Finding the solution means defining the problem

The move towards Net Zero, for companies big or small, can be really daunting. Where do you start? How much will it cost? What’s the ROI? Who can help me? These are all reasonable questions that create obstacles to a net zero deployment.
Phoebe leading discovery sessionj

Becoming more energy conscious and efficient is no mean feat, but it isn’t something you have to do alone. Every business is different, and at Hark, we believe that it’s important to go back to basics to work out exactly what is needed before coming up with an appropriate solution.

Why do we concentrate on the problems first?

As an agile industrial IoT SaaS company, we can create, iterate, and react at an incredible speed (if we do say so ourselves). Still, solutionising right off the bat isn’t always the right way to go. The Hark Platform is flexible in meeting the needs of various industries through connectivity and data aggregation, but that means that a solution that meets one client’s requirements may not meet the requirements of another. If you think about a requirement, it doesn’t come out of thin air, it comes from a broken process, lack of visibility, or some form of inefficiency… It comes from a problem.

How do we package IoT consultancy?

We have honed our process when onboarding a new client or a new project, which starts with “Discovery”. This phase comes after the initial high-level discussions on the business objectives, budget, etc. Then we prioritise the people. Makes sense, right? We want to know who is involved in the decision making, who will be clicking the buttons or maintaining the assets. We care about how they feel and what their problems are. We want to dig into what causes frustrations, fear, or de-motivation in whatever system, process, or routine they’re in now. This is a pivotal step in getting to the root of the pain points that we’re trying to solve. Once we have a deeper understanding of an issue, we can look at the finer details; like who it affects, how often it happens, if any other issues are caused because of it, and so on. 

Using a variety of technical, such as “The 5 Whys”, creating user personas and use cases, and mapping out processes we’re able to create a full picture of the ways a company works and how each person contributes to the overall success of the business. This is where our experience helping businesses who don’t know where to start really comes in as we can surface information about your company that may not have been spotted otherwise. The key aspect of the “Discovery” phase is discussion and lots of it!

The Solution for a Problem

After the “Discovery” phase, we move into “Design”. This covers anything from User Interface wireframes, User Experience improvements, process improvements, and technical designs for the software or any hardware integration. Over an agreed timeframe we work closely with our customers to validate any assumptions we have, review and iterate on requirements. We know things change and we try to be as flexible as possible, while still keeping the business objectives and pain points in mind.

We strive ourselves on our ability to work with you to help you reach your goals and objectives while driving our vision of sustainability and efficiency across various sectors.

Want to find out more about our IoT consultancy? Contact us today!

Picture of Phoebe McLaughlin
Phoebe McLaughlin

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