About Cockwells

When we design and build a yacht to your exact specifications, we realise that we are not just creating a bespoke vessel but fulfilling a dream. Every aspect of the process is underpinned by respect for Cornwall’s rich maritime heritage and an acute understanding of how time-honoured skills can combine with the latest technology to offer the best of both worlds – the clean lines of a traditional craft with state-of-the-art performance.

Background

Cockwells is a long established boat building firm with a full-time management team of approx. 10 staff and 30 full-time skilled boat craftsmen. Cockwells undertake the building and refitting of boats. Each assignment is carried out as a project with distinct milestones and each project categorised in one of three ways:

1. Semi-Custom Range
   This is where a standard template is used and 85%-90% of the craft is standard with a few areas where the customer can customise their own options.
2. Fully Bespoke
   Each craft is built from a new design. However, the style and some of the components are regularly similar and so a template approach can be used.
3. Refitting
   This can be anything from a mooring to major works on a craft e.g. hull – GRP or wood repairs, new engine.

Currently, an on-premise IT solution is being used which utilises Sage Line 50 for accounts, Sage Job Costing, Sage Payroll and Sage ACT! for CRM purposes. In addition to this, a range of Excel spreadsheets are used for reporting and data analysis. Each project consists of approx. 60-70 cost codes which include all materials and labour.

Requirement

The Cockwells Management Team is seeking a formal costed quotation, along with a proposed delivery plan, of the types of services that you might be able to supply matching the brief detailed below for an integrated accounts and Enterprise Resource Planning IT solution.

The Solution

Cockwells have a preference to install a cloud ERP solution in order to minimise any on-premise systems administration and maintenance. Internet connectivity at the Cockwells site is currently ADSL with a <10 Mbps downstream speed and <1 Mbps upstream speed. Fibre to the Cabinet connectivity is available with a predicted speed of c. 60Mbps down and c. 15Mbps up and so suitable for certain cloud based solutions and indeed this is Cockwell’s preferred method of hosting any chosen system. Furthermore, an industry standard solution is preferred instead of any bespoke system and for the CRM element of the solution to integrate with Microsoft Outlook for the automated logging of inbound and outboard emails. While the management team at Cockwells will consider any response to this RFQ, and being aware there are a number of ERP solutions in the marketplace, there are some important pre-requisites that any candidate system must adhere to.

These include:

• A fully integrated job costing element to enable us to assign components, labour, resource and materials to a singular project. This will be a reference for future projects and so will need to remain live once the project has completed.
• A complete end-to-end solution from leads, opportunities to customer order, all supply chain processing, project costing including staff time and materials through to the resulting sales invoice(s) and post sales support
• The inclusion of a feature rich accounting system or to tightly integrate with a market leading product
• The inclusion or tight integration of a modern payroll system with support for workplace pensions, holiday authorisation as well as standard payroll functions and a yearly update of thresholds and any legislative changes. If no payroll function are either within or can be integrated with the proposed system, a method should be included within any response of how payroll costs can be appropriately accounted for within the project costing and accounting elements of the system.
• Ability to integrate with the company’s telephony platform (currently a BT PBX system)
• Support for barcode scanning for goods in and stores management as well as scanning items as used on the shop floor
• The ability to set multiple security profiles for different staff levels to allow read and update on a field-by-field level basis.
• An intuitive interface where different modules/areas of the system have a similar look and feel. The system needs to be configured to provide easy and intuitive access to each different type of User.
• The ability to create reports in house by suitably trained staff avoiding the mandatory need for specialist or professional services to producing specific reports.
• In addition, some of the specific pre-requisites are described in more detail below:
  As we currently use Job Costing which is an obsolete element of Sage, and being a project based business, it is vital that we can track and record the true costs around any project. With the ability to assign costs and internal resource and materials to codes within the project and compare against a pre-set budget. This data will be able to be referenced for future projects. Currently Job Costing is a single point data entry that integrated with accounts and payroll, to enable a true view of the costs around any one project. The new system must be able to provide such clarity and reliability in data accuracy. Of critical importance is how the system will assist with the allocation of staff and management of their time. It is essential that a graphical scheduling tool is available for the efficient scheduling of all boat building staff. Furthermore, the system, via a suitable device located in each build bay, should allow each staff member to sign off from the project they are currently working on and be advised of the next project they are to move to. This action will record that member of staff’s time on the project they have just left and start the recording of time on the project they are about to move to, and so on.
  The staff management capability of the system must allow specific skills to be recorded against each staff member. Many of Cockwell’s boat building staff are multi-disciplined and therefore it should be possible to search for required abilities and then allocate specialist tasks to staff with relevant skill sets.
  Furthermore, it must be possible to allocate certain non-staff resources to each project – e.g. the build bay itself, storage tanks etc. Another critical requirement is with the accounting capability of the overall system and around the payment terms of specific components as ordered by a customer. Different items used within a project will attract different payment terms, especially within the refit sales channel. For example; a wintertime refit could start off as a set of hull and deck repairs. A price and payment scheduled is agreed for this work. Part way through the project, the customer may add in other items, perhaps costly additions such as a new engine which is bought in and needs to be paid for under laid down supplier terms. The payment schedule for the customer needs to be updated to reflect this. Finally, any amendment such as this must be saved against the project, not the BoM.

