November 11, 2009

Local introduction
Banstead based company, Team24 learnt a crucial lesson last year when the Waitrose store across the road from their offices burnt down. Although the impact of the fire caused minor damage to the Team24 building, the situation rang alarm bells with the managing director, Robert Stiff and a radical new approach was taken for the business. A major investment was made this year to improve their technology in order to become a paperless office and reduce their disaster risk, as well as spearheading the company's growth.

Company background
Team24 is a healthcare recruitment specialist based in Surrey. The company has a portfolio of high calibre doctors and nurses that can offer temporary support to GP surgeries, out of hours' services, HM Prisons and military establishments, as well as all aspects of community nursing, for the NHS, private sector and also private clients.

Risk to the business
The company offices are located in Banstead, Surrey and last December the decision to transfer the business and its candidate application process online took place following a serious fire at the nearby Waitrose store.

The management team saw the devastation that was caused to the local Waitrose business and reflected upon the disaster and the impact it could have had on their own organisation. A radical decision was taken to ensure all their data was protected and a new web-based application introduced.

Over 15,000 candidate files are stored in the office, with the numbers increasing every week as hundreds of doctors and nurses submit applications. The new strategy aimed to transform the previously paper driven applications into an online procedure. This would not only significantly reduce the paper files stored in the premises, but generally improve efficiencies and reduce potential risks to the business.

Bespoke online solution
In order to enter a paperless environment and remove the need to print off forms, the web application process was integrated with the CRM programme. This simple merger of the two systems enabled a candidate's details to be entirely stored online, as well as being securely backed-up.

It has enabled both the Registration and Sales Teams to operate in a more sophisticated manner and access up to the minute information about candidates.