We were approached by a partnership, which was working with four NHS trusts. The partnership exists to make the trusts more efficient and make cost savings. Their objective is to fulfil commercial objectives and manage the complex supply chain. They also oversee continuous improvement in the trusts.

We ran a stakeholder engagement session with the partnership and a range of their suppliers, to find out what they needed and what they wanted to get out of the platform. It was crucial to find this information out from the people who would be using it.  We also mapped out the AS-IS process and then collaborated with the stakeholders on a new TO-BE process, which they all bought into.

This allowed us to understand the NHS's pain, but also the needs of the end users to deliver a platform which catered for both.

The current system was causing massive inefficiencies for both the partnership and their suppliers. The partnership existed to create cost savings for the NHS, yet they struggled to collect the data they needed to analyse their spending.  Even if they had had the correct data, data analysts were being deployed to deal with inconsistent spreadsheets - a poor use of their time. It was a huge waste of time, money and resources.  The stress in the team was unsustainable, and relationships and staff morale were suffering as a result. 

The partnership needed a platform which would consume complex spreadsheets submitted by a range of suppliers from small family businesses to multi national pharmaceutical companies.  These submissions could have hundreds of thousands of rows per supplier, and this platform needed to spot issues in near real time with these submissions, and flag these to the suppliers.  This involved a complex set of validation rules, and complex cross referencing with NHS data behind the scenes, in a seamless way.  Suppliers needed a way to see these issues and quickly fix them in bulk through the platform, before it's submitted for approval to data analysts.

The partnership estimated that this alone would save £200k per year, and speed up submissions lifecycles from months to days.  Given this manual process also required high input from suppliers, it likely saved a significant sum across suppliers.

Behind the scenes, there was much complex function/process made easy.  For example, the partnership needed easy ways to define frameworks/lots/sub slots for submissions, and an easy way to define templates for submission fields and validation rules.  This meant that the system was flexible enough to deal with new frameworks/lots without developer intervention.  An approval process meant only clean and approved data was approved for analysis.

This created a clean data set which could be consumed by PowerBI and Alteryx for enterprise level data analysis.

We delivered this solution, as well as an API for larger suppliers to automate their submissions.

Delivered an estimated £200k per year saving in staffing costs by moving all validation to be at the ‘point of entry’ and automating template management

Vastly reduce the turnaround time for contract variations for the suppliers, by automating validation and shortening all validation feedback time

Creating 7 figure data analysis opportunity, via high quality data

Provide a consistent supplier experience by unifying the process across all areas

Reduce error and manual management by automating the template management and validation


We developed a platform that would address the needs of both the NHS Partnership and the suppliers, solving business critical and expensive problems for both stakeholders.  Both the partnership and the supplier were onboarded onto a system that was automated, eradicating the manual inaccurate processes, in a stress reducing way.

The platform we developed would validate all data on supplier submission, removing any need to distract data analysts with bad data. The supplier would have the issues highlighted to them, so they could fix them at source. This omitted the need for chasing by the NHS partnership. In addition, all of the purchasing data was collated immediately, providing accurate figures for purchasing and forecasting. Cost savings could be spread over all of the trusts. Data analysts could focus on data and adding value via high quality analysis, rather than chasing suppliers.

We developed an API so that the suppliers could connect their systems to the platform. The supplier could then automate their uploads if they wanted.  This is to directly cater for a range of stakeholders, from a small family business up to large multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Before we launched the platform, a massive amount of labour was required just to manage the spreadsheet submission. The automation of the process has saved the partnership a huge amount of employee time. The data analysts are now able to concentrate on cost savings and efficiencies across the trusts, rather than data management. This has facilitated delivered millions of pounds of cost-savings to the NHS.

This solution connected into the NHS partnership's PowerBI & Alteryx capabilities, meaning they were able to reuse their existing infrastructure to perform high quality analysis of this clean data.

Ultimately, we delivered a platform which created an estimated £200k pa cost saving with 7 figures per year of opportunity via analysis.

