A family business established almost a century ago, Beaverbrooks jewellers is a familiar sight on many high streets. With more than 60 shops, Beaverbrooks is a growing concern, opening at least two new retail outlets each year. "Diamonds are still a girl’s best friend", says Patrick Walker, Head of MIS. "And weddings and engagements as well as Christmas and special occasions are all opportunities for people to indulge in beautiful things."
However, increased paperwork and administration were becoming an issue with staff at the branches and head office. "Our retail sales teams prefer to spend time with customers, rather than paperwork and it seemed that much of their time was being taken up with phone calls and admin tasks", says Walker.
ORDER PROCESSING
As a retail jeweller much of Beaverbrooks’ business is in providing special order items - wedding and engagement rings, necklaces, silverware and watches. While each shop stocks the range of wedding and engagement rings, it is rare that they will all be available from stock to fit all sizes. "Most couples will choose the design of the ring together, and then the finger is measured and the ring will be ordered by the branch either from our central warehouse, another local branch or directly from the supplier." The result is that much of the Beaverbrook staff time has been taken up following the progression of the order. "We needed a system that would manage this for us", confirms Walker. In addition, management information demands, reading and circulating memos and corporate information all take up time too.
"We discovered that there was a mass of email going round and round the organisation and not always reaching the appropriate person", explains Walker.
INFORMATION FLOW
In order to identify the main issues facing staff, both at head office and in the branches, a focus group comprising department managers from head office and regional managers as well as local branch managers and sales staff was set up. The focus group identified that branch staff wanted better and faster access to information as well as a reduction in their administration workload. Too much time was taken up on the phone requesting information and updates on orders, leaving less time to spend with customers.
Consequently Walker and his team felt that the company would benefit from using tools that included document management and workflow with the possibility of an intranet element. KnowledgeWorker, a content and business process management system from Datum International was chosen from six suppliers for its ability to reduce administration and provide collaboration between head office and all the nationwide branches. “KnowledgeWorker was a really good fit with our business”, explains Walker. “With the emphasis on document management and workflow, we could see exactly how this would map with our existing processes to automate many of the repetitive tasks that had become so time-consuming.”
CENTRAL KNOWLEDGE BASE
Accessed via a browser, KnowledgeWorker sits on two servers at head office and has allowed Beaverbrooks to create a framework enabling all company documentation and knowledge to be stored in the central repository. Automatic audit trailing provides accountability and the version control feature reduces duplication of work and ensures that the latest version of a document or information set is available.
KnowledgeWorker enhances and replaces internal systems based on email, word processing, spreadsheets and paper based documents that were used to share information between branches and head office departments. The workflow element provided by the Business Process Management module has been implemented to track day-to-day tasks between the stores and head office. "Workflow has removed a burden from staff, who no longer have to use the telephone or fax to find out the status of an order or piece of information. KnowledgeWorker is easily accessible and instantly provides the status of every action, whether it’s outstanding or completed”, says Walker.
As a result of employing KnowledgeWorker and changing procedures Beaverbrooks has subtly shifted some of the workload from the branches back to head office. "Our special order department has more work to do as all special orders are currently passed directly to them through KnowledgeWorker", explains Walker.
CUSTOMER-FOCUSED
This new procedure means that branch staff now place all orders centrally with the head office department. KnowledgeWorker gives instant visibility of the status of every order, removing the need for additional phone calls resulting in all staff having more time to spend on their ’proper’ jobs. "The special order department uses its time sourcing special orders rather than answering queries and chasing suppliers and branches and branch staff can spend more time with customers."
KnowledgeWorker gives Beaverbrooks the ability to support its branch staff more effectively by providing additional central resources and support, reducing local administration and improving communication. Introducing workflow procedures has reduced the need for branch staff to carry out mundane repetitive tasks with each job flowing easily between the relevant departments, removing the need for time-consuming email communication and the risk of it not reaching the appropriate person.
Following the introduction of KnowledgeWorker the feedback from branch staff has been extremely positive. The system is now used extensively by staff and the initial training requirements were minimal. "KnowledgeWorker has a familiar internet type interface", says Walker. "To support its introduction we produced a voice and video presentation for staff to watch and then conducted a phone training session with the designated training co-ordinator in each branch." Once the training was completed, the branch trainer simply cascaded the training throughout the branch. Central IT also provides a telephone support line although usage has been low, a good measure of the success of the training programme and the ease of use of the application.
Branch staff use KnowledgeWorker extensively for stock enquiries, placing central special orders, sharing company information and making sure that the merchandising in each branch and in the window displays conform to the current company branding and directives.
FUTURE PLANS
"KnowledgeWorker is so versatile that we keep finding new applications and processes to include", says Walker. Plans for 2007 include linking branches into more head office systems to give even more access to central information. Health and Safety information continually needs updating, and with KnowledgeWorker Beaverbrooks can be sure that each branch has access to the latest information.
Recruitment is another time consuming and essential activity requiring a high level of communication between the branch manager and head office. A major project to incorporate HR processes into KnowledgeWorker is underway.
50% ADMIN REDUCTION
For staff at Beaverbrooks, KnowledgeWorker has already significantly reduced the administration load at both branches and head office, while giving staff more access to information. Fewer phone calls and less time used up chasing the status of orders is allowing branch staff to spend more time with customers, while the special orders department are able to process more requests. Increased efficiencies through the integration of business processes into KnowledgeWorker have led to improved productivity throughout the organisation.
"KnowlegeWorker has improved our methods of storing information and sharing knowledge between employees and will help us to achieve our company objective of reducing our initial administration by 50%", confirms Walker. “Furthermore, we keep finding more activities that KnowledgeWorker can help us with in order to make us even more effective as a business.”
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