by Charles Orton-Jones - Thursday, 22nd November 2007 -

Whether it's car valeting or supplying exhibition display stands, here's how technology can help you take on the competition... and win.

For our Britain’s Digital Elite awards, Real Business partnered with Microsoft to scour the land looking
for firms that are using technology to gain a
competitive edge over their rivals and become
masters of execution.

We spent months looking for companies who stand out – not because of what they do, but the way that they do it. Four judges – including two entrepreneurs who made their names using technology to shake up industries – sifted through the deluge of entries in ten different categories.

Earlier this week, we announced that the high-tech roadie firm Gallowglass had been crowned the winner of the Back-office Automation category. Here we reveal the two other finalists…

Highly Commended: Motorclean

Car valeting is a ruthlessly competitive business. Motorclean is the industry’s second-biggest player, with a £19m turnover and clients such as BMW, Pendragon
and Inchcape.

To gain an edge over rivals, it replaced its paper dockets in 2005 with a touch-screen based reporting system created by Vali-data. The system allows each dealership to schedule jobs by date and time, and to analyse workflow using a simple interface. The valeters use the touchscreen terminals to take orders and report progress.

The system has saved Motorclean £15,000 per dealership, with over 300
dealerships switching to it.

Highly Commended: Access Displays

Supplying display stands to large exhibitions, Access Displays was founded by Peter Bowen in 1990. It now offers 3,000 product lines to 12,000 customers.

Until April this year, Bowen and his 20 staff relied on primitive back-office processes. A single £100 order required 12 separate pieces of paper, including an invoice, order, job sheet and delivery note. So Bowen turned to IT consultancy Alliance Systems, which installed Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Now sales people can provide a quotation instantly, even while they are on the phone to the customer. This means that enquiries are converted into orders more quickly and consistently. The system even lets them attach pictures of items to the quotes. Needless to say, the paper dockets have been binned.

“What differentiates us from our competitors is not price,” says Bowen, “it’s about speed of response and giving customers what they want, when they want it.” He believes orders have risen 38 per cent due to the CRM system.

To see the winner of Britain’s Digital Elite Back-office Automation category, click here.

To read more on how Microsoft's technology can help you cut out the competition and to see the rest of the winners, visit our Focus On... Britain's Digital Elite.