Guildhawk Ltd, an award-winning international business led by women, received assistance from Sheffield Hallam University to transition from a language service business to a technology-led global operation through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the university.
Thanks to this partnership, Guildhawk has established strong relationships with various global organizations such as Bloomberg, TikTok, PepsiCo, and PWC. When the company decided to create an innovative digital platform to provide exceptional customer service, they reached out to Sheffield Hallam University for support.
The Challenge
Guildhawk faced a challenge as their existing business management system relied on in-house software and they had no dedicated development team. To meet quality assurance standards ISO:9001 and ISO:27001 and to support their growth strategy of creating innovative tech products for sale externally, they needed to completely re-engineer their system.
With the help of Soumya Basu and Chris Roast, academics from Sheffield Hallam University’s Department of Computing, Guildhawk gained the confidence to adopt technology verticals and were connected with skilled graduates to support the project.
The Solution – Technology
The pandemic highlighted demand for new software to improve multilingual data challenges that global companies face. So, the decision was made to capitalise on the unique expertise and invest in the development of new SaaS (a way of delivering applications over the Internet) while still working to meet the KTP’s original aims and objectives.
The additional objectives and demand for new tech opportunities highlighted the need for an internal technology team. Sheffield Hallum University helped Guildhawk create a new research and development team that is now outperforming industry standards set by Microsoft. They also helped Guildhawk pilot the use of new communication tools and flexible working, which has increased productivity by 20%.
The transition from a waterfall to agile project management methodology, whilst simultaneously moving their entire IT infrastructure to a Cloud system has transformed their business model, with over 95% of their business now operating virtually post-pandemic.
The Result
As a result of the KTP with Sheffield Hallam University, Guildhawk was able to launch two new multilingual SaaS products that helped corporations increase digitization and reduce CO2 during the pandemic. This has resulted in the creation of new revenue streams and expansion into new markets, including South-East Asia.
The KTP also facilitated a cultural transformation within Guildhawk, allowing the company to feel more comfortable with technical experimentation. Through team training, applied project management knowledge was instilled throughout the organization, leading to increased productivity and business resilience.
Since the KTP, Guildhawk have noted several benefits:
- An increased breadth of information dissemination
- An increased number of individuals benefiting
- Improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction
- 20% boost in productivity
We’ve formed a long-term partnership with Sheffield Hallam University and together we’re committed to training and recruiting new talent. We now have access to a pool of talented students from their computing department to offer internships, placements, and full-time employment opportunities.
This case study was originally posted on the Sheffield Hallam University website.
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