Consultancy
Fibre Optics, Copper and Laser Safety Advice and Expertise
As experts in all aspect of fibre optics, laser and LED safety, copper Datacoms and Telecoms cabling we can also help you by offering our expertise in areas where you require an independent opinion or a temporary expert to support your in-house skills. At Lucid we relish the opportunity to use our expertise to help with your plans, projects, problems or disputes. Examples of our consultancy projects are expert witness services, writing specifications, auditing, test witnessing, data analysis, preparing reports, certifying test results, and many more.
Contact us with details of your issue and we will detail what we can do and quote consulting options to suit your requirements, with no obligations and full confidentiality assured. The vast majority of clients using us for consultancy have brought new cases to us following the successful resolution of initial cases. This repeat business for our consulting services is proof that we try harder to provide a high-value and personal service that saves clients’ money.
Why use consultants?
A good question when some consultants cost the earth, provide little value, take no responsibility for failure but like to take the credit for success. At Lucid things are different so why not take a closer look.
We believe that the most effective consultancy is a partnership between client and consultant, where both parties are confident to be open and honest with the other. To achieve this your organisation must have faith that the consultants will maintain a high level of confidentiality and work in your best interests. We achieve this at Lucid with two simple rules:
- all client details are confidential unless they agree otherwise;
- all project details are confidential unless the client advises differently;
and a simple philosophy:
- you should enjoy working with us
- we will try our best to fit in with your organisation
- we provide excellent value-for-money so we are easy to justify
With these rules and approach the traditional reasons for using consultants, such as extra resource, specialist skills/expertise and so on, are enhanced.
Auditing Optical Fibre and Laser Systems
Independent audits can confirm the quality of installation, workmanship, skills and best practice. Laser safety audits can check that appropriate signage, policies and procedures are in place, whereas audits of fibre optic systems can concentrate of the system viability and value or the safety aspects or can encompass the whole areas, i.e. all aspects of the system both functional and safety.
Examples:
Due to our own rules above, and additionally the confidentiality agreements that we often sign with clients, it is hard to provide case studies or detailed examples of the work we have done. This is a shame since some work has led to new developments in the industry, and some has proven that 
previous, other, consultants had failed to properly analyse systems (from fibre networks to the optics of a laser safety issue). More careful and expert analysis has often resulted in our clients saving very significant sums of money – over £7,000,000 (seven million GBP) in one case alone.
Recent consultancy projects have been in the following areas:
- “Expert witness” reports and evidence for a court case
- Fibre & cable specifications
- Laser safety procedures
- Testing procedures, specifications and results analysis
- Fibre systems testing & auditing
- Product evaluation & market analysis
- Excel macro development for automated data analysis and report generation
- Mathematical modelling & simulation
- LabView programming for data access & firmware drivers
- Laser safety reports
As an integral part of any consultancy project we provide a comprehensive but accessible report, detailing and summarising the relevant issues and results. The expert consultant is available to answer questions on the report and can present the report to senior management, or others, if required.
Alternatives to using consultants
The alternative to using us, or other experts, for consultancy work is to get staff trained. If this is the right option for you, then select your course and training provider carefully…
Having made the wise decision to attend a Lucid training course, and become a technical expert yourself, remember that you have free technical support from us for life. Simply phone or email your questions and let us prove that we enjoy helping our clients – we don’t just start a stop-watch and send out bills.
Consultancy do’s and don’ts
Do meet with the consultants before retaining their services.
Don’t assume all consultants are the same. Some like to bamboozle, whilst others like a more lucid approach.
Do ensure the consultant quotes a firm or maximum price with clear deliverables.
Don’t assume that the more expensive a consultant the better the advice.
Do ask for recommendations from within the industry – all consultants say they’re good, but this is not always what their clients say.
Don’t assume longer established means more knowledge or experience. It can just mean they’ve been getting away with it for longer.