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How to Keep Your Engineering Firm Healthy

A Quick Guide for Keeping Your Engineering Firm Healthy

The last few years proved to be significantly challenging for businesses worldwide, and engineering firms were no exception. The sudden shift to remote working, coupled with the need to maintain a positive workplace culture and adapt to the “new normal,” necessitated the implementation of effective systems and processes.

 

Engineering

Given the impact of these changes on organizational health, we have developed a practical guide specifically tailored for engineering firms. This guide serves as a valuable resource by:

  1. Highlighting the Four Key Learnings of a Healthy Engineering Firm: Understanding what constitutes a healthy engineering firm is crucial for success. The guide identifies the four key learnings that indicate a firm’s overall health, providing insights into the areas that need attention.
  2. Providing Guidelines for Maintaining Optimal Organizational Health: Once the areas requiring attention are identified, the guide offers comprehensive guidelines to help firms maintain optimal organizational health.
  3. Sharing Practical Tools for Immediate Improvement: To facilitate immediate improvement, the guide provides practical tools that can be readily implemented within your firm.
  4. Equipping Your Firm for Future Challenges: In addition to addressing the present, the guide is designed to equip your firm for any future unexpected challenges. By adopting the recommended practices, your firm can become more resilient and better prepared to navigate uncertainties that may arise.

To access the full guide, simply complete the form below to download it instantly.

Are you keen to ensure your engineering firm stays successful in the competitive market?

Silversoft, a leading provider of solutions for Engineering Consulting firms, is offering a free health check to help you gauge your firm’s standing in comparison to others in the industry. This assessment focuses on the four key learnings derived from 2020.

Participating in the health check is easy. Just take a brief 10-minute survey, and following that, you will have a call with one of our experienced Account Managers. They will provide you with a concise report that highlights your firm’s strengths and areas for improvement in the new working environment.

Take the health check survey today to gain valuable insights and enhance your firm’s performance in the ever-evolving engineering landscape.

Take the health check survey

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[Infographic] Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering Industry Study 2023

The 44th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Study

The 44th Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Study is a comprehensive report that provides insights into the state of the A&E industry. The study was conducted between January and March 2023, and included data from a variety of firms from all sizes and regions across the United States and Canada.

The study found that the A&E industry is facing a number of challenges, including increasing competition, rising costs, and a shortage of skilled labor. However, the study also found that the industry is still growing, and that there are opportunities for firms that are able to adapt to the changing landscape.

The study includes a number of valuable insights for A&E firms, including:

  • How to compete in a crowded market
  • How to manage rising costs
  • How to attract and retain skilled labor
  • How to use technology to improve efficiency

The full study is available for download on the Deltek website. To download the study, click here: [link to study]

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5 Steps To Scaling Your Agency

5 handy steps to scale your operations without falling behind

With great expansion comes great responsibility.

Making new connections and supplying top-of-the-range services are key targets for agencies. It feels affirming to win new business, but while your company grows, your internal and external operations need to keep up.

It can be challenging to scale operations with a myriad of technologies and partner services to choose from.

Fear not, as here are five key ways to grow and stay ahead of the pack.

  1. Identify your niche…

…and stick to it!

One pitfall that agencies face when starting out is being ‘people pleasers’ – trying to adapt operations to suit every single need. This will stretch your business capabilities into areas that aren’t necessary and hinder your growth.

Instead, identify exactly what your most successful services are with current clients, define your unique selling points, and run with them. That way, you can focus your attention on what really matters and deliver the best experiences to those that you work with.

  1. Get your data right!

Data still remains ‘the new oil’, offering invaluable insight into your employees, leads and clients alike. Analysing data can help to best understand how you can tailor your product or services better to suit their needs.

However, data (whether customer-focused, financial or employee information) is often stored across multiple systems for differing parts of the business. Sales teams use one lead generation tool, the hiring team uses another recruitment platform, and marketers favour content management systems. Where do you start to collate this information?

Begin with an internal audit – how many systems do you use, and which are efficient in holding the correct data? You should limit the number of systems you use to be able to pinpoint useful data quickly and easily. This planning will also identify any gaps in where you need to hire to adapt to scale.