We took the time to get opinions from the people who were using it (e.g. suppliers, data analysts, data and IT teams), which meant the platform was built with their needs in mind. We also aligned on a future state (TO BE process) which addressed the need of the stakeholders and the business. We added as much value as possible, paying close attention to time savings we could make. The platform worked, and it fulfilled all of the objectives. It was also delivered on time. The automation of this lengthy process is estimated to have saved the partnership and the NHS millions of pounds. 

Data couldn’t be extracted with software, so it couldn’t be collated and analysed in bulk

Data analysis was done by eye, which was extremely slow and inaccurate

The data analysts were wasting their time manually validating spreadsheets or chasing suppliers about errors

There was a high-level of stress in the team

The suppliers were frustrated with the system, eroding client relationships

Spreadsheet errors were taking months to be resolved

Data analysts couldn’t concentrate on cost saving and efficiencies without accurate spending data

The partnership was purchasing hundreds of thousands of products for the trusts. They were dealing with a vast number of SKUs daily. Suppliers submit a monthly spreadsheet with purchasing data. But because the spreadsheets were all formatted differently, the partnership was unable to use software to help with the analysis and the data was hugely inconsistent.

Delivery of estimated £200k pa cost saving + 7 figure opportunity generated through analysis

Labour savings due to correct use of staff and resources

Accurate collation of data, vital for business health

 The data analysts are able to concentrate on cost savings and efficiencies across the trusts, saving the NHS millions of pounds

Improved client relationships thanks to easier data submission

Improved staff wellbeing, due to stress reduction

We created a platform to address the needs of the partnership and the supplier. The supplier can upload a spreadsheet to the platform, which identifies errors in the spreadsheet before submission. This means the supplier can correct the errors without the email tennis with the analysts. 

We work with the Department for Education (DfE) on the National Apprenticeship Awards, a flagship product. The project has since expanded, and we have built on its success every year. 

The Department for Education mark an important milestone in our journey as a business. We were moving away from general web design, and transitioning to custom web platform development. Having won the contract, it was realised by Wubbleyou and DfE that we had to rebuild the entire platform. This was made more complex by the fact that we had 6 weeks to hit the awards opening deadline.  This platform marks a major success as not only did we hit that timescale, but in the process we have built a strong relationship with the DfE and other suppliers.

The system is a complex multi-platform project with many stakeholders and requires many complex features. The application process itself- the core service of the project- passes through 5 different web platforms, each with unique and complex processes, but made easy for end users who are not technical people.

We took an agile and just-in-time approach to project delivery, ensuring that all key features were delivered in time to hit complex deadlines.  Over the 5 years in contract, this has meant hitting all major deadlines and ensuring the stakeholders we support always have what they need by when they need it.

In 2019, we had been working with the DfE for 2 years. We had automated a huge amount of work and we’d rolled out a fresh UI/UX design for the whole platform. We’d just been contracted again for 2020. But then lockdown happened.

The whole National Apprenticeship Awards was thrown into doubt. DfE had planned a huge ceremony, yet the entire country was in lockdown. We had to pivot very quickly. They had the idea to hold the ceremony online. So, we all worked together to realise the vision and worked through the concept of live streaming through the website.

Our work with the DfE continues to be challenging and valuable. This has been more than a one-off project for us. The DfE have invested in the tech so that they can meet their objectives and diversify. The project is evolving all the time, and we are hyper-focused on continuous improvement. 

Every year we have made tangible progress on the previous year, and the suite of platforms and stakeholders engaging with the platforms associated with the project has grown as a result. We’ve been able to capitalise on the success of the NAA platform, and launch other projects, such as the National Apprenticeship Week platform. 

We are driven by our success on this project, and every year we’re excited to work together and achieve great things.

With a further 2-year contract, we have an exciting roadmap of change on the horizon, to unify the National Apprenticeship Awards with a set of other flagship products, to make them worth more than the sum of their parts.

Working with the DfE has inspired our business too. We hired Dan in 2017 from Baltic Apprenticeships. In 2022, we made the decision to put Dan as the lead developer on the National Apprenticeship Week platform to give a developer the opportunity to deliver National Apprenticeship Week. He flourished on the project and has grown in confidence. 

