Client Stories

Client Stories > Business & Professional Services > L W Cole

Since its inception in 1944, L W Cole has been synonymous with service. In recent decades, L W Cole has specialized in installing appliances for the housebuilding community. Working with companies such as Redrow, Taylor Wimpey, Bovis, and Barratt, as well as manufacturers such as Electrolux, BSH, and Whirlpool, the priority has always been satisfying and pleasing the customer.

With the new operational capacity delivered by new technology systems, along with their position in the market, the future business strategy is to offer a wider range of services to the industry.

L W Cole contacted Freeman Clarke when they realized their current IT systems were not supporting their projected growth. As a result, David Beck from the Freeman Clarke team was appointed to work with the Management team at L W Cole.

David’s initial task was to conduct a review and to resolve challenges with the existing IT systems, whose poor performance was having a negative impact. The systems were aging, and it was clear the current suite of business applications could not support the ambitions of the business.

A new IT support partner was appointed, and David took immediate actions to stabilize the platform and improve how the business used its technology.

Henry Shaw, Managing Director, said:

“It is fair to say that at the time our IT was simply functioning rather than delivering value, and the IT partner was working on a purely reactive basis. With the immediate changes David implemented, we saw immediate benefits and had a helpful and proactive IT partner that could work with us.”

David’s next step was to create an IT strategy, which included moving multiple services to the cloud and establishing the requirements for a new ERP system. David oversaw the procurement process for the new business-wide ERP solution and helped the team manage the transition to a much more efficient and functional system, including migrating data with no operational downtime.

Henry Shaw continued:

“Throughout his time, David has shown consistently that he can handle any change or requirement we need; even our last-minute change to another accounting solution was managed and delivered with no drama whatsoever. I no longer concern myself with IT and can focus purely on the business, knowing we have systems in place that can handle all of our growth plans.”