INDUSTRY
Nick Harland-Smith, Managing Director at Handy Limited, believes in giving the best customer experience possible. Sales at Handy Ltd. had plateaued following many years of steady growth. Customer service was being compromised and the existing management and IT structure was no longer fit for purpose or further growth.
As with all businesses, there is ever increasing pressure to deliver high levels of customer service in order to stay ahead of the competition. One concern for Nick was there were too many manual processes in his business which could lead to poor service delivery and therefore little business growth. As a result, he asked Avondale to evaluate the company and develop a solution.
The Challenges:
- Manual order processing was time consuming and prone to errors.
- Tacit knowledge of the product portfolio was held by too few people.
- Class leading service was difficult to ascertain.
- There were wasted costs in process management.
Avondale carried out a detailed business review by working with all employees to understand the four main areas of the business – Finance, Sales and Marketing, Operational Efficiency, Training and Development and undertook a full customer analysis.
Our Assessment:
- Operational efficiencies were down by 40% which was having a negative effect on operating costs and the ability to scale the business beyond its current capacity.
- Whilst the level of customer service was good, it relied on too many manual processes.
- Supply chain management from supplier to customer was weak; the customer experience had to improve substantially in order for Handy to remain competitive.
The Solution:
The Avondale team supported Handy in choosing the right ERP system. This allowed for:
an overall strategy for portfolio expansion.
reduced operation costs.
the creation of a sound technological foundation for future growth.
Avondale continues to work with Handy as they develop their expansion strategy, bring new products onto the market, and train and develop their second-tier management to lead the company in its exponential growth.