By the end of this contractual period, we will have been working with the Department for Education for 7 years. We’re very proud of that. We have a strong relationship with the DfE which is psychologically safe, supportive and accountable.  We work well together. 

This is a project which makes a difference. The National Apprenticeship Awards put apprenticeships in the spotlight, which can be hugely beneficial for young people.

We value education and learning at Wubbleyou. There is no better project to support the celebration of that!

DfE were experiencing a decrease in the number of high-quality applications on their site

There was a large amount of manual labour and admin involved when using their aging platform

There was no ongoing technical strategy or roadmap for the platform, thus tech was not empowering strategy

There was little ongoing progression of the platform; there were no targets for technical continuous improvement

In 2017, we won a contract with the Department for Education to develop on their existing platform.  It was an established project, with aging technology.

High quality applications increased by 59% in our first year

We’ve empowered 11 stakeholder groups on the project with tech automation, so suppliers for the DfE can concentrate on the applicants and the quality of the experience

The National Apprenticeship Awards were able to be held in lockdown, by ensuring the entire process was remote and adding live-streaming of the event

Estimated thousands of hours of time saving for suppliers through automation

95% of people gave feedback that the platform very easy, easy or average to use

5 complex portals have been created in response to the increase in demand

We have a multi-year strategy to better leverage several DfE flagship products for apprenticeships

We have a roadmap to bring in 3 more flagship DfE products as part of their growth strategy

The results of this partnership continue to grow.

Ultra Rare produce digital collectables called NFTs. They were approached by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre team, who wanted to get Ultra Rare involved in their Intellectual Property. Ultra Rare produced the NFTs for the film franchise, including high value cards such as Leatherface.

We talked to Director Richie Hobson about this exciting (and definitely rare) project

Ultra Rare produce different NFTs on the Blockchain; before getting involved with Wubbleyou, we had around 50 collectible characters with different rarities and values. Unbeknown to us, one of the people involved in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was collecting our NFTs. They liked how we were doing things, they wanted to involve them in their Intellectual Property. They asked Ultra Rare to produce the NFTs for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

We released our first set of NFTs in January 2021 and we did quite well. We make some of the best, and because we got in on it very early, we built it up a big community. We didn't know our community members personally. But it turned out one of the people from Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a big collector of ours; he loved our stuff.

Wubbleyou had to write smart contracts so we could sell the NFTs. You've got to have a smart contract which contains all of the details. Each one is minted individually to show proof of ownership. It's all on the Blockchain. Each one has their own specific transaction code, but all images have to be revealed to their owners at the same time. We couldn't do that ourselves.

Why were you looking to embark on a Technical Project?

The tech we were using was so new, and there just wasn't an off-the-shelf solution for what we needed.

Can you give us an example of the pain that you were experiencing?

The tech that we needed to use to mint the NFTs on Ethereum was very new. We were only aware of a few people who were familiar with it, and we neither knew them personally nor particularly trusted. It wasn't possible to buy an off-the-shelf solution from a reputable company.


We had to either take a punt: either use people who had experience but we didn't know / have any working relationship with, or build it ourselves. This is where Mark came in! Wubbleyou have a proven track record, and it helped that they were local too.

We were extremely excited about the opportunity but it also involved us minting on a new blockchain which meant technology and smart contracts which we hadn't deployed previously, when working to a tight time frame that caused some concerns.

The team at Wubbleyou were great to collaborate with, this was a fast paced project in which they solved all the technical problems we threw at them and provided security and professionalism that we were delighted with.

Designing the technology from scratch with Wubbleyou meant we were able to put into place processes which didn't involve us having to trust anyone. For example, with the Ethereum payments, it was all built into the drop that the shares would be automatically distributed between the partners and no third party developer would have access.

We are working on a number of exciting projects. We will be launching a game which incorporates NFT collectibles. We are also building a web marketing and creative platform. These will run alongside the collectibles and comics that we are already known for.

Timing- We generally have around 8 weeks to turnaround a project. This one had to be completed in 5 weeks. In addition, all of the collectible cards had to be revealed at the same time.