  1. Hire across the business

When you know exactly where you need extra hands, get hiring!

A growing business not only needs new entry level candidates to handle the bread-and-butter services that define you, but also more experienced leaders with topic expertise that can take your renown to new levels. Particularly when it comes to content marketing for lead generation. Many tend to outsource creative roles such as this in B2B –

84% of companies that outsource talent see content creation as the most useful marketing tool. So long as the data and processes outlined above can work for freelancers or outsourced workers.

Recruitment can either take place internally or through partnering with third-party hiring agencies; whatever is the most flexible and scalable solution to attract the right people for your business.

  1. Integrate helpful tools

We get it, marketing or sales stacks can consist of many useful technologies to benefit your operations. But these internal tools can be siloed. Instead, it is best to limit the number of platforms you use and integrate them so that data is cross-referenced.

There are useful CRMs such as HubSpot or Salesforce to serve as databases for client and employee information, as well as handling and tracking marketing distribution and activity with great integrations available.

Communication is key not just for your third-party vendors, clients and outsourced workers, but also internally. Messaging platforms including Slack can integrate with other web services with ease so that everyone is on the same page.

  1. Document everything

Multiple platforms, new employees, and growing leads add up to a lot of moving parts. But when scaling, you should not forget what your company stands for.

Defining your purpose and internal company culture is incredibly important. Be transparent about your core values and expectations – the easiest way is through simple documentation that can be stored as a resource for current employees and new hires. All communication can also be handled through project management tools to bring everyone under one umbrella or via a complete agency management tool.

Employees will appreciate a company that is not only ambitious in scale, but one that values all those that work hard to get them to loftier heights.

Start scaling today

Scaling a business can be tricky, but help is at hand. For practical insights on how to grow, fill out your details onthe form below.

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How could new technology improve your AEC firm’s daily processes?

This document is designed to help AEC firms think about how they can use emerging technology to transform their processes. You’ll see that each section has a list of questions and prompts to help you brainstorm, as well space to note ideas and doodle.

Fill out your details below to download the prompter

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[Infographic] Deltek Clarity Architecture and Engineering Industry Study 2022

For the last 43 years, Deltek has conducted an annual survey of firms in the Architecture & Engineering industry to identify key performance indicators, market conditions and industry trends. The Study is developed in collaboration with industry organizations.

More than 540 firms participated in the Study, representing a broad cross-section of businesses within the Architecture and Engineering industry in North America.

The online survey was developed in partnership with CMG Consulting and conducted between February and March 2022, with financial metrics captured covering 2021 financial performance. The 43rd Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Study includes data from a variety of firms from all sizes and geographies across the United States and Canada

Fill out the form below to download the Report

If you would like to find out how Silversoft could assist your firm to improve on any of your internal systems and processes to be in line with industry standards, please click this link to schedule a call.

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Agency Management Tools: Is It Time For An Upgrade?

 

Here’s a question: how has the pandemic shaped the way your employees prefer to work today?

I bet they’ve all embraced remote working, and the better work-life balance it gives them.

Here’s another question: how has the pandemic changed the way your agency manages its work?

You’ve probably adopted a messaging platform like Slack or Teams, maybe got more rigorous with scheduling and project management. Not to mention document sharing and version control upgrades.

And here’s my last question: how many new pieces of technology have you introduced, and are they all siloed, or have you managed to integrate them?

We’ve been posting a series of articles for agency leaders, and this month we’re looking at the technology that enables greater efficiency and visibility across the agency.

Investigating the best agency management tools

Change is never easy – and people generally don’t like changing up their tech – but taking the time to think holistically about the technology your agency uses can make a huge difference.

Here are some of the technology most agencies have in place:

  • Sales, marketing and pipeline management
  • Resource management
  • Project management
  • Collaboration and teamwork
  • Document and file sharing
  • Proofing and approvals processes
  • Finance and accounting

Assuming your agency has all of these tools, you’re managing (and paying for) at least eight different pieces of software. That’s a lot of technology to keep track of!

Considering end-to-end agency management tools

Keeping everything together and creating process workflows that run from the very start of a relationship with a new client and throughout their lifecycle could be a game changer for your agency. In fact, many agencies “upgrade” their technology when they get serious about growth.

