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NG Bailey Streamline with COINS ERP+
NG Bailey have ambitious plans to unite and empower their business through the use of new technologies and process digitisation.
Challenge
A key phase, essential to underpin the continued adoption of new technologies, was to migrate to COINS ERP+, a single cloud-hosted platform to be used across the entire business.
Solution
All current processes would be replicated and refined with the aim of adopting best practice and ensuring that everyone worked the same way, making divisional variations and off-system processes a thing of the past.
About NG Bailey
NG Bailey is the UK's leading independent engineering and services business. Founded in 1921, the business has grown from a small electrical contractor to the award-winning, industry-leading company it is today. NG Bailey is family-owned, with a great heritage, and is proud of all the projects it has successfully delivered to its customers over the years.
NG Bailey specialises in the design, offsite manufacture and maintenance of mechanical and electrical solutions, and enjoys an industry-leading reputation for delivering work and projects both responsibly and sustainably across many different sectors.
NG Bailey is a national business with a local presence and its project portfolio includes nuclear, new build, fast paced manufacturing facilities, state of the art schools, universities and hospitals, cutting edge office spaces and retail venues, railway stations, sports stadiums and iconic city landmarks.
The Project Team
The project team responsible for making this happen included Haroon Esmail (ICT Project Manager, NG Bailey) responsible for managing ICT resource and deliverables; Steve Barnett (Business Change Manager, NG Bailey) in charge of change management, non-technical training and communications, Andrew Stickland (Senior Systems Analyst, NG Bailey) the technical lead; Ryan Smith (Systems Analyst) responsible for configuring and implementing the system, and Tim Searle of CS Accelerate, an independent consultant acting as overarching programme manager.
One specific aim was to adopt COINS best practice
Steve Barnett, Business Change Manager, NG Bailey
Project Aims
Streamline Processes
The main aim of the project was to replicate and redefine all current processes onto the COINS platform, adopting best practice and streamlining the way that everyone worked.
NG Bailey used the implementation of COINS ERP+ as an opportunity to simplify and standardise processes
Haroon Esmail, ICT Project Manager, NG Bailey
Replicating existing processes within COINS ERP+ would make everyday tasks easier due to the excellent productivity features of this interface.
Be Self Supporting
With an existing strong internal COINS ICT capability, NG Bailey aimed to exploit COINS and be self-supporting. It was therefore vital that NG Bailey’s ICT experts were involved at every stage throughout the configuration and implementation process in close partnership with COINS.
Enabling Change
A dedicated NG Bailey COINS portal was developed by Steve Barnett, structured around job roles and functions. This was an important resource for users to access help and guidance, log calls, and request new user accounts, as well hosting comprehensive discussion forums for the group.
For the NG Bailey users this was a major change in how they worked.
Haroon Esmail
A series of training videos, covering topics such as ‘raising an order’ and ‘invoice processing’, were also developed to support this technology roll out, all available on the COINS support portal.
Business Benefits of COINS ERP+
NG Bailey have identified nine key business benefits since implementing COINS ERP+, these are:
1 Improved Remote Working
Implementing a single sign on has meant that users can log in to COINS ERP+ wherever they are based, making it easier for people to work remotely.
2 ‘At a Glance’ Information
Job specific COINS desktops have been set up with shortcuts and functions relative to roles, providing excellent functionality for end users.
Introducing COINS ERP+ Desktops for each business department has made it easier to access commonly used functionality whilst remaining visually attractive. In some cases widgets have been used to show at a glance critical information, which aids daily management.
Andrew Stickland, Senior Systems Analyst, NG Bailey
3 Working Smarter
Invoice processing and query resolution used to be a major problem for finance and procurement teams with issues previously being managed ‘off-system’ via phone calls and emails.
Now, following the adoption of COINS ‘Problem invoice’ and ‘Missing ticket’ solutions, invoice queries can be resolved directly within COINS, saving time and increasing visibility.
