Client Stories

Client Stories > Business & Professional Services > Traffic Group Signals

The Traffic Group is a portfolio of businesses that create safer, greener and more efficient traffic and transport environments. Freeman Clarke has been working with their signals division, which manufactures a comprehensive range of portable traffic lights suitable for applications ranging from simple two-way deployment through to complex, UTC-integrated temporary junction schemes.

With a strong focus on engineering excellence, the group has achieved three Queen’s Awards for Innovation in the last 12 years. At the same time, the Traffic Group has been extensively in new product development and advanced production test facilities to ensure the highest standards of quality, reliability, and regulatory compliance.

With a challenging number of complex changes, Traffic Group Signals (TGS) contacted Freeman Clarke and David Beck was appointed from the team.

According to Clare Coles, Group Finance Director, and Peter Hutchinson, Group Managing Director:

“A new business strategy required the creation of TGS to become the operational center of the other businesses within the group. We had no systems in place at the time and a very short timescale. We needed somebody with the knowledge, experience and drive to understand our business very quickly, source and implement a group-wide ERP solution, create a new IT infrastructure and a find a trusted IT partner in minimal time. David came in and delivered what we believed was a mammoth task within our timescales, with no drama and delivered us exactly what we needed. Fantastic.”

In an exceptionally short time, TGS became the operational hub for three other business, with the commercial team, with finance and IT operations becoming centralized. The longer-term strategy included updating and simplifying systems and IT across all the businesses, which at the time used different finance and production systems.

David undertook a requirement-gathering exercise across the group as input to an IT Strategy and the selection of new systems, which resulted in a number of potential ERP system options. TGS selected Microsoft Dynamics. An implementation partner was identified and the project started. During this time the IT strategy for TGS and the rest of the business was finalized and an IT partner found. The structure of the business determined a cloud-first approach and everything was implemented and delivered for TGS within the required timescales.

Subsequent phases of the strategy include bringing all other business units onto the Microsoft Dynamics platform and standardizing all IT and operational functions, to support future growth.