Case study: Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer is focused on
delivering first-rate customer service,
and is passionate about its people. We
concluded that Williams Lea had the
expertise to deliver the best solution and
had the best cultural fit with Marks &
Spencer
Andrew Neale, Head of Facilities, Marks &
Spencer
In a radical change to its processes, for
the first time in its history, Marks &
Spencer outsourced non-core services.
Following a detailed review, Williams Lea
took on management of the retailers
mailroom, portering and document
management facilities
Marks & Spencer (M&S) is one of the UK's
leading retailers of clothing, foods,
homeware and financial services, serving 10
million customers a week across 300+ UK
stores. The company trades in 30 countries
and has group turnover in excess of 8bn. A
move to the companys new headquarters in
Paddington prompted Marks & Spencer to
review its non-core service functions.
The challenge
Drivers leading M&S to appoint a third
party to provide these services were:
Significant logistics challenges
Pressure to release space to core
business
Requirement to introduce new ways of
working
Pressure to reduce headcount and costs
Rationalisation of FM management team
Solution complements vision of being a streamlined,
dynamic organisation
The retailer is committed to delivering first-
rate customer service, and the move
required processes to be streamlined and
the release of as much office space as
possible.
Due to the radical nature of the move to
outsource, Marks & Spencer consulted
Williams Lea clients and concluded that it
not only had the expertise to deliver the best
solution but importantly had the best cultural
fit with the retailer, being passionate about
people as well as processes.
Williams Lea was awarded the two-year
contract to review, re-engineer and manage
the service areas throughout the transition to
the new building.
The solution
In line with M&Ss vision of creating a more
dynamic, streamlined, efficient and customer
service-focused organisation, Williams Lea
was appointed.
For more information, visit www.williamslea.com
Case study: Marks & Spencer
Initially Williams Lea was appointed in a
consultancy capacity to review the service
infrastructure and build a solution for the
new building.
In M&Ss first outsourced corporate
information contract, services
incorporated:
Mainland distribution
Archiving
Records management
Pressure to reduce headcount and costs
Rationalisation of FM management team
The solution involved development of an off-
site processing hub for mail, reprographics
and archiving located four miles from M&Ss
HQ. This was Williams Leas first off-site
mail solution. A central London service is
also provided (two sites half a mile apart)
with national storewide distribution and
fulfilment.
Off-site mail
Handling a daily average of 15,000 items of
mail, the mailroom at the City-based mail-
processing centre gives substantial space
savings at the new headquarters
Track-and-trace technology Results
One innovation is track & trace technology, Reduced costs through reduction in
a barcode scanning system enabling the headcount of 12.5 FTE
tracking of documents around the building.
25% savings to reinvest in other areas of
Re-engineered filing the business
Williams Lea has helped M&S to re-engineer Reduction of 185 sq m in mailroom
its filing to change the way it manages space. 50% increase in available office
documents. This has included rationalisation space
of storage and provision of a consistent
Target achieved of less than 5,000 linear
approach to prevent duplication of filing.
metres of filing (down from 20,000)
Establishment of a co-ordinated, structured
Dramatic improvement in efficiency of
filing and archive system has increased
both logistical support and information
efficiency and provided a 50% saving on
filing space per person. Risk mitigation
Transfer of staff Disaster recovery
The people are critical to the solutions
success. An experienced on-site permanent
manager provides a central point of co-
ordination. Williams Lea offers M&S a long-
term strategic partnership with the breadth
of capability to meet constantly evolving
customer demands, adapting to suit these
needs and deliver a complete corporate
information solution.