Did you know there’s a category of software especially designed to help agency owners and managers run their companies more efficiently? They include modules for everything from proposal-stage, to project management and time-tracking, and all the way to reporting and invoicing. They connect everything, ensure nothing falls through the cracks, and provide total visibility into every sale, project and process.

Not sure which agency management tools are best for you?

If you’re ready to conduct an audit of your agency’s technology and want to introduce the best tech, then you might find our buyer’s guide useful.

It’ll help you work out what your agency needs and how to compare vendors.

 

 

Fill out the form below to view the infographic

Learn more about Silversoft’s agency management software

Our agency management software is trusted by growing agencies around the world. You can learn more about them here: https://silversoft.co.uk/solutions/

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5 Sustainable engineering projects to inspire your firm to go green

Engineering firms should, by their very nature, be interested in sustainability. After all, their objective is to solve problems and make things function in a better way, and right now our world is in dire need of solutions for global climate change, dealing with plastic waste and finding new sources of sustainable energy.

If this is interesting to your firm but you’re not sure how you could contribute or what kind of projects you should look out for, maybe this article will help you. We have rounded up some of the most interesting sustainable engineering projects from around the world.

Dell Technologies harvests & recycles plastics from oceans

Dell has created a new supply chain that recovers ocean-bound plastics, putting them back into its packaging instead of letting them wash out to sea. The company says it works with suppliers to collect, process and mix plastics with other recycled material to create molded trays used for packaging select products. The trays are made from 50% ocean-bound plastic and 50% recycled HDPE plastic, using no virgin materials.

Learn more about Dell’s sustainability projects here.

Anne Wrobetz is an adjunct instructor in CU Boulder’s Engineering Management Program, and shared her insights on this project in a recent article, saying, “It’s positive for Dell. They’ve had to make this initial upfront investment but over the long run they are saving a lot of money and they are becoming recognised as an industry leader in the field of sustainable business. They are making all of this information available to other companies in an effort to get them to also start thinking about where their plastics come from and how they can change their supply chain and really leverage these new ideas. It sets them apart from their competitors and gives them a competitive advantage.”

Newlight creates AirCarbon sustainable plastic

AirCarbon was developed by Newlight Technologies. They use natural ocean microorganisms to make PHB from air and greenhouse gas. Unlike synthetic materials, the AirCarbon molecule is a molecule made throughout nature, and can be re-consumed by natural microorganisms like leaves or twigs, enabling life to restore itself.

Recently featured on CNN, AirCarbon has won many awards for its innovative sustainability. It’s a verified carbon-negative material, meaning every step of its production and use is fully green and sustainable. Because it is not made from oil like other plastics, it is also a cost-effective alternative to other synthetic materials.

Learn more about AirCarbon here.

EONEF brings electricity to disaster zones

Developed by French start-up EONEF, Zéphyr is a photovoltaic balloon and eco-friendly generator . The autonomous aerial platform takes the form of a helium balloon.

It was created to help emergency services deploy telecommunications networks in under an hour when dealing with crises and emergencies, providing field teams with live data using a fixed-point camera.

It’s also used for scientific missions including measuring air quality and observing wildlife, and for extended protection of sensitive sites.

Learn more about Zéphyr here.

The Svart Hotel: the world’s first energy-positive hotel

The Svart Hotel in northern Norway will be the first energy positive hotel in the world.

Set to open in 2022, Svart is “Inspired by local coastal building traditions and nature, dissolving the boundary between land and water. We aim to transform how we look at hotels and introduce hotels’ future through a sustainable, innovative approach to design, technology, construction, operation and guest journey.”

Designed by architects Snøhetta and engineering consultants Asplan Vaak, this hotel aims to create more energy than it uses. With an annual energy consumption that is expected to be 85% lower than other hotels, it will harvest enough solar power to cover all on-site energy needs, including the energy required for construction.

Learn more about the Svart hotel here.

Pavegen Systems uses steps to generate energy

Pavegen’s award-winning smart street pathway converts the kinetic energy of people’s footsteps into electrical energy and data. One footstep produces enough energy to light an LED light bulb for approximately 20 seconds.

