Software Generation
Signature House
New Mind
Extra Funding Now Available
Over £2m Invested
Total Glass
Heaton’s Stationery
Delta Fluid Products Ltd
Goodwin Electronics
Wilson Henry Partnership
Railex (Filing) Ltd
Wirral Continuous Ltd
Hi-Tech Pre-School is UK First
Investment Will Bring Global Reach for Liverpool Design Company
Palace Chemicals
Improved CRM for Marketing Masters
Fund Makes First Award
Software Generation
Software Generation are a training company offering mainly ICT training at their premises near Liverpool city centre.
The company used a grant from the ICT Investment Fund to purchase equipment based on video conferencing technology, providing a basis for web-casts and live presentations over the internet, enabling them to offer training “webinars.”
David Bold, Director, explained : “The best training is one to one and it is the most expensive while e-learning has no interaction and is carried out at the pace of the learner. Being unsupervised, around 70% of the courses are not completed. This system retains the benefit of being instructor-led but extends the reach of the course beyond the physical boundaries of our training centre.”
The system has all the advantages of instructor-led training and the delegate does not need to travel to the classroom, so reducing the cost and travel demand on the environment. The delegates can be dispersed or they can be in the classroom here and the course tutor can be anywhere, even abroad.
Students can work alone or supervised. Software Generation can also create on-line ‘break-out sessions’ for training and conferencing and the system enables polling, testing and result monitoring. Sessions can be recorded for future playback.
David says “We’ve been trying to do this since 2005. We went on the Merseyside ICT study tour to the US and while there we met a company who worked in this way. The funding tipped the balance and enabled us to make this investment.”
David continued: “This has opened up other types of training opportunities for us such as health & safety and preventative maintenance. This can also be used to train people on software that they don’t have on their machines. We are now promoting this to large corporations with disparate workforces.”
Although the full cost benefit of the equipment is hard to quantify at this early stage, David explained: “It has created a USP, impressing our existing customer base and it will enable us to bring in bigger and better clients. It has helped to sustain the company.”
Signature House
Signature House provide serviced office accommodation in three locations across the North West.
The company applied to the ICT investment fund to improve its ICT infrastructure on all levels: company management/operational support, web presence/trading, and service offerings/levels to its customers.
The proposed new infrastructure will allow this step change in the business’ capabilities and will result in more effective support of its SME customers. The core of the project will be a web-based Centre Management System with e-Commerce and intranet facilities; in addition the company will require an enhanced website, virtual machine environments, associated desktop & server equipment, wireless internet facilities, enhanced network/web-based print facilities and bespoke CRM facilities.
The company purchased a PC to collate telecom data and VOIP and all information is now collated from three centres at the head office in Rainhill.
Alan Taylor, Commercial Director, said: “Following the investment, new processes are in place in finance, sales, telecoms and operations. The software and laptops have given us a lot more flexibility. This has allowed the management team to be more mobile and more flexible. It has improved communications and smoothed out the management processes.
“Peripatetic working was our aim and it’s been achieved with the laptops and software. We are now looking at further investment to continue development of the business.”
New Mind is an award winning agency specialising in internet, marketing and technology solutions. The company has had particular success in the tourism sector and has established a 60% market share in the provision of websites and destination management systems to tourism organisations across the UK.
New Mind now manages some of the UK’s busiest destination websites including www.visitliverpool.com, www.visitbath.co.uk, www.visitbristol.co.uk and www.discoverdevon.com, generating over two million page views a month to some of their most popular tourism sites.
The company applied to the ICT Investment Fund for assistance towards a major upgrade to its server capacity at the company’s base in Liverpool. The upgrade would allow New Mind to boost the hosting service provided for its high traffic websites and would also support their continued growth as they target new overseas markets.
John Fox, Network Administrator at New Mind comments: “The new kit both ensures the continued stability of our web hosting and helps to improve internal efficiency at New Mind. We now have the capacity to build on our success in the UK as we start to roll out our tourism solutions on a global scale”
The ICT Investment Fund now has extra funding to distribute! Liverpool Chamber of Commerce is responsible for distributing it to Merseyside SMEs on behalf of the Government Office North West.
