Barclay Jones made our systems utterly appropriate for our business. Costs have been massively reduced and our business has undergone the change necessary to allow us to grow.
Ellis Fairbank, part of the IHR Group, is a leading provider of permanent recruitment and project based talent management solutions world wide. They provide specialist mid and senior executive staff for a wide range of roles across a number of key sectors, namely FMCG, Transportation, Construction Products, Supply Chain, Logistics & Procurement, Engineering & Manufacturing, Customer Management, Print & Packaging, Medical, Human Resources and International Appointments.
When we began working with Ellis Fairbank there was no IT function in the business. There was no clear Technology Strategy or function. Systems were slow, inadequate for the size of operation and not able to fully support the needs of the growing business. Ellis Fairbank had big plans for growing its brand in the UK and Europe but were worried that the IT function would hold these plans back.
We worked closely with the managers and stake holders of the business to understand the impact the IT function was having. We knew that to implement the necessary change, we first needed to understand the culture of the business. After an intense audit, we then recommended a number of projects that would add immediate and lasting value to the business and its users:
- IT budget and supplier review, resulting in £120,000 of annual savings
- redevelopment of the business' CRM system to emulate sales processes, thus enabling greater speed of delivery and management reporting
- a major project of cleaning the existing client database, enabling best practice data management and a more targeted approach to sales generation
- upgrading of several servers to improve network speed and security, and enable future growth
- delivery of modular systems training designed to replicate the sales model (the business went on to win 3 Training awards as a result of this training and the sales training it provides)
- business continuity planning and testing, giving the business more confidence to grow.
Overall the project was a major success. On average each consultant increased their sales turnover by £3,000 per month. Ellis Fairbank's annual IT spend was reduced by £120,000. By creating a stable and flexible infrastructure, the business were able to quickly expand their UK operation and follow with the rapid expansion into Europe without increasing their IT function costs. Users were able to perform their sales duties fluidly with their redesigned and clean CRM system. The IT Department changed from a fire fighting function, and evolved into one able to drive the business forward with project-managed solutions.
The IT function was completely integrated into the business. The users felt confident in their systems and were able to implement their roles speedily, giving them an edge on the competition. Managers had visibility over staff activity and were able to make objective decisions about how to grow thow the business.
Please go to our case studies area to read more success stories and about the benefits we deliver to our clients.
We would love to hear from you if you are growing your business or simply want to make it more efficient, so please contact us.