Transition Services

Case Study – [DELETE THIS CASE STUDY - DUPLICATED]

THE CHALLENGE

Following the acquisition of Interiors Manufacturing Ltd from SIG PLC by Private Equity investors Rutland Partners in 2011, the 4D Team managed the delivery of a Transition Services Programme to ensure the successful separation of the acquired business from its former parent. This included the parallel running of all business support services including finance, HR and IT. Specifically, some key business systems were essential for the continued smooth running of the acquired business and were fully embedded with the former parent company. 4D project managed the design and implementation of a fully integrated and independent ERP system within 12 months.

DIAGNOSIS

	•	Interiors Manufacturing Ltd comprised 4 trading companies focused primarily on building interior products; Leaderflush Shapland (doors), Komfort (partitions, ceilings, plasterboard), Cubicle Systems (washrooms) and Tuffwell Glass (glazing systems). The acquired companies were merged with Laidlaw Solutions Ltd, a leading ironmongery supplier, to form Laidlaw Interiors Group with revenues in excess of £100M.
	•	The primary challenge of the Transition was the management and separation of the business systems for Komfort, a £40M division engaged in the manufacture, distribution and installation of interior fit out systems and associated products.
	•	Komfort operated across 6 manufacturing and distribution sites with an IT infrastructure, including hardware, networks and software, fully embedded and integrated with the SIG Distributor ERP system. Under the terms of the Transition Services Agreement, Komfort was required to fully separate its entire infra-structure within a deadline of 12 months from the date of the acquisition.
	•	Working with local management and system vendors, the 4D Team scoped out the setting up of an entirely new business ERP system and associated hardware and network infra-structure for Komfort. Extensive vendor assessments and business process scoping were undertaken prior to proceeding and the team provided project management support to ensure a timely and on-budget delivery of the project.

DEVELOPMENT

	•	The 4D team scoped and managed the ERP implementation project for Komfort in support of local management and a multi-function project team.
	•	The project was led by Peter O’Brien, currently Director of 4D and at the time Commercial Director of Laidlaw Interiors Group. Project management support was provided by Raj Singh and the 4D back office team.
	•	Vendor assessments were carried out to select the most appropriate business systems and infrastructure Systems reviewed included Efacs E8, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP and Kerridge K8, with Efacs E8 chosen as the ERP solution.
	•	Given the specific requirements for detailed project design, estimating, manufacture and installation Modekom was selected as a parallel tool to facilitate these requirements, fully integrated with E8. Modekom also handled pricing files and BOM development.
	•	4D developed a bespoke CRM system for the business called Flashbolt based on a Microsoft Lightswitch infrastructure to manage project tracking and delivery.
	•	A new standalone business network was implemented with all necessary hardware infrastructure separated from SIG.

DELIVERY

		The project was delivered on time and within budget.
		Working across time zones, the 4D back office team allowed critical tasks to be fulfilled overnight for review by the project team at the start of each day.
		A fully integrated ERP platform was implemented using EFACS E8 with specialist business-specific estimating and design tool scoped and delivered using Modekom and a fully integrated bespoke CRM system developed in-house by the 4D Team.
		A new standalone future-proof network infrastructure was set up across multiple sites for approximately 200 users.

DIFFERENT

The 4D Methodology enabled detailed scoping of the project with the client locally in the UK whilst analytical and coding work was carried out by the back-office team in India in collaboration with system vendors. This enabled a very rapid and cost-effective implementation to meet the clients’ aggressive implementation deadline. The skills and experience of the 4D Team enabled the delivery of a rapid, pragmatic and highly effective solution fully in accordance with the client’s objectives and budget.

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