OUR HISTORY AND
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Formed in 2012 from a desire to help businesses grow and reach their potential, through the utilisation
of technical skills and knowledge, built on an 19 year career in software development and commercial
business strategy; specialising in eCommerce, ERP, Business Analysis, Business Intelligence,
Commercial Software Development and Project Management.
HANDS ON CONSULTANTS
Layer 5 Solutions is a “hands-on” consultancy led Technology Services Provider majoring in ERP Systems and their role in eCommerce.
Layer 5 brings a holistic approach to ensuring IT systems deliver commercial benefit combined with comprehensive hosting / data-centre services and a portfolio of development methodologies to meet a wide variety of commercial requirements. Layer 5 simply helps our clients avoid the worry of the technical complexities and minutiae of software development and IT operation and focus solely on their business requirements.
OUR STORY SO FAR
Layer 5 Solutions Limited recent launch in 2012 has been supported by a wide variety of challenging and exciting projects. We are bringing daily business benefits to our clients through new improved systems, managed business process change and extensive user training.Our eCommerce experience started in the low-margin, high-tech world of IT equipment sales, where a high degree of technical automation is the only way to succeed commercially. As such, we got good at eCommerce automation, including automatic collation of product information, price and availability from disparate sources, marrying this with catalogue-building techniques, competitive intelligence and automated pricing.
Layer 5 still uses these techniques today, but has been able to push this technology into other vertical markets in eCommerce, bringing that high degree of automation to otherwise “manual” environments and keeping costs low and margins high. Layer 5 can provide a base system which automates a good deal of these things, especially in a Magento environment.
Our development expertise encompasses both Open-Source (PHP, MySQL, et al) along with Microsoft .NET and SQL Server technologies – this enables us to choose the best commercial fit for you based on existing incumbent systems, licensing and infrastructure. That’s the holistic approach to a solution and not just a development whcih solves a problem on-paper, but is unwieldy or expensive to operate.Our ERP portfolio covers the more cloud-based technologies in this area – namely Netsuite and Brightpearl. We support existing installations, we also build new ones. Recently we have launched two and assisted in a further two Brightpearl implementations, one of which for a PLC with complex multi-location warehousing and drop-ship requirements. We have also Project Managed a complete Business Process re-engineering exercise and ERP overhaul using Netsuite for a £100m turnover client, including managing the development and UAT of a new Netsuite-centric Product Management system
Why not follow our regular BLOG postings for updates on our progress, our project and the benefits gained by our growing list of clients.
OUR SERVICES
- Brightpearl – Layer 5 Solutions is a Brightpearl premier partner in the UK. We offer core Brightpearl skills, including the integration with Magento, eBay and Amazon.
- Netsuite – Layer 5 Solutions is an experienced Netsuite implementation consultancy. We have extensive experience of Netsuite, and are one of the first companies to have worked with Netsuite when launched in the UK in 2006.
- Independent Hosting and Data Centre solutions – Layer 5 Solutions maintain private and dedicated managed hosting for Windows and LAMP stack systems
- Amazon EC2 Management – we also manage Amazon server portfolios, particularly when clients have requirements for geo-sensitive hosting outside of the UK.
- Optimised Magento hosting, on a server footprint exclusively and specifically designed by Layer 5, with many happy clients on this exact solution
- Comprehensive eCommerce implementations from zero to eCommerce hero, covering everything from design & usability ergonomics, mobile, multi-channel integrations, project management, launch and operational training and support.
- Competitive Intelligence data and integrations. Use of competitive insight is becoming critical to every eCommerce operation to stay competitive whilst protecting margins. We can show you how!
SOUND BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
Over the course of its history, Layer 5 and its founder have developed a set of philosophies, which are the fundamental tenets upon which it conducts itself. These can be technical or business, but all are designed to ensure a smooth project and a commercial success results.
For example, we will always ask:
Why are you doing this? What is the business benefit you are trying to achieve?
Layer 5 will always study between the lines of your requirements, we always explore “why are we doing this” – to take a view of the business benefit you hope to achieve. We find that when we do this we are better placed to help you establish the right way to achieve it – which is sometimes not quite aligned with the requirement as presented on paper.
Evaluate every solution holistically.
Layer 5 will always look deeper than just delivering to a technical brief. We will always consider the downstream effect of a development – looking at operational considerations, supportability, stability.
Never cut across the grain of a system. If you have to undertake many workarounds and developments to make it fit your business, then it might be that it ISN’T a fit for your business.
Because sometimes there is a better way!
To learn more about Layer 5 and how we can bring our approach to your business please feel free to drop us a line, or browse further: