Mobilis

Background
The Mobilis Healthcare Group started life as Medisport International, the first company in Europe to specialise in sports medicine, back in 1978. To consolidate the growing businesses, a holding company was formed under the name of Mobilis Healthcare Group in 2002.

Since this time, Mobilis has embarked on an ambitious programme of acquisitions designed to extend the company’s portfolio, to include a wide range of specialist medical, general medicine, own brand products, footwear, sports & specialist rehab products.

Mobilis has always worked closely with a range of professional athletes and formalised one of these partnerships in 2006, by signing a deal with England and Yorkshire Country Cricket Club legend, Matthew Hoggart. Mobilis also has successful relationships with England and Leicester Tigers flanker, Lewis Moody, the Rugby Football Union, The FA, England Hockey, Leeds Rhinos & Mueller.

Alongside MobilisHealthcare.com the company has also launched a brand new website dedicated to non-professionals, Mobilis Direct, which allows non-professionals to buy medical supplies online at MobilisDirect.com. Mobilis also has a sister company, Keep Able, which is a Mobility and Daily living products and services provider, and has 26 stores and two websites, including, KeepAble.co.uk and Youreableshop.co.uk.

The challenge
Mobilis’ rapid growth meant it had to look at its IT systems to improve the efficiency of its operations across the business. The complex structure of the company, including seven business units, caused difficulty when managing business information across the company.

Its multiple websites sell a range of products to B2B and B2C customers and the company also wanted to make sure it had accurate information on its database to improve its customer service experience.

The company introduced Maginus multi-channel ERP into the business in 2007, in order to bring together a host of disparate systems. However, the company still lacked an ecommerce solution that was integrated with the main business. Ross Matthews, Web Business Unit Manager at Mobilis Healthcare Group, said, “We needed a single set of data that could be used across our multi-channel business, whether it was for orders, products, customers or stock. In the past when we worked with a number of suppliers, it was costly and resource intensive to manage. But by having a single partner providing all the technology it removed this problem and allowed us to build a close working relationship.”

The solution
The business decided it wanted to move to a fully integrated system rather than two different systems. Matthews says, “We already had a standard ecommerce solution that wasn’t integrated into the business. The original healthcare website was launched in 2005 and the previous supplier supported the website from this time. However, the technology was very basic and orders and customer details had to be manually inputted into the system. We wanted less people involved in manual intervention and smoother business processes across the organisation.”

The company looked at around six suppliers and decided that the Maginus eCommerce solution stood head and shoulders above the competition. Matthews says, “We liked how we could integrate Maginus eCommerce into the business. We were also impressed by how quickly we could get the product to market. Mobilis is a £30 million business which is growing fast, however, at this time only two per cent of its business went through the web so it was crucial that we had a system that was scalable so our growth could be supported.”

The benefits
The business has seen continuous improvement in its performance from 2006 to 2007 and from 2007 to 2008. Matthews comments, “Following the introduction of Maginus eCommerce we’ve had a lot of positive customer feedback. Products are now easier to find and once an order is processed the service is automated until the picking and packing stage. Our sales have doubled since the launch of the website in February 2008, which proves the effectiveness of the system.”

Mobilis’ websites all look very different and are all targeted at very different markets. Www.mobilishealthcare.com covers the B2B side of the business, www.mobilisdirect.com covers the B2C customers & www.keepable.co.uk offers disability and mobility goods. Matthews says, “Despite the fact each site is very different they are all based on the same eCommerce solution which means that from the initial investment there is a low cost rollout for additional sites. This is essential as we look to grow our business going forward and we plan to have a fourth site up and running by the end of year.”

Likewise, although Maginus has delivered a number of different websites to Mobilis all the information comes from one central repository. “This means that there is less maintenance as information only has to be updated in one place, which insures accuracy across the channels. The product content also includes product description and pricing – which can be different from website to website.”

Matthews says, “With the adoption of Maginus technology, we have established ourselves as industry leaders. We can now offer our customers a better shopping experience. Our site not only informs customers better about their purchases but will also be able to make sure the site performs to its full potential during peak periods. Maginus hosts all of our websites, it’s important that these systems can cope whether we have 10 purchases going through the system or 1,000.”

Mobilis’ customers will be able to log onto secure areas so they can see their detailed account information. “This technology will allow customers to manage their own accounts and see their credit limit, order history etc. By removing the need for manual intervention, staff can move to different areas of the business such as sales, which ultimately will support our long term growth objectives.”

Customers can already pay their account balances online, pay on their business credit account, request catalogues, re-order specific products or entire orders and see order history.