon Ltd is nearing the successful completion of the programme. Connor and Liam have now commenced the first in the final deployments due to complete in March. Both have proven more than capable in their first IT Project Management roles and we have received some great feedback from the business end of the deployments. With such a great start, we expect to see them progress well over the next few years.
Other projects we have delivered over the last few years have also had high priority considerations for IT security and sustainability. These projects include:
Windows upgrades
Office 365 deployments and upgrades
Laptop deployments
Laptop/Desktop removal, disposal and recycling
User account reviews
Not only are these technology projects but they also require business change in both process and culture. Effective communication and close working relationships with the business are key to the success of these deliveries.
New Year – New Partnerships
As we begin to close down the programme, we are starting to look for new challenges for the team. We are seeking to build new relationships and would be happy to talk to any business who need some help or guidance with their own transformations.
If you’d like to hear more or discuss your own requirements then please contact us at enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk or click on this link.
In March 2020, I made the decision not go back to the office, before the pandemic truly hit. Two years, eight months and multiple lockdowns had passed. I found myself in the lounge at Inverness airport on a Tuesday afternoon in November. Admittedly, a free pass and a small glass of red wine is a reasonable upside to my first trip back to the big smoke. Travel on an afternoon flight beats the early morning rush hands down.
This was the first trip I dared to take on a commercial anything! But only because I had just recovered from Covid. Actually, not quite true as previously we travelled on a cruise ship but with many restrictions in place. So I should qualify with, this was the first commercial trip with little or no restrictions in place.
Having spent years getting up in the middle of the night to travel weekly to London, I don’t miss it. I also don’t miss the late-night flight with one-and-a-half-hour drive at the end either. The only saving grace was by March 2020 I was only away for two nights a week and not the four I had started with.
A different way of working.
The achievements in technology and delivering those to our businesses over the past 3 years are things that would have been achieved but with a longer timescale. The ability to choose to go to the workplace or work from home has always been for the few. Now it is a more level playing field for the vast majority of workers, or at least it should be.
I can also see the appeal for some people wanting to be back in the office full time. The camaraderie of colleagues; overhearing conversations between colleagues that might have an impact on the work you’re involved in; the ability to have chance conversations while travelling. All of these are really good reasons to take a trip back to the office every now and again and I will be, every now and again!
Without the same amount of travel required, it also allows for better use of the working day. At Laurel icon Ltd, we’ve chosen to change our working practices. This gives better time management for more projects and additional clients. If you’d like us to help you deliver your projects please click here or email enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk.
Setting your personal goals should be something you do in both your personal life and in business.
Back in 2015, we lost my last remaining grandparent and as always, family from all over the UK got together for the funeral. While we were there, fathers, brothers and cousins all decided that we can do better! From then, we’ve tried to meet up once a year for a weekend of golf and celebration. However, far more importantly, we just catch up outside of these key life events.
King James VI Golf Course in Perth – Our first Family outing back in August 2015
It’s now seven years later and golf for me is a great passion where I have set some key personal goals. I set these three years ago and they drive me to do better. Personal goals have to realistic and achievable in order for you to be able meet them, make new ones and continue grow.
What Were My Golfing Personal Goals?
I set myself two key goals to see if I could improve:
The first was to drop a stroke from my handicap every year. I started in 2015 at 20 and am now at 12.8.
My second goal was to play at my home course as a single figure handicapper. I managed 2 or three games during the summer season playing off 9.
My next goal is to get back to a single handicap player for most of the next summer season!
Setting Goals in Business
This is the same in business. Set realistic, short term goals. Meet these goals and make new goals that take your business to a longer term strategic goal.
For my company, my main goals were always simple but never really focused. In fact, they were really quite generic:
always deliver
to get better at what I do by continuing to learn
make new and meaningful connections
This approach has kept our business running successfully but the question was always, “can we do better?”.
With the government pushing hard and changing tax laws (IR35), at Laurel icon Ltd, I started to plan new personal business goals. I began by changing our business model from contracting to supplier. This introduced a discussion with one of our clients and some long standing colleagues around how project management in the contract market could better utilise Time Management. From these discussions Laurel icon Ltd has been able to grow and help the client save on project costs.