Unfamiliar technology- We had to build the technology on a Blockchain called Ethereum, which we had never used before.

Security- The landscape is rife with hacks, scams and people trying to game the system. As we were creating the tech for this project, many similar projects ran by different developers were imploding due to poor quality or being hacked.

‘Wubbleyou had to write smart contracts so we could sell the NFTs. You've got to have a smart contract which contains all of the details. Each one is minted individually to show proof of ownership. It's all on the Blockchain. Each one has their own specific transaction code, but all images have to be revealed to their owners at the same time. There's quite a lot of different technical things that they had to put together to pull this off.’

This was cutting edge technology, and enabled Ultra Rare to generate $350,000 income in two weeks. 

The project was delivered on-time, enabling Ultra Rare to release their cards on Halloween.

As we were creating the tech for this project, many similar projects ran by different developers were imploding due to poor quality or being hacked.  We worked hard to understand and catalogue the many way this was happened, and built lots of automated tests to ensure our solution would not fall over in the same way. As a result, there were no security breaches.

We pride ourselves on executing an idea that our client brings to us: here was a great example.

Franks Portlock was established in the North East in 2006, providing asbestos inspection, testing and consultancy services. Since then they’ve expanded significantly and have a nationwide footprint, with regional offices in Rosyth, London and at Sellafield, Cumbria. They have also moved into water hygiene services.

The company began working with a business consultant in 2019 to help them to restructure and put in place a model for scaling up the business, increasing both turnover and profitability. We were recommended to the company through a local funding initiative, and we had a chat with Phil Franks, the Director about the working with us.

How did you begin working with Wubbleyou?

We were using an prominent off-the-shelf solution for our day to day service delivery, however it was very operationally focussed and offered little from a commercial perspective. As such, we ended up with a patchwork quilt of distinct software packages, each operating in their own data silos, to gather the management information we needed. A fully integrated and utilised CRM was an obvious place to start and would allow us to better serve our customers, however it needed to fit in an around our current processes and procedures as efficiently as possible.

Wubbleyou worked with us to implement Hubspot as a CRM system. This meant we had accurate customers sales and communications records, which meant we could plan our marketing in a more targeted way. The customer records are easily and instantly accessible, making it easy for anyone answering the phone to be informed of their activity and sales history and act accordingly.

The CRM system actually integrates with phone, so inbound enquiries are linked to the CRM, which is very useful. It also means that if anyone is working remotely, all they need to do is plug their phone into the router, and they are connected.

How did we make the business agile in the pandemic? 

We’re still working through the implementation of all our planned software, but we’re already looking at time and efficiency saving through applications that integrate with our accounting software. That alone will greatly reduce the administrative effort required at the top level of management in the company, and reduce the potential errors generated through the duplication of data.

We were working mainly with Mark, and his ability to absorb and then patiently interrogate our narratives when describing our existing processes and procedures was very impressive! His enthusiasm for the project and the desire to make an impact was apparent throughout. He’s also very clear and concise.

We’ll continue to work through our roadmap to improve procedures through development and off the shelf software integrations at each stage of the company’s operation. There is a definite sea-change in the outlook of the senior team to move away from manual effort toward better automation, wherever practicable to do so.

Reporting- There wasn’t any way of pulling Management Information from the system safely to analyse the profitability of the projects

Processing- Purchase orders, invoices and payments were all done manually, which was inefficient for the business

Current software- we were confident that there was off-the-shelf software that would work better for them

“As an organization, we are very service driven and focused on quality over quantity. The latter often being the downfall of similar companies. As part of this process of working with the business consultant, it became apparent that we were being held back somewhat by the software we were using, both in terms of operational efficiency and the quality of management info it could provide to help us achieve our goals.”

Franks Portlock have a clear ROI driven data strategy, with clear next steps on how MI reports will be generated using data automation

Franks Portlock have an ROI driven technical innovation strategy, with tactical projects and known ROIs for implementing these projects

Franks Portlock now have documentation and process diagrams for the key processes in the business, and an understood ROI for optimising and innovating these with software. Understanding lifecycle of a 'job' from lead to delivery, and make these more profitable.

