We are almost there, 6 months after the start. In my mind Feb. 2008 was the official start of zevenseas and on August 2008 we are in business for 6 months under the name zevenseas.
If we count up all the SharePoint experience of Daniel, Robin, Mark and me I think we reach 15 years of solid SharePoint experience. Probably that is a lot compared to a few other companies.
I must say, till now it is a fantastic ride and our decision to do 100% SharePoint has paid off! Everyone is happy with his role and the things that we wanted to do differently have evolved into a kind of natural philosophy that is basically something Daniel and I had in our mind. Some of these are related to the 7 C's (Collaboration, Consulting, Coding, Creativity, Community, Content,Capable) but some are more how we think a consultancy business should be. I pick two things we value a lot:
- friday@sea;
- responsibility.
The first one is a commitment we agreed on and the second one is something we give.
friday@sea
Now after almost 6 months we can conclude that this Friday is really important. Besides the fact that we skipped some Fridays because of holidays etc. it is clear that this one day a week paid off. Sure, it is a non-billable day :-)
On this day we come together and we evaluate the week in detail (including demonstrations). The rest of the day is to: discuss problems, new solutions, sharing knowledge etc. It is not rocket science but a day to keep in touch on all important issues related to the company. Without this we simply cannot run our company because the social connection wouldn't been there.
Responsibility
Many companies talk about responsibility but are not really giving this responsibility to team members. We really try to give it, other team members are the coach but don't touch the ball. We don't interfere (only guidance) with how to do it, we rather evaluate the end result.
Overall after these 6 months we can be happy with the total end result. We have national and international companies as a customer and we are happy to Grow.
The next phase of zevenseas will be to focus on getting new quality consultants aboard. Check out this post and maybe you are interested in joining our team!
zevenseas is a new, small company, dedicated to SharePoint, and dedicated to making consulting the high value profession it once was.
In the last 6 months we have been crafting out a boutique organisation that allows us to do the things we think are important. Things like attending key international conferences and supporting the community via blogs and cool tools. We are an organisation that always works as a team, meeting each and every Friday through our Fridays@Sea concept, providing all of us with an opportunity to share experience, work collaboratively on problems, and most importantly, ensure we never feel we are out there on our own.
As SharePoint specialists we are able to focus on the product that excites us most, digging deep into the technology to ensure the best possible outcome for our customers. We bring a pragmatic, experienced and business focused approach to solving the problems our customers share with us, making the most of the strong platform SharePoint has become.
If you are looking for the right change, and want to join a team of people who enjoy working with each other, with great customers and on great SharePoint projects, drop me an email at daniel@zevenseas.com. Let us buy you a coffee.
PixelMill and zevenseas have agreed to work together on design projects for national and international companies. PixelMill will operate as zevenseas's SharePoint Design Partner where needed.
By working with PixelMill we can guarantee customers the highest quality in masterpage- and CSS design. Check out the PixelMill site for some off the shelf SharePoint templates.
Our partner Nintex has unveiled their new product called Nintex Reporting 2008.
"Nintex Reporting 2008 will provide unprecedented insight into workplace usage, trends and behaviours. With Nintex Reporting 2008, everyone from system administrators to business owners will be able to access online reports and key information dashboards targeted to their role."
Check out the press release on the Nintex site