Omersa & Company Ltd is a heritage British manufacturer known for its handcrafted leather animal footstools. Despite its global reputation for quality and craftsmanship, the business faced many operational challenges typical of small-scale manufacturers: fragmented systems, manual processes, and limited data visibility.
With leadership transition underway and ambitions for sustainable future growth, Omersa recognised the need to make better use of digital technologies to support its workflows. To support this, the company engaged with the Made Smarter East Midlands Programme which offers a wide range of support services to help achieve the required outcome. The initial recommendation was to make use of the Digital Internship offering and Dominic, a Mechanical Engineering and International Business graduate was engaged as a Digital Intern in Autumn 2025.
Case Study - Omersa & Company LtdIt was an overall good experience and a very good addition to my CV. Thanks again to you for this opportunity.
Dominic, Intern at Omersa & Company Ltd
Project Context and Objectives
The internship was designed to lay the groundwork for Omersa’s digital transformation. At the outset, the business relied on a combination of Sage accounting software, WooCommerce for e-commerce, and paper-based documentation. This created duplication, inefficiencies, and a lack of integration across systems. The project aimed to review existing processes, identify gaps, and introduce digital tools that would streamline operations and improve data visibility.
Dominic’s objectives were clear: document current workflows, propose simplified digital processes, design and trial automated templates, and create training resources to support adoption. These steps were intended to prepare Omersa for ERP readiness and build confidence in digital tools among staff.
Internship Activities
Dominic began by immersing himself in Omersa’s operations, mapping workflows across sales, purchasing, invoicing, and production. This exercise confirmed significant duplication of data between WooCommerce and Sage, as well as gaps in labour time management, inventory management and purchase ordering. Dominic documented Omersa’s workflows, highlighting areas requiring improvement, in a comprehensive presentation which later became a valuable resource for external consultants.
Building on this analysis, Dominic developed master templates for purchase orders, inventory management, and bills of materials (BOM). These templates introduced structure and consistency to previously manual processes. For example, purchase orders were standardised with unique codes and logs, while the inventory template enabled SKU tracking and bin location mapping. The BOM template provided more detailed costing by including all components, even minor items such as fasteners and adhesives, which had previously not been included.
Dominic also explored potential ERP solutions, researching vendors. He arranged introductory meetings, trialled software, and produced a comparative matrix outlining features, pricing, and suitability for Omersa’s needs. This work gave the business a clearer understanding of ERP options and readiness requirements.
Impact on Omersa
Although full automation was not achieved, the internship delivered tangible benefits. Omersa now has documented workflows, structured templates, and a clearer roadmap for ERP implementation. Visibility of processes and costing has improved, enabling more informed decision-making. The business also gained valuable insight into ERP solutions and the steps required for successful adoption.
Financially, the groundwork laid by Dominic has the potential to reduce duplicated administrative time by up to 20%, allowing the redirection of time towards more productive, revenue earning tasks. Operationally, the project has increased staff awareness of digital tools and highlighted opportunities to improve efficiency and scalability.
From a personal perspective, Dominic gained a deep understanding of SME manufacturing challenges and learned how to bridge gaps between manual and digital systems. He improved his analytical and decision-making skills through ERP vendor evaluations and developed a stronger appreciation for the complexities of digital transformation in resource-constrained environments.
Conclusion
The internship was considered highly valuable by Omersa. While some recommendations were more suited to larger businesses and needed to be adapted, Dominic’s work provided a strong foundation for future digital transformation. His initiative, organisation, and enthusiasm were praised by the team, and his documentation has already informed further consultancy work. For Omersa, this project marked an important first step toward modernising operations and building resilience for long-term growth.
Quotes – “Documenting our internal processes, identifying the missing gaps and areas of focus for future digitisation has been a very useful exercise. The intern was able to set up better organised data capture templates which will be useful for us going forward until such time as a fully digitised system is implemented.
I enjoyed working with Dominic and would highly recommend him.” Josie, Omersa & Company Ltd
