A Shropshire firm of chartered surveyors has binned paper waste and boosted business by more than £350,000 by taking on the latest internet technology.

Severn Partnership was set up in 1983 and carries out surveys for clients in industries including railways, defence, airports and, more recently, golf courses and film studios for the leisure industry.

The Shrewsbury-based firm has seen the volume of paper it uses fall by 90 per cent after installing an online management system with the help of the National B2B Centre at the University of Warwick.

The customer relationship management system can manage all business applications and allows staff to use it as a database to log and track all jobs from initial inquiry to completion.

The system, which can be viewed by the whole workforce, has reduced time-consuming manual processes and seen Severn Partnership’s turnover increase by £350,000 in two years and enabled six new staff to join its team.

Nick Blenkarn, director at Severn Partnership, said: “Previously we used Microsoft Office to log inquiries and also kept a paper copy which would then get passed on to one of our directors.

“It could be difficult to monitor at what stage each inquiry was at and neither were we able to analyse client data in detail.

“The CRM software has revolutionised our processes and has made the way we work much more productive.”

The company has also signed up to Google Mail and several of the search engine’s online applications, which can be accessed remotely and modified instantly.

National B2B Centre was also enlisted to help increase Severn Partnership’s presence on the web and now all client inquiries are directed to its website, cutting the number of paper brochures.

Nick said: “The changes have really improved the way we work and have meant we have a lot more time to focus on developing the business.

“We are also able to use the CRM system and Google applications to analyse client data in greater detail and constantly consider the ways in which we can take the company forward.”

Change

James Pennington, from the National B2B Centre said applications such as those used by Severn Partnership can dramatically change the way a company operates.

He said: “Severn Partnership has seen positive changes to many areas of operation since it introduced the CRM software and made more use of the website.

“The use of the systems has enabled the company to concentrate on improving its existing services and develop it business through reducing time spent on manual processes.”