Wherever your business is going – Metafour can help you get there

“One of the biggest issues we face, is to write one software programme that is then used by perhaps 50 different people , with very different needs. What we have done, with the help of the KTP programme, is create a capability within the company which goes right the way through from understanding what the client wants, the design, co-ordinating the development of the software, getting it tested to then getting it implemented for all our different customers,” explains Mark Rogers, Managing Director at Metafour.

A collaborative KTP project between LSBU’s Business faculty and Courier Company Metafour has delivered a cutting edge semi-automated 24 hour help desk that enables Metafour to sell and support its software overseas. Metafour now have the ability to produce flexible software that can be modified and configured to meet the different needs of their clients, with new releases being developed and implemented continually. Mark says “What we have done is take a 5 month process and run 3 new systems at any one time cutting system roll out time down to just 8 weeks! This means we can satisfy the demands of our customers much more quickly,”

KTP Associate Sui Lui says that in the past the software was constantly divided into different parts and there was no standard package. “My task was to bring all the different pieces into one standard package, making all client requests configurable so what we do on one we can do on all the others, rather than keep re-developing the same thing.”

The project had three main objectives: 1) to gain a bigger variety of customers, to spread the market out horizontally, 2) to gain larger customers, and 3) to gain more international customers. With major new UK customers including Shell, Allen & Overy and The DX, and new customers overseas in the USA, South Africa and Spain, things are looking decidedly healthier for Metafour. “The KTP has enabled us to achieve all three objectives simultaneously. We have had 8 new customers in 7 months, and the KTP has enabled us to cope with that demand,” says Mark.

Metafour can now provide software as a service, hosting systems for customers and providing a complete service package, which is music to Mark’s ears. “Our customers pay a monthly fee for this which has made the company financially very stable. We had a target of getting to the point where our revenue from software as a service matched our payroll costs, which has now been achieved – meaning we can now move on to more adventurous tasks!”

Having these structures in place allows Metafour to re-invest in their software again and again while meeting the differing business needs of their clients. This gives them the economy of scale which means they can provide a high level of functionality at a low cost; something the competition is not yet able to do.

Dilip Patel, Professor of Information Systems at LSBU says “the most academically challenging part of the project was streamlining the software production lifecycle and developing a process to manage customer expectation. Having learnt a great deal from working alongside Metafour on this project I will be taking some of that knowledge and bringing it into my teaching on cross cultural issues in project management.”