Local Software Entrepreneurs Seek Local Support

Ever wondered how small businesses survive their formative years? Swindon Business News recently spoke to Stuart Hobbs of Flaxlands Management Ltd, based near Wootton Bassett, to find out.

With a background in the IT industry, Stuart has been involved in managing and investing in hardware and software companies since 1989. Flaxlands Management was established by Stuart in 2003 as a venture partnership to provide investment and management expertise to help start and grow innovative and early stage companies with exceptional business potential. The current business portfolio includes the following business units:

Tayomi Software: comprising Interview Coordinator - a new low cost, online recruitment and interview management system and The Leave Management Services - a software system to manage/track holidays and help reduce absenteeism.

LabMACS: a software house and I.T. consultancy set up to introduce the benefits of the bespoke ICAST (Inventory Control, Audit and Sample Tracking) system to the scientific community, including laboratories, with a need to efficiently control large collections of scientific samples. These collections can be diverse, hazardous and spread over multiple locations and agencies.

Flaxlands Firewood: locally sourced hard wood delivered in a sustainable crate.

Swindon CAD Services: 3D images and plans for home and business.

The portfolio is managed by a small, highly responsive team. In addition to Stuart Hobbs, the Managing Director, the team is made up of Trevor Gonsales as Technical Director, self-confessed Photoshop junkie Dave Clayton as Marketing Manager and Dean Hazell as CAD Consultant. The latest member of the team is Stuart Collins, the PR Manager and an avid cricket fan.

For each business, the plan is to grow organically with the support of local customers. Over time, the aim is for the businesses to be running under their own management and control or to be sold as a going concern to a 3rd party.

Stuart’s view is clear: “We are strong believers that the success of most companies depends on the competence, diligence and perseverance of the people that work there. When key people concentrate on what they do best. Flaxlands Management helps to document the business viability with clearly defined responsibilities and to agree not only what constitutes success, but also the consequences of failure.”

Running a successful business is about using the right tools for the job and utilising resources in the most efficient way possible. In the early days, businesses don’t always have this luxury, as often it’s all hands on deck just to survive. Having an experienced partner who can provide specific managerial and operational leadership is a real asset during these formative times. Flaxlands Management provides the expertise that will help avoid the many pitfalls that new businesses face, significantly improving the potential for growth and success.

The current focus is Interview Coordinator (www.interviewcoordinator.com), which is a complete interview management and applicant tracking solution (ATS) aimed at the modern business. Designed specifically for hiring managers and job campaign collaborators, the system has online video capability and can be accessed through any browser. It is designed to reduce administration, eliminate duplication of effort and reduce the work involved in selecting new talent.

Stuart continues: “Picking the right people is a key element in business success and the recruitment and interview process is obviously fundamental. However, hiring people takes a significant amount of time and organisation.”
Interview Coordinator is a low cost and effective solution to this need, where users pay on a “per job campaign’ basis. There are many benefits to ATS, which are explored below in more detail:
Streamlining the Hiring Process Whether you are choosing a candidate from a short list of 10 or 100 people or more, to work locally or in offices around the world, ATS systems will save time and expense by organising the whole process.

Increasing Collaboration between Stakeholders
Interview Coordinator helps multiple stakeholders collaborate effectively without constant meetings. It provides a platform for everyone interested in finding the right person to collaborate and manage their input.

Central Recording All Documentation and Administration
A convenient central store is integral to the system. It provides secure storage for all the paperwork associated with a job recruitment campaign. It provides an accurate database for historical campaign data and proactively reduces the amount of administration involved. It will allow you to easily review the recruitment campaign status, monitor candidate progression, prompt co-contributors and candidates for timely responses, efficiently communicate with agency partners and generally keep the campaign organised.

Reducing the Overheads Associated with Pre-interview Screening
Picking the best people to invite for a face to face interview is obviously a major element of any recruitment campaign. However, limiting the pre-interview screening process to simply reviewing CV's raises the possibility of overlooking the ideal candidate. The answer is a more comprehensive pre-interview screening process, but organising and conducting this process is often very time consuming for everyone involved. ATS systems significantly reduce the overheads associated with pre-interview screening and will allow you to:

• Review historical pre-interview questions from similar campaigns.
• Ask co-workers for suggestions on questions to ask the candidates, and then coordinate the responses.
• Automatically publish a list of pre-interview questions to a web page.
• Send invitations to candidates to respond to published questions.
• Have candidates respond with video or written answers using the internet.
• Have co-workers review candidate responses at their convenience and offer ratings and further opinions on quality.

Using Video/Online Questioning to Reduce Travel and Carbon Emissions
A video won’t ever be quite the same as a face to face meeting, but it will have an increasing role within the recruitment process over the next few years. In some cases, the significant savings of travel time and expense will mean some interviews may be conducted entirely through video calls and conference facilities.

ATS software such as Interview Coordinator helps reduce the amount of time and travel necessary in finding the right person by allowing candidates to upload video content to a central database. Whether that video content is an answer to a specific pre-interview question or a recording of a complete interview conducted remotely, the system provides an efficient library of information. All the campaign contributors can review the video at their convenience and comment on the content.

The significant reduction in travel activity means that the online pre-screening approach is a valid ‘green’ approach. That results in the carbon emission footprint being far lower than conducting every interview face to face.
Building a Valuable Talent Pool In most recruitment campaigns there will be a number of good candidates who just miss out on being offered the position. These candidates could very well have been suitable for the role, but were pipped at the post by the successful candidate.

Therefore, if a similar new position arises within a reasonable amount of time it’s certainly possible that candidates who just missed out last time could be considered this time.

This is where an ATS such as Interview Coordinator comes into its own. As a central repository for a recruitment campaign, these candidates are still on record with a valuable history of all the documentation, interview content and contributor opinions. This allows an organisation to exploit an existing pool of talent before launching an entirely new campaign.

Stuart concludes: “The Interview Coordinator system is currently available to SBN readers on a special FREE, no obligation, trial basis for businesses that sign up to be part of the final beta phase testing of the cloud-based software. Call us on 01793-250093 if you are interested. Product launch is planned for early 2012 and we would be delighted to hear from you.”

With support from the Wiltshire business community, the future looks very promising for the innovative entrepreneurs at Flaxlands Management and SBN will follow their progress with interest.