Oxford software firm partners with Business School to boost SME Growth in the supply chain sector

An Oxford-based software company joined forces with Oxford Brookes Business School to see how small and mid-sized supply chain firms could use their customer data to grow.

ProspectSoft, whose customers include wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers around the UK, worked with researchers at the business school as part of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) to understand the growth challenges facing businesses – and how they can be overcome. It was supported by a grant from Innovate UK.

Their findings helped create ProspectSoft’s Growth Engine, a feature that highlights opportunities to increase sales from new and existing customers.

Explaining more, Andrew Ardron, founder of ProspectSoft, said:

“We were delighted to partner with the highly-respected Oxford Brookes Business School. By bringing together experts from academia and industry, we have created something that can help small and mid-sized firms to increase sales to existing customers – which is often easier than trying to win new ones. Oxford is a hub for innovation, and projects like these demonstrate just some of the real-world challenges being addressed in the city.”

The research team from Oxford Brookes Business School comprised Methuselah Singh (KTP Associate), Paul Jackson (Principal Lecturer in Information Systems, Analytics and Operations), Diana Limburg (MBA Director), Ahmad Abd Rabuh (Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics).

They formed a knowledge base, with expertise spanning AI, machine learning, information systems, data analytics, marketing and business analytics. Their findings were based on in-depth interviews with decision-makers in the supply chain sector, and data from ProspectSoft’s software, as well as surveys and third-party academic papers.

Mr Singh said:
“Smaller businesses have limited resources, and employees usually have to wear different hats. Senior managers, including founders and MDs, regularly lose valuable time on routine tasks which diverts them away from growth strategies.”

He added that software ‘super users’ are key to sharing new features, training staff and helping businesses make the best use of the data in their software.

Oxford-based ProspectSoft is part of The Access Group, following an acquisition in 2022 – enabling customers to make use of the group’s wider range of supply chain and business software.