Enabling digital innovation by businesses

The challenge

Businesses across the world are constantly faced with new, often digital, innovations being developed. How to respond to these opportunities, embed these and harness their benefits within their organisations remains a challenge. We work regularly with businesses to enable them undertake digital adoption and transformation.

We recently worked with Fishers Services Ltd, a company established in 1900, which is the second-largest independent laundry company in the UK and a market leader in Scotland to do exactly this.

Keen to remain at the forefront of their sector, they wanted support to implement a change process which involved a new customised digital solution to improve the tracking and management of laundry products, and they asked us to help.

The Strathclyde contribution

We worked with the Fishers team through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to customise a new digitalisation solution that allowed Fishers to keep track of its luxury textile range and use the data it generates to inform the design and purchasing of linens. This was informed by our track record of research into high-value manufacturing industries.

Collaborating with the Fishers team their digital strategy was refined and the implementation process for the new digital solution was developed. We then worked together to optimise the new system in collaboration with ecosystem partners (including large hotel chains, technology providers and suppliers).

The impact

Fishers has now developed and implemented an asset tracking capability – Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - providing real-time visibility of high volumes of reusable stock, transforming the business’s financial and operational performance.

This enabled Fishers to grow its annual sales turnover and the company has rolled out the system to their other laundries. Wider benefits to the business have also been realised, including making wider use of empirical insights in decision-making. Turning the newly captured data into actionable insight and better-informed decisions.

This project has also provided Fishers with a new unique selling point, putting them at the frontier of innovations in their sector.