Read on to find out more about the impact of our business process improvement and IT solutions have made for our customers across a range of industries including retail, technology, pharmaceutical and telecoms.
Success stories
Tesco
Four Business Solutions-installed IPOS software is helping to keep the lights on at Tesco stores across the UK. Retail giant Tesco has 4000 British stores, with thousands of other daily maintenance tasks. The responsibility of its Engineering Maintenance Services Limited (EMS) department, Tesco required support with its IT infrastructure to ensure it was fit for purpose.
The company asked us to install a new, streamlined purchasing system using our iPOS procurement solution. iPOS is an internet-based tool which has been designed to minimise procurement costs. Its web-based solution harnesses the latest technology to deliver an intuitive, easy-to-use requisitioning system, allowing employees to quickly select items from catalogues, favourite-item lists or previous orders.
The first elements of the completed system met the tight deadline and were up and running within three weeks. Its users tell us they now have far more operational efficiency, and the system has subsequently expanded to meet other business needs. EMS says iPOS is ‘just the start of the journey’.
‘We had financial control – Four Business Solutions has given us operational efficiency.‘
Stuart Lloyd, Business Consultant, EMS
Tigo
TIGO is the trading name of $3bn multinational telecoms company Millicom. When the business began operating in Guatemala and Tanzania, it asked Four Business Solutions to be a partner, supporting rollouts across both countries. Creating a mobile phone service involves multi-million pound budgets to stock thousands of handsets and meet the infrastructure costs of a national network of towers. Directors had to reduce spending and paperwork, pay suppliers on time, and initiate a faster, more efficient way of working.
Our consultants advised the company to integrate the iPOS procurement suite, which shows spending at a glance and makes life easier for users. Given our previous experience in developing markets we were confident this would work despite the countries’ different infrastructural and local business needs.
The move to an electronic system offered immediate benefits. Stock management improved and managers told us they instantly had a better handle on all the transactions. Staff reported they felt empowered and working practices improved dramatically. We managed staff training throughout this process and TIGO now plans to expand iPOS across the business.
‘We loved to see our staff so much more productive, after just half an hour’s training!’
Andrew Hodgson, CFO, Tigo
Napp
As an expanding healthcare business with a global market, Napp was keen to take control of its contract management. The company required an electronic system across all operations to negotiate relationships more efficiently, manage risks and generate clear, regular reporting. Four deployed Contract Insight to help Napp create a smooth administrative process, and free up time to focus on the dynamic, innovative elements of its growing healthcare business.
Contract Insight is a feature-rich, secure, flexible system that can multiple contracts and vendors while allowing users quick access to all data required. Its installation was such a success that it’s now being rolled out globally across the organisation.
‘Four helped us deploy a contract management solution that has improved the processing, management and visibility of all our contract work. As a pharmaceutical business, we have to be able to properly manage risk, which this gives us. Four have been a real pleasure to work with and we now intend to use them across the rest of our group.‘
Taposh Bhattacharya, Project Manager, Napp
Allocate Software
Organisation made easy for medical staff after Four paired up with Allocate Software to roll out new rosters across the NHS. Four was delighted to accept the challenge when a market leader in workforce planning asked us to help roll out a new rota system across 30 NHS Trusts.
Four consultants and Allocate are working closely on this complex project, sharing our expertise in budget management, e-learning and cultural change.
Our partnership has already delivered huge financial savings and simplified work patterns for thousands of medical staff.
‘It’s not just a job to them and I find that impressive.’
Allocate Software (formerly Manpower)
Royston Morgan, Healthcare Services Manager
Celtel
Celtel is a telecommunications company that operates across Africa. As it expanded its networks, pouring £750 million into the region, the business needed more control, and fast. It wanted to set up electronic purchasing in just three months. Within the context of a rapidly growing organisation, the need for tighter budgetary control over spending was essential. There was also a real need for ‘cost pipeline visibility’ both within individual countries and across the group.
The criteria for the right solution covered many important issues. Integration with SunSystems was critical for accurate budget checking in real-time. Celtel wanted to avoid the batch interface option and saw real-time integration as essential for the project’s success. Four chose iPOS procurement from Professional Advantage for Celtel, as we knew it would work with its SunSystems accounting software. We focused on change management and developed e-learning tools to make training remote users in different languages far easier.
The results were immediate. Celtel saved $23m in its first year. Users are now directed to select from approved supplier lists, which cuts down considerably on ad hoc purchasing. Every team has access to the advanced-enquiry data interrogation tool. This gives a real-time display of purchasing information and allows up to date document tracking. Every department can view its real spend, against budget, in just a few clicks of a mouse.
‘We needed the very best consultants to help us achieve a successful outcome.’
Nick Schild, Procurement Director, Celtel
Biosensors
Our cloud-based contract management system freed up more time for this MedTech specialist to deliver surgical innovations straight to theatre. Biosensors International specialises in developing, making and marketing state-of-the-art medical devices, such as stents (small tubes) used during heart surgery and other critical care. It’s the fourth largest player in the drug-eluting stent market, with global headquarters in Switzerland and Singapore.
Biosensors commissioned Four to provide an electronic solution to control contracts across different continents, freeing up staff for the critical business of getting new devices into operating theatres. We installed our cloud-based Contract Insight solution, so it could manage its entire contract life cycle with the click of a mouse.
The solution quickly enabled Biosensors to handle everything electronically – from contracts that had been running 20 years, to brand new suppliers. Biosensors International sought to streamline costs, increase revenue, speed up the sales process when marketing new products and, crucially, stay on top of a range of complex, international regulatory requirements. The company tells us they’ve achieved all their goals, and they can now attach critical metadata to every contract, giving managers more insight at a glance.
‘Four’s Contract Insight software fulfils our need for electronic control so well that we have expanded it across all our global operations. We were highly impressed with the standard of customer service from the team at Four Business Solutions.’
Biosensors International, Frédérique Hagner, Legal Manager