CUSTOMERS
ROYAL NATIONAL THEATRE
Royal National Theatre hire department achieves
great performance with Navision
The Royal National Theatre’s Hire Department is using Navision Financials to produce a permanent computerised inventory and streamline its hire out service, which was previously a repetitive, time-consuming manual process.
The Hire Department of the Royal National Theatre is based in Kennington, where all the costumes, armoury, props and furniture from previous National Theatre productions are stored in two large warehouses. There are over 60,000 items of costume and every time there is a new National Theatre production, the designer and prop buyer will visit the warehouses to see what they can re-use. The other side of the business is the hire out service to other theatre companies, schools and colleges. The Hire Department has four permanent members of staff and one prop hire assistant.
The Problem
The costumes and props had never been put on a permanent inventory. Whenever anything was hired out to the National Theatre or external clients, a list of items was printed up but it wasn’t recorded anywhere and no history was available. It was a very repetitive, time-consuming process and it also wasn’t a secure way of keeping track of the costumes and props. According to Liz Murray, Costume and Furniture Hire and Transport Manager, they decided they needed a system to streamline the process and eliminate all the repetition. “After looking at a number of solutions, we selected Navision Financials, particularly for its integrated Inventory application, which could easily be modified. We didn’t need the full accounting functionality, as our financials reporting is through the main National Theatre Accounts Department.”
Customising the Navision Solution
The Hire Department purchased Navision Financials integrated applications, including General Ledger, Sales and Receivables, Inventory and Contact Management. The Inventory application was customised by the Navision Solution Centre to meet the Department’s specific requirements. In addition to the barcode, a much fuller description of each item was needed, so an extended text facility was incorporated. They needed to know the colour and fabric of the items and whether the props were made or bought. They also needed a description of the item’s character, gender, condition, the period, the production it came from and the style.
In Use and Business Benefits
The Hire Department has been using the Navision system since January 2000. It is running on a Microsoft NT server for up to nine users, including casual data entry staff. “Every time someone comes in to hire, each item is barcoded and its full description is entered into the system, if it isn’t already there,” explains Liz. “An order is then produced and is posted to an invoice. We then have a facility for checking off items as they’re returned. The system provides us with a history of the items we’ve entered into the system, what they’ve been used for and how many times they’ve been out on hire. We’re also just beginning to include photographs so we can email pictures of the costumes and props, which is really useful if clients can’t visit the warehouse in person. Contact Management is being used as our client database. “
She points out that staff are now able to make better use of their time, or will be once all items are on the system. “It’s an ongoing process with such a backlog of stock, but it means that staff aren‘t repeating work, as once an item is entered into the system, it’s in there for good. Navision is speeding up the hiring process and allows staff to spend more time with clients. It’s also improving the security of costumes and props. For example, when people are returning the items, it’s easy to check on the system whether anything is missing.”
The Hire Department produces weekly reports to the National Theatre’s Accounts Department. These include all the paid invoices during a specific time period and all the unpaid invoices. Statements and reminders are produced and also reports of items that should have been returned and have overrun their hire period.
Navision Solution Centre Support
Liz Murray says that she is impressed with their current Navision Solution Centre, Metaphorix, particularly their support system. “If we email them with a query or problem, they acknowledge it immediately and resolve it very quickly.”
The Future
As the next phase of the project, the Hire Department is considering the use of the Internet to improve customer service. This facility will enable clients to see on-line pictures of items and availability and to hire them over the Web. This will then interface through to Navision, automatically updating the inventory to reflect that the item has been booked out.
Stephen Thomas from Metaphorix stated: “The National Theatre has grasped the technology available to streamline a specific area of its business that was creating a major overhead in terms of administration. Following the integration of Navision, the Hire Department is beginning to reap the benefits and spend less time on administrative tasks and more time helping customers.”
