Burtons Medical

Overview

Established in 1981, Burtons Medical Equipment Ltd manufactures, distributes and services high quality healthcare equipment to the medical and veterinary professions.

By 2005, it had become increasingly clear that the company’s existing management system was unable to provide the consistent level of data retention and integrity necessary to cope with the demands of a successful and growing business – especially in such critical areas as stock control – which in turn was putting Burtons’ operating systems under pressure.

In replacing this with a Lakeview solution, Burtons has benefited from a number of key performance improvements throughout the business. In particular, Lakeview’s market-leading batch control functionality has enabled to the company to provide the level of traceability essential to meet rigorous client KPIs and ensure it meets the quality demands of ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 13845:2003.

Challenge
Burtons recognised the need for a stable, Windows-based platform which would allow for easy migration of existing computer skills within the business.

By consolidating information in this way, we would have complete visibility of every sale across all departments, so improving internal efficiencies and providing a better service to our clients.

”At the same time, it had to bring together the three distinct aspects of our production, distribution and support operation with centralised data storage and control,” recalls IT manager, Mike Best.

“By consolidating information in this way, we would have complete visibility of every sale across all departments, so improving internal efficiencies and providing a better service to our clients.”

Solution
Having explored several options, Burtons selected Lakeview as providing the ideal combination of relevant and robust functionality, personalised solutions approach and superior service quality.

“In addition, Lakeview worked closely with us throughout the development to ensure that our processes were perfectly aligned with the software,” he says. “As a result, implementation was smooth and the Lakeview solution has remained remarkably trouble-free ever since.

“Another important outcome of this partnership approach to implementation was a much sturdier and more resilient set of processes fully capable of managing our planned business growth.”

Results
Since the original implementation in 2005, Burtons has added Lakeview’s service management and works ordering modules and today the company benefits from a fully integrated sales, manufacturing, accounting and service software solution.

Internally, processes which previously would be repeated many times each day – such as label printing and data re-entry - are now fully automated, saving many man hours across multiple departments.

Customer service has also improved markedly, with more accurate stock recording ensuring consistently high delivery service levels, especially critical in Burtons ’ markets. A detailed audit trail enables the cause of any problem to be determined and swift appropriate remedial action taken.

The area of preventative maintenance provides a recent example of how Lakeview continues to develop innovative bespoke solutions for Burtons. In looking to improve the speed and flexibility of the company’s manual call reporting system for its national team of service engineers, a phased programme is underway which will initially enable each engineer to record call information by simply using electronic pens.

Within the next 12 months however, fully-automated two-way communication will be in place, integrating preventative and emergency service call booking and other data via PDAs.

Underpinning all this is a high quality reporting system and a level of customer service which, believes Best, “is second to none. From day one, the Lakeview team has shown a thorough understanding of the key issues affecting Burtons ’ business and how its software could be adapted to meet our evolving requirements.

“In short, the result is a company-wide solution which we are fully confident will continue to keep us ahead in tough and highly competitive markets.”

Downloads: Burtons Medical Case Study