Business Systems Consultant

From the remarkably uncluttered desk of Simon Edwards...

Dear Colleague,

A very warm welcome to my website. Thanks for calling in. I realise that you are busy so I'm going to cut straight to the chase so you can get what you want and be on your way.

I could talk about myself but I'd rather talk about you!

I could talk about myself (and which marketing person worth his salt likes anything more?) but I'd rather talk about you. I'm going to take a few guesses about you.

You are a business professional. You have linked through to this website so you are probably involved in the publishing or bookseller industry. Perhaps you are a bookseller, publisher, distributor or wholesaler or you provide some form of service to these businesses, perhaps your specialism is technology related.

Now, everyone in business has problems. These are really inevitable. Everyone is either short of customers, cash, staff, or time. It is almost always one of these and sometimes more than one!

You have really urgent stuff you need to do and I believe I can help you. Or perhaps you want to address the important but less urgent stuff which tends not to get done. So you've been meaning to set up a website, upgrade an existing product or service, conduct some market research or competitor analysis. Perhaps you want to find a facilitator for a strategic planning session or brainstorm. Maybe you need to organise some training for yourself or your staff.

Is any of this ringing the bell?

With my wide ranging experience in business, covering operations, logistics, product development and sales and marketing, and my years as a consultant in the booktrade and publishing I am sure that whatever your problem I will be able to help.

And if I can't help, I'll tell you straight out because as I said before you are too busy to waste time.

If you ask me: Simon, can you help me climb the Matterhorn's southern face by next Tuesday - The answer I'm afraid will be NO - Sorry.

But if you say: Simon, my website is a bit flaky can you have a look at it and come up with a strategy to help me to improve it, and boost the turnover I get from it, by next Tuesday - then the answer is likely to be YES!

So over to you. Get in touch and let's see how I can help.

Contact me now and see how I can help you with your business: Simon Edwards

OK, so you're not in quite such a tearing hurry and you haven't been put off by this photograph of me in action at the London BookFair and you want to know more about me and whether I have relevant experience. That's understandable. Also we haven't talked about money, where I live, etc. etc.

So, where to begin? I live in Eastern Somerset, about a couple of hours from London, England.

I have worked for WHSmith, that well known UK high street retailer and bookseller. I have worked for BFS, formerly Books for Students, a school and library supplier. I have worked for Whitaker, a family owned information publishing company which provided useful products and services for booksellers such as the authoritative bibliographic database, the TeleOrdering service, The Bookseller magazine and the sales tracking service BookTrack now called BookScan. As a consultant I have worked for a lot of book trade companies notably Macmillan Distribution, Book Industry Communication, Vista Computer Services Ltd., Nielsen BookData (plus several I can't tell you about!) etc.

Over the last year I have been working on "e4books" a project to "wire up the booktrade" i.e. encourage the use of supply chain e-commerce or electronic trading and this has involved research, developing a strategy for universal e-commerce, presentations, developing accreditation systems, promotional activity, website design, newsletters, e-forums etc. etc.

And this work is on-going at the moment as the booktrade has set itself the target of implementing a minimum level of supply chain e-commerce throughout the trade by e-Day (1st May 2008). If you want to know more about e4books then click here

The rest of the time I do other projects, mostly for book trade companies and publishers. Often this work is about advising on the right systems or on e-commerce solutions for certain booktrade companies.

So if you want me to work on a project with you then let me know.

Oh yes, we still haven't discussed money have we? Well it is very simple. I have low overheads and I live out in "the sticks" so whilst my normal charge out rate is £450 per day - which is in itself very reasonable, for larger chunks of work which I find especially interesting or exciting I can and will negotiate. These daily rates exclude expenses e.g. mileage etc., which is charged as incurred and always pre-agreed so you know what it is costing you. Refreshing isn't it to know roughly what something is going to cost before you start?

You can see my full CV as a pdf download: Simon Edwards CV

or for the online html version click here: Simon Edwards CV

I look forward to hearing from you and working with you,

Best wishes,

Simon

Simon Edwards
Mobile: +44 (0) 7742 988391

Key competences: e-commerce and EDI, systems specifications, websites, online bibliographic and transaction services, data analysis and data mining, export sales, sales and marketing, promotional marketing, public relations, training, self development, strategic planning, budgeting, cost control, disaster recovery, warehouse management, staff management.

Stuff of real interest right at this moment: e-commerce/e-business with XML, ebooks, digital publishing, print-on-demand, Internet related business models, self publishing and book marketing via PR.

Not quite so scary
without a beard?!
But this is business
not a beauty contest!