In our latest Spotlight On feature series, Leanne Fawcett chats to Ian Brown, managing director of award-winning software supplier, Excelpoint, about the support it is giving to businesses worldwide to help them embrace digitisation and the transition into the fourth industrial revolution.
Tell us more about Excelpoint.
Excelpoint is a specialist software company established 30 years ago. It works with a number of high-profile customers worldwide across a diverse range of sectors.
We have developed a software platform which can create customer-specific automated business systems that run in any browser on any device and can output stand-alone mobile applications for all major mobile operating systems and devices. All of this is achieved without writing a line of code saving customers valuable time, money and resources.
We understand every business works differently so our professional business consultants work in partnership with customers to gain an insight into their business and get to understand their objectives. This enables us to deliver and implement a cost-effective automated software solution within a short timescale.
Give us some examples of the sectors you support and the clients you work with.
Our software is currently utilised across numerous sectors including engineering, manufacturing, oil and gas, energy, the NHS, local and central government, construction, utilities, nuclear, mining and the service sector, and is used by organisations of all sizes from SME’s to global business brands recognised worldwide.”
We recently announced record sales for 2018/2019 with a 100 per cent increase in sales during the financial year.
Examples of some of our globally recognised customers include Cyclife (EDF Energy), Mitie, Minova Global, Wood Group, Anglian Water, NHS Trusts, HMRC, Durham County Council, and Taylor Hobson while SME businesses range from Aura, Ebac, Xcel Centre, CI Biomass, Chameleon, and charities include Supportive, Veterans at Ease, If U Care Share, and Nacro.
Your software is helping customers embrace Industry 4.0 isn’t it. Can you explain more?
Excelpoint operates within the “fourth industrial revolution” – Industry 4.0. It is the current trend of process automation and information exchange in businesses, making it possible to gather and analyse data, enabling faster, more flexible, and more efficient business processes. It is estimated that Industry 4.0 is making production processes overall up to 30% faster and 25% more efficient.
The economy is still in the early stages of adopting Industry 4.0, and it is estimated that only 30% of businesses are actively embracing it. The concept was first mentioned back in 2011 at the Hannover Messe Fair and initially encompassed the inclusion of greater flexibility within manufacturing process.
One of the greatest challenges in implementing Industry 4.0 is the development of software and analysis systems. Excelpoint has met this challenge head-on, developing a software platform which supports its customers to streamline and automate their business processes, helping them to realise process efficiencies and significant cost-savings.
We help our customers to innovate via digitisation, supporting them to create a computerised business where all processes are interconnected. In turn, this helps businesses to realise improvements in products and services, sales and customer relationships, internal processes, operational efficiencies, employee relations, and visibility for senior management and stakeholders.
What role do people within an organisation play in the implementation of digitisation?
People play an important role, to introduce digitisation across all areas of a business requires the support of people within the organisation. A structured approach to change is essential to guarantee digital innovation is implemented effectively. All impacts of change must be identified and addressed, particularly on people and teams. It is essential to ensure efficient processes, information, software and people are working together. Our technological approach allows user engagement to drive process change and this real-time involvement results in greater end-user buy-in.
You’ve touched on the recent growth of the business with new customer wins. What are Excelpoint’s plans for the future?
We want to continue to roll out our software, adding to our portfolio with clients that can absolutely benefit from our services.
We will continue to offer a product that makes us stand out within our sector. Many of our competitors offer only elements of end to end business processes, in comparison, our software solution can manage all business processes including CRM and sales management, inventory control, manufacturing process, risk management, planning and resourcing, distribution and customer service, amongst others. Our software can be configured to meet the needs of any business model. Businesses no longer need to work with multiple software suppliers, purchasing multiple licences and integrating different systems. They can now resolve all their software requirements with one easy to use software system.
Following a sustained period of growth, we recently took the decision to expand our technical team enabling us to offer customers an unprecedented level of system development and service. With ambitious growth plans for 2019 which include establishing the Excelpoint brand as a key player in the software sector and growth in new sectors, we also took the decision to expand our sales and marketing department. We expect to be recruiting again later this year.
It certainly is an exciting time for Excelpoint.