Loughton Contracts Plc A case study
Business Intelligence Dashboards.
Timely, accurate business insights that deliver the critical knowledge required to make the right decisions – business intelligence - are the lifeblood of EVERY business.
Analysing business intelligence data however can be a complex task.
In many organisations, this crucial information tends to be dispersed across departments and created by a host of different technologies.
Collating it is an arduous task, and when it does finally come together, it’s already out of date.
This was precisely the challenge faced by the UK’s leading flooring contractor Loughton Contracts PLC.
After a rigorous search for the right blend of software and technology expertise with the ability to communicate at C Level, Paul Smyth, Managing Director of Loughton Contracts Plc, invited Anthony Kirrane and www .com ltd to work with his Finance Director, Ian Brownjohn FCCA to modernise and streamline the technological part of the business.
Ian Brownjohn is the financial director of Loughton Contracts PLC, an award-winning, ISO 9001 accredited business with 400+ personnel. Every week, he must present financial KPI reports to the board.
With data spread throughout the organisation on a raft of systems including Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Access and Sage, those weekly reports would take days to prepare. Weekends were spent sifting through departmental reports. Family time was almost non-existent.
Worse still, by the time the reports were created and printed out on reams of A3, most of the data they contained was out of date. And if a board member wanted to delve further into any of the information presented? Pretty much impossible without further time-consuming investigation.
Thankfully for Ian and everyone else involved, that is how it USED to be. Nowadays, Ian spends weekends with his family.
Business Intelligence Dashboards: tap for more.
The data in Ian’s reports is up to date within 15 minutes maximum and can be viewed by the board members on any internet enabled device, anytime, anywhere, whenever it suits them.
What’s more, if someone wants to drill down for more detail, it’s now a breeze. Here is how it all changed.
Critical business intelligence delivered in real time.
The maxxpal X Cloud Platform is a cloud-based suite of business productivity tools. One of the key innovations of The Platform is Business Intelligence Dashboards.
With the ability to query data from ANY source including out-dated legacy software, Business Intelligence Dashboards funnels EVERYTHING into one cohesive display in real time and delivers it via a secure login on any internet enabled device.
So the information you need to make critical decisions, and to keep you on top of your financial position, is right there, any time you want it, totally up to date.
As a client of maxxpal IT Support since 2011, we identified that Loughton Contracts PLC would be able to draw exceptional advantage from Business Intelligence Dashboards.
Amazed by the amount of wasted time spent preparing out of date reports and mindful of the perils of being unable to see a real time snapshot of the current financial position of the business, we set about tailoring The Platform to suit the individual needs of Loughton Contracts.
Theoretical Position. Real-time insight that’s incredibly valuable.
Theoretical Position is a custom-designed dashboard that displays current profit or loss. Based on captured financial information for any individual project, this information is of exceptional value.
If a negative is detected, Loughton Contracts raises a query with the commercial department to investigate the situation.
Sometimes it comes to light that a supplier has been paid too soon, a payment certificate is overdue or that money has not been collected on time from debtors. Not only is it project-specific, it is also client-specific, enabling Loughton Contracts to monitor the unique trends of a client.
It’s a simple yet incredibly powerful addition to the finance department’s toolkit. In fact, in terms of value to Loughton Contracts, it was on one occasion worth £300,000.
Fully customisable. Because every business is unique.
The major advantage with The Platform is that it is designed to offer unlimited customisation.
This means it can be 100% tailored to the SPECIFIC needs of a business. And that’s precisely what we did for Loughton Contracts PLC, and what we continue to do every time they present a new idea for functionality.
Working closely with financial director Ian Brownjohn, we custom-developed ten unique Business Intelligence Dashboards and carried out extensive customisation to various core features of The Platform. Everything was geared towards saving Loughton Contracts PLC valuable time and resources by removing the need to spend hours sifting through information to try to identify areas for financial and operational improvement. And it worked. But this was not the only benefit they came to enjoy.
Missing payment. £300K uncovered.
Thanks to Business Intelligence Dashboards, a potential for delay in invoicing for £300,000 was highlighted to the board at Loughton Contracts. Without this early intelligence, the board is in no doubt that the payment would have remained undiscovered until the following period or at the completion of the project when the final accounts are prepared. With the gap detected, the funds were harnessed within days, improving cash flow for the business and the project almost immediately.
Ongoing customisation. Express delivery.
Loughton Contracts PLC will often ask us for system tweaks and functionality updates.
Something we pride ourselves on is how quickly we can react to such requests, and how rapidly we are able to implement them. On one occasion we delivered as many as eight tweaks in a single day to a complex financial dashboard.
We are dedicated to working closely with our clients and aim to give them whatever they ask for, precisely how they ask for it.
Loughton Contracts PLC currently has over 250 registered users of the maxxpal X Cloud Platform, all of whom enjoy a cohesive working environment with critical information at their fingertips whenever they need it. The Platform has saved literally thousands of productivity hours.
Some quotes from this client...
"The maxxpal X Cloud Platform will become our hub for ALL our business requirements."
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
"maxxpal has adapted The Platform to suit our business needs, something they fully understand"
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
"The financial aspects, especially our KPIs, give us instant, live results. Variations in what was expected can be easily drilled into to discover more detail."
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
"Small is definitely beautiful in the case of maxxpal. The personal service we receive is second to none. Anthony Kirrane and the guys at maxxpal have never let us down wheneve we needed them."
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
"Anthony Kirrane and his team at maxxpal are developing The Platform each and every day. Their efforts are saving us time and money and it’s all down to the collated information readily available through the dashboards."
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
"The X Cloud Platform is helping our business 'join-up' all our departments."
Ian Brownjohn FCCA / Financial Director, Loughton Contracts Plc
The maxxpal X Cloud Platform is readily accessible and customisable for businesses of ALL sizes. To learn more about how it could transform the way YOUR organisation operates, talk to us today
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