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Monday 9am - 5:30pm Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm Thursday 9am - 5:30pm Friday 9am - 5:30pm

Oval Business Solutions

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United Kingdom
Godalming
Oval Business Solutions

Boutique consultancy offering bespoke software development and social collaboration tools

Innovation, Creativity, Expertise, Productivity...

We provide a unique blend of business and technical expertise, consistently delivering high-quality, fit-for-purpose business solutions. We offer our clients a genuine means of increasing effectiveness through improved software, streamlined processes and smarter thinking.

03/09/2026

Managing 700 drivers and 1,000 crew members on a single screen shouldn't feel impossible.

When a major US construction group went looking for a scheduling solution, they had a clear vision: they needed to see everything in one place. While others suggested multi-screen workarounds, the real key to the project was simple—we sat down, listened closely to the brief, and actually heard what the client needed.

At Oval Business Solutions, we believe the best software solutions come through collaboration and consultation, rather than trying to shoehorn an off-the-shelf product into a custom workflow.

By partnering closely with the team and focusing carefully on the user experience (UX) to eliminate unnecessary friction, we built a bespoke, browser-based solution that delivered exactly what was asked:

• Everything on one screen – intuitively handling 700+ drivers and 1,000+ crew members in real-time without forcing clunky, segmented views.

• Designed around the user – streamlining daily management with smart cloning and quick setups that respect the administrator's time.

• Built to last – running reliably for several years straight.

Complex challenges don't require compromises. Sometimes, the most powerful tool a software developer can bring to the table is simply a willingness to listen.

Head here to learn more:

https://www.ovalbusinesssolutions.co.uk/thoughts/impossible-challenge

27/08/2026

AI won't fix a bad process - it'll just do it faster.

Before you spend a single credit, try these token-free adjustments.

Recent industry studies show that 51% of employees spend at least two hours every day on repetitive, manual tasks—from copy-pasting data to chasing updates across screens.

The fastest performance multipliers live in the micro-adjustments within the platforms you already run:

• Automating single-step data handoffs: Linking web forms to custom workspaces like Podio via light APIs cuts manual entry by ~80% and eliminates human typing errors.
• Cutting 3 clicks out of daily tasks: Reconfiguring dashboards so primary actions take one click instead of three saves dozens of collective team hours every month.
• Refining notification triggers: Default alerts generate noise. Filtering triggers so teams only receive notifications when an item is actionable recovers focus immediately.

Digital transformation isn't always about building new system - it's about making your daily collaboration tools run cleaner, leaner, and faster.

Sources: This+that & Parsli

21/08/2026

On World Entrepreneurs Day, we're sharing five foundational lessons Tech Leaders can steal from the entrepreneurial playbook:

1️⃣ Steve Jobs: Build for simplicity, not complexity

"Simple can be harder than complex." Jobs understood that real engineering excellence isn't adding more features—it’s removing clutter until the system is intuitive.

2️⃣ Steven Bartlett: Speed of iteration beats perfection

On The Diary Of A CEO, Bartlett frequently highlights that waiting for a "perfect" plan means missing the market. In software strategy, agile iteration and continuous deployment beat sitting on legacy systems for years while waiting for a silver-bullet fix.

3️⃣ Melanie Perkins (Canva): Solve a massive, real-world friction point

Perkins didn't build Canva because she wanted to design software; she built it because design software was needlessly painful and inaccessible.

4️⃣ Jeff Bezos: Move from chaos to customer-centric control

Early Amazon was operational chaos. Bezos scaled it by ruthlessly building internal tools, infrastructure, and automation focused on one outcome: customer delivery. Growth demands transitioning from manual firefighting to automated systems.

5️⃣ Sir Richard Branson: Partner where you aren't the expert

Branson’s superpower has always been recognising what he doesn't know and hiring or partnering with specialists to build it.

Happy World Entrepreneurs Day - may every challenge fuel your creativity, and every win inspire your journey.

