Virtually Smart Ltd was created by Helena Parrott back in 2017 with a vision to offer Executive Virtual Assistant & Online Business Banagement solutions offering expert support to CEO’s, Managing Directors, Directors, Management teams & Senior Leadership with all aspects of business management.
One of Virtually Smart Ltd.’s key clients is Dolphin N2. Virtually Smart Ltd have been supporting Dolphin N2 since 2018 with a wide range of business management needs.
From the very beginning Helena Parrott – Director of Virtually Smart Ltd & OBM, has played an extensive & integral part in supporting & managing the needs of the Senior Leadership Team of Dolphin N2 which has included:
Full Executive Assistant support to the Dolphin N2 CEO & entire Senior Leadership team including attending daily SLT Zoom meetings & acting upon any expectations & or needs presented by the SLT team, coordinating with & updating the UK team & international partners, leading meetings, preparing presentations, group diary management, inbox management & any & all support the team need to allow them to continue with their extensive projects & developments.
As the Dolphin N2 team started to grow, Helena also became the point of contact for all new starters & undertook a HR role.
As the Dolphin N2 Recuperated Split Cycle Engine was developed by the Dolphin N2 team, Helena became accountable for collating & implementing documentation relating to international patents & the legalities surrounding patents for the Dolphin N2 engine. This also involved Helena liaising directly with Government agencies with regards to grants & funding.
Helena was subsequently instrumental in supporting the entire Dolphin N2 team as they spun out from Ricardo Plc in December 2019 having been acquired by FPT Industrial. This included setting up new offices, implementing an entirely new IT system & full business support for the Dolphin N2 team, including ensuring all contracts were current & up to date.
Above & beyond the logistics involved in the spin out, Helena also ensured that all documentation & legal necessities concerning Dolphin N2 becoming an independent entity were in place including all policies & procedures.
During 2019 the requirements of the Dolphin N2 team increased & so did the size of the team. However, the biggest challenge was only around the corner & this was to test the flexibility & adaptability of Virtually Smart Ltd more than ever before.
When the Covid19 pandemic started of course the UK entered a lockdown. This did not however mean that the Dolphin N2 business support function ceased. As the Virtually Smart Ltd business support provision is carried out as an online business management model, it was already established as virtual support.
What was more challenging was that the Dolphin N2 team still needed to communicate & work as much as they could in a lockdown setting & still had design & development deadlines to achieved for their parent company.
Virtually Smart Ltd continued to provide Dolphin N2 with a full suite of online business management solutions including setting up regular group teams calls, continuing to support the CEO & Senior Leadership Team with all their needs & even providing all the booking, design & logistics surrounding a virtual version of the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle Event 2020. Although the team could not physically attend the event it still enabled them to have a presence in a vital industry exhibition space.
Since 2018, Virtually Smart Ltd has supported Dolphin N2 in acquiring offices at Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedford & additional offices in Shoreham-by-Sea. Virtually Smart Ltd has also been solely responsible for all the back office & executive support functions for the CEO, Senior leadership team & the ever-growing Dolphin N2 team.
Furthermore, Virtually Smart Ltd have also organised Dolphin N2’s attendance at key industry events such as Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle event & the Future Propulsion Conference.
LCV2021/2022 & FPC2022 were particularly important as the Dolphin N2 team were able to showcase their physical Recuperated Split Cycle demonstrator engine at each event. Virtually Smart Ltd were therefore not only responsible for booking the event, ensuring the relevant delegates were assigned to the event, that the promotional stand artwork, text & imagery were accurate & ordered in time & hotels booked for Dolphin N2 attendees; but they also had to organise the logistics of moving a full size demonstrator engine to & from the events.
The event was planned to not only bring the Dolphin N2team together for an internal update, but to allow outside speakers to address the team about the changes in the heavy-duty transport sector & how Hydrogen is affecting this. Therefore, the setting had to reflect the relevant sector & the ethos Dolphin N2 represent.
With this in mind it was decided to approach the Advanced Propulsion Centre based at the University of Warwick, to request the use of their new exhibition space, the National Propulsion Showcase.
As the needs of Dolphin N2 have grown, so too has the need to expand the Virtually Smart Ltd team.
With eight people now part of the Virtually Smart Ltd team & each one bringing their own expertise to the team; Virtually Smart Ltd has finally begun to be the business Helena had envisaged when she very first set up the company back in 2017.
Speaking in March 2018 & when questioned where she would like to see Virtually Smart Ltd in the future Helena said, “I want Virtually Smart to be a successful brand, offering support to varied clients, perhaps with a team of Virtual Assistants offering a wider range of skills.”
Since starting out on her own in 2017 Helena now has several major clients which Virtually Smart Ltd offer a broad spectrum of business support options to & a team of expert online business managers, administration assistants & content/social media & design experts who can collectively support a wide range of businesses & their business management needs.
Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart Ltd.
