4-CONSULTING E-ZINE

As the warm days of summer linger on and the school holidays come to an end, we think about about making our organisations a bit slicker and nicer places in which to work. We hope that you'll find our advice on business psychology and conflict management useful.

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For more information about 4-consulting click here

In this issue

Using Business Psychology for Business Improvement

An increasing number of businesses are turning to psychology to help them improve their business performance. There is quite a wide choice of approaches and tools to choose from. In this article, we look at some of the more popular philosophies and think about which one is best for your organisation.

To read the complete article, visit:
http://www.4-consulting.com/News/Ezine_7/Ezine_7_01.htm

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Getting to Grips with Conflict

Internal conflict is an essential part of dynamic, creative organisations, but if not managed properly the positive benefits disappear into frustration, anger and conflict.  Sandy Pratt describes some the steps that well managed businesses can take to harness conflict.

To read the complete article, visit:
http://www.4-consulting.com/News/Ezine_7/Ezine_7_02.htm

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Making the Most of Excel and Word

Our regular "tricks and tips" features offers practical advice on creating, formatting and navigating word documents and spreadsheet workbooks.

To read the complete article, visit:
http://www.4-consulting.com/News/Ezine_7/Ezine_7_03.htm

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Recent Successes

Since our last edition, Victim Support Scotland has shown its continued confidence in us by commissioning us to develop an ICT Strategy for the next five years. We delivered the strategic plan successfully and it has been fully endorsed by both the Executive Directorate and the Board of Trustees. We are now working with VSS towards implementing the recommendations in the Strategy.

As a result of our appointment to a onsultancy framework contract with Highlands & Islands Enterprise, we have carried out a number of assignments in the North of Scotland. We have developed a Business Plan for the next tranche of funding for the Caithness and Sutherland New Futures funding programme. We have also been commissioned to carry out an interim evaluation of its Lochaber Leadership Initiative. The evaluation will examine the extent to which the Initiative has improved the quality and effectiveness of management within the participating businesses.

Over the late Spring and early summer, we carried out a review of the Building Services division of Inverclyde Council. We have now been retained in an oversight role to help the Council implement the changes recommended in our review.

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ICT Investment Appraiser

In response to recent projects involving our clients making large investments in IT, we have developed a new spreadsheet calculator that helps managers to measure both the costs and the benefits and to assess the proposed investment in terms of Capital Return, Risk and Sensitivity. 

The tool produces graphs that clearly illustrates the composition of the project distinguishing between capitalised assets and expensed costs. 

You can find full details of our new tool by clicking here

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Tell us your view

In our last issue we asked if you thought that exhibitions were an effective way of promoting your business.  nearly two-thirds of the responses agreed with our proposition.

Do you think that your organisation gets good value from its investments in IT?

Answer our question and let us know – all responses are confidential.

   

If you would like to suggest a topic for future ezines or have any comments about this one, please send it to: ezine@4-consulting.com.

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For more information about 4-consulting visit our web site at:
http://www.4-consulting.com/

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