Here at Bowdark, we’re on a mission to digitize. We’re passionate about IT and believe very strongly in its ability to completely revolutionize the way that our customers do business.

As we continue along on our digital transformation quest, we’re very excited to announce the launch of a brand-new managed service offering called Bowdark Lighthouse.

What is Lighthouse?

Put simply, Lighthouse is an IT managed services offering that’s designed to provide customers with access to a diverse team of expert resources that’s focused on delivering affordable IT solutions to streamline operations and drive business growth.

Lighthouse is based on a services-as-a-subscription model. As a Lighthouse subscriber, you gain access to a diverse team of expert resources. Each month, our delivery team works closely with your team to capture new requirements and prioritize new solutions. Then, our team leads the charge to build, test and deploy new solutions using a Scrum agile approach. Finally, once solutions are deployed, our team is there to provide on-going maintenance and support.

Figure 1: Lighthouse Delivery Process

With Lighthouse, you have a one-stop shop for developing:

• Custom web and mobile apps

• Automated workflows & RPA solutions

• Reports and dashboards

• Integration solutions

• And so much more

We also provide access to our team of expert solution architects to guide you through the technology maze and explore ways to reduce on-going operating costs.

Figure 2: Understanding the Lighthouse Value Proposition

The Lighthouse Story

When Bowdark got its start back in 2006, the technically landscape was vastly different. At that time, our clientele was based exclusively on large Fortune 500 customers since they were essentially the only ones with the budgets and infrastructure to build custom enterprise software solutions.

During that time period, I had many conversations with acquaintances and fellow business owners asking for advice on how to unlock these types of solutions in their small or mid-sized businesses. These conversations always ended in frustration because the reality was that you just couldn’t get very far on a limited budget. Heck, even if we threw in the consulting hours for free, they still couldn’t afford the hardware or licenses.

A Light in the Distance

However, this all started to change in a big way around 2010 with the explosion of cloud computing. With consumption-based pricing, smart consumers now had access to best-in-class compute resources. As the cloud stack evolved into full-service cloud platforms, the economics for building custom business solutions changed dramatically.

More recently, the introduction of low-code application platforms such as the Microsoft Power Platform have lowered the bar even further. As noted on this blog, we’ve seen more than a 60% increase in developer productivity since we’ve adopted these tools and expect that number to increase even further as advances in generative AI technology create even smarter development tools like Microsoft Copilot and GitHub Copilot.

Collectively, the convergence of these technology innovations has enabled us to deliver substantially more value to customers at a fraction of the time/cost it would have taken in the early days when we had to build entire solutions from the ground up.

Tailored Tech on Your Terms

Our primary objective with Lighthouse is to bottle up the magic our fusion teams are wielding and offer it to customers at an affordable price. This approach allows customers of all sizes to have access to best-in-class technology solutions that can grow with their business.

Why Lighthouse is Different

We talk about values here at Bowdark a lot and one of our core values involves channeling our passion for doing things right into the work we do for our customers. With Lighthouse, we’re putting those values into action to offer our customers something new.

The Need for a New Service Model

As we’ve had more and more success building custom business solutions in the cloud, one thing has become abundantly clear. Much like adoption of the cloud itself, successful delivery of these types of services requires a shift in mindset — both from the customer side and the provider side.

To put this concept into perspective, consider the way that many companies have moved to the cloud. As of late 2023, the most common cloud migration strategy involves forklifting pre-existing applications onto similarly sized virtual machines (VMs) and calling it a day. Although this approach may be easier, it is far and away the MOST expensive way to operate in the cloud.

The way you save money in the cloud is by tapping into consumption-based pricing models where you only pay for the resources you actually need. For example, if a server is going to mostly sit idle all day long, you might be able to reduce your compute costs by over 90%. These savings add up in a hurry when you start doing this at scale.

From an IT services perspective, we think the same basic rules apply. Bringing in teams on an ad hoc basis to work on one-off projects is the most expensive way to purchase these types of solutions.

From the provider side, it’s the equivalent of being asked to quickly convene a team of expert resources, fit them with parachutes, and then fly around waiting until we get the green light to drop them in to work on your project. Although we can (and still do) support customers in this way, it makes it very difficult to tap into economies of scale.

Moving towards a subscription-based model unlocks several key benefits:

• Reduced Costs + Predictable Spend: As a customer, you can set a budget for resources at the outset and then scale up/down as your needs change over time. As a provider, this approach helps tremendously with planning/forecasting and enables us to offer resources at reduced costs.

• Reduced Time to Innovation: As the team becomes more and more familiar with your landscape, we can accelerate the innovation curve and deliver solutions to the business faster. We can also take the lead on innovation projects so that you can get back to running your business.

• Increased Value: By having a team on the ground learning how your business operates, we can advise you on new and innovative ways to use technology to streamline business processes and refresh user experiences.

Raising the Stakes

Ultimately, we created Lighthouse because we believe we have more to offer customers than what they’re getting with the status quo. We believe in this so much that we’re betting on ourselves to deliver the kind of value that will keep subscribers engaged long-term.

Closing Thoughts

We’ll have much more to say about Lighthouse here in the months ahead. In the meantime, you can find out more information here. Also, if you’re interested in learning if Lighthouse is right for your business, you can click here to schedule a free initial consultation.