The fund was set up to help SMEs on Merseyside improve their competitiveness and turnover by upgrading their hardware and software.
ICT Fund Administrator, John Blades says: “We’ve granted funding to 47 companies ranging from manufacturers to accountants.”
The fund provides up to 40% towards investments in ICT. Grants are available from between £10k and £50k. John continued: “There has been a great deal of interest in the project and the extra funding will need to be allocated by the end of November 2008.”
If you would like further information or help with an application, call John Blades on 0151 - 227 1234 or email john.blades@liverpoolchamber.org.uk.
The ICT investment fund has been running for two years and so far 47 SMEs have claimed funding totalling £860k which, with match funding, means an injection of £2.7m in ICT investment to companies across the region.
The Kirkby based manufacturer of UPVC windows is keen to expand its manufacturing capacity and to branch out into the manufacture of aluminium and curtain wall structures for the architectural market. Currently they have two customer groups; trade, which is regional, and commercial including large tenders, which is national.
The ICT Investment Fund supported the purchase of integrated ICT systems. The package optimises orders and reduces waste and allows for tracking of the manufacturing process via bar coding. This enables Total Glass to take faxed or online orders, convert them to computerised format that load directly to production machinery. Customers can now price and pick their designs online and this feeds straight to the ordering system.
The management reporting system provides an overview of orders coming in and the status report of work being done. The system batches orders together for cutting in the most efficient way thus minimising waste.
Following the award of the grant, Total Glass has won a contract to replace the windows for the LMH housing stock in Liverpool worth £4.5m. Due to the investment, the company were able to respond to this and begin to supply the contract within three weeks.
Julian Wetherall, Development Director said: “We were able to accommodate the extra volume and create 30 new jobs. Before upgrading our systems we wouldn’t have been able to react so quickly. It has brought a massive transformation to the business.”
Automation of the saw cleared a bottle neck in the production process and means less staff training. The factory is now working in a smaller space and is leasing out spare space creating a new revenue stream.
Julian continued: “This investment has played a big part in taking the business forward. It provides month by month sales value and buying trends that we can respond to.
The system also analyses delivery routes using GPS, finding spare capacity. This enables us to focus on working out the most cost effective routes. It has really opened our eyes to see what technology can do. We are now looking further into how we can use technology to improve our business practices.”
Heatons, a Birkenhead based company specialising in office supplies anticipated a threat to its market from foreign e-Commerce based stationery suppliers.
Their application to the ICT Investment fund helped to supply a warehouse bar coding system and introduction of e-commerce systems, enabling the company to defend its North West business and also to extend its capabilities nationally.
David Fielding, Managing Director said: “The funding has helped us to adopt e-business practices. The investment has made changes in every department and as a result, we now have the ability to offer a wider range of products and to target large accounts, improving our sales figures.”
The company’s online facility is fully linked to suppliers with 90% of purchasing now carried out electronically. Orders now come in throughout the day rather than in a rush at the end and are dispatched more efficiently.
Following the introduction of bar coding, warehouse staff now book orders in and out using handheld scanners. This results in more efficient use of space and reduced costs in the warehouse.
A marketing module in the back office system enables the company to identify and target specific customers. This is now successfully cross promoting the different sides of the business, stationery & print, furniture and business gifts.
David continued: ”The investment in ICT has removed all manual work from the ordering process and reduced admin in the accounts department. This has produced an improved quality of life for staff through more efficient operations; thus enabling some members of staff to reduce their hours.”
“We know that the market is sluggish but we are now on target for our best ever year. The improvements have made changes in every department within the company and have given us real advantage over national competitors.
“This year, sales have already exceeded the pre-Christmas rush, our traditional busiest period and we are on target for a successful year.”
