Build It Better - Page 7 - Enable

Enable Tech is a column on design and technology by David Hunt. David has been our operations director from the very start, and has lead the evolution of Enable into one of the most respected and high-quality software development businesses around. David has an uncompromising passion for design, quality and excellence.

Last week, we launched a new subsidiary business called DealTrack. DealTrack is a software solution that helps organizations manage complex trading agreements involving retrospective payments, such as rebates, retrospective discounts, royalties, purchase income and back margin.

In this article, I’ll guide you through some of the more interesting techniques used by the website we built for DealTrack.

1. SVG graphics

Almost every image on the DealTrack website is delivered in SVG format. SVG has been around for a long time, but browser support is only now nearing a level where SVG can be considered a worthwhile option. As someone who is enthusiastic about design, SVG has some upsides that excite me.

1. High resolution displays are going mainstream: products such as the Apple iPhone 4, third generation iPad, Retina MacBook Pro, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nokia Lumia 920 have introduced displays to the marketplace that are capable of displaying 250 to 350 pixels per inch. Artwork designed for conventional computer displays looks blurry on these devices. SVG is a vector image format and therefore images authored in this format look beautifully sharp not only on these new high-DPI devices but on older displays too.
2. Editing tools such as Adobe Illustrator allow SVG to be edited natively. There is no need to hold a “master” version of your website artwork in addition to an exported “published” version. An SVG file can be opened directly, edited and saved. It’s a slick workflow.
3. SVG is based on XML. It is therefore dead easy to create SVG output programatically. For example, a status icon that needed to be colored red in some cases and green in others would typically require two separate versions of the same image. With SVG you could create a single version and alter a color attribute on the fly — driven by your application’s business logic.

9 min read

Stratford-upon-Avon based software development company Enable has made a £1 million investment into 7,000 sq ft of new freehold offices in the Stratford-upon-Avon Enterprise Park.

The Managing Director and 29 year old award-winning young entrepreneur Andrew Butt commented “This is a milestone for Enable—it is our first freehold headquarters! We see it as an investment for the future and key to our plans for continued growth.”

Denys Shortt, CEO of Enable commented “Enable is expanding and will have its best year in history this year. We are winning orders from big firms and employing locally with graduates from Warwick University.” He continues “We are also delighted to have had several banks offering us funding for our growth—a good sign that the banks are lending.”

Denys Shortt started Enable Software in 2000 with 16 year old Andrew Butt who he made the Managing Director. Since then Enable has grown to almost £2m sales and now has 24 employees.

1 min read

Directors of Enable have recently returned from a Study Tour to Silicon Valley. Organized and run by Mike and Linda Portlock of E-Vision Consulting Ltd, the focus of the Tour was �Transformative Technologies for Business IT�, exploring how emerging technologies can be deployed to help organizations build a better future.

The 2012 visit was the 16th annual IT Directors Study Tour organized by E-Vision Consulting, and was full of fascinating insight. We live in an age where empowering technologies are increasingly available first to individuals rather than to enterprises and institutions. Employees and customers are getting the good stuff first and this is increasing pressure on IT leaders.

Those involved in IT are used to rapid change but harsh economic conditions combined with new consumer focused technologies, such as mobile, social media and cloud, have created a new environment with fresh challenges for both IT and the business. It is inevitable that groundswell technologies will continue to shift information power to customers and employees. IT leaders must shift their mindsets for a world where technology projects can come from anywhere and IT is a key advisor, not necessarily the manager, on those projects. This power shift cannot be stopped, but IT leaders can take advantage of it.

3 min read

As a result of continued demand for Enable’s software development service, and consistent revenue growth, Enable will be exhibiting at two key events at Warwick University in May.

The first is the Warwick Summer Careers Fair on Tuesday 8th May. Organized by the Employer Connect team at Warwick, this event connects employers with students expecting to graduate imminently. Enable’s Managing Director, Andrew Butt, and Operations Director, David Hunt, will be attending.

The second event, also organized by Warwick’s Employer Connect, is a PhD network event on Thursday 10th May. Enable is privileged to be able to access this unique opportunity and discuss some specialist roles available to PhD graduates. This event will be attended by David Hunt and Dan Wood, an existing PhD graduate.

David Hunt commented "Enable is focussed on recruiting top talent. We recognise that in order to achieve this it’s about pitching ’the Enable difference’ to candidates and attracting people with a shared vision and values."

Enable is a keen supporter of promoting from within, and has successfully recruited, trained and developed many graduates over the past few years.

1 min read

Enable’s CEO Denys Shortt recently wrote an article for BBC News on his top tips for business survival. The article is reproduced below in full.

Denys Shortt is a former England under-21 hockey player, an entrepreneur and founder of DCS Europe plc and Enable Software, employing nearly 300 people. He is also chairman of the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

My drive and determination comes from my England hockey days when I played centre forward, the goal scorer. I learned the hard way from my coaches—you were either scoring goals or you were dropped from the team!

I worked for my father for a few years and learned how family businesses have their challenges. I realized that to grow a really big business I had to think big. In just 15 years I have grown DCS Europe to sales of �130m and 250 employees.

