Black Mouse Limited is an online retailer of luxury handmade designer stationery, offering a bespoke design service and an online shop providing a range of stock.

Best practice in: Broadband
Sector:		Retail
Size of firm:	2 employees (plus part-time workers as required)
Location:		Nottingham
Website:		www.blackmouse.com


Objectives 

Black Mouse was established as a bespoke design company in 1995. Prior to the introduction of broadband, the company used a dial-up modem internet connection. "With dial-up I was wasting hours or so a day waiting for connections as I need to be online so much of the time," says Elizabeth Wilson-Smith, Managing Director. The company therefore wanted broadband to enable an improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of its existing operations. In addition it had identified an opportunity for the introduction of an online shop offering some of its stock range. It was recognised that broadband was required in order to provide a professional online service.


Solution 

The business introduced broadband in 2002, prior to the 
launch of its online shop in October 2002. The business's broadband is provided by a cable connection which Black Mouse has upgraded from 512Kbps, when initially installed, to 1Mbp currently.


Results 

Broadband has enabled Black Mouse to operate better and to introduce customer service initiatives that could not have been introduced without broadband. "As a result of broadband we can do what we need to do. It was a compromise with dial-up," says Elizabeth. "Just as technology has advanced so that we no longer worry whether we have got sufficient disk space etc., our online connection through broadband is now something we no longer need to worry about."

"Broadband has enabled us to be more efficient and therefore more productive and therefore increase turnover. The most limited resource for us is time. We used to have to turn bespoke work away as we did not have the resources to do it. However as a result of greater efficiencies in using broadband this is no longer the case as we can handle a greater amount of work. Broadband has made a significant contribution to the increase in our turnover. 
As we also opened the shop during this time, this is difficult to quantify exactly, but broadband has in turn played a critical role in enabling us to operate the shop effectively."

The ability to automate business processes is of prime importance to the company. "Without automating things we would drown in paper. Dial-up was a weak link in this automation chain. The benefits of broadband are most when it is integrated with other business processes." An example of this is the automatic link through to the company's back office administration systems when a customer makes an online payment. This avoids additional paperwork and as a result of broadband the administration systems are updated in real-time. 



Black Mouse uses a sophisticated image asset management system to enable it to retrieve relevant images for particular clients and automatically create a private web page for the client. This technology, combined with broadband, enables this to be available for the client to view within minutes. "Clients and customer service take supreme priority with us. With the use of broadband, we are able to provide services such as personalised web pages available for clients to view during our e-mail discussion with them. And on a more basic level, seeing e-mails as they come in is critical for customer service. We aim to reply to e-mails within five minutes where possible, with a personalised rather than automated response. This was not possible with a dial-up connection."


Challenges

Broadband assists Black Mouse to meet the challenge of engaging clients at an early stage of their enquiries. "With the use of broadband we are often able to answer their questions which they e-mail to us while they are still on-line", says Elizabeth. "There is an obvious advantage to us if we are able to respond before they move on to look elsewhere. It creates a good impression as it shows them that we are there and often we can get something underway right away." 


The last word

One of the major benefits that Black Mouse has recognised from broadband is the freedom to use the online connection without constraint. "With broadband you know what you are paying each month and so it does not constrain your thinking 
in any way. There is not a meter ticking away in your head. 
A critical tool for the business is therefore no longer rationed. Using a dial-up connection is in comparison like being an artist and allowing yourself only three pencils a week."