St Helens-based Delta Fluid Products Ltd is one of the country’s leading specialists in manufacturing controls, valves and fittings for fluids and gases.
They manufacture gas regulators and boiler valves and sell a diverse range of products with over 20,000 lines in stock. From domestic gas fittings in the home to pipeline connections in an oil refinery in the Far East, Delta Fluid Products have a global market with customers that include, in the UK, National Grid.
The company, established in 2002, now has 210 employees. They applied to the ICT Investment fund to improve efficiency in key areas of their business, looking to revolutionise their competitive advantage, particularly against the Far East, by using technology to compete on customer service.
The ICT investment fund granted £25K towards a range of improvements including a bar coding system for improved stock control and picking, and a new payroll system. The company also intend to take management of their website in-house and develop an on-line trading portal.
Charys Green, Financial Controller said: “This forms part of a longer term overhaul of technology that we are reviewing which will include an update of our HR software and the integration of the company’s website with its internal systems to further improve efficiency.”
The company are in the process of purchasing hardware and software to record stock control movements using barcode scanners, and rolling this out throughout the company’s three store areas. The warehouse layout will be completely bar coded and handheld devices will enable staff working in the stores to update the stock in real time without having to go to terminals.
Charys continued: “The purchase of the bar coding software has made a dramatic impact on the business. The stores are tidier, with stock in correct location and labelled and recorded more accurately and there are no more problems in getting orders out quickly.”
“The assistance of the ICT investment fund has helped the projects to move forward. We knew that we had to upgrade our payroll system but we probably wouldn’t have brought in the bar coding without the grant. The benefits have been amazing. Our costs are coming down and production is increasing due to the more effective working in the stores.”
The staff now operate hand held devices and use them almost exclusively as they appreciate the accuracy of the devices over their previous methods of working.
Mick Mawdsley, Warehouse Supervisor “Its really speeded the job up and make it so much better. All the items that we need to pick are in the correct places and our stock adjustments are down to almost 0.”
Wirral based company Goodwin Electronics have over 25 years experience in the design and manufacture of electronics. The company makes electronic systems for manufacturing including embedded control units for production lines. They provide both ‘off the shelf’ and bespoke systems.
John Owen, MD explained: “Our client list ranges from small independents through to large multi national companies.” Goodwin also design the systems and the software to support their products in-house, clients include Jaguar Halewood who use their systems on the production line for the pressing shop. They also supply and service systems for the Kellogg’s production line.
The ICT Investment fund is helping to fund Goodwin’s upgrade and investment in new hardware and software. This will mean improvements in manufacturing and stock control that will give the company greater flexibility, enabling it to take advantage of new opportunities.
The firm is in the process of buying new hardware. Their call to the ICT Investment Fund was prompted by the realisation that their existing systems would not operate once they upgraded their server. John said: “We knew that we had to get away from NT as it wasn’t being supported anymore plus we were having issues with capacity and software.”
The ICT Investment Fund gave £12,700, 40% of the total £31,780 cost of the project, which includes upgrade of manufacturing and stock control systems, integrated with the financial systems that will be multi currency. Purchase orders, invoices and paperwork will now be processed electronically and the introduction of automated data backup will avert risk of IT failure and loss of data.
John explained: “Our staff already appreciate the new PCs and screens which have replaced the old CRT monitors. The design team, using CAD, now have larger screens to make their jobs easier. We were able to consult with them and use their expertise to assist us in our purchasing decisions.”
Bar code recognition will be introduced into the stock control process, to eliminate the risk of stock errors, both inward from suppliers and outwards to customers. John explained: “We need a list of preferred suppliers and we can’t get the information that we need from our current system. We will have much better and quicker access to our purchasing history with the ability to cross reference and analyse the data to formulate our purchasing strategy”.”
“The new system will also enable us to introduce preferred products to reduce the numbers of supply lines and standardise the components that we offer. We’re aiming to do this within six months of the installation of bar coding in the stores.