COINS ERP+ enables approval rules and tolerances to be set up, speeding up online approvals, which, when done hundreds of times a week, makes a huge difference.
People are not spending as much time on administration, which means they can focus on more value-added activities. It’s an improvement all round in the way we are working
Steve Barnett, NG Bailey
4 HR Features
The implementation of COINS ERP+ has made it easier for NG Bailey to onboard new employees and support career progression within the company due to new role-based access features.
As job roles have been built into COINS, new employees can now be set up quickly as users by their line manager, enabling immediate access to the functions their role requires.
5 Improved Functionality
COINS ERP+ has been enthusiastically adopted across NG Bailey as a result of features which make everyday tasks much simpler.
It may not be very exciting but normal everyday actions have become easier
Steve Barnett, NG Bailey
User friendly features include:
- Ability to view multiple tabs and screens
- Ability to easily copy and paste from one screen to another
- Ability to easily drill down, filter and search
- Easily load journals and produce reports
- Bulk uploads/downloads
- Easily export to Excel
COINS ERP+ Forms has allowed us to produce professional looking PDF documents whilst saving costs by replacing a third-party system and its related interfaces.
Andrew Stickland, NG Bailey
6 Efficiency and Empowerment
Business teams have now been empowered to take ownership of processes relating to their roles, which both improves efficiency and removes bottlenecks.
What COINS ERP+ has done is create new opportunities for the transactions team to do a job that the customers want done. COINS is slick and quick but it’s the faith I put in my team to use the system to its ability which gets us the great achievements
Michelle Baxendale, Group Transactions Manager, NG Bailey
7 Digitisation of VAT and Tax
NG Bailey are now able to benefit from the ‘Domestic reverse charge’ and ‘Making tax digital’ functionality which comes as standard in COINS ERP+.
8 Smarter Procurement
Procurement processes have been transformed, with streamlined invoice handling, reduced delays and minimal manual intervention.
My team now have better visibility using various workbenches. The functionality is faster, clearer and more detailed. Having the ability to attach various documents to requisitions, purchase orders and invoices by various teams is so time saving and efficient. Everything in one place making our lives easier!
Suzanne M C Silcock, Group Head of P2P, Strategic Sourcing & Systems Procurement, NG Bailey
9 Improved Security
COINS ERP+ has powerful security features which mean that you can provide access to the maximum amount of information with minimum commercial risk. For example:
- The procurement team have full access to the subcontract ledger, purchase ledger and contract ledgers which helps them with query resolution.
- Site-based teams can access order, supplier and certificate details immediately within COINS
This really helps us with maintaining security and auditing activity, it both saves time and makes things a lot easier for ICT.
Haroon Esmail, NG Bailey
Prior to implementing COINS ERP+, NG Bailey managed a significant number of different security set ups, which have now been streamlined.A strategy of developing security groups relating to roles has been adopted enabling the number of security groups to be greatly reduced.
Migration to COINS ERP+ allowed us to rationalise our security groups. We've now got far fewer groups and these are built into COINS Roles. Doing this has also allowed us to create a new way of getting access to the system. It also helps massively with the yearly audit. Something I think we should be very proud of.
Ryan Smith, Systems Analyst, NG Bailey
Summary
The smooth implementation of COINS ERP+ has been a success story for NG Bailey - exceeding the expectations of everyone involved. There were very few technical issues encountered which for a project of this size and complexity was gratifying, but not surprising as COINS is a stable product.
- Users are delighted with the increased functionality.
- COINS ERP+ makes it easier to collaborate, share responsibility and work together.
- Improved access to information with minimum commercial risk.
A key legacy of this project is that business functions and ICT are continuing to work more closely together
Haroon Esmail, NG Bailey
With thanks to:
Haroon Esmail, NG Bailey
Steve Barnett, Business Change Manager, NG Bailey
Andrew Stickland, Senior Systems Analyst, NG Bailey
Image Credits: NG Bailey
Case Study: Jane Redfern