It`s a tasty Ensphere experience for Jamie`s Italian. Company

01925 768812
www.ensphere.eu
It’s a tasty
Ensphere
experience for
Jamie’s Italian.
Working with Ensphere
One of the major challenges faced by Jamie’s Italian relate
to ensuring that their IT systems have the capacity to
meet the changing demands of their rapidly expanding
business. In a fast-paced, busy environment employing
in excess of 2000 staff and growing at a rapid rate, it’s vital
that the business processes work smoothly and efficiently.
From the outset Jamie’s Italian has used Sage to provide
their core financial accounting solution. The financials
system is provided by Sage 200 and complemented by
additional hospitality specific management solutions.
Company
Established in 2008 by renowned chef Jamie Oliver, Jamie’s
Italian is a group of exciting new restaurants. In just three
years Jamie’s Italian has experienced significant growth,
today there are 40 restaurants worldwide and further
locations continue to be added.
Jamie’s Italian was founded on Jamie Oliver’s longstanding
passion for Italian cuisine and his influences as a chef, in
particular his mentor Gennaro Contaldo. The concept of
the restaurants was based on providing authentic Italian
food using quality, fresh ingredients and creating a familyfriendly, relaxed atmosphere for all to enjoy at affordable
prices. As you would expect the dishes and dining
environments alike also incorporate the signature rustic
flair that Jamie Oliver is famous for.
With restaurants already located in most major cities, each
one employing approximately 100 members of staff and
a strategy for continued expansion, Jamie’s Italian has
embarked on a very exciting journey.
“Sage 200 works really well for us
but we wanted to drive it forward to
achieve an optimum solution and
also integrate it with our hospitality
system where possible.”
“We have a longstanding relationship with members of
the Ensphere team and have known some of them since
Jamie’s Italian was first launched. The business currently
has 40 restaurants to manage; each one has its own
profit centre which has to account for significant stock,
ingredients and suppliers transactions on a daily basis. It
is, therefore, absolutely vital for us that we can manage
our accounting function as efficiently as possible. That’s
why we engaged the services of Ensphere – because we
had confidence that they would provide knowledgeable
and efficient support as well as helping us to achieve the
ideal Sage 200 solution for our specific needs.”
01925 768812
www.ensphere.eu
Since their appointment the Ensphere team have helped
Jamie’s Italian to benefit from a number of additional
features developed within the core Sage solution and
as bespoke programmes, all resulting in improved
performance from the finance function.
Initially Ensphere recommended that Jamie’s Italian
upgrade their existing Sage 200 to the latest version,
this would give the company access to a range of core
enhancements without significant cost implications.
Next they set about working with the Finance team to
assess immediate priorities and recommend appropriate
solutions. The resulting work focussed on a range of
bespoke programmes and minor adjustments to the core
Sage 200 system in order to ensure that it worked even
harder for Jamie’s Italian’s specific requirements.
A purchase invoice import programme was developed to
overcome a duplication of data input that was occurring.
Historically whenever one of the restaurants purchased
ingredients and stock it had been necessary to manually
input the information into both the hospitality system and
Sage 200. In the early days this was accounting for only
approximately 70 transactions each day but as the Group
grew so did the number of transactions, currently it’s up to
900 transactions a day.
By developing an import tool, Ensphere were able to
remove the requirement for the data to be inputted into
Sage thus resolving manual data duplication. Now a
programme enables users to flag the records that need
importing from the hospitality system into Sage and
all relevant fields are automatically imported into Sage
by 8am the following day. Furthermore, Alert Reports
are automatically generated and emailed to inform the
Finance team of exactly what information has been
imported including specific details of suppliers, cost
centre codes and amounts.
This relatively simple programme has afforded Jamie’s
Italian considerable time savings resulting in improved
efficiency.
Ensphere have also been working to improve the core
reporting held within Sage 200. Whilst sufficient, Jamie’s
Italian’s management team had certain criteria and
formats that they preferred and Ensphere are in the
process of making the necessary alterations.
There are further enhancements currently being
developed too, all designed to provide the Jamie’s Italian
team with the key information
that they need when they need
it and to enable them to realise
the full potential of Sage 200.
Head of Finance at Jamie’s Italian
explains:
“Sage 200 is a robust Accounting
solution that is more than capable
of supporting us as Jamie’s Italian
continues to expand...”
“...and it’s coped extremely well with our significant
growth to date. Over and above that though we need to
have a team alongside us who we can rely on to support
our systems, proactively advise us and help us to realise
our needs from our Accounting business processes.
Furthermore, it is imperative that the team share our
vision for the future and have the knowledge, skills and
capacity that we will need as our business continues to
expand.”
“I feel confident that we have found that team in Ensphere.
They have a thorough understanding of our business and
its needs and are extremely knowledgeable, supportive
and helpful. Whenever we phone their Support team
queries are acted on quickly, efficiently and courteously.
In actual fact it’s often the case that Ensphere are aware
of the issue and working on resolving it before we even
speak to them about it!”
“As Jamie’s Italian continues on its exciting journey we
are looking forward to working with Ensphere further.
We’ll be looking to them to for expert advice on how we
can get even more out of our Sage solution, seeking new
enhancements to further improve efficiency and simplify
our processes. I am sure it’s going to be a very exciting
journey for us all!”