John concluded by saying: “The ICT Investment Fund has given us greater scope in our upgrades It has allowed us to move more quickly otherwise we would have had to do this piecemeal. Also we’ve been able to upgrade and add functionality to our systems without this we would have just looked to replace what we had.”
Travelling through Edge Lane is difficult enough for the city’s commuters but for a business based on the road, lost time and inaccessibility due to road works were potential threats to the business that have been tackled with investment in new telephony.
Wilson Henry Partnership is a well established charted accountants and business advisors that have doubled in sized over the past ten years.
The ICT Investment Fund is providing a new telephony system and supporting IT for the company who count several trendy city centre bars amongst their clients and provide business planning from governance to the setting-up of financial reporting and financial systems as well as accountancy for their clients.
The position of the company’s premises on Edge Lane means they are affected by slow traffic flow on this congested route.
David Kirby, a partner in the firm says: “I believe that this has safeguarded our business. The project began as a protective issue but now its not hard to see the benefits.” The new system uses VoIP technology to enable remote access. This means that their employees are more responsive and can be reached quickly.
David continued “Our team members are impressed with the system. We’re very impressed with the quality of the VoIP and that the installation we have completed so far is working well. It means if I want to work at the weekend, I don’t have to drive into the office. That’s good for our carbon emissions and its saves 40 minutes of my time.
“I’m changing my working patterns as a direct result of having this system and I now work one day a week form home where I get three times more work done!”
The second phase of the project includes 3G enabled laptops for team members who are working out in the field who will have all their files available at the touch of a button.
The company has also purchased a call view system which is a vital CRM tool for the business. Immediately the system identified that 40% of incoming calls were not answered on time. This was traced to a faulty phone line that the company were previously unaware of.
David concluded: “The funding has enabled us to move more quickly on the project than if it was totally self-funded, plus we were more encouraged to make the decision and move forward with the project once we had support in place.”
Railex, a Southport-based manufacturer of filing systems is well established with a large customer base. The company successfully applied to the ICT Investment Fund for 40% funding towards their £49,000 software investment.
The firm produces a large range of office filing products and has a particular strength in the legal and accountancy sectors. Railex concentrate on the top end of the market and offer specialised products such as PH neutral folders designed to hold plates and film for the printing industry.
One of their USPs is Docuguard, an additive applied to Railex folders that stops bacteria from reproducing. This is ideal for health applications and Railex has a contract with an agent to manufacture and supply files for Norwegian hospitals. They also have a range of public sector clients and create filing systems for social services departments amongst others.
The company was already using electronic trading but while the orders were accepted in any format, they had to be printed out and dealt with manually. Enquiries and quotations were logged electronically but if they turned into an order, they too had to be added manually. Railex needed a software solution to translate between the outside world and the internal office system, enabling more efficient working and removing the risk of errors in manually entered orders.
The bulk of the budget was used for upgrading the office system to SQL based database, Syspro, providing better information throughout the company. Customers will be able to look at stock and account information and the manufacturing team will be better able to assess customer demand and react accordingly.
The new system enables better management of customer accounts and will also improve the website which will now hold detailed information about products and allow e-ordering. All of this is linked to the back office system. The website now indicates the latest stock updates and accommodates 10% web discount automatically. In the first month this was in operation, £5k of orders were generated.
Director, David Windsor explained: “This has saved a vast amount of time. The linking of photos for the back office makes telephone sales so much easier and it is now easier to ensure that customers get the right order.
“The funding has enabled us to put in place a system of dealing with order requests where none existed previously. Without the ICT fund we wouldn’t have been able to buy Syspro. This has given us new capabilities and opportunities.”
As one of the largest trade printers in the Northwest Wirral Continuous offer a print-on-demand service for marketing agencies, print brokers, printers and commercial stationers.
Wirral Continuous have successfully applied to the ICT Investment Fund to upgrade their contact management software to enable trading on-line.
In recent years, Wirral Continuous’ trade service of manufacturing continuous stationery has been augmented by producing four colour promotional and commercial print.