I have not stopped there—I started a second business, with a 16-year-old, called Enable Software. This is now up to �2m sales and 20 employees.

7 min read

Enable have been shortlisted for Business of the Year at the Pride of Stratford 2012 awards. Enable’s CEO, Denys Shortt, has been shortlisted for the Entrepreneur of the Year and Citizen of the Year awards.

Judges have praised the outstanding quality of entries received for the inaugural Touch FM Pride of Stratford Awards 2012 with DCS.

After hours of deliberation, the judging panel confirmed the nominees who are in the final reckoning for an award. The ceremony, created and hosted by Touch FM (Stratford�s local radio station), will be presented at a glittering event in Stratford upon Avon on 17th February 2012. The night will reflect and recognize the best that Stratford District has to offer.

The judges have selected just 39 finalists from hundreds of applications. Each of the 13 categories (which include Business of the Year, Citizen of the Year and the Stratford�s Pride Award) has three finalists.

The Judges are: Gina Fusco (Head of Strategy and Marketing, NFU Mutual), Richard Egginton (CEO, Stratford Town Trust), and Steve Orchard (CEO, Touch FM). Cllr Stephen Thirlwell (Deputy Leader, Stratford-on-Avon District Council) attended on behalf of Cllr Chris Saint (Leader, Stratford-on-Avon District Council).

2 min read

Enable’s CEO, Denys Shortt was featured in the Daily Mail this week, in an article about Denys’s role as chairman of Coventry and Warwickshire LEP. The Mail’s article is shown below.

Denys is chairman of Coventry and Warwickshire LEP, one of the first such bodies to be approved by the Government. Denys, 47, is an entrepreneur who in 1994 founded DCS Europe, a beauty company that distributes brands including those made by Unilever and Procter & Gamble to more than 70 countries.

Local Enterprise Partnerships are the Government�s much vaunted replacement for the Regional Development Agencies, which were scrapped in the 2010 Budget. The new Government funded groups are intended to be led by business, for business. Since the concept was launched, 24 have been approved and set up.

The firm also sells its own range of beauty products called Enliven and turns over �130million a year.

Through the LEP, Denys hopes to provide local firms and entrepreneurs with the support they need to expand their businesses and deal with relevant issues, such as access to finance. The partnership has held regular focus groups, targeting business sectors from farming to automotive, as well as forums on issues including planning and skills. It also holds breakfast meetings for firms to tell of their concerns, while a conference in October was attended by 300 businesses.

3 min read

Enable has been a pioneer of Internet applications since its inception 12 years ago. We quickly recognised that physically installing software on every PC in an organization was not the way forward, as upgrades need to be carried out individually on each computer, computer-specific problems can be encountered, and users can only work on the specific PCs that have the software installed. On the other hand, browser-based applications can be accessed via a web browser from anywhere without requiring any local installation, and upgrades are carried out once in a central location.

Enable has focussed on developing browser-based applications that are fast to operate and easy-to-use for both the occasional and the expert user. A major goal has been to make browser-based applications as ‘feature rich’ as the desktop, and this has been largely achieved in recent years.

In the past, a potential downside of browser-based applications has been that they require a reliable Internet connection to operate. However, Enable has recently completed development projects where this is not so. Utilising HTML5, Enable can develop applications with functions that can be accessed and used with only intermittent connectivity. When an Internet connection becomes available, data is able to synchronise between the user’s device—PC, smartphone, tablet—and the central server that hosts the application.

3 min read

On a star studded evening of entrepreneurs in London—including James Caan, Julie Meyer and Will King—the Growing Business Awards celebrated the best of British Business. Created by Real Business and the CBI in 1999, the Growing Business Awards are the most established recognition for UK independent and entrepreneurial businesses.

This year’s event kicked off the first Global Entrepreneurship Week, where enterprise activity is being championed across the world.

A new award for ‘Local Hero of Enterprise’ was won by Denys Shortt, founder of DCS Europe and Chairman of the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

Declan Curry, presenter for BBC Business News, announced the award:

“Former England Hockey player, highly successful entrepreneur and proud son of Stratford-upon-Avon, Denys Shortt commits himself to a huge array of local community projects—from supporting the town’s football club to mentoring business owners to launching an ambitious new project to place helipads on rooftops alongside accident and emergency wings.”

2 min read

Barclays Corporate has extended banking facilities of £19m to DCS Europe — Enable’s parent company. DCS Europe is the UK market leader of sales and distribution of health, beauty and household brands. As a result, the business has moved its’ banking operations to Barclays Corporate in recognition of the bank’s support for its ambitious growth plans.

The facilities will support the expansion of the Group which operates from its 11 acre site in Stratford-upon-Avon and which employs over 250 people. DCS is the official UK distributor for Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate and many more. The company’s own brand ’Enliven’, which consists of a range of 75 products, is produced in their new factory as well as the manufacturing of a number of own-label products on behalf of retailers such as Superdrug, Next and Wilkinsons.

