Ecommerce Awards
2002 National Winner
Touch Down for First Aid 4 Sport and Medicircle Ltd
(External)
www.firstaid4sport.co.uk
/ (External)
www.medicircle.co.uk
National E-Business Award Winner
Background
Managing Director, Jerry Newlove established Medicircle Limited in 1978. Through its website, (External)
www.firstaid4sport.co.uk
, the company offers an extensive range of sports medicine products for the prevention, treatment and on-going care of sports injuries, combined with information on Sports Injuries. Firstaid4sport is committed to providing a high quality service to clients whilst being recognised and acknowledged as the industry experts.
The Business Opportunity
The Lincoln-based company started using technology in response to a distinct business issue that needed a fresh approach. Firstaid4sport targets a set of customers - amateur sporting clubs - who could not be contacted through normal business means. They needed sports first aid supplies and the company realised quickly that there was an excellent growth market to be had. The difficulties were that, as amateur clubs, the organisations were not legal entities and therefore bad debts would be difficult to recover, and they are 'staffed' by volunteers who also work and therefore are not available during normal business hours.
The Solution
It wasn't long before Managing Director, Jerry Newlove and his colleagues realised that the way to move into the market was to open 24 hours a day and accept credit card payments - which made the Internet a perfect vehicle for moving the business forward. Jerry therefore approached his local Business Link for advice. 'We had no idea what the Internet could do other than hearing a lot of people in the pub saying you want to do it this way, or that way, so we wanted to look at it as an overall strategy.'
Business Link, in conjunction with UK online for business, arranged for a business adviser and an information and communication technology (ICT) adviser to visit. John Owens, the ICT adviser involved, recalls the company being very receptive to technical input. 'They're a smart company who know what they want to achieve. They came on our E-Business Development Programme and we took it from there. The E-Business Development Programme is based on best practice models and helps firms move rapidly through the development process and begin to gain real business benefits from the web"'
Jerry speaks highly of the quality of the advice on offer, particularly because it was so clear and easy to understand. 'They were able to explain the technical aspect in a way that made sense to us as lay people.' UK online for business helped find a web developer and advised on the shortlist. In early 2000, two websites went live for the first time. One was a business-to-business site selling through invoices and the other is (External)
www.firstaid4sport.co.uk
, which sells to the public and the amateur clubs.
Jerry was particularly pleased with the help he received with the business-to-business site. 'They helped us find funding - we got a grant that allowed us to go for XML technology.' This is basically the next generation of Internet technology and allows orders from customers to go straight from the website into Medicircle's accounting system and its sales ledger.
The E-Business site allows customers to place orders and is also a source of information for customers and sales force. This enables any order to be processed electronically into the Sales Order Processing system using XML and a piece of linking software developed by them.
The business-to-consumer site ( (External)
www.firstaid4sport.co.uk
) enables sports medicine products to be sold online. The website provides a source of information and advice as well as on-line trading for the "Weekend Warrior." This enables many of the same products to be sold into a totally different market, not available before the advent of the Internet.
Success
The effects of the Internet site were immediate. Individuals and clubs buying from the site pay by credit card, so difficulties around debt collection vanished. Having the named individual on the card to deal with, also made delivery much simpler. Additions to the site like articles and quizzes brought customers back, and the larger numbers of customers buying similar items made it possible to negotiate better prices with suppliers.
The Future
The company is getting 100 orders per month from new customers. Firstaid4sport is continually looking at ways that e-commerce can lower transaction costs and help improve the service for customers. Jerry is confident that the company will continue to grow using electronic commerce, and John is impressed enough to have invited the company to present to others at meetings on how to do things right. 'They still call when they need advice - it's very much an ongoing relationship and one which is good for both of us.'
Fast Facts
Business areas
Marketing, sales
Sector
Retail / Sports / First Aid
Technologies
www, email, trading online
Size of firm
15 employees
Location
Based in Lincoln
Geographical impact
Supplying worldwide
Advice for Other Companies
"Winning the Regional E-Commerce Award and National E-Business category is recognition that we have successfully incorporated an e-commerce strategy into our established business. The prize has confirmed that integrating e-commerce has proved to be a sound decision. The prize money will be spent on developing other areas of e-commerce to improve our service to our customers."
© 2005 Interforum
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