Anglia Business Solutions

Source: Food and Drink Digital

Date :17/03/2008 11:06:50

With last year’s turnover increasing by 33 percent and its profits doubling, Anglia Business Solutions’ MD David Hurley reveals the company’s plans for continuing growth

Written by Lucy Mowatt & Produced by Kiron Chavda

For a company with a high level of expertise, it is no surprise that Anglia Business Solutions, based in Cambridge, is seeing substantial growth. With the recent launch of its LINKFresh V2 ERP package for the fresh food sector, accompanied by a road show and online demonstrations, 2008 looks set to be a busy year for the company.

David Hurley, Managing Director, explains why he feels the company has progressed in recent years, saying that since he became the majority shareholder of the company ten years ago, he has changed the company’s focus and future direction: “We were an infrastructure company, selling networks, PCs, hardware and the services around it, but I didn’t see that was going anywhere, so we had to radically change into a software and services business.”

Since then the company has not only developed new packaged applications, but it also moved to new premises on the outskirts of Cambridge in 2005. “It’s more like a university campus than a business park,” Hurley enthuses. “We’ve got 5,500 sq ft of space and open plan meeting rooms, a river out the back and beautiful grounds.”

Increased functionality

In line with its software focus, the company has developed the LINKFresh 2 package for the fresh food sector. This, David Hurley explains, was a natural progression for its already successful ERP system aimed at the fresh produce sector. Over the past three and a half years the company has been developing LINKFresh in line with Microsoft Business Solutions’ Dynamics NAV system, which is already used by more than 65,000 companies in 150 countries worldwide. Although Anglia’s new version of LINKFresh was only released in February this year, the company has seen a very positive response from the market.

The new product has more functionality than its predecessor and it will be applicable to food markets across the globe. “LINKFresh 2 has been developed in the worldwide version of the Dynamics NAV platform so that we plan to export it,” he continues. Anglia is a shareholder in Partner Power (PPI), the world’s largest support organisation for the Dynamics NAV platform. PPI has offices in 110 countries thus providing a ready made route to market for the LINKFresh suite.

“In 2005 we started to develop a core technology and we picked up a few customers on the back of that. The food industry and the fresh food industry in particular is going though some significant changes and many of them are moving into food processing to add value and protect margins,” he adds, explaining the company’s decision to focus on a specific market. “It is one of the most challenging supply chain scenarios due to the fast moving nature of the product. This coupled with the combination of changes in legislation and the increasing demands of the major retailers mean that suppliers will have to work smarter to survive.”

Gold partnership

Anglia Business Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Partner and it has worked closely with the company in order to get the most from the Dynamics NAV (previously called Navision) platform. “We picked Navision in ’96 from about 108 possible technologies. We became a leading UK supplier of the technology prior to the acquisition of the company by Microsoft in 2002,” Hurley says.

“Basically we’ve always found that Microsoft has been very partner-centric and they put a huge amount of effort into partners,” he continues, saying that not only does Microsoft offer support but it shares information and encourages best practice.

In addition to ERP systems, Anglia Business Solutions has also developed a unique suite of mobility applications, allowing customers to access their business information while on the move. Anglia made a significant three year investment in development of a set of tools based on the .NET Framework platform. These were designed to securely extend the business information held on the Dynamics NAV platform to both Internet and mobility users. The mobility applications developed using these tools have been particularly useful in the food industry as they dynamically track and trace products through the entire supply chain.

Return on investment

“Technology should be viewed like any other investment,” says Hurley.

“The directors of many businesses with ineffective systems tend to be the highest paid administrators,” he explains. “However, by automating routine administrative tasks while providing relevant management information, Anglia’s solutions reduce the amounts of paperwork carried out by senior management. This also enables them to focus on improving the effectiveness of their people and processes. Here IT can act as a business facilitator. As such, where the technology is targeted on the pain points of the business, the return on investment for the client is quite phenomenal and that reflects itself in the bottom line.”

By offering a high quality packaged system that, for the most part, can be just ‘plugged in’ to its client’s business, the effects of Anglia’s technology can be seen very quickly. “If it’s ready made to meet the needs of that industry, you’re already 95 percent of the way towards a successful solution. Furthermore, with a modern agile platform such as Dynamics NAV to work with, the application can quickly be tweaked to meet the specific needs of that customer. This is a key factor in successful installations as where integrated solutions are involved, the “one size fits all” approach simply doesn’t work.”

Hurley proudly asserts that Anglia Business Solutions has won numerous awards for its products over the last four years. These include the SME IT Solution and the Vertical Solution of the Year for LINKFresh at the 2007 Channel Network Awards. “The companies that we’re up against are the top companies in the UK, so to win against those is quite gratifying,” he says.

Experienced consultants

The company’s 45 consultants are experts in their field and have welcomed these awards as recognition of their talent. “We’re working in the supply chain...and if people haven’t got five years experience in supply chain and two to three years experience in IT then you can’t really put them out there to offer advice and guidance, because they’d certainly lose credibility,” Hurley says. It is a big risk to allow a consultancy to look at your business and change your processes, so you have to get it right, and Anglia Business Solutions has proven experience with numerous high profile contracts. “In addition to recruiting in the UK,” he continues, “We take people on from as far away as India, Russia, Lithuania, South Africa, Malta, New Zealand and Australia. These are highly qualified resources with excellent technology and business skills.” He explains that potential employees recognise Anglia Business Solutions as a dynamic award winning company with growth potential, which will develop their own expertise and knowledge.

These consultants are also continuously trained to ensure that they give the best advice, while completely understanding client relationships and developments in technology. As such, employees are encouraged to share knowledge across the various teams as well as undertaking external training at all levels. “Employee development is a key part of what we are doing; making sure we’re still on target for what we want to achieve,” Hurley asserts.

Future growth

Marketing is an important element of the company’s business too. Not only does the company have internet presence and run road shows but it holds seminars, sends notification emails to clients in the vertical food sector, while also contributing to printed media. “One of the problems with the fresh produce market is education, so every month I write an article on what IT is up to for the Fresh Produce Journal,” Hurley says. Not only does the article act as an advertorial for Anglia but it also provides information on technology trends to the sector.

“We believe that we’re only scratching the surface in the food vertical marketplace,” he continues, “and this year is going to be big as pressure on margins and quality increases in the fresh food sector. As Microsoft increases its focus in the mid range business management sector, our food related deployment expertise and advanced LINKFresh packaged functionality means that we are well placed to capitalise on our investments over the past four years.” With effective marketing and experienced consultants working with this targeted application, it is easy to see why he has such confidence.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Anglia Business Solutions