18/08/2026

If there's one place where clunky, delayed processes cause a proper nightmare, it’s the supply chain. When you’re dealing with hundreds of active users and endless approval forms, any friction feels amplified.

A major bugbear we hear from teams using HCL Domino as their workflow engine is the pressure to deliver modern, AI-assisted automation without breaking the existing setup.

The good news? You don’t need to jump ship to get the clever stuff.

At Oval Business Solutions, we specialise in weaving HCL’s latest AI and automation capabilities right into your existing processes. We help you build smarter, AI-assisted workflows to keep friction points to a minimum, and can even introduce AI chat to your existing application for interrogation... all while keeping your core platform intact and data sovereign.

Why risk a messy migration when you can simply supercharge the platform you already trust? Let’s have a natter about what’s possible.

08/08/2026

🐾 Happy International Cat Day! 🐾

If you enjoyed our "Meet the Team: Dog Edition" back in June, you'll know we take our workplace companions very seriously. But today, the real rulers of the remote workspace are stepping into the spotlight: introducing the Oval Business Solutions Executive Feline Board.

While we like to think we run the business, these pawsome pals are the ones actually calling the shots:

CHIEF TREAT TESTER 😻

Macaroni – Joni Jardine's cat

Core Competency: Lying directly across the mouse-controlling arm of colleagues to limit productivity and secure maximum attention.

MOUSE QA CONSULTANT 😻

Azrael – Milo Collins's cat

Core Competency: Sitting on office mice to ensure they behave, keeping the team in check (despite currently being a bit bald and slightly embarrassed about it).

SUPREME COMMANDER OF ALL ENDEAVOURS 😻

Eric – Doug Tait's cat

Core Competency: Tutting over application reviews, and steadfastly sleeping in doorways/paths despite large, heavy objects being carried through.

INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE PILOT 😻

Besa-Marie Biscuit – Also Doug Tait's cat

Core Competency: Chief biscuit tester, duvet TOG-rating tester, and unprompted alarm clock whenever snack time strikes.

VP OF WORKSTATION SUPERVISION 😻

Robin – Dave Baulch's cat

Core Competency: Lap supervision, executive proceedings oversight, and aggressive keyboard walking whenever attention levels dip below acceptable thresholds.

SPECIAL COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT:

A massive shoutout to Adam Foster and his wife, who run a cattery. Today, they are caring for an incredible 22 cats—including 11 rescued through the RSPCA! Talk about a full-time feline management role. 🐈✨

We think they're all absolute purrr-fection.

30/07/2026

Summer holiday cover is secretly one of the biggest operational and security risks for enterprise-level UK businesses.

Global research shows that 52% of targeted cyber incidents occur during weekends and summer or winter holiday periods... precisely when enterprise Security Operations Centers (SOCs) and IT teams run on reduced skeleton staff.

When senior operational and tech leads step away in July and August, a dangerous operational drift can occur:

❌ Privilege creep:
Temporary admin rights get handed out to maintain momentum—and are rarely revoked when people return.

❌ Shadow IT workaround culture:
Teams hit manual bottlenecks and deploy unvetted SaaS tools or unmonitored spreadsheets just to hit SLAs.

❌ Incident response friction:
Escalation paths slow down, turning minor system bottlenecks into costly downtime. According to Wavenet research, 90% of mid-to-large organisations report that outages cost upwards of £240,000 per hour.

A Summer Operational Audit gives executive leadership the visibility needed to ensure workflows remain secure, compliant, and efficient—even at 60% capacity.

We suggest using the mid-year window to evaluate:

1️⃣ Access Control & Offboarding:
Are temporary permission overrides exposing your infrastructure while managers are OOO?

2️⃣ Process Redundancy:
Do critical cross-departmental workflows depend on individual knowledge, or are they fully documented and systemised?

3️⃣ Resilience vs. Friction:
Are your operational governance protocols holding firm during peak holiday season, or are teams quietly bypassing them?

23/07/2026

Founders’ Favourites 📚✨

As summer rolls into the UK and Europe, most of us are craving the same thing: slow days, no notifications, and a book we can get stuck into.

