Bott Ltd
Bott Ltd, an award winning engineering company based in Bude, have three sites across the UK as well as in several countries in Europe.
When Tony Sutcliffe joined as ICT Manager in 2005, one of his first priorities was to introduce greater use of ICT to enable reduction in travel between the various sites.
Tony says; “Our CEO was making up to eighty return flights each year. We decided to install an IP based video conferencing system, initially with two pieces of equipment, one in Bude and one at our site in Leicestershire. The video conferencing is run over a broadband connection using leased lines.
“At first, people were a little in awe of it, but that initial nervousness soon wore off and within a very short period of time, staff were using the video conferencing suite frequently at both sites. This meant that managers and staff could participate in meetings without having to travel, bringing a reduction in costs and also a very significant time saving, increasing productivity.
“In the first year, the company saved £50,000 in travel and hotel costs. This impressive result encouraged our parent company in Germany to follow our lead and install video conferencing equipment, followed swiftly by the sites in Scotland, Hungary and France.
“Now we have reduced travel to only one third of the level prior to introducing video conferencing. As well as the immense cost savings, the reduced travel burden has of course improved the work life balance of our managers. For example, previously our Operations Director would have been away for three days every month just to attend a single meeting in Germany as he would have to add on two days for travel to and fro. Now he can join the meeting by video, taking only two hours out of his schedule.
“In 2007, we saved £100,000 in travel and hotel costs and in the first 8 months of 2008, we have saved £120,000. We have saved so much, it really is incredible. These figures only represent the savings made in travel and hotel costs. There is also of course a significant value associated with the staff time savings, perhaps as much as a further £40,000 or so.
“In addition to the financial savings made, the use of video conferencing in place of travel also brings significant environmental benefits. We estimate that each of the trips that the CEO used to make to Germany was equivalent to around 300kgs of carbon emissions.
“Now people do not think twice about using the video conferencing equipment. The quality is excellent and it opens up the possibility of even greater flexibility. For example, we can hook up the video conferencing equipment to other software so we can see webex demonstrations on the internet, for example of Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software. This means that all our staff in the drawing offices in a number of sites can see the demonstration simultaneously, despite being hundreds of miles apart.”
Tony continues: “Video conferencing has improved the working relations between the various sites as now managers can take part in meetings at other sites, when often they would not otherwise have been there at all.”
Bott now plans to take its investment in technology to enable flexible working to the next level.
Tony says: “Our next step is to invest in new network software for unified communications to link up the PC, video conferencing, telephone and email so people can be contacted more easily, wherever they are. In the long term, we plan to have more people working from home. Currently, our sales staff are based at home as well as one lady who has a medical condition that would otherwise have made it difficult for her to continue working. This has prevented the company losing a key member of staff.
“ In future, this number will be expanded to include a far greater number of staff.”
The company are now so enthused by video conferencing that there is interest in upgrading to higher quality.
Tony says: “Now there is demand from staff to move the game on. We would love to make the move into TelePresence. At present, however, the costs are prohibitive as the entry price is well over £500,000 and the added benefits are unlikely to translate to ROI. We are keeping a keen eye on market developments, however, and as soon as it becomes feasible to step up to TelePresence, we will be there!
“We are also keen to see Next Generation Access broadband come to Cornwall as soon as possible. The introduction of high speed broadband will mean that we will no longer be dependent on leased line broadband and would save us about £10,000 a year. This will make it easier for us to accelerate our development and make the most of the new collaborative approach that unified communications could bring.”