The system as a whole needs to cater for a field level permission structure where User profiles can be tailored to allow view and/or edit at a field level. As previously mentioned, all projects are carried out based on a series of milestones. It must be possible to tag milestones with relevant PDF diagrams or documents and these should be able to be saved as a template, along with the milestones, to be available to replicate for a similar project if it were to occur in the future. Workflows should be configured within the system to alert relevant users and management where a precedent is either running behind or where it is predicted to affect a following task. Indeed,
workflows should be deployed to assist with the overall management of all projects. Workflow actions can take on different functions where some may be to send an alert email under certain conditions; and others may be to set a task to be completed within a set timeframe or to set a calendar appointment.

CRM System

The primary purpose of the Customer Relationship management system is to provide a central repository for all stakeholder information; i.e. Customers, Prospects, Suppliers, Sub-Contractors etc..

Email integration/communication history

The system should also maintain all communication history with each Contact in terms of emails, telephone calls and notes. An effective integration between Outlook (365) and the proposed CRM system would be desirable where inbound emails when viewed in Outlook automatically search for a corresponding Contact in the CRM system allowing the User to assign the email to the communications history of that Contact. Furthermore, outbound emails should be similarly assignable or synchronised to both the relevant contact and held in both Outlook and the CRM system.

Marketing Campaigns

It should be possible to run a communications campaign from the CRM system. This would mean using tools to select a group of stakeholders to use within an email campaign. Integration with third party direct email utilities is permissible however, the ease of use of the system must not be compromised if at all possible. It is desirable to be able to produce complex HTML emails with measurable calls to action within the body of the email to be able to assess interest as well as opens, unsubscribes and bounces.

Reporting

The CRM should provide a report writing facility so that, after appropriate training, specifically defined reports can be crafted by Cockwells administrative staff.
For reports that constitute key performance information, there should ideally be a feature to convert the report into a dashboard so that targets can be easily review graphically/pictorially.

Data Migration

Respondents should include a time allocation to review selected data from Cockwells’ Sage systems to assess what can be imported into the proposed ERP/CRM/Accounts system in order to seed its operation.

Summary

Cockwells invites quotes from suitably experienced organisations with abilities and a proven track record in delivering robust and efficient account, ERP and CRM solutions in a cloud environment. The successful organisation will work in partnership with the in-house management team to implement the chosen solution.

Deliverer Profile

The supplier will need to demonstrate:
• An ability to work with Cockwells to ensure the development of accurate briefs that meet requirements
• Ability to demonstrate creativity and provide costed suggestions for the system and if necessary alternative solutions that still meet requirements
• A task and finish approach to project management
• Ability to keep accurate records and keep us informed at regular intervals of costs and to keep within budget
• An ability to include training on how to maintain all content managed pages

The successful organisation will be awarded a Contract which is expected to commence in NOV 2017. It is hoped that the solution can be developed and completed during the 1st / 2nd quarter of 2018 ready for launch in Spring 2018. This would be subject to performance reviews and applicable procurement rules. All proposals should be costed for a 5 year terms.

Intellectual Property

All Intellectual Property created by the successful Supplier in the course of performing the Services or exclusively for the purpose of performing the Services shall ultimately rest with Cockwells.

Quote Process

Interested organisations are required to submit a response against the question set below:

Company Name:
Q1. Please detail your organisation’s skills and experience in delivering the type of activity detailed in the request for quotation. Please include examples where similar developments have been delivered successfully previously.
Q2. Please provide details of the relevant professional experience of staff that will be involved in delivering the service.
Q3. Please provide an outline plan for undertaking this work including expected time to start and finish including user testing time.
Q4. Please provide a brief description of how the development process works and how any communications would work with Cockwells operational staff i.e. face to face phone e-mail web ex or conferencing tools such as Facetime\Skype.
Q5. How will you evidence value for money and how will you charge for your services? Please provide examples of costings and explain if your rates are hourly or costed based on an estimate following an agreed specification of work required.

Please ensure all responses are limited to 500 words per question. Responses will be weighted as follows: Q1 15%, Q2 10%, Q3 30%, Q4 30% Q5 15%

Submission

Please return your completed quotation to Andrea Burrow, andrea.burrow@cockwells-yachts.local by 17:00 on 3rd Nov 2017. Please put in the email subject line “Accounts – ERP – CRM – Submission”. Please direct any questions you have about this quote or the process to the same email address using the email subject line “Accounts – ERP – CRM – Questions”. The last time and date for clarification questions by 17:00 on 2nd Nov 2017.

Contract Award

Following the review of submissions, organisations may be asked to present their proposal to convey their approach and ideas for the proposed website before a decision is made. Please note that Cockwells is submitting a funding application of which if successful the project is part funded by ERDF. Cockwells reserves the right to withdraw from the procurement at any point in time during the procurement process. Cockwells is committed to creating an environment where there is mutual respect, honesty and
equality of opportunity for all. We expect suppliers to share and demonstrate this commitment in their policies and practices.