The company aims to build awareness and help create highly engaging consumer experiences, while educating and inspiring stakeholders in the hope that, eventually, footsteps could power whole cities.

Learn more about Pavegen here.

Baby steps towards sustainability

As inspiring as these sustainable engineering projects are, they require big budgets and ambitious clients. Sometimes the best way to become more sustainable is through a series of smaller changes to the way we run our offices and source materials.

To help you think about how your firm can “go green” we’ve created a handy summary for you to download.

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[Infographic] Deltek Clarity: Architecture and Engineering Industry Study 2022

For the last 43 years, Deltek has conducted an annual survey of firms in the Architecture & Engineering industry to identify key performance indicators, market conditions and industry trends. The Study is developed in collaboration with industry organizations.

More than 540 firms participated in the Study, representing a broad cross-section of businesses within the Architecture and Engineering industry in North America.

The online survey was developed in partnership with CMG Consulting and conducted between February and March 2022, with financial metrics captured covering 2021 financial performance. The 43rd Annual Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Study includes data from a variety of firms from all sizes and geographies across the United States and Canada

Fill out the form below to download the Report

If you would like to find out how Silversoft could assist your firm to improve on any of your internal systems and processes to be in line with industry standards, please click this link to schedule a call.

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4 Keys to Agency Growth

Running an agency is all about change and growth. No matter what, the one thing you can never afford to do is to stop growing. It’s the nature of a professional services business. You need a constant flow of new clients, new employees, new processes and new technology.

In this article, we have rounded up some interesting and clever marketing agency growth tips. Give them a try and let us know which ones had the biggest impact on your business.

Ensure your pitches capture your true value

Marketers are usually great at identifying the unique selling points of their clients, but when it comes to selling their own services, they easily undersell their value.

This is partly because it’s tricky to dedicate time to your proposals and pitches when most of your people are busy with billable client work. And then there’s the fact that things move at such a fast pace in the agency world.

When last did you update your proposal documents? If you haven’t refreshed them in the last six months, then chances are that you’re missing the opportunity to include some excellent projects and new clients.

To ensure that your proposals capture your true value:

  • Show that you understand your prospective clients’ business challenges
  • Show how your agency is the best one to help overcome these specific challenges
  • Include relevant example projects and customer testimonials
  • Explain your processes and what they can expect when they start working with you
  • Keep your pricing clear and simple

Need to update your proposal template? We’ve created one for you.

Get your proposal template here

Nurture existing client relationships

Networking and referrals are probably your biggest source of new business, but don’t forget that your existing customer base is a great source of new business. Think about how you can expand your services within key accounts, for example by adding new services such as video editing, podcast creation, etc.

Monthly or quarterly newsletters are a great way to share new client, service and project highlights with your existing customers.

Take your own advice 

Agencies often suffer from a case of “the cobbler’s shoes”, talking to clients on a daily basis about the importance of building a compelling website, and investing in digital marketing, advertising, SEO and social media, without taking their own advice.

If team capacity is a problem, consider creating a “moonlight marketplace” where you can post “jobs” that employees can bid on and complete in their own time for extra income.

Ensure your processes are scalable

Prepare your agency for growth by setting up processes that can scale with the agency. Poor process and unfit technology are a common challenge for marketing agencies that suddenly experience fast growth.

To learn more about the processes that are central to agency growth, and how Silversoft can help you set them up, please visit: https://silversoft.co.za/industries/advertising-marcoms/

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Silversoft Podcast Series | Growing Up – Where are you in your Agency journey?

Silversoft is proud to release its first Podcast. ( we aim to improve as this was our first attempt at this)

Our podcasts will be structured to be an open forum to discuss key trends in the Agency sector.

At Silversoft we have had the privilege of working with many of the leading agencies in the UK and surrounds and we have observed some very specific thinking in how agencies are framing their businesses for success.

Our First podcast will be a series of 3 titled “this is Growing Up”. This first episode is titled “Platform for scale and growth” and discusses the journey an agency goes on and why an agency should look at what solution and platform they put down to ensure that they lay the right foundation to assist them to scale and grow during their journey.

We hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/y3kHVV-OlLk

 

 

 

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