The changes and suggestion we made have had a measurable impact:

We worked with North Tyneside-based contracting company, Quora Group, to design and create a piece of software known as a ‘portal’ in order to streamline the company’s existing bespoke project management programme.

Quora Group was established in 2005, specialising in providing bespoke services for the supply, installation and maintenance of heating, cooling and ventilation systems to commercial customers, homes and public bodies.

Over the years, Quora Group has rapidly expanded into a team of over 50 staff, and we now offer an unparalleled blend of mechanical building and electrical services and ensure systems always perform safely and efficiently. We currently work with clients such as Wates, Engie and Metnor Construction.

Our ethos is to provide clients with a whole life cycle solution, ensuring that our collaboration and joint learning is utilised fully. We embrace the latest technology available to ensure that our quality, health and safety surpasses client expectations.

We decided to work with Wubbleyou on this project because they have been building custom software to fix unique problems for 10 years. Wubbleyou came highly recommended by all their clients, including North Tyneside Council and Department for Education, and they have a track record of fully understanding the client’s requirements and delivering exactly what is needed. What could have been a complicated and daunting project ended up being enjoyable and educational.

We were struggling to ascertain accurate figures of cost and expenditure on our major project which is an obvious issue for any business. Information was manually inputted into the system which led to discrepancies between Xero and the project management programme, making project forecasting inaccurate. As a contracting company we rely heavily on accurate forecasting of finance and labour to remain productive as a company.

Our solution to this was to streamline the process by consolidating the various programmes we used and ultimately implementing a bespoke portal which allows for a seamless transfer of information. The portal would allow information to be taken from Xero and transferred directly into our bespoke project management programme, massively reducing errors.

As a result, the portal has allowed this process to be streamlined which has reduced errors and improved efficiencies. The portal has saved considerable time by reducing the double handling of information, it has given greater accuracy of information, and it has simplified the entire process. This project has had the greatest influence on our project management division and we are looking at a return on investment (ROI) period on the project via wages which is excellent.

Why were you looking to embark on a technical project?

Their unique combination of specialist business growth knowledge and experience developing new software is a valuable asset in support of our programme requirements. We have worked closely with Wubbleyou over the past five months to come to a cost effective solution that suits our requirements. The project was delivered on time and on budget with regular communication throughout.

My reservation about embarking on a project like this was solely down to our lack of technical expertise. We also initially had concerns about knowing what we wanted this project to turn into and if we were going in the right direction with the software. Wubbleyou were able to guide us through these concerns and helped us determine what it was we were actually trying to achieve.

The original proposal was for a much larger project but with the assistance of Wubbleyou we were able to break the project down into smaller, more manageable components, which alleviated our initial reservations and concerns. This also prevented us from spending large sums of money on software that was not needed, due to our own lack of understanding.

Did you have any reservations about embarking on a technical project?

I found working with Wubbleyou to be a very simple process, which was important due to our lack of expertise in this field

We are starting a new project with Wubbleyou that will combine the project we have just completed, which will form part of the overall larger project we initially looked at. The combination of these smaller projects gives us the flexibility to mould and develop the software in conjunction with a better understanding of what we want and what Wubbleyou are able to offer us.

Discrepancies between the two systems due to the double handling of information

Inaccurate project forecasting which is heavily relied upon within the company

A long-winded process to completing the task, taking up valuable time

Prior to the creation of the portal, Quora Group were faced with the undesirable task of manually taking information from Xero - an online accounting platform - and inputting this into their bespoke project management programme. Until recently, this has caused many issues including:

100% accurate forecasting of finance and labour

Two days per month saved on moving and managing information between Xero and the project management programme

The entire process has been simplified, resulting in an excellent return on investment (ROI) of 2-3 years of salary costs saved. These savings recover the total cost of developing the software

Since incorporating the portal into the project management programme, Quora Group’s project management division has noticed a massive improvement. The system has enabled:

Client Success Stories

Vision

Mission

Values

Read about our client partnerships

An NHS Trust Partnership

Department for Education

Ultra Rare

Franks Portlock

Quora Group