Swindon, United Kingdom – When Field Staff Agency selected Sensata to supply IT support they found a business partner who was prepared to present them with a few hard facts. Having gained an understanding of their existing IT systems, Sensata probed even deeper to establish the company’s business growth objectives. This resulted in a two-part £55,000 radical overhaul, and to coin a phrase it was ‘out with the old – in with the new!’
Field Staff were running an unstable internal computer infrastructure and had an unreliable link to their Internet Service Provider (ISP) that was causing their email systems to fail frequently. Sensata pointed out potential improvements and Field Staff appreciated that money spent keeping an unstable IT network from failing, would be better invested in a completely new solution.
Sensata recognised Field Staff’s desire to harness technology and recommended a £40,000 investment in IT infrastructure to improve business productivity. A further £15,000 has been invested in a new recruitment database. The Sensata solution brings together fifteen desktop workstations with “WiFi and VoIP” across a 30m divide – otherwise known as the Commercial Road in Swindon.
According to Andrew Careswell, Branch Manager at Field Staff ‘Our turnover has increased 30% in two years and our client base on both the Commercial and Industrial divisions is growing all the time. Our old IT systems were reaching the end of their shelf life. It wasn’t until Sensata presented us with a clear business case for IT investment that we realised just how much money we wasted on fire-fighting every year!’
Field Staff Agency were typical of many small & medium size enterprises that see IT as a drain on resources, instead of an opportunity to gain competitive edge. ‘If you buy IT systems on price then the initial outlay may be less but the total cost of ownership and administration is multiplied by a factor of 8! Small businesses that choose to save pennies on the purchase of their IT systems are costing their companies thousands of pounds in lost productivity and lost opportunity’ said Chris Griffin, Technical Director and joint founder of Sensata Ltd.
New database
Field Staff Agency had a variety of different spec PC’s on their old network, and had invested in bespoke software to run their recruitment database, which costs more to maintain than ‘off-the-shelf’ software. It is being replaced with a mainstream database solution especially designed for the recruitment industry, which handles automatic search & selection, candidate matching, letter-writing and follow-up.
The £15,000 database investment will automate a lot of administration tasks for consultants, allowing them more time to focus on the needs of clients and candidates.
Andrew says ’There have been many positive steps since our decision to partner with Sensata. The new IT systems have not only been a major leap forward but a vital stepping stone for the continual expansion of Field Staff Agency. Our in-house procedures have been standardised and we have found our productivity has been improved. We are already seeing a return on our IT investment and are confident this will continue.’
Related URL: http://www.sensata.co.uk
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