As well as expanding its repacking and manufacturing divisions, DCS is now looking for further global growth in export markets, building on its presence in 70 countries.

Commenting on the deal, CEO of DCS Europe, Denys Shortt said: “Our deal is proof that the banks are lending in these tough times despite what the newspapers say. We are continuing to grow the business following the investment in our facility in Stratford earlier this year and we will to continue to develop all areas of the business to create jobs and growth.”

2 min read

With the continuously growing need to access applications and data on the move, consumer products such as iPhone and Android powered devices are increasingly being used to meet business requirements.

The benefits of consumer apps apply to the business world. Benefits such as being able to optimize the user experience for the device screen size and being able to work with intermittent Internet connectivity.

One of the major challenges is deciding which devices to support. Do you support Android, Blackberry, iOS, or a combination of those? Perhaps you need to support all three, which involves a rewrite of the application. Also, if you are developing a business app it is surely important to be able to access it on a desktop computer and/or web browser? If you do develop multiple versions of your app then you will need to integrate with each of the App Stores.

There is another approach to this challenge, using Enable. We can provide you with your own company App Store, and develop applications once that work across Android, Blackberry and iOS as well as desktop computers and web browsers without having to be written multiple times.

This is achieved by delivering each application over the web but using the latest technology to cache important information locally on the device, therefore allowing you to work with intermittent connectivity to the Internet. The applications look and feel like locally installed applications.

2 min read

Enable has delivered an iPhone application to allow merchandising teams to capture real-time data during site visits.

With annual sales in excess of £130 million, DCS is one of Europe’s largest distributors of health and beauty products. Under the direction of founder Denys Shortt, the company has witnessed unprecedented growth over a period of seventeen years since it was established in 1994.

DCS supplies over 30,000 retailers and 500 wholesalers in the United Kingdom and exports to 70 countries worldwide. In addition to handling the distribution into selected markets of brands such as Gillette, Colgate, P&G, Unilever, L’Oreal and Cussons, the company has launched its own Enliven range of budget-priced toiletries.

The importance of accurate customer compliance data

Providing accurate, up-to-date data to their renowned range of suppliers is vital to DCS. Deals that are agreed between suppliers and customers determine which products are to be displayed by the customer, at specific prices and positions. Short-term promotional deals are offered and core range products are identified.

4 min read

As a leader in developing retrospective rebate and overrider management systems, Enable is delighted to be exhibiting at eWorld Purchasing & Supply.

The event focuses on leading-edge technologies and techniques within the procurement and supply chain functions. Come and join us on 2 March at Stand 3 where we can discuss how we design, develop and implement finely tuned solutions for customers across many industries.

You will also have the opportunity to hear how Andrew Butt, Managing Director, has overseen the requirements analysis and implementation of supplier contract management systems to a range of companies and buying groups, offering benefits such as revenue optimization, cost reduction, risk management and cash release.

Our efficient systems have made the difference between just "making do" and making profit!

1 min read

The NEC Group is the Birmingham-based venue management company that operates four world-class venues: The National Exhibition Centre, The International Convention Centre, the LG Arena and The National Indoor Arena. The Group also operates national ticketing agency The Ticket Factory and award-winning, prestige caterer Amadeus.

Together, the venues stage more than 800 events a year, from world-renowned consumer and trade exhibitions like Clothes Show Live and Crufts, to concerts by international artists including Pink, Elton John and Michael Buble.

A substantial part of NEC Group business involves the provision of Catering Services, both in a retail context at NEC exhibitions and as a contracted service to an end client via its own premium event catering company—Amadeus.

What was the issue?

The staffing of Catering Services is a substantial exercise, involving hundreds of staff and a mixture of full-time employees, annualised and non-annualised part-time employees, casual workers, students and agency staff.

The NEC Group spends £12m annually on catering labour, with each individual event having particular staffing requirements, and where last minute changes to plan are common. The Government’s Working Time Directive rules add further complexity where legal restrictions exist on the working schedule for staff.

3 min read

Need, the mother of invention

Whether through business acquisition, merger or demerger, significant restructuring of any organization presents opportunities to reinvigorate process and champion best practice. What’s more, if implemented correctly, considerable time and cost efficiencies can be achieved.

Here, Bruce Gardner for NSL recalls how need really was the mother of invention for the business. In addition, he explains how the system that was developed has gone on to provide a platform for continued cost-savings across new NSL contracts.

Business critical situation

NSL is one of the biggest transport services businesses in the UK. The company is the largest provider of on-street parking management services in the country, working with over 40 local authorities and two government agencies as customers. The business also provides a range of transport and related services to public and private clients, such as debt recovery, CCTV monitoring, coach and patient transfer operations, notice processing and street design consultancy.

Although launched as a brand in 2009, NSL�s history goes back more than 75 years, originally as part of National Car Parks (NCP). Rapid growth and significant change in the new decade saw it demerge from NCP to NSL Services in 2007.

At that time, the company faced one of its biggest challenges to date. The solution to which ultimately led to its back office processes being revolutionised, providing immediate cost savings.

5 min read