Fizzco Ltd is a rapidly growing UK‑based SME specialising in the design, manufacture, and installation of largescale festive display schemes across over 70 retail and commercial sites.
To support a major organisational digital transformation, the company engaged with the Made Smarter East Midlands Digital Internship Programme. The business aimed to evaluate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, prepare operational data for migration, and assess its broader digital infrastructure.
Jennifer, a Business Management, Accounting and Finance 2nd Year student at Nottingham Trent University, played an essential role in shaping the company’s long‑term digitalisation strategy.
Case Study - Fizzco LtdThe internship centred on three primary outcomes that aligned with Fizzco’s digital strategy:
Data Preparation for ERP Migration: Reviewing legacy spreadsheets, resolving inconsistencies, and producing structured, migration ready datasets for testing within an ERP trial environment.
ERP System Evaluation and Comparative Analysis: Conducting detailed research on the trial system and comparing it with three alternative ERP/MRP platforms. The analysis focused on financial workflows, costing models, logistics, and project management capabilities.
Strategic Recommendations for 2026 Digitalisation: Delivering a final presentation summarising findings, system comparisons, and recommendations for leadership decision making.
Throughout the internship, Jennifer strengthened a diverse set of skills including her critical thinking by learning to evaluate digital tools based on actual business needs rather than theoretical advantages. She developed strong technical evaluation abilities through hands on testing of ERP functions, importing and mapping data, assessing system suitability against workflows, and identifying shortcomings in the proposed ERP’s financial capabilities. Her data management skills improved significantly as she learned to clean, organise, and structure large datasets, prepare them for migration and handle complex budgeting spreadsheets. In addition, she enhanced her professional skills, becoming more proficient in Excel, improving her problem solving abilities, gaining experience across different departments, and developing a deeper understanding of real world operational processes.
Wendy, Fizzco’s Director, described the internship as highly successful and strategically valuable. She praised Jennifer’s reliability, timeliness, and integrity, noting that her research reinforced and refined the company’s Digital Plan. Wendy emphasised that Jennifer’s work prevented the business from going “down a rabbit hole” with the wrong ERP system, potentially saving substantial time, cost, and future disruption.
The Digital Internship at Fizzco demonstrates the mutual benefits of academic and industry collaboration. For the business, it delivered crucial insights, validated strategic decisions and advanced a major digital transformation project.
