Xcel Centre (now the Glow Venue)
Established in 2007, the Xcel Centre (now the Glow Venue) was built on a 4.25-acre site on Long Tens Way, Aycliffe Business Park.
Following a £5 million investment, it is now a stunning 33,000sq ft facility offering meeting rooms, office space, conference facilities and a large-scale exhibition hall, all of which enjoy state-of-the-art technology to meet the needs of customers across the region and beyond. The purpose-built facilities and a customer-focused management team have established the Xcel Centre as a venue of choice for the North East.
Owned by the Xcel Church, the Centre is home to the church who uses the various facilities for its meetings. To complement the core product offering, the Centre is also home to Jacksons Coffeehouse (now the Trio Coffee shop), providing a welcoming social environment for local businesses and visitors to the Centre.
There is also a full day care nursery based within the Centre, Little Cubs Nursery, offering an excellent childcare facility for parents across the region. These businesses are all part of the Xcel family and provide the same level of excellence in their areas of expertise that you would come to expect from the Xcel Centre.
The Centre has hosted some of the region’s leading events, from gala dinners for 500 guests, to launch presentations for 1800 attendees. The renowned facility has hosted high-profile events such as EMCON (the region’s prestigious engineering and manufacturing event), the Hitachi Supplier Conference, as well as the annual, Make Your Mark Awards, at which Excelpoint received the Most Innovative Product Award.
The Challenge
A few years ago, the Xcel Centre purchased a software system designed for the hotel sector. Although the Centre shares similar services to the hotel industry, it did not fulfil its core requirements as it was inflexible. It did not allow for expansion into other revenue streams or the management of resources and facilities internally. The Centre required a software system bespoke to its areas of expertise, but capable of adapting as the business changes, which would enable the Centre to offer a first-class service to its customers and support them in attracting new customers.
The Solution
The Xcel Centre engaged with Excelpoint to discuss its software requirements. Excelpoint’s Business Consultants spent the time to get to know the business processes and culture to enable them to build a new no-code software architecture that would deliver a flexible CRM and booking system to meet the needs of the Centre.
The new no-code software integrated the business processes and negated the need for significant retraining. It provided the Centre with an easy-to-use no-code software solution to assist in enforcing compliance with best practices and approved processes. It also transformed the way information was collated, integrated, used and reported.
The new no-code software allows staff to take and record enquiries and allocate resources efficiently. The greatest advantage of the software is that it was built entirely to meet the requirements of the Xcel Centre.
The Result
The Excelpoint no-code software system has streamlined the administrative process for the Xcel Centre and provided the management team with real-time visibility through a dashboard consisting of graphs, charts and transactions.
This approach allows the management team to maximise the use of the Centre and its facilities, achieving increased operational efficiency and cost savings across the business.
Xcel Centre saved both time and money by having a no-code software system configured around their specific requirements. In turn, the Centre avoided the risks of an expensive bespoke coded software system.
The no-code software solution eradicated the previous off-the-shelf system along with all its inherent issues. It has increased efficiency by reducing paper-based or low-tech workarounds without the need for extensive and expensive staff training.
Bookings increased, providing a solid return on investment, and as a result of information visibility, the overall efficiency of the Centre’s resources has dramatically improved.
Excelpoint’s easily adaptable no-code software means that the Xcel Centre can build on this successful foundation in line with its growth plans.
Testimonial
“We understood as a management team that our software system was inhibiting growth and producing inefficiencies across the Centre. To improve the services we offer, we needed to focus on our internal processes and booking system.
We engaged with Excelpoint to help us to understand what we required. They got to know our business, mapping out our internal processes enabling them to configure their no-code software to exactly meet the needs of our business. We now have CRM and booking software implemented that enable us to offer our customers an efficient and first-class service. We have realised significant cost savings as we are working more efficiently, and it has enabled us to increase our productivity and bookings across our various services.
Excelpoint developed a fully automated no-code software system to eradicate the inherent workarounds and provided us with real-time data providing the management team with powerful reporting features. The ease of use of the no-code software negated the need for staff retraining and enabled us to process enquiries and bookings immediately.
It was all achieved in a short timescale from the initial engagement through to the implementation and execution of the new no-code software across the business. The flexibility and scalability of the no-code software will enable it to grow with us as we continue to offer the region an excellent hospitality facility.” Kerina Clark Business and Finance Director, Xcel Centre
