Specialist Group

Specialist Group is a bespoke joinery and fit-out business which provides manufacturing, project planning and installation services. It employs over 200 people and has a turnover in excess of €35 million.

With over 35 years’ experience, they have market-leading expertise in joinery, glass, and metal, thus enabling them to work on some of the most prestigious projects in the UK and Ireland.

Business Challenge

While Specialist Group had built an excellent business model, as they grew it became clear that their business processes, core files and data were in silos in disparate systems, making it difficult to get an accurate picture of the business. In addition, client knowledge resided primarily with a small number of experienced individuals.

This led to challenges and an inability to provide real-time data during the manufacturing process.

From a profitability status, the financial performance of projects was often only visible once they had been completed.

Furthermore, there was a lack of visibility of work in progress and the overall understanding of where issues were occurring was not always clear.

This delayed the management team’s ability to make timely decisions on projects.

Solution(s) Implemented:

Specialist Group required an end-to-end business solution that would give them a 360-degree view of the business and give key stakeholders relevant business insights.

A key business requirement was integrating the manufacturing floor to enable a streamlined process with real-time information about work in progress.

ProStrategy implemented a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Solution where Business Central ERP provides finance, projects, manufacturing, and warehouse management including a mobile scanning and barcode solution.

Specialist Group’s existing CAD drawings system was integrated into Business Central eliminating the duplication of data in multiple systems.

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement manages client relationships by streamlining processes, centralising client information, providing analysis, and enabling responsive customer service.

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement is enabling Specialist Group to interact with clients in a more meaningful way resulting in an increased number of opportunities and higher conversion rates.

Jet Reports and Power BI were implemented to give the finance department and key stakeholders critical data allowing them to make timely business decisions.

Business Benefits:

Specialist Group is realising the following business benefits from the solution implemented:

• Real-time project progress and profitability for project managers/finance.

• Enhanced client communication regarding project status.

• Auto creating jobs and routings from CAD resulting in more efficient planning of shop floor jobs.

• Simplifying and automating manual shop floor processes using a mobile scanning solution including barcoding.

• Managing inventory through real-time data enabling the purchasing team to order stock in a timely manner.

• Simplifying the procurement process by autogenerating suggested purchase orders.

Specialist Group now experience a higher ‘lead to order’ conversion rate. Duplication of effort by has been eliminated resulting in significant savings and increased productivity.

Specialist Group is realising increased profitability resulting from fewer project delays due to the real-time visibility provided, and productivity has increased due to the automation of end-to-end processes.

In addition, customer satisfaction has increased due to better visibility of project information.

To start your business transformation journey, contact ProStrategy at [email protected]