The Investment Fund provided 40% of a total investment of £62.967 The funding enabled the purchase of a fully integrated management information system. This comprehensive suite of software enables Wirral Continuous to efficiently manage production of a large number of orders using real-time scheduling.
Chris Laycock, Managing Director explained: “Our customers will be able to create an estimate, view and amend proofs online. Print orders can be turned around in a matter of hours.” Time and space will also be saved on archiving. The new system will store and retrieve all previous jobs, no matter how old, and will refresh them with an up to date price.
Customers can look at their history and re-order straight from this. It also allows them to check the progress of current jobs on-line, reducing the number of incoming phone calls. The company can also order from their suppliers on-line.
Chris continued: “This is beneficial to the clients as well as ourselves. We bought this software for B2B but it is flexible enough to be used for B2C. We are working towards offering templates of some of our printed products such as business cards, which the client can alter themselves and email to us. At present, our in-house design team are proofing scores of cards a day. Enabling customers will do this themselves will free up time in the studio.”
With the new system in place, the company are expecting a £300K increase in turnover by the second year of implementation and a 2% increase in their gross profit margin.
Chris Laycock, said: “ICT Invest has given us the confidence to purchase a new ICT product. Without the funding we would not have been able to invest £62K for this product. This will open up new customers for us and bring in more regular business and ties customers into our system.”
Hi-Tech Pre-School is UK First
ICT invest is helping to fund a revolutionary offering in child-care and education.
The Gingerbread House high tech pre-school in Crosby, which was opened on 9 September, is an entirely new concept in the UK pre-school and day nursery field.
The 141 place, high technology pre-school offers a day nursery and a breakfast, after-school & holiday club providing a complete ‘wrap around care’ package.
The emphasis is placed on advanced high technology. Stephen Collins, MD said: “We were one of the first in the country to install internet viewing for parents three years ago. We have gone on from there and created an entirely new concept in the UK pre-school and day nursery sector.
“ICT Invest is helping to create a new product that doesn’t yet exist in the UK. The funding is enabling a step change in the business using a combination of technologies to create a product that is unique.”
Security is the main focus through an online viewing system coupled with a biometric and fingerprint data entry system which will enable parents to leave their children in a safe and secure environment.
The educational facilities include interactive whiteboards, this is an unusual tool for a day nursery for children this young, as well as wireless broadband and wireless hub for internet access throughout.
The project will create 39 jobs, the overall investment in the project is £1 million.
Investment Will Bring Global Reach for Liverpool Design Company
ICT Invest funding is assisting an innovative local company grow their business and expand into new markets.
Uniform Communications LTD is a design and visualisation consultancy working across graphic arts, film and digital media. They have an excellent reputation locally and an increasing national profile. The company, established eight years ago is now ready to move into the global market.
Uniform were recent finalists in two categories in the CG Architect Awards held in Boston, USA and are one of the top five companies in the UK in the architectural visualisation sector.
Based in the Vanilla Factory in Liverpool’s Rope Walks Creative Quarter, recent projects include branding for Alma De Cuba bar and restaurant and art direction of projects for Liverpool’s Beetham Tower and the Radisson SAS Hotel.
Nick Howe, Manging Director, says: ”To date the main focus of the business has been the property market. We have concentrated on delivering award-winning visualisation projects but are now moving towards providing a full range of design services, including graphic design and film work for the same clients and into new sectors such as fashion, retail and leaisure. We wanted to improve our editing facilities to include High Definition (HD) editing and post production. The funding will enable us to diversify into a wider market and attract global, blue chip clients, by diversifying the services that we can provide.”
Uniform is currently working on moving image projects for commercials and film, this investment is critical to the development of their business and will give the company an advantage over competitors in the UK.
ICT Invest is providing £22k towards a total investment of £55k, to provide two High Definition edit suites for capture and editing High Definition video and film in house. This is currently being outsourced at high cost.
