Decent Group update March 2025
Decent Group
We are business software specialists. We create the tools to transform businesses.
Welcome to our March update. This month we discuss growing your business in the face of rising employee costs, the process of moving your servers to a new hosting service, a clever way of introducing a new feature to a live system,?and we?ask: how well do your business systems work with other organisations’ systems?
Employee costs are shooting up, but you can still grow without recruiting
On?6 April 2025 the rate of employers’ National Insurance is increasing, and the threshold is coming down. For businesses this is a serious extra cost and many will be putting their growth plans on ice. But there is a way to grow without taking on new staff. For the cost of a single employee’s annual salary you can make a one-off investment that will provide efficiencies for years to come – a software system that will allow you to scale painlessly.
You need to trust the people managing your hosting
We’ve?recently taken over the hosting of a FileMaker system for a packaging business, who tell us that at last they feel confident that if something went wrong they’re in safe hands. Previously they’ve had bad experiences with hosting – the set-up process was complex and difficult and required them to put in a lot of time themselves, and they never felt confident in the support service. They’re delighted with how different things are with us. Set-up was virtually effortless and although the service itself is much the same as what they had before, they are now completely confident that they have the right support in place.
Your organisation very likely interacts with numerous systems used by clients or suppliers – project management systems for example, or the systems used by delivery firms. So how smooth and automated are those interactions?
Which of the following applies most closely to your organisation?
?? Medieval: Systems are separate, with data copied and pasted or retyped.
?? 20th century: Data is exported from one system and uploaded into another. Data is verified manually.
?? Modern: Full two-way integration to send data from A to B, with automatic validation before it reaches B. System B automatically checks it has arrived correctly. The loop is closed by system B reporting back to system A (for example, operational systems are updated with signed delivery notes).
If your staff spending significant time each week copying, pasting and checking data for third party systems, it’s worth finding a solution. We’ve created seamless integrations with third party systems on many projects, and they’re always valuable for our clients – not just for the saved time but the accuracy and reliability too.
Take our free business systems self-audit?to be guided through this and other questions about whether your systems are supporting your business well.
Your system needs work but can’t be taken offline? We have a solution.
A gas and electricity broker had realised that their tendering process would yield better results if they could issue tenders for all an organisation’s energy use in one go, across multiple meters. That meant updating their FileMaker system – but the system was too important to the business to be allowed to go offline. So, when the updates were nearly ready for deployment, we completed initial testing elsewhere. However, installing the updates required accessing the live system while the team was still using it.
At this point our developer Paul implemented a clever technique that enabled users to try out a new part of the system and provide feedback, while still having access to the old approach. Users could flip between the two systems as it suited them. Over time, the flexible new tools (refined by user feedback) gradually took over from the old – ensuring a low-risk rollout amid a potential minefield.
If you haven’t already, have a look at our website to see the four key areas where we can make the most impact on your business:
FileMaker solutions: a new system, an improved system, or the support you’ve been missing.
Bespoke software: when no existing software fits your needs.
Business applications: a growing range of apps to solve different problems.
Business consultancy: find out where your systems and processes could be improved.
If you’d like Decent Group to supercharge your business, speak to your Client Manager or get?in?touch.