As a lean consultant for over a decade, Gareth has delivered cost saving benefits and customer improvements in the financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, security and retail industries across UK and Ireland.
With a background in project management, he was previously employed as a member of Ulster Bank’s lean consultancy team as a lean consultant in the financial services sector and this experience gave him the business knowledge and confidence to establish Adapt 365.
Although far from being a technophobe, Gareth recognised that he would need help to keep up with the rapid pace of changing technology, so he reached out to the Business Support team at Northern Regional College.
He explained his dilemma: “Coming from the world of banking with a team of IT specialists to call upon, I had a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office but was always able to leave any technical queries, for example, about coding to the experts.
“When Microsoft introduced a powerful new automation tool called Power Automate, I knew it could potentially benefit my work. It is a ‘low-code’ system which enables businesses connect their Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications using ‘drag and drop’ interfaces to create complex workflows (FLOW) to automate common business requirements.
Gareth continued: “As someone who specialising in improving business efficiency, I realised I would need to get to grips with Power Automate to improve my own efficiency.
“I contacted Northern Regional College’s Business Engagement team and was put in touch with Brian McGee, one of the Technical Specialists who devised a bespoke training for me.
The training was delivered online and was fully funded by the Department for the Economy’s InnovateUs programme, which provides up to 30 hours of mentored support to a small business.
“I couldn’t recommend the support enough. I was initially cautious about using Power Automate but Brian talked me through it. We were able to try out different scenarios and I could see how it would help a business to streamline its processes,” commented Gareth.
He acknowledged that there were some misconceptions about what lean consultants do, Gareth continued: “A lot of people think that lean consultants are only interested in cutting costs with an inevitable loss of jobs, but the key is to work smarter, optimising the people, resources, effort and energy of an organisation to create efficiencies.”
Explaining what the InnovateUs training for Adapt365 involved, Brian McGee said:
“We looked at how to get started and connect to Microsoft online resources and non-Microsoft resources; how to trigger an action and what actions can be performed from the triggers; sending emails; and acting on changes to forms, lists and spreadsheets. The project also included methods to distribute the Flow created to customers and troubleshooting tips for issues with Flows and permissions.”
He added: “As with any new software, there is always a bit of experimenting to see what will work best. It was a learning curve for me as well but it’s always good to keep up with the latest improvements and then pass on our knowledge to other businesses.”
“Lean consultancy is about investing in people and highlighting training and development needs and by taking advantage of the opportunity to upskill. By becoming adept in the use of Power Automate, Gareth is certainly leading by example.”
For more information on how your business can benefit from the expertise of technical specialists at Northern Regional College, please email business.engagement@nrc.ac.uk