Case Study:
SPV Group
SPV Group are a UK based roofing and cladding business who work with a variety of well known blue-chip companies to achieve high quality services for their clients.
Words from the Client
“Karl, from CB Dynamics, came in to see us at SPV Group and looked into several of our business processes. They went through all of our recent invoices and found suppliers that are cheaper and ones that were charging at a higher rate.
CB Dynamics have managed to save us a considerable amount of money and also gave us ideas on how to improve our business’ efficiency, with one solution being the introduction of a bespoke intranet system to improve business management and increase efficiency within the office.
Karl at CB Dynamics has been a pleasure to work with and we would recommend their services to any business that is looking to save money and improve processes in areas which may have overlooked.”
Managing Director – SPV Group
The Problems
Inefficient fuel card usage
With 150 employees and a commercial fleet of 60 vehicles, their current provider was not supporting the business as it grew. With ‘at pump pricing’ and no analytics available the fuel cards were either not being used which lead to additional expense claims being made or chose locations based on convenience, even motorway service stations where additional surcharges applied.
Lack of visibility on quotations and conversion to works
Quotes coming into the generic office email and forwarded on to the respective client manager. This meant loss of client engagement, potential revenue loss but worse of all, respect. Not to mention the added stress placed on the team(s) to turn those tender requests around.
Stock Turnover / holding
Absence of a procurement manager has led to job by job order placements and ad-hoc orders for stock items; orders placed based on relationships and not what is best for the company. The processes in place also let to uncertainty as to who placed the order and duplicate orders being placed by members of the same team but working in differing locations.
Time sheets
Handwritten or delivered in the text of an email. Inconsistencies with CIS reductions and timely receipt of time sheets and expenses. All factors which have led to reduced efficiency from both the payroll / expenses team and the individuals recording their time / that of their team.
The Solution
Stock Management
Reduce Admin Time
Fuel Cost Savings
SPV Group and CB Dynamics met initially to discuss the areas of frustration within the business. Allowing an overview of the situation and provide insight / context to the situation, CB Dynamics took the opportunity to take the detail away and present back a proposal of works which would break each element down into its own workstream.
This allowed for a scheduled programme of works but also the flexibility for the client (SPV Group) to take part, parts, or all of the suggested works.
The first action taken was to review supplier invoices from the previous quarter, identify suppliers and products involved and rationalise product ranges and frequency of orders placed.
Very quickly it was identified that certain stockists were being contacted several times a day and, in some instances, for a single item or what appeared to be a last minute’s requests for ‘stock’ items.
Working with the client, we produced a process for materials to be ordered both into stock and for delivery to client sites. It was also identified that maintaining a constant stock holding would reduce the time taken for stock take along with more accurate costings of on-going / tendered works.
The introduction of a procurement manager as at the point of writing is being considered with the business case reviewed by the client’s management team.
Upon review of the time sheets, the mandraulic nature of the current processes meant that the client was constantly frustrated by the time taken to do what should have been some of the simpler tasks needed within the offices administration / payroll team. CB Dynamics reviewed several options with web / mobile based applications. The result being a robust time recording solution that can also encompass expense repayments from receipt recording.
This in its totality has reduced the time taken to perform the payroll and expenses pay-run by ~40%.
The added benefit here being the significant reduction in paper usage within the office as all but the odd exceptional document for approval is stored electronically.
Quotations have formed part of a larger programme of works which encompasses an entirely new and bespoke intranet system being built. CB Dynamics has been involved with the specification for this ensuring that the end product will encompass task allocation (to include associated actions), holiday entitlement and tracking (ensuring a visual metric for the workforce to easily identify any bottlenecks coming from the workflow and associated workforce availability). There is now an SLA (service level agreement) in place where the client will respond within 24 hours of the invitation to tender being received to acknowledge receipt and size / detail required for the quotation, a scheduled time frame for future correspondence.
The last area focused on was the review of fuel cards. The clients existing provider had a limited offering with no reporting or analytics available and no saving seen from pump prices. CB Dynamics approached several providers and settled on, following reviews with SPV, a provider which not only provides saving at ‘the pump’ and an online portal for easily understanding reporting but also offers a national network with minimal surcharge for motorway usage.
SPV are so pleased with the service and functionality offered that their fleet (50 vehicles) is now covered by this provider with sub-contractors to be brought into the offering following an initial trial period within the core SPV fleet.
Business Consulting
Business Analytics
Financial Consulting
