Advanced Cloud technology provides foundation for Aspire Furniture’s rapid business growth

Advanced Business Cloud Essentials scales up as Aspire expands, and orders are processed over 150 times quicker.

Aspire Furniture was established four years ago, with our two founders working at a kitchen table. We have gone from strength to strength enjoying almost constant growth. We now employ 20 people, and forecast this will grow to 40 staff in the next 12 months. Our revenue of over £2m in 2016 is set to double in 2017.

We started successfully selling mattresses online, but wanted more control of our stock and to streamline costs, so opened our own manufacturing facility – Aspire Manufacturing – about a year ago. Combining the skills of our own in-house manufacturing team, along with like-minded manufacturing partners, we now offer a range of quality beds, divans, headboards and mattresses. We take the time to understand our customers’ needs, and look to create innovative new approaches to fill gaps in the market. We offer a comprehensive solution from initial product design right through to delivery of the finished item. Quality is the backbone of our business, but value for money is also important – we source raw materials at best prices, and ensure manufacturing processes are as efficient and effective as possible.

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An ERP solution that fulfilled our vision

Right from the start, we knew we wanted an integrated ERP solution – the ability to manage all your business processes from one source and have real-time information at your fingertips is very compelling. Kit Burgoyne, our co-founder at Aspire Furniture, explains , “From day one I had a clear vision of what I wanted from our ERP solution: a scalable tool that could grow with us and would automate and manage the full logistical process from sales orders, to invoice and purchase order creation, right through to sending out the orders.”

One of the first things we did as a business was to look at ERP options and conduct some trials. However there were issues with some of the solutions we reviewed, for example, stock management wasn’t good enough, or the accounts element was weak. Advanced put forward a Software as a Solution (Saas) offering that was accessible, adaptable and the best all round package. Advanced Business Cloud Essentials promised a complete view of our entire business process from accounts and payroll through to operations, stock, customer communications and the supply chain.

Orders are now processed over 150 times quicker

The implementation proved to be smooth, and an expert from Advanced was always on hand to help us. As soon as the solution was in place it ran so slickly, immediately saving us time and simplifying our processes. Before, when we were processing orders manually, we would have two members of staff spending three hours daily on 50-80 orders. Now, with the automated software, we can process 500 orders in 15 minutes – that’s over 150 times quicker, it’s absolutely fantastic. The solution scales up every time we do something new Things that would have taken a member of the team hours to complete, we can now automate and do in minutes. This technology has helped us create better quality jobs – one person can do a job that used to take five people, so we can pay that one person more and offer them less repetitive manual work. It frees up resources and we can retrain staff and move them into important areas of business development to help us grow further. Once we had introduced the manufacturing element of our business, we found that all the features we needed were already in the system for us to use in the production process – we just needed to switch them on.

Advanced Business Cloud Essentials is integrated into our manufacturing plant, and it creates bills of materials, keeps staff on the production line updated, deducts stock off our system, monitors low stock and lets us know when we need to re-order raw materials from our suppliers. We used to worry how we would cope if our logistics supervisor was going to be away. Now he simply sets the system up before he leaves and someone unqualified can easily pick up the role. When we started out we were a very modest wholesaler, and the software was perfect for us. Later, as we grew and launched the manufacturing side of our business, there was no need for any major server or infrastructure upgrades. And now we are moving into retail, and have launched a retail website, the additional features we require in the software can again simply be switched on and integrated into the new website and all our processes. The solution has been great, it’s so adaptable and scales up every time we do something new – it’s always ready to go and flexes as we have grown.

Cloud has been incredible for us

Advanced Business Cloud Essentials has been an incredible tool for supporting our growth over the last four years; it has shown no sign of strain. If we need more users, we can add them instantly. We have moved premises many times because we have grown so fast, and every time we move we go to our new spot, open our laptops, log-on and we are fully operational instantly, which has made a huge difference.

Kit comments, “The access I get has been so valuable. I can see a complete view of the business, accessing the solution wherever I am – working from home, out and about or even on holiday. The live process view is a brilliant tool, so wherever I am I can log on with my phone and see where an order is, whether it has gone through production and if it is ready to ship. If I am with a customer, I can tell them exactly what is happening in real-time. One of the keys to our success is that the sales team has such confidence in the system that they can focus on sales, confident that the back-office logistics will be running smoothly.”

Brilliant from start to finish

Kit sums up, “Moving to a connected Cloud strategy is fast becoming the right choice for many organisations looking to drive efficiencies, innovate and expand. We would never turn back from the Cloud. It gives us a competitive edge. For example, we have recently started working with Tesco Direct. They were exacting in their requirements, and examined our processes carefully, but we satisfied all their requests. We could quadruple in size and still stay on the same system. It has future-proofed our organisation by offering flexibility, revenue success, growth and now allows us to launch into the retail consumer market.”

“We are expecting growth to continue at a rapid rate, we are attracting more and more customers all the time, launching more products and refining our website. Advanced Business Cloud Essentials has been the foundation of our business success and is absolutely instrumental in our future. It has taken us from one employee to 20; we think it could take us from 20 to 100. It’s been brilliant for us from start to finish.”

Advanced Business Cloud Essentials has been the foundation of our business success and is absolutely instrumental in our future. It has taken us from one employee to 20; we think it could take us from 20 to 100. It’s been brilliant for us from start to finish.
Kit Burgoyne, Co-founder, Aspire Furniture

The HBP GroupWho Are We?

Our organisation consists of three companies; HBP Systems Ltd. Kamarin Computers Ltd and Jugo Systems. HBP are based in Lincolnshire, Kamarin in Cambridgeshire and Jugo in Hampshire. Between us we cover the vast majority of the UK and work under The HBP Group name to provide a seamless service between our northern and southern offices.

We specialise in providing Cloud MRP software solutions which help manufacturers increase efficiency, reduce waste, delight customers, improve reporting and give them the time to focus on running their own business.