My next goal was to expand my company, which was much easier once the initial goal was achieved.
We have now doubled in size and the team are currently over 75% through their first year long IT deployment programme.
If you would like to hear more about working with Laurel icon Ltd and how we can work with you, please read our post “Triple Constraint“. if you like to speak to us you can email us at enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk or click “Contact Us” and complete the form.
Over the past six months, Liam and Connor have been busy travelling the UK to deliver a new Zero Trust Security Initiative. They are almost 72% of the way through their first major programme and doing fantastic job. During this time they’ve also picked another project, which fits in nicely with the work their doing. This new project gives them even more understanding of some of the technologies being used.
In the current climate, CyberSecurity is key to ensuring ongoing success in today’s digital world. Zero Trust is a goal to aspire to, to secure data and reduce the likelihood of Cyber Attacks.
The diagram below shows the five key areas that businesses should review to move towards a Zero Trust environment.
Some examples of how you can start your journey towards Zero Trust are shown below:
People: An easy starting point is to ensure that you using multi-factor authentication. Using passwords with complex or strong passwords. Having multiple authentication methods is sensible even if you haven’t started planning for Zero Trust
Devices: Setting up security so only known business devices are able to access programs and systems, especially in today’s cloud environments.
Infrastructure: Use the different options available to securely give access to systems in a container environment for BOYD. Combining Zero Trust methods for People, devices and Infrastructure helps prevent information flowing into and out of the container while still having the access needed.
If you would like help delivering your Zero Trust Security Initiatives, please contact us at enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk or go to our Contact Us page.
The guys have assisted in moving all our old posts as well as helping to decide upon the new look for Laurel icon Ltd.
We’ve even now got a new LiL History – timeline page. This gives a little insight to how we’ve stayed in business over the past 21 years and introduces clients we’ve worked with, some more than once!
Also, have a look at the About us page as the guys introduce a little bit about themselves.
We hope you like this new look and, please, feel free to get in touch if you think we can help you!
In order to help us deliver a complex programme we built an implementation checklist tool for our Junior Project and Implementation Managers (JPIMs) to ensure all the key deliverables were in place at each stage of the deployments.
The Deployment Checker was also great way for the JPIMs to note any caveats leading up to the actual deployment, or to note any outstanding issues, whether related to the deployment or not at the end of the deployment.
By clicking each stage button, the JPIMs notify all relevant stakeholders that the stage is complete. When the button is clicked, the information written into the notes sections is collected and added that to the email sent by the app, so that any any caveats or notes that have been made, in agreement with the business lead, are known to all.
During the scoping of a project, we work with our clients to set a structure that best fits. Why just apply “The Triple Constraint” to the project when you can also apply it to the resource running the project?
Projects generally tend to be year round activities in most organisations. With the ebb and flow of innovation, changing process and general business change, it may be necessary to increase your project or programme management headcount. These changes don’t always require an FTE resource but additional resource is essential to seeing that they don’t disrupt other change or business as usual projects.
To help in these short term situations, having a relationship with an organisation who can provide expert consultancy to work with your teams, as needed, may be a better option than using FTE contractors.
Our team works with our clients to provide resource for the life of a project and only for the amount of time required during the project. This means, if the PM or Programme Management time required to deliver the project is 3 days per week for the life of the project, that’s the time our team will give to the project.
Triple Constraint – IT Programme and Project Management
Fig 1. The “triple constraints” – Time – Cost – Quality
If you believe your company would benefit from a flexible relationship with our team of professionals, contact us at enquiries@laurelicon.co.uk.
A new client came on board this year and enquired about Email Migration. Their request, to move from a Webmail system to Microsoft 365.
After a little planning and very few issues, the new client are now happily using Microsoft’s exchange online mail system with spoofing and spam protection.
If you would like your company to benefit from Microsoft 365, contact us at enquires@laurelicon.co.uk
