Pearce & Co

Pearce & Co are residential lettings and property management specialists. The business is a multi-disciplined firm dealing with mixed portfolios, including long leasehold residential elements, and can deal with leasehold valuations for lease extension or enfranchisement. As lettings specialists the business deals with the letting and management of residential property over a wide area with…

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SET Marketing

As suppliers of branded gifts and merchandise SET Marketing operate in a highly competitive and price conscious market where customer service makes the difference. Their Sales Director said “Black Swan have made our life easier by designing a Sales Quote template that is really easy to use. We were using an off-the-shelf package to create…

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Natural Travel Collection

A travel agency based in the south of England offering tailor-made holidays to a niche market of discerning travellers. The Natural Travel Collection has three main brands it offers its clients: Wildlife Worldwide (safaris, bird-spotting, bears), the Travelling Naturalist (expert led wildlife and birding holidays for small groups of naturalists) and Dive Worldwide (farflung diving…

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SCraft

A leading importer of window shutters approached Black Swan asking if we could help develop a more effective order taking process using Microsoft Excel.  This has grown into a full online ordering system. The Challenge Their supplier was processing orders in an Excel format that was not suitable for the UK market so the company…

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Hillside Clubhouse IPS Database

Hillside Clubhouse are a charity based in London who support people with mental health problems into employment. They needed a database to track their caseload. The Executive Director says: “We have worked with Laurence over a number of years to develop case management and reporting databases. Some of our reporting requirements are quite complex but…

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Did Excel make Covid-19 worse?

No, of course not, but a mistake in the use of Excel seems to have affected the numbers being reported. I’m sure you are aware that nearly 16,000 cases of Covid-19 went unreported until earlier this week and the reports are that Excel is at the centre of the problem. You might never have thought…

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How Safe is Your Data?

You have probably heard of the latest national computer scandal where over 200,000 records were deleted from the Police National Computer (PNC).  It highlights the same issues all businesses and organisations have regarding the safety of their data, this case is just on a national scale in an area of public safety. Apparently, a coding…

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