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Don't be "chicken" - make the change!
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Focus of study:
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Business process improvements/Hardware
and Software |
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Sector:
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Farming/Distribution |
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Impact:
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Local & National |
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| Updating old IT systems usually
means parting with a large sums of money, only to find that the needs
of the business have evolved and that the replacement system does
not meet the changed requirements. This could have been the case for
NFU if it hadn't sought advice from a TMB accredited adviser. |
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| Background |
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| NFU, a poultry industry organisation,
were running an old costings system producing data for publication.
The system, originally written in the late 80's, was starting to creak
at the seams and a replacement was needed sooner rather than later.
The key question was how to update a core business system without
losing the use of all the extremely valuable information it stored?
They contacted Kevin Stephens, an adviser with TMB accreditation.
The David Taylor, Broiler Specialist explained "Working with
an adviser who has been TMB accredited gave us the assurance we needed
before we would let anyone near our core business system." |
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| Kevin took a hard look at
the business and noticed that staff were having to do a lot of work
to complete just one report. |
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| Kevin explained: "When
I work with a client I always focus on the needs of their business
first and then complete a thorough walk-through of their business
processes to see not only what they do, but how they do it. This work
focuses on what the systems can and can't do and what the staff have
to do to make up for the shortcomings of the systems. |
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| Having established the nature
of the business and the core business processes I can determine if
there is an existing software package available or if a new bespoke
software package needs to be developed." |
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| Project Outcomes |
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| Bespoke Package |
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| Following a thorough investigation
into the current software and working practices, Kevin concluded that
bespoke software would offer the best way forward. |
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| The package Kevin developed
removed or automated a significant number of operations reducing the
time required to complete the process by nearly two thirds. Further
automation transformed the process of producing the information for
the publications allowing staff to switch from processing information
to providing analysis and interpretation. |
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| Most dramatic of all automating
the annual analysis reduced a three week manual exercise to a couple
of clicks with the mouse |
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