Established in 2018, LGH is a hotel management company, operating 45 hotels across 34 locations across the UK. Offering a wide range of business and leisure choices, from a quiet getaway to the country, a business meeting or event, or an overnight base for an early morning flight, LGH’s portfolio includes two core brands: IHG which incorporates both Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels; and Best Western, a collection of Mid and Upscale hotels identified within three sub-brands, each with their own unique, local identity.
LGH operates a total of 7,300 bedrooms and 390 award winning meeting and event spaces across the UK, from London to Edinburgh. With 16 key city centre locations the company has a presence in every major hub, city and three of the busiest UK airports, and its hotels are always located close to excellent transport routes.
Consolidating Excellence
In early 2019 LGH acquired 26 Hallmark branded properties which are now re-branded to Best Western Hotels. This expansion prompted a re-organisation of the business, across both operating and property companies, with digital transformation forming a key part.
Sage X3 was already being used successfully by the majority of hotels across the LGH estate, both in the IHG and Hallmark businesses. Against this backdrop, when evaluating the best approach in consolidating and standardising on a single, centralised platform, Sage X3 was selected based on its depth of functionality, flexibility and scale.
The BW branded business was already working with Sage X3 partner, Percipient, and based on a strong partnership, excellent support and a dedicated, experienced consultancy team, Percipient was selected by the LGH group as the best partner to support its Sage X3 journey.
A Seamless Transition
Faced with a mandate to consolidate Sage X3 across all areas of its business, Percipient upgraded all of the group’s systems to the same version in order to establish a central platform, and moved them to Percipient’s managed service cloud offering.
“Percipient conducted a full review of all of our Sage X3 systems, identified some key areas where we could realise some quick wins, and moved all systems to the cloud in line with project timeframes,” comments Christopher Power, Finance System Manager, LGH.
“Integration with all of our other systems was a crucial component of the project, allowing us to ensure seamless interaction between our property management and purchasing platforms, realise live insights from which to make better decisions and optimise planning, and really gain maximum value from the system.
As part of the project, a roadmap was set out to move LGH’s solution to the latest version and establish a robust, scalable platform from which to navigate potential challenges and underpin future growth.
A One Stop Cloud Shop
“While the timing of the pandemic was far from ideal, we used the downtime as an opportunity to fully evaluate our systems, and create the right infrastructure to support the group’s vision for the future. November 2020 saw us move Sage X3 across to Percipient’s Cloud platform, representing a one stop shop and a much more standardised, simplified and scalable approach to running our ERP,” Christopher explains.
“Throughout the project, Percipient has been very approachable, highly knowledgeable and the people have been great to work with. As well as being pragmatic, often working well into the night, and remaining focused on getting the project completed in the most efficient way possible, we’ve laughed lots and had a huge amount of fun along the way – something which in these tricky times, shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Percipient’s support desk ensures that any issues are resolved quickly, largely because the skills and experience of the consultants is entrenched in Sage X3, and the team has a deep understanding of our organisation and infrastructure.
A Winning Partnership
“Percipient demonstrated a thorough understanding of the hospitality industry, and our business model in particular, from day one. From our first meeting, which took place at an event hosted by one of their customers, through to Teams meetings borne out of the pandemic and remote project management, it has been a really successful partnership. Testament to its success is that it has more than fulfilled our original remit, facilitating the right foundation from which we can continue to build our business going forward,” he concludes.
“As the industry moves towards brighter days, we feel confident that we’re in the best shape to deliver on our vision, delivering the very best experiences to our customers, pursuing new opportunities as they come along and expanding our portfolio of hotels in the very best way.”
For more information about Percipient and Sage X3 Support, get in touch or call us on 01606 871332.
