The Daemon Way of Consulting

At Daemon, we take a different approach to consultancy. Everything we do is based on honesty and pragmatism, allowing us to build trust with clients and solve problems as efficiently as possible. At the same time, we go out of our way to equip you with the skills you need to manage your new solution after we’ve gone. 

These aren’t just empty words. Throughout the consultancy process, we take specific actions to ensure that we’re living up to these standards. We’re an open book, and we’re always happy to explain our approach in detail. Here’s what consultancy means to us, and what this means for you as a Daemon client. 

Honesty is the best policy

Honesty is a word we use a lot, and with good reason. We want it to be the starting point of every project, and the guiding light behind every decision. This means being honest with you and honest with ourselves. If something isn’t working, we’ll tell you as soon as possible. If we think you’re asking for something unworkable, we’re not shy about telling you. 

This can be new to clients who are used to a more formal approach, but the benefits are clear. When everyone feels they can be honest about problems, solutions are much easier to find. Many of our clients have experienced a situation where challenges  haven’t come to light until the last minute, resulting in nasty unexpected delays. This will never happen with Daemon. Good or bad, we’ll give it to you straight.

Of course, this sort of honesty doesn’t just happen. For people to speak freely, they need to feel safe, and this means creating trust on both sides. We do this in a variety of ways. On a basic level, we make a point of humanising ourselves. This might mean going out for a meal or just simply being available for a chat during the working day. We don’t want to be separate from your team- we want to be part of it. 

Alongside this, we also take specific actions to demonstrate the value of what we’re doing. We hold frequent check-ins with clients and give regular demonstrations of our progress. We want to document every step so that you can look back and see the value of every decision. We don’t just include traditional line-managers in this process. We go further up the chain, allowing us to get buy-in from your whole organisation. 

Finally, there’s a strong cultural element to our work. Solutions aren’t just about technology. They’re about the people who use them, and we’re careful not to lose sight of this. We try to be mindful of the existing culture of your workplace, taking the time to understand the dynamics of your team, and to identify any particular conflicts or rivalries that may exist. This allows us to tread carefully when necessary, but also to confront these issues head-on if we need to.

The Daemon approach in action- how we helped Instant Group lay the groundwork for a new AWS booking platform

Setting you up for the future

By centering our approach around honesty, we’re confident that we can provide the most effective solution in a fraction of the time. This is one way in which we are different from other consultancies, but it’s not the only way. 

The other main difference is what happens next. Where many consultants would complete the job, pat themselves on the back and leave, we take a more long-term view of things. We don't just want to give you a great technology solution- we want to give you the skills to make the most of it. This is where our Enable strategy comes in. 

Enable is our way of setting you up for the future. Through a mixture of formal training sessions and on the job experience, we give you everything you need to take the reins after we leave. There are four main parts to this:

1. We conduct internal training with your core team. This isn’t just Powerpoint presentations. It includes technical sessions with one on one programming tuition.  
2. We record these sessions and analyse them to see what worked and what didn’t
3. We update our training based on this feedback, going back to your team to fill in any gaps and clear up any confusion.
4. We repeat this process every few weeks, sharing our findings with you at every stage so that you can see exactly how effective our training is.  

Find out more about Enable

Different in a good way

We hope we’ve convinced you of two things- that we’re different from our competitors, and that these differences allow us to get results that other consultancies can’t. 

By building trust and encouraging honesty, we can have the difficult conversations that are essential for keeping a project on track. By taking the time to understand your company culture, we can ensure that we provide the best solution, not just for the problem at hand but for the people who are going to be using it. 

As one of our Senior Consultants, Alex Slingsby knows this process better than anyone. He sums up the Daemon way of consulting perfectly:

“We’re resting your head on a fluffy pillow. We want to make you feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible, and we do this by presenting ourselves in good faith. We’re not putting on a consulting mask. We’re giving an honest representation for the duration of the project.”

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn

There are many other ways in which we do things differently, and we’re excited to share them with you. Whether you have a specific problem that needs solving, or are just curious about our approach to consultancy, don’t hesitate to give us a call.