AN AWARD-WINNING IT system that will save Specsavers more than £4m. a year cost just £162,000 to develop. The lens order processing (LOP) programme uses intelligent technology to connect lab technicians to suppliers, reducing costs for the company and improving customer service with faster delivery times.

The optical group picked up the Cable & Wireless Award for Innovation in Business as recognition of the work done by the IT team.

LOP is the first system of its kind and effectively thinks for lab technicians by using lens shapes to fit frames accurately and allows store staff remotely to track the status of customer orders.

Before the system was introduced, the technicians had to place orders by fax or telephone.

Specsavers IT director Michel Khan said that in its first year of operation, LOP had saved the company £250,000 on lens costs alone, with an expected reduction in wastage of 50%, saving an additional £2m. a year.

‘We have had a lot of feedback about it from stores in terms of efficiency and in terms of cost savings and the improvement in customer service,’ he said.

The concept was first suggested in 2001. In summer 2002, the first of Specsavers’ 559 stores was equipped and staff trained.

The roll-out phase is nearly complete and the remaining stores in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands have been fitted with the facility.

Together with professional training agencies in the UK, IT staff train two or three people from each store to use the system – they then pass on their knowledge to others.

Six of the company’s 90 IT staff worked on the project, which took just 18 months to implement from conception, supported by members of the product development team.

Mr Khan said that the philosophy of the IT department was to make a concerted effort to deliver projects in the shortest time period possible, giving the company a competitive advantage.

‘One of the strategic advantages is that LOP supports the global expansion. It doesn’t matter where the store or lab is,’ he said.

‘It gives us the flexibility in any country we go to.’

LOP was described by C&W as an innovative development. Its chief executive, Jeremy Thompson, said that choosing the winner between Specsavers and the other nominees, Bachmann Group and Fusion, had been very difficult.

‘All three companies can claim to be leading innovators in their fields and offer a fine example to others of how communications and information technology can transform business operations in this way,’ he said.

* Specsavers is celebrating 20 years of business in 2004.