So we asked two of our founders, Dave Baulch and Martin Holland, what they're reaching for this summer. Their answers surprised us - childhood forests, timeless psychology, and pure imagination came up in ways we didn't expect!

Martin’s Favourites:

• 'Stories: Volume 1' by Ray Bradbury – "A book from my youth packed with memorable short stories that spark creativity."

• 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie – "Great life lessons everyone should read. It covers the basic rules of human interaction most people miss."

Dave’s Favourites:

• 'Brendon Chase' by BB (1944) – "I was obsessed with nature as a kid and re-read this constantly. It’s about three boys escaping to live wild in an English forest—a timeless story of independence, resilience, and adventure."

• 'Surrounded by Idiots' by Thomas Erikson – "I read this when I wanted to gain a deeper insight into how different people think. It groups people into four communication styles so you can understand your own mindset and truly empathise with those around you."

Whether you're after a suitcase read or just want to reconnect with a bit of childhood wonder this summer, we hope you get a proper chance to switch off and enjoy it.

What's the book you always come back to when you need to unwind?

14/07/2026

We are proud to share some fantastic feedback we have received on a recent successful JDE-integrated Supply Chain change management process, rolled out across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region for a global leader in the petrochemical sector.

Implementing complex digital transformation is never just about the technology. It is about the people, the mindset, and the culture.

Operating in a highly challenging environment marked by deep-rooted resistance to automation, our brilliant consultants achieved what many thought impossible.

They shifted the entire landscape, transforming mindsets and building the trust required to pave the way for sustainable success. Here is a snippet of what the program leader shared with us:

"What Tamsin and Phil achieved in shifting this landscape is nothing short of remarkable. They demonstrated outstanding leadership, influence, and tenacity, going far beyond what could reasonably be expected. Their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to excellence set an exceptionally high bar for what great delivery looks like."

A massive thank you to the team for their relentless commitment and resilience. They embody the high standards of delivery and true partnership that Oval strives for every day.

02/07/2026

Let’s talk about a classic IT bugbear: that business-critical custom application built 15 years ago that everyone relies on, but nobody dares touch because the original developer left in 2018. 🫣

It’s incredibly common to find yourself saddled with technical debt, patchy documentation, and a bit of a skills shortage. But ripping it all out and migrating off the platform isn’t the only answer…and frankly, it’s usually a massive headache.

At Oval Business Solutions, we reckon there’s a much smarter path. As proud HCL Partners, we focus on breathing new life into what you already own.

Upgrading to HCL Domino 14+ and rolling out Nomad deployments means you can completely modernise your internal operations. You get slick mobile access and a brilliant user experience, without the eye-watering cost or disruption of starting from scratch.

Before you chuck the baby out with the bathwater, why not get in touch for a proper chat - an application assessment may be a great starting point.

26/06/2026

🐾 Happy Bring Your Dog to Work Day! 🐾

Today is a fantastic excuse to introduce Oval Business Solutions' Executive Canine Board:

FOOD QUALITY INSPECTOR
• Juno (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) – Diane Everitt's dog
• Core Competency: Can hear a snack wrapper open from across the office.

HEAD OF PAW-TNERSHIPS
• Douglas (Wire-Haired Dachshund) – Victoria Sibley's dog
• Core Competency: Cold-nose outreach and lead nurturing… with a healthy dose of side-eye.

CO-DIRECTORS OF CORPORATE HARMONY
• Rocky and Poppy, aka "Rock and Pop" – Adam Foster's dogs
• Core Competency: Double-teaming the midday slump with synchronised tail-wagging, tag-team napping, and maintaining high morale.

Our pawsome pals make every day brighter, and we are bounding with joy that they are part of the team, both at home and in the office. 💻🐾

Address

The Coach House, 16b High Street
Godalming
GU86BQ

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	9am - 5:30pm
Thursday	9am - 5:30pm
Friday	9am - 5:30pm

Website

http://www.ovalbusinesssolutions.co.uk/

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