Spirit Healthcare continues to grow

Healthcare trailblazer jumps from Sage 50 to Sage X3

20th July 2021

Spirit Healthcare develops innovative solutions to improve the lives of patients while giving the best value for healthcare providers. We spoke to Director of Finance, Louisa Poole, about their impressive growth and how their giant leap to Sage X3 will revolutionise how they work. 

Spirit Healthcare started out supplying diabetes products, however, their portfolio has diversified and now includes 13 companies and sites specialising in wound care, remote patient monitoring and educational services. They even run seven GP surgeries.   

The range and complexity of the different businesses - combined with their increasingly global presence - means Louisa quite passionately feels they’re well overdue a system upgrade, adding; “We’ve been using Sage 50 for years, which is simple to use but we have outgrown it. We have multiple legal entities to manage with intercompany recharges, group VAT returns and different payrolls for each company - it's just become too time consuming to manually pull out all of that data.”

A serendipitous partnership

Louisa needs a solution that can handle a growing business that holds stock at multiple locations and works across different legal entities. She became aware of Sage X3 in a previous role, and knew its abilities. But she also knew that such a complex ERP system is only as good as it’s implementation. So for Louisa, finding the right partner was key, as she explains; “It can be risky signing off a new system prematurely. I knew we needed a partner that would work diligently and be there for the full roll out - and be on hand thereafter.” 

How Louisa heard about Datel was somewhat serendipitous. In November 2020, the CEO of Spirit Healthcare, Chris Barker, was named one of LDC’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders, alongside our very own Executive Chairman at Datel, Alan Simpson. A connection was made via LinkedIn, and when Louisa realised Datel implemented and supported Sage X3, got in touch to arrange a meeting. When the two companies met - it was clearly meant to be. Louisa described an instant rapport between Spirit Healthcare and Datel;

“We just clicked. Everyone we met at Datel did a really good job of understanding our challenges and growth plans and where we were coming from. There was an instant connection that’s hard to describe... it was like they’d known us for years. It feels like a great cultural fit that I’m very comforted by for this big important project.” 

A scalable system that works now and in the future 

To say Louisa and the team are excited about the move to Sage X3 is an understatement. The new system will solve their immediate challenges whilst providing a platform that can expand as the company grows, without the need to employ more people to manage.

“We’re a lean finance team. With X3's dashboard capabilities the MD's of our companies will be able to easily access the real-time information they require across all business entities, saving huge amounts of time for the finance team.”  

Now Louisa has found both the right product and the right partner, her focus is on implementation, and her team is primed; “We can't wait to start. Everyone can see the benefits of X3 so there's no resistance.”  

Louisa’s passion for the project has been visible since day one, and has the attitude and attention to detail that will really help make this X3 implementation a smashing success. We’re really enjoying working with Louisa and her team in the scoping phase, and look forward to setting the business live on Sage X3 later this year. We’re excited to see the impact it has on Louisa’s team and empowers them to scale in the lean way that they desire.