The Challenge

As part of larger ongoing digital transformation project with FIRE5 digital, Interski, the UK’s leading Schools & Colleges ski tour operator, needed to address an ageing and increasingly problematic business platform used to operate the various aspects of their business.

The first and most pressing area was their rental wear and accessories service which was becoming a constant burden on the business with system crashes and downtime a regular occurrence.

Ageing technology and a localised approach to systems ensured business processes where clunky and time consuming both from a staff and data perspective. The challenge was to bring Interski’s business processes and workflows up to date while future proofing their system to be able to adapt to a modern fluid digital environment.

Services Provided

Digital Transformation / Digital Strategy / Bespoke CRM Development / Systems Integration / Cloud Infrastructure

The Process

Critical to the success of a project of this size was getting to understand Interski’s business inside and out. We worked closely with management and various teams and existing service providers to gather a full understanding of Interski’s long and somewhat ingrained processes.

We undertook various workshops with relevant staff to garner insights into what worked, what didn’t, where the improvements could be made and what would be the best approach to solve all of the issues this particular business unit suffered from.

These insights allowed us to map out new improved workflows and processes that would bring various efficiencies and solve the numerous bottlenecks in the existing processes. From this we then detailed out a new system architecture and data models which would pave the way for the new system to be developed.

The Solution

With Interski operating in the UK and Italy, a key measure for success was overcoming accessibility issues as the Italian office would previously use Remote Desktop to access the business systems which brought it’s own reliability issues. The unique nature of Interski’s business, also meant most of the existing CRM providers platforms would require extensive customisation to match Interski’s requirements.

Bespoke Cloud Based CRM

We opted to develop a fully bespoke cloud based platform on top of Laravel, an open source web development framework. This gave us the flexibility to match Interski’s requirements down to the most minute detail while still providing a robust and scalable platform for future development. Moving the solution to a cloud based system ensured access issues where addressed for every office regardless of location.

Feature Rich

The solution covered various aspects from a fully managed user system with granular permissions to customer management, product management, order management, dispatch & returns management, payments with Sage Pay integration, Xero accounts integration, sales reporting and an API layer for integration into the existing rentals website as well as features such as barcode scanning via mobile device cameras, user task management and ical/outlook integration.

The Results

This initial phase being part of a larger digital transformation project with Interski has already brought huge benefits to the rentals team. With key efficiencies across the business unit including approximately 8 weeks per year admin time saved via automated invoicing.

Key Benefits

Consolidation of data into a central system with the rental website now directly integrated into the CRM.
Improved product management means the website manager no longer needs to update products on the website directly as data is driven via the CRM.
Online payments means staff can take orders directly from clients when out on location at presentations.
Improved user experience and interface means training time is reduced as well the ability for non rental staff to be able to take orders over the phone easily and efficiently.
Improved dispatch and returns workflows resulting in better visibility of inventory and more accurate stock forecasting at time of order.