Member Article

Europa Unleashes Leonardo

Implementation - a painful month, providing years of benefit.

Ambitious logistics operator, Europa Worldwide Group, has launched Leonardo, its revolutionary £1.7 million bespoke IT system, across the company’s road freight operations. The company’s IT director states that this is a major leap forwards for the company in spite a challenging 4 weeks post launch.

One month later, the system has bedded in and gives Europa in-house control over its systems and will improve responsiveness, efficiency, productivity and scalability across its 11 UK sites.

Richard Litchfield, IT Director, said: “It is rare for a logistics business to move from outsourced software, and invest and employ a dedicated team of IT developers and designers to build a bespoke IT system on this scale from the ground up. Undoubtedly, this is a game changer for the business.”

He added: “We had little option but to launch all areas of our road freight management system in one go. We are a 24/7, £100 million turnover business and we anticipated problems in replacing a 15-year-old system which manages the process from data entry to invoice. However, when you are in the thick of it, dealing with over a thousand tickets raised in 4 weeks, we felt the pain, with the software team working very long hours.

“Our priority was to power through these issues as rapidly as possible, which we have successfully done. Frankly, it is easy to say that you should launch systems like this without these types of problems. But in reality, there will always be some flack. We just had to get our heads down and work through the issues as quickly as possible. On balance we are very happy with the launch, and the range of issues, in the context of the complexity of the project.”

Richard continued: “Whilst these challenges were frustrating for many concerned, the team has been able to respond quickly to issues and has now begun launching many system enhancements. This is the true power of Leonardo. The pain is in the transition from one system to another. The benefit lies in the rapid enhancement of systems and processes that will occur over the coming months. The ability to convert ideas into operational systems, at speed, without the complexity of dealing with a 3rd party. We don’t have to write long specifications, or negotiate prices for amendments. We focus on the creation of ideas, and their rapid translation into reality, without any administrative burden.

“Often the complexity of getting an IT improvement agreed within organisations can be so painful, that it stops it happening at all. We have set out to make it easy and quick to amend our systems, and this will pay significant dividends over time.”

Richard added: “The in-house team has been incredibly flexible and hard working to ensure the problems have been ironed out. Without doubt the new software will help the company achieve its ambitious growth plans. It now gives the business total control and flexibility to change and adapt to meet the needs of customers.”

A further £400,000 investment in hardware means that all staff have either been upgraded or issued with new PCs. This gives employees a consistent and more efficient desktop user experience, enabling greater mobility and connectivity to hot desk and work from any location.

All Europa employees were given extensive pre launch training, and have access to dedicated IT services.

“Project Leonardo is named after the great artist, not the teenage ninja turtles as has been suggested! Da Vinci is attributed with saying ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’ and that’s what this project is now successfully achieving.” said Richard.

LeoRoad includes real time operation monitoring of shipments, discrepancy management, workflow management, and proactive customer and partner daily reporting. The system is fully integrated with internal CCTV, Masternaut truck and trailer tracking solutions and Europa’s national telephone system.

Andrew Baxter, Managing Director of Europa, said: “This is Europa’s biggest IT investment since the company was established in 1966. The company has been through some major restructuring projects since it was acquired in 2013. LeoRoad is the last major restructuring within the business, and we can now focus on growth.

“This investment is another major statement of our intent to create a market leading business. It comes on the back of the successful launch of 1hub at our Dartford premises. The loyalty and dedication of all our employees during these changes has been instrumental in positioning Europa on a path of faster growth.

“The spotlight has been on the IT team to create and deliver LeoRoad, which they have done with extreme professionalism. Having an in-house team will bring huge benefits to the business.”

The next phase of Leonardo, called LeoFinance, is due to launch in 2017. The project will overhaul the company’s finance systems and will be fully integrated with LeoRoad. The aim is to optimise processes, improve transparency, tighten credit control, greater supplier management and visibility of accounts systems. Some of the IT team are continuing to work on LeoFinance while the remainder will provide ongoing development, and enhancement for LeoRoad. Phase two of LeoRoad is earmarked to be launched in Q4 of 2016.

Europa Worldwide Group employs 600 people across 11 sites in the UK plus Hong Kong and is represented in 100 countries.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathryn Greenwood .