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Digital revolution under way at Involution

Inspiration

In a nutshell…

  • Involution's turnover has increased by 250% over the last seven years, thanks in large part to digital adoption.
  • The company has ambitions to get to £10m turnover by 2025 through bringing more systems and processes online.
  • The team created its own bespoke Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software system that manages the entire business, from online ordering to delivery. 
  • Involution accessed support available through the Digital Enterprise scheme, working closely with the Digital Advisors to secure a grant that would part-fund the software development costs.

Digital transformation brings different benefits to businesses. One of the things that is almost universal is the time savings that come from introducing technology and building systems that automate day-to-day business processes. Having made some serious progress on its own journey into the digital world, workwear and merchandising business Involution is feeling the time benefits and feeling increasingly bullish about future growth.

While almost every business strives to make money and increase profitability, the same attention is not always given to saving time and becoming more efficient.

It can be difficult in the thrust of the day-to-day rigours of running a business to think of anything other than fulfilling orders and delivering services, but this is precisely why time saving measures are so valuable.

Getting more time back and creating room to come up for air allows you to make improvements to how you run your business, which in the long run will make you more profitable too.

Few businesses can aspire to becoming time rich, but one sure-fire way to create more time is to adopt digital technologies.

From accounting software that automates bookkeeping processes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools that unify sales, service and marketing, digital technology is the key to unlocking more hours in the day.

For Leeds-based workwear, clothing and merchandising specialist, Involution, digital adoption has been a big part of why turnover has increased 250% over the last seven years, enabling the company to onboard 30 new hires.

Bringing more systems and processes online is also the foundation on which Involution is basing its ambition to get to £10m turnover by 2025.

Operations Director Nathan Cookson says: “Within three years, we want to get to £10m turnover, which is a big ambition and one that will be based purely on delivering good products and satisfying customers through online technology.

“Those are our core values moving forward.”

Involution’s digital transformation journey is one that began in earnest around 2015, when Nathan and the team realised they needed to do things differently if they wanted to grow.

“Back then, we were very much a paper-based business,” says Nathan.

“We were sending cheques to pay bills in the post, we were sending invoices to customers in the post and our orders were on pegs on the wall.

“Our files were also printed in folders and handwritten notes, so we reached a point where we couldn’t grow anymore, operating like that.”

Following this realisation, Nathan began looking at Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and CRM software that would enable the full business to be run and managed online.

But there was nothing on the market that suited Involution’s needs, so the team decided to make their own.

Nathan explains: “We’ve been on a journey towards building a fully bespoke ERP and CRM system that manages the entire business, from a customer ordering online all the way through to production, planning, stock, accounts and then out of the door.

“It’s almost finished now and while obviously these things are never finished, we’re slowly but surely starting to see all the benefits.”

Involution’s unique system is running 85% of the functions that it was designed to do as well as driving efficiencies in other areas.

“We’ve got some really cool things in there that save us time,” says Nathan.

“The system integrates with Xero for our accounts and with DPD for logistics so if you click a button, it sends products, tracks stock in locations and powers the ecommerce front end, which isn’t live yet but will be soon.”

To develop such a system, Involution looked to the support available through the Digital Enterprise scheme, working closely with the Digital Advisors to secure a grant that would part-fund the development costs.

“The great thing with Digital Enterprise is that it is very responsive and the team were very active on questions and answers. As soon as our project finished, we reached out to them and claimed our funding and the money came back to us very quickly.”

Nathan Cookson, Operations Director of Involution

Involution also worked with Pontefract-based software development and IT specialist, Contedia, who were able to fill in some of the technical gaps and help the company figure out how to grapple with the big data, cybersecurity and IT resilience issues that arise from moving a business into the digital world.

From that experience, a valuable piece of advice that Nathan would give to other companies looking to digitally transform is to find a good partner.

He says: “Think about partnering with someone who has a few avenues where they can help you. They might not always be the cheapest, but you want someone who has longevity, and who will add value to your project.”

Looking ahead, Involution will continue building out its end-to-end ERP and CRM system with a keen eye on reaching the £10m turnover mark by 2025.

The business is a great example of the digital revolution taking place across the Leeds City Region and is living proof of the time savings these technologies can provide.

Next steps...

  • This article features in the Digital Enterprise Digital Transformation Directory.
  • If you are a business operating in the Leeds City Region, secure your Digital Growth and Connectivity+ vouchers today by visiting Digital Enterprise.
  • For information, expertise, digital health checks and podcasts on digital transformation head to our Go Digital Bundle.

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