A Suit That Fits.com is the world's
first online hand-tailored suit company. With over
forty billion possible style, fabric and colour
combinations, it offers the largest range of quality
suits in the UK.
The company was founded just under three
years ago by Warren Bennett and David
Hathiramani who rented their first office using
money loaned on a credit card.
Since then, it has grown from having one branch
in London's Liverpool Street, to three London
branches and travelling TailorStops in cities across
the UK. Additionally, it has a London-based
tailoring unit, to make any final suit alterations.
In the past year alone, it had over 500,000 unique
visitors to its website. With the online and
real-world shops, as well as a dedicated
manufacturing outlet in Nepal, keeping a nimble
supply chain has been essential to the company's
impressive growth.
A key aspect of managing their supply chain is
the communication with their Nepalese tailors. For
this, the founders use the T-Mobile G1 phone,
running the Google Android platform. The suite of
Google applications on the G1 helps them to keep a
close eye on the stock management process, ensuring
they can receive push-emails, use synchronised work
calendars, access all contacts located online and
quickly and accurately load the web pages needed to
manage their online business.
The Challenge
As a fast growing business, which relies heavily
on communication across many sites, the two
co-founders of A Suit That Fits.com required
a cost effective mobile communications package which
would enable them to constantly stay in touch both
with each other and with their employees, without
worrying about call costs. With a significant
proportion of their time spent visiting the website
and working online, they also required a handset and
Mobile Broadband network that would enable quick,
easy and reliable internet access for working on the
move.
"Communication is at the heart of everything
we do. As a growing business, and particularly
in today's tough economic climate, we needed to
find the a mobile communications package that
would allow us to continue working the way we
do, without worrying about the cost of every
text, phone call or minute spent online," says
Warren.
The Solution
The company uses T-Mobile to provide its mobile
communications and both David and Warren use
T-Mobile G1 handsets on the Business 1-Plan tariff.
Business 1-Plan is a shared plan where companies
purchase a tailored allowance of minutes, text and
data across a number of users. The Business 1-Plan
also offers a host of other features including
international calls from the UK, as part of the
minutes allowance, unlimited calls to UK landlines,
as well as unlimited UK texts and free
colleague-to-colleague calls. It also includes
European Shared Call Allowances, meaning roaming
bundles are shared throughout a company rather than
to individual users.
"We spend a lot of our time every day either
on the phone, travelling, or conducting business
online and through email. To have, amongst other
things, unlimited access to the internet,
unlimited calls between myself and David, and
unlimited calls to the landlines of our UK
suppliers works out as a massive cost saving to
our business. The recent addition of the G1
phone, and the extra dimension this brings to
our ability to work on the move has also already
made a major impact on the way we can do
business," explains Warren.
Enhanced connectivity and flexibility
The mobile connectivity has been of huge
benefit to the company's founders. As an online
business, having a phone that can quickly and
accurately load the pages needed to manage
day-to-day business has proved hugely valuable. The
two co-founders say that they feel as comfortable
and effective working out of the office as in it.
With its manufacturing capability based in Nepal,
the company will also often receive emails through
the night due to the time difference, many of which
need urgent responses. The G1 phone allows the
founders to answer emails offline as well as online,
which means they can make productive use of the time
they spend travelling. According to Warren
Bennett:
"Having unlimited access to the internet has
genuinely increased our productivity levels. We
use the whole suite of Google applications, and
being able to receive push-emails, use
synchronised work calendars and access all our
contacts located online in the Google 'cloud',
means that we never waste a minute."
"Being able to respond to our customers'
emails instantly, even if we're sitting on a
train on the way to work or visiting one of our
stores has proved invaluable. We can also plan
our days more effectively now because we know
that wherever we are we'll still be able to go
online and access vital information. This not
only means we are more productive, but also
that, should we need to, we have the flexibility
to leave the office earlier and work on the way
home."
Social responsibility
The company aims to continue to increase its
presence throughout the UK, and grow its existing
range of products. Working efficiently and
keeping costs low through effective use of
technology allows them to reinvest the savings into
the expansion of the company.
The company also has a commitment to corporate
social responsibility Having founded the business in
Nepal, the company's founders firmly believe in
putting something back into the Nepalese community;
paying more than 50% over the local rate for
manufacture, and contributing a proportion of sales
to the Nepalese community.
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