LONDON, UK — 2 August 2010 — Hitachi Consulting UK today announced that it is helping the United Kingdom Accreditation Service Ltd. (UKAS) to overhaul its current internal system and processes by implementing a new software solution, run on a Microsoft Dynamics® AX platform, to support operational requirements around the accreditation process and specific back-office finance and human resource management functions. ‘Project Evolution’ is expected to help UKAS meet its key objectives to drive greater efficiencies, improving its business processes, to facilitate the company’s delivery of higher quality services to its customers today, and as the business grows.
UKAS is the sole national accreditation body recognised by Government to assess against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators. UKAS is a non-profit-distributing private company, limited by guarantee.
The overall process for the assessment and accreditation of organisations carrying out testing, calibration, inspection, certification, reference material production, proficiency testing and other types of evaluation has been in place for a number of years. During that time, there have been modifications and improvement made to the processes in order to enhance the customer experience and improve operational efficiency. UKAS has identified that investment in its internal systems is required as the company grows and seeks to better serve its customers.
“’Project Evolution’ has been initiated to help enable these process simplifications to be realised and also deliver greater integration of UKAS’s business processes to improve our customer experience,” said Alan Hill, Finance Director, UKAS. “These improvements will be delivered through the implementation of this new ERP system with the help of experienced consultants from Hitachi Consulting UK, who understand not just the Dynamics product, but Best Practice processes to help ensure a successful implementation which is expected to meet our key objectives.”
Following a comprehensive selection process, UKAS chose Microsoft Dynamics AX as its platform and awarded the implementation project to Hitachi Consulting UK. UKAS was impressed by the calibre of the consulting team and one of the main reasons for selecting Hitachi Consulting UK was their ability to quickly understand the company’s complex business requirements and internal infrastructure, providing not just technical competency and experience, but knowledge gleaned from successfully completed client implementations such as the Met Office. The use and articulation of Hitachi Consulting UK’s Dynamics AX Delivery methodology, known as ’Consensus, ‘ helps Hitachi Consulting UK to achieve significantly reduced risk, delivery times and cost.
The business benefits that are expected to be realised from the roll-out of the Microsoft Dynamics solution include:
o Improved responsiveness; faster more efficient audit cycles
o Improved automation; increased efficiency, UKAS resources can be allocated to other key tasks
o A scalable platform for future business growth
o Business efficiency; increased visibility of processes and methodologies
o Improved customer service and quality delivery
Hitachi Consulting’s consultants are currently implementing the solution at UKAS’ headquarters in Feltham, London. Hitachi Consulting will also be providing UKAS with managed services support on completion of the project.