Nick continued: “This HD editing solution gives us the opportunity to grow the the business and will pay for itself in less than a year. It will also enable the business to pitch for work currently unachievable with our existing technology.”
The ICT Investment Fund is helping a successful Liverpool company improve its operations. Palace Chemicals in Speke make a large range of products for the DIY market under a range of brand names. They also have large contracts to supply own branded products for national DIY chains.
£25,000 funding from the fund is helping the company make a total investment of £84K to buy and implement a computer based integrated warehouse management system using bar coding covering three of their warehouse sites.
Chris Sweeney of Palace Chemicals explains: “The company has been growing consistently over many years. Following a review of the business, we drew up a list of actions to take it forward and prioritised them.
Having a computerised warehouse management system is vital to the business. Our customers are demanding a faster service and we need to remain competitive. We believe we are the largest producer of ready mixed tile adhesive in the UK. This is just one of a range of over 280 product lines that we manufacture here. Our contacts with national suppliers are demanding and we usually have just a day to turn around their large orders.”
Installing the warehouse management system will enable the company to monitor stock levels and location enabling more effective use of warehouse space and staff time. Chris continued: “This will improve our supply chain as we currently have a paper based system and rely on our staff to remember where the stock is in the warehouses.
“This is a large investment for the business and the funding assistance from ICT invest has meant that we have been able to move this project forward more quickly.”
Improved CRM for Marketing Masters
Marketing Masters is a specialist telephone and direct marketing company based in Sefton, with a large client base in the South East of England.
ICT Invest is providing 10K towards their £25K investment in VoIP to upgrade their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and telephone systems and to integrate the two.
Peter Price, Marketing Masters Managing Director said: “This investment will enable us to offer a greater service to existing clients and allow us to grow a new client base. The ICT investment fund has helped to bring this project forward by six months. We need this investment to take us to the next level and the fund is the spingboard that enables us to do this.”
“We can now employ remote workers which helps our staff who are quite scattered geographically throughout the Sefton area from Southport to Aintree and this will minimise their travel. It will also give employees greater scope, its easier to employ disabled people with remote working in place and its good to give all staff the option to work from home.”
Although majority of clients are outside the Merseyside region, all of the suppliers are local and this investment represents a potentially major income stream for them.
Peter continued: Our suppliers are becoming our trading partners and we will be able to integrate them into our internal systems.
There are cost savings for the business as VoIP enables us to make the cheaper phone calls.
“All in all, the investment will help with the positioning of our company. We have a lot of blue chip clients and we are now able to match them with the sophistication of our systems, It will increase our company’s efficiency, without making our staff work harder.”
Merseyside’s ICT investment fund made its first award to Solicitors Peter Edwards Law who have been awarded £25K from the ICT investment fund to upgrade their telecoms and computer systems. This represents 24% of their total investment of £104K and has been prompted by their desire to improve contact with vulnerable clients and the expansion of their offices in Hoylake.
The law firm is one of the country’s leading specialist human rights mental health and community care practice s and represents clients from as far a field as Yorkshire, North Wales, Shropshire and the West Midlands .
The investment will be in three phases. The first will facilitate the introduction of digital dictation and upgrading of PC and telecoms systems. This will be followed by the development of a comprehensive web site with the final stage being the introduction of video conferencing facilities.
Director, Peter Edwards explained: “We are looking to pioneer new ways of working by using technology to make it easier for us to communicate with our clients and their carers. The funding has meant we are able to be much more innovative and commit more of our funds to the project.
There are two facets to the ICT development for our business, firstly many of our staff are based around the country and video conferencing will dramatically improve our links with them. Secondly, video conferencing will improve access to legal services for our vulnerable and mentally unwell clients who I believe are the most discriminated against in our society.
The website will be very important for us, it will be an information resource for our clients and for professionals working in the mental health field and will host discussion forums and training information.”
The new £1m fund has been designed to help Merseyside businesses maximise the potential of technology. The scheme is funded by ERDF through the Objective One programme and is being managed by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.
