Client Stories

Client Stories > Healthcare & life sciences > Leightons Opticians and Hearing Care

Leightons provides expert eye and hearing care, distinguishing itself by the quality of its practioners, its excellent standard of care, and its dedication to customer service. From its 1928 beginnings in Southampton, Leightons has grown to 36 practices throughout the South of England, whilst also providing audiology services via its subsidiary, The Hearing Care Partnership, to over 300 independent opticians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. When they needed IT leadership, they turned to Freeman Clarke. CEO Ryan Leighton shares how we helped Leightons save money, shore up cyber security, and run more efficiently for continued success.

Back in 2020, our IT team was small and struggling to operate at the level of maturity needed to support our business effectively. It was clear that we needed strong leadership and strategic direction to move forward. From the outset, our fractional CTO, Steve Cairns, made some critical adjustments to the team structure, ensuring we had the right people in the right roles, laying the foundation for sustained improvement.

Over these past five years, we have rolled-out a new company intranet, which significantly enhanced internal communication and collaboration at Leightons; we stabilised our practice management system across all branches, ensuring greater consistency and operational reliability; we have significantly increased our cybersecurity posture, resulting in successful Cyber Essentials certification last year; we upgraded our HR, finance and payment systems, enabling seamless and secure customer transactions; and we introduced a new audiology system. We are currently integrating AI to streamline IT processes and drive innovation in pursuit of operational excellence. These initiatives have helped increase our IT Service Management maturity, all while enhancing our protection against evolving threats. They’ve also helped to reduce costs – with our most recent projects across infrastructure, cyber and technical support, we are looking to save in excess of £75,000 a year, and that an includes an increase in spend on cyber security of over £20,000.

The journey we’ve undertaken, guided by our fractional CTO, has been truly transformative. The strategic initiatives we’ve implemented have positioned us for sustainable success and built a strong foundation for future growth. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved and confident that we are well-prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Steve’s leadership and vision have been instrumental in driving these outcomes and I’m deeply grateful for the positive impact he has had on our organisation. The future for Leightons is bright and our continued technological progress will be a key enabler of our ongoing success.

Ryan Leighton, CEO