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OTM aims hire!!

December 2008
Starting with one tool and equipment hire shop in 1957, HSS Hire has established a network of more than 250 outlets with a 2,300-strong workforce and a fleet of 800 vehicles. Ninety per cent of its customer base is business-to-business with consumers making up the remainder.

The company’s growth had significantly increased the cost of its transactional mailing operation which despatches 20,000 statements and 80,000-90,000 invoices a month. In May 2008, therefore, the decision was taken to re-tender this element of the business, and four suppliers were invited, including the incumbent.
“Primarily we were looking at cost savings,” says Chris McCarthy, HSS Hire Group’s Purchasing Manager. “We also wanted to improve efficiency and work with a company that has the capacity to enhance the service moving forward.”

OTM was awarded the contract in August based on its current and future service offering and costings, and on its sound disaster recovery procedures. “OTM’s ability to transfer activity to a secondary site in the event of an emergency was very important to us,” says McCarthy.

Three-week window

HSS’s took the decision to re-tender close to the end of its current supplier relationship, which gave OTM – as the incoming provider – just three weeks to deliver initial build and implementation. “We were pretty impressed with that and it was important to us because we wanted to move to our new supplier rather than extending the existing contract,” says Chris McCarthy.

Initially, OTM carried out a ‘lift and shift’ of the basic operation and since then has implemented continuous stationery and set up Mailsort discounts by consolidating HSS’s mailing activity and achieving Royal Mail accreditation.

Benefits

Benefits from the appointment of OTM are phased, starting with the stationery redesign – allowing consolidation of production and a move to continuous paper – followed by Mailsort and moving on to service enhancements in the future. Currently OTM is delivering 20 per cent cost savings on the previous operation.

Linda Scott, CEO of OTM says: “HSS’s three-year approach has enabled us to plan a phased introduction of services that is already showing real benefits and will develop over the period of the contract. The management at HSS are open to new ideas and the focus is on cost reduction whilst maintaining a high level of service to the company’s customers”.