The past 2 years have seen Lucion Group acquire 5 businesses. During this time our teams have had to develop a unified way of working that is both robust and simple, accommodating for each business's unique service delivery and operations. 

NexGen is Lucion Group’s business operating software, built on the web, for the web, provided freely to our clients with our range of risk and environmental management services. Hosting over 240GB of critical project data, and 19TB (19,000GB) of images on our system, NexGen acts as our unified software system between all our companies and our clients. As a scalable system developed in-house, NexGen facilitates Lucion Group’s natural and acquisitive growth strategy.

With plans to complete NexGen software integrations for the majority of our remaining current acquisitions in spring/summer, we are pleased to welcome Jamie Child and Matt Story to the software development team. Following their appointment, NexGen Development Manager Paul Hayball reviews NexGen, outlining why this critical system is fundamental in an economically uncertain climate.

 

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NexGen is Lucion Group and its subsidiary companies' Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system. An ERP is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real-time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software, typically a suite of integrated applications that an organisation can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities (things like commercials, accounting, project management, risk management, compliance, operational delivery…the list goes on).

Created in 2012, NexGen was developed in response to the need to embrace a robust cloud-based system that would facilitate on-site data gathering, stepping away from the previous Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) system with a basic access database that wasn’t scalable, or fit for purpose.

Unlike many suppliers, NexGen is developed entirely in-house, forming a core part of the Lucion Group as the primary operating system for the entire Group of companies. In the beginning, we developed our system primarily for our own operations, facilitating our teams around the world. NexGen proved itself to be robust. In time, this robustness proved useful to the end client, where we now offer NexGen as a free software solution with our services. Whilst we, Lucion Group, continue to operate and grow during geopolitical and economic uncertainty and adapt to different working requirements resulting from the pandemic, we are continuing to develop NexGen and an effective ERP, considering some key questions including;

• How do we ensure technological and system provisions for employee satisfaction are met? 
• How do we ensure we allow our employees to thrive in a culture that is digitally supporting excellence at any time of day, anywhere in the world? 
• How do we allow flexibility in working location arrangements which are becoming more and more important to our individual needs? 
• How do we ensure our business growth remains as expected, we are meeting the needs of our demanding international client base, we provide a safe, scalable and sustainable platform to all of our employees, and we give our management teams ‘real-time data to ensure production needs are met despite our teams working remotely at any time, anywhere in the world? 

NexGen already goes a long way in helping us to manage this truly dynamic requirement and gives us all the flexibility in our working lives.  

Speaking to Lucion Group Chief Operating Officer Adam Mead, who facilitates the direction of our software development schedule, Adam said;

“NexGen system can sometimes be overlooked by us all for its contribution to the success of our growing business. Dare I say we may even take it for granted in our daily working lives, that we have our very own, in-house, bespoke designed, ERP platform, giving us tailored support and flexibility to be the great business and the great people that we are. 

The fact that we have our very own ERP, built by us and for us is different. A lot of businesses have ‘off the shelf’ software that is okay, but not bespoke for their needs and not flexible to scaled growth, nor accommodating of continued development requests. It’s no secret that hybrid working is on the rise, which for some businesses provides quite a dynamic problem.

The absolute need for access to information, resources, operations and delivery systems at any time of the day, be it out in the field, behind your desk in the office, from a different country in a different time zone, or even from the comfort of your home, is a huge need and not one to be taken lightly. For our team at Lucion Group, we have been able to adapt seamlessly to the requirements of our external cultural and environmental factors.

The fact we have had NexGen in place for over 10 years now, continually adapting to the differing needs of the growing business over the years, is certainly something I want us all to be celebrating.”

 

Growth Driven Expansion

As the business continues to grow and actively seeks to onboard new acquisitions into the Lucion Group and subsequently NexGen, the need to expand our current team has been realised. 

Recent Newcastle University Computer Science Graduate (including a year in industry) Jamie Child, Software Developer, joined the team in late February. Jamie will be initially focused on front-end developments, helping us build a new operational scheduler, developing improvements for the Project Management Dashboard (PMD), and then moving on to full-stack development of NexGen.

Talking about his appointment, Jamie said;

 “It’s an incredible opportunity to join the team and company, having just graduated it is hard to believe I now am able to start work within the industry I am passionate about and further for a company that strives for and supports so many of my personal ideals. I cannot wait to start working on the various aspects of NexGen as well to grow as a Developer and use my skills to assist for whatever challenges the role provides.”

Matt Story, Associate Data Engineer, has transferred from our Delta-Simons Geoenvironmental team, bringing his experiences in digital development and field work to the NexGen team. Matt will ultimately be focused on integrating the geoenvironmental operational datasets into the NexGen data platform. In the short term, Matt will be helping develop the data warehouse and analytics pipelines, refining the data collection on-site and performance monitoring.

Talking about his appointment, Matt said;

 “I am very excited by the move into the NexGen team. As someone who has always been interested in environmental data management, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to assist in warehouse development and help integrate our data pipelines across the businesses that make up Lucion Group.

This new role comes with many exciting challenges that I am eager to tackle head-on and I am excited to put my skills to the test and learn new ones as I take on new responsibilities. I look forward to working with the talented individuals on the NexGen team and contributing to the continued success of the platform.”

 

The Future Is Bright

With increased capacity within the team, our development schedule will propel forward. Over the next few months, our team will be further developing our newly launched Project Management Dashboard (PMD) to include live tracking of performance vs budget across our entire group of companies and launch a group-wide Operations Scheduler. We will also upgrade our analytics in general across the group for both current and historical data and develop an intuitive and interactive group Commercial KPI dashboard. All of our developments are focused on the sustainable growth of our group of companies or developing an integrated group operating model.

For our clients, NexGen makes us, the Lucion Group, resilient as a business and therefore a safe choice of supplier. Having proprietary software means Lucion isn't spending money on third-party software. Our developments don’t stagnate in the face of economic uncertainty. We can continue to facilitate growth and adapt with speed.

To find out more about how software solutions make us the secure supplier of choice, please submit an enquiry by clicking here or calling 0345 5040 303.

 

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About The Author

Paul Hayball is Lucion Group's in-house NexGen Development Manager. He is the architect of our award-winning, Cyber Essentials Plus certified online business operating system, NexGen.

Paul has over 10 years of experience in designing, building, and implementing software, cloud infrastructure, and data migrations. He works closely with our clients and staff, ensuring NexGen development goals align with the business's overall goals, and prioritising the NexGen team development and workflow.

The NexGen team has successfully integrated multiple business-doubling acquisitions. They built the tools to collect, manage, and analyse project data from across the globe, and integrated data with tens of third-party databases and platforms.

 

E: paul.hayball@luciongroup.com

T: +44 (0)345 5040 303

Linkedin: Paul Hayball