LH Evans
Mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
LH Evans remains Wales’ largest independent electrical wholesaler, with over 3,000 active customers across six branches.
Learning points
- Utilisation of broadband-enabled digital technologies requires complementary investment in staff training and upskilling.
- Appointing an IT specialist to oversee the digitalisation of the business helps to ease the transition and provide a focal source of support for employees during the transition period.
- Improvements to the bandwidth and reliability of the broadband connections provides the confidence and capability to incorporate a wider array of digital tools.
Overview of the business
With nearly 60 years of experience, the electrical wholesaler has plans to extend its remit to include maintenance and building supplies. LH Evans Ltd also acts as an umbrella trademark for the electrical lighting retailer EMA Lighting.
Superfast broadband adoption
Previously the business purchased a basic broadband package alongside a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It is estimated that the network would lose connectivity between three to four times a day, causing significant disruption to the business and its operations. Both the broadband provision and network have undergone improvements over the last three years.
Across the six branches, two offices have adopted a leased line with download and upload speeds of up to 100 Mbps and the remaining offices all have superfast broadband connectivity running at speeds of approximately 40Mbps for download and 20 Mbps for upload.
In addition, the VPN has been replaced with a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), which offers a more sophisticated and faster routing technique. These developments have resulted in vast improvements in speed and reliability, allowing for greater use of digital technologies across the business.
In total, it is estimated that these services cost the business £2,000 per month, including VAT. To reduce this outlay and increase efficiency, the business aims to adopt a software-defined networking (SD-WAN) network in the near future, which is estimated to save between £600-700 per month.
LH Evans information flow diagram
Highlighting the internal and external communication flows of the business.
Os na all eich meddalwedd gynorthwyol ddarllen y ddogfen hon, gallwch chi ofyn am fersiwn hygyrch drwy ebostio web@caerdydd.ac.uk. Cynhwyswch yr adnoddau cynorthwyol a ddefnyddiwch chi a’r fformat sydd ei angen arnoch.
IT skills capacity
Alongside developments in the broadband infrastructure, the business has invested in its IT capacity and skills over the last three years. In particular, a specialist in-house IT manager has been employed to oversee the digitalisation of the business and its implementation.
As a part of this transition approximately £100,000 has been spent on upgrading the IT infrastructure, hardware and software and staff training. This includes incremental advancements, such as replacing old desktops and the incorporation of dual screens, as well as the changes to the network and broadband infrastructure.
Online IT training courses
One of the challenges of the transition is helping to support the team as they adapt to the amended processes and attain the relevant IT skills needed to fully benefit from the digital upgrades. Responding to these challenges, the business has encouraged its staff to sign up to online IT training courses to improve their IT skillset and boost their confidence when using the new digital technologies.
Social media
A further digital and social media specialist has been appointed, helping to develop an online presence for the business. Using multiple digital mediums (website, Facebook, Twitter), LH Evans is able to extend its potential client reach without having to invest large sums in an advertising budget. Instead, ad hoc payments of approximately £30 allow for tailored Facebook advertisements, using videos to promote new content and attract new clients. The views for each advertisement can range from 200 to several thousand, resulting in spikes on the website and increased footfall for the retail component of the business (EMA Lighting).
Use of digital technologies
LH Evans has expanded its use of digital technologies in the last three years. One area where there has been a significant investment in digital infrastructure is in relation to communication tools that better support the internal and external correspondence between employees, clients and suppliers. For example, the business has replaced its analogue telephones with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These digital phones allow calls to be made through the Internet, cutting down the need for multiple landlines and allowing calls to be received when working remotely.
Communication
Digital tools have also been used to support internal communication, using instant messaging and implementing Microsoft Teams that supports the sharing of documents within a central platform. There are plans to expand the roll out of the messaging service to customers once it becomes fully operational.
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) has also been incorporated, sending periodic mailshots containing a newsletter. These support the digital and social mediums, providing a line of communication to the existing customers while also extending the customer base. For the retail side of the business, EMA Lighting, e-commerce is an important tool. The e-commerce platform, Shopify, is used to manage orders since it provides an easy-to-use and reasonably priced service.
Enterprise resource planning
A key investment has been in the bespoke Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software SAP ECC6, allowing for the integration of the main business processes. The ERP costs approximately £600,000, creating greater integration for sales, CRM, finance and supply-chain management.
The business has also implemented Microsoft Office 2016 across the sites and is developing plans to upgrade its Intranet.
Once the developments have been assessed further digitalisation may be undertaken. For example, the feasibility of introducing a mobile application to access stock, CRM and finance tools is being considered.
Business performance
Efficiency-related benefits also stem from the improvements to the broadband connectivity. Previously accountants' reports would need to run overnight, whereas these can now be processed and sent instantaneously. Linked to these developments is greater confidence in the data, especially since the unreliability of the previous connection meant that at times the data shared might be outdated. Moreover, having regular backups and greater integration is seen to provide extra security, preventing against potential losses of data.
The utilisation of superfast broadband-enabled digital technologies is better equipping LH Evans with the tools needed to manage predicted changes. It is anticipated that over the next five years the business may lose up to 20 percent of its existing client base as they retire or begin to bypass a wholesaler in the supply chain.
Through incorporating online promotion and interactions with customers with the traditional offline face-to-face interactions, the business is able to target an extended audience. Moreover, the ability to process payments both online and offline improves customer experience and enables the business to maintain pace with its competitors.
One of the crucial business performance benefits is cost savings and increased efficiency. For example, the implementation of Shopify for e-commerce is estimated as providing the business vast savings:
We’ve gone from spending a huge amount on a quarterly basis and getting nothing from it, to relatively little. Now we spend £28 a month on Shopify, and it can range from hundreds of pounds a week to thousands of pounds a week coming in orders.
However, the business is careful to ensure incremental adoption of broadband-enabled technologies alongside their traditional offline business processes:
It’s people at the end of the day that have made a difference. The technology just has enabled us to keep going and move forward.
While benefits are being attained from improvements to the digital maturity of the business, the most valuable approach is when the strengths of the offline and online approaches are combined. Moreover, it is important to manage the transition for employees, customers and suppliers that may be comfortable with different levels of digitalisation.
Nonetheless, the business has continued plans to expand its digitalisation, including looking for ways to innovatively incorporate 5G mobile connectivity when it arrives and potentially moving towards the incorporation of the Internet of Things (IoT). This would allow for some automation of the business functions using the Internet.
