AVE Services

What we can do for you

“There is really no such thing as “a typical customer” – each one is unique.”

At AVE (Partners) we recognise that no two businesses are the same and, to help us tailor the support your business needs, we offer a comprehensive range of tools, services and consultancy. As a busy SME, you may be so focussed on your work that you neither have the time nor the ability to look at your business’ needs objectively. We can provide the impartiality and fresh approach offered by a third party.

Our business services

We will work with you to help you tailor and streamline your business processes for maximum benefit. As part of this, we can:

Prepare, update and modify your business plan
Measure business performance using our Company Diagnostic© Tool
Benchmark your activity against that of the market place including your competitors
Audit your procurement procedures with suppliers to ensure you’re getting the best value available
Help you to successfully outsource relevant elements of your business to ensure you’re working with the right suppliers at the right price
Understand EU legislation and help your business to meet these requirements; design procurement systems and procedures to keep you legal and streamline your business processes
Navigate e-procurement and help your organisation secure public sector business using this fast emerging channel
Advise and guide you in public sector tenders using our TenderCare© Service with its highly flexible menu of options

Skills development and Training

Using our Company Diagnostic© Tool we you understand the development and training needs of your organisation to meet both internal and legislative requirements including:

Auditing your existing personnel and management programmes leading up to the Investors in People accreditation
Producing organisational structures to help you maximise your resources
Design personnel policies and procedures to support organisational objectives
Team building and individual coaching
Mentoring
Create and implement skills development programmes including presentation training and management development
A range of psychometric tests including Myers Briggs, 16PF5 and FACET 5 to support personal, team and organisational development
Create tools and processes to help you with your recruitment processes
Audit your Health and Safety arrangements and ensure your organisation is meeting legislative requirements

Management and Business Leadership

“…a manager's primary responsibilities are to plan, execute and monitor…” Peter Drucker, management guru

As the key executors of your business plan, it’s important to ensure your managers are up to speed with your business objectives and goals. We can help you develop your management identification and development programmes and:

Facilitate business development planning
Review and help you develop your business plan
Create and implement mentoring programmes for your senior decision makers
Measure business and personnel performance
Create tailored management development programmes

Supplier Diversity

“What is diversity? It’s simply valuing everyone as an individual. Your employees, your customers and your suppliers.”

There’s a common perception that diversity is just for big businesses it’s not – it’s important to your business too. Just consider how diverse your customers, suppliers and customers are and it’s easy to realise that your business needs a variety of different approaches if it’s going to be successful in the long term. We can help you understand the legal requirements, sensitivities and nuances to help you use diversity positively to grow your business.

We can help and guide you through the complex issues surrounding supplier diversity by:

Providing an objective assessment of how ‘small business friendly’ your buyers are and how we can make them genuinely - and measurably - SME friendly
Using our Supplier Diversity Toolkit©, to see how ready your supply chain is and develop a plan to overcome any barriers
Enabling dialogue directly between the buyer and supplier to allow you to trade successfully and efficiently
Empower your procurement team for better business

SME Advantage

At AVE (Partners) we’ve developed our methodology, SME Advantage, to help SME’s recognise and successfully bid for public sector work.

Using our Tendersearch© tool, we’ll work with you to identify contracts (typically up to 3 years in length) that are appropriate opportunities for your business. We start with a thorough diagnosis of your business – your current activities, policies and procedures – and then work to identify contracts that match your skills. This focussed approach will, of course, help keep your bid budgets and resource management under control.

Our consultants will guide you through the processes and what you will need to do if you decide to tender. We will work with you in as much, or as little, depth on each tender as you require – from advising you on the structure and format for your tender content, to the legislation you need to be mindful of, and overall, help in pulling together the entire tender.

And, of course, each consultant is available - during office hours - on the telephone, email and Skype, or if booked in advance, in person.

Preparing your submission:

With our breadth of experience, we’re well qualified to support your bid. It can seem daunting and time-consuming to work through detailed documentation – we’re here to simplify and explain the process. We can draft policies and procedures to reflect your organisation and meet the requirements of your prospective client.

Your presentation

Our consultants are experienced presenters and will guide you through the style and layout of the actual documentation to how you should verbally present in front of your prospective client.

The negotiation process

We can help you to secure the best deal once you’ve been awarded the contract.

What to do next

Get feedback so you can further hone and develop your skills for your next presentation. We can work with you to strengthen, or negate, weak areas and help your business in its future success.