Case Study
How FOIL helped Ground Control design, plan and transition to a Digital First, Data Rich £300M+ business, while acheiving net-zero
Combining digital transformation with sustainable operations – and building the internal capability for both
Ground Control has been powering UK grounds maintenance with technology since 1973. While not a household name, you've almost certainly seen their teams – they serve over 50,000 commercial properties nationwide, maintaining the green spaces at retail parks, business estates, and public facilities across the country.
The business was already successful, already growing. But leadership had set two ambitious goals that would define the next chapter: grow from £200 million to £300 million+ within three years while achieving net-zero operations by 2035.
As well as aspirational targets, these were strategic imperatives in an industry facing increasing pressure around environmental impact and operational efficiency. And data challenges play a big part:
Services scattered across silos Ground Control operates by outsourcing grounds maintenance to local contractors. Over decades of organic growth, the company's service catalogue had become unwieldy – a long list full of duplications, inconsistencies, and variations.
Quoting took two weeks The traditional quoting process required time-intensive site visits and manual calculations. A critical bottleneck to scale.
Every site visit meant carbon emissions With sustainability goals focused on net-zero by 2035, every unnecessary journey mattered.
Inability to innovate Without standardised data about services, products, and processes, building sophisticated data science and AI models was impossible. The inconsistent catalogue makes it hard to automate, analyze patterns, build intelligence.
The challenge
Ambitious growth and environmental responsibility aren't opposing forces. But they do require the right foundation.
"When you're transforming an organisation, especially an SME, you're probably not going to have all the technical skills that you need in-house for a data and AI project."
Chris Howell, CIO, Ground Control
Our approach
Why Ground Control chose FOIL
Ground Control needed partners who could deliver the unglamorous foundation - while driving a narrative that showed the business the opportunity and AI art of the possible.
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FOIL didn't rush to build apps or deploy AI. We started with the essential work: getting the right people in the room to standardise services, establish clean data, and agree principles for future growth.
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This wasn't just a data challenge – it was a business challenge requiring stakeholder engagement across the organisation - and it was FOILs job to engage them. Technical excellence means nothing without organisational buy-in.
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Rather than creating dependency on external consultants, FOIL offered something different for Ground Control: embed skilled professionals into the team permanently, with ongoing mentorship from FOIL experts.
"FOIL Talent was a key value proposition when it came to working with FOIL. It's a wonderful way to incubate talent and fill my team's skills gaps. You won't find anyone more committed than someone who has actively decided to re-train in a new career."
Chris Howell, CIO, Ground Control
The solution
Setting Foundations, then Building Fast
FOIL's work with Ground Control demonstrates that the most impactful digital transformation starts with getting the basics right – then accelerating at pace from that solid base.
Phase 1: Standardising Services Before building anything sophisticated, FOIL tackled the foundational challenge: creating order from chaos in Ground Control's service catalogue.
Analysed existing data Identified duplications, variations, and inconsistencies.
Established a hierarchy Single, consistent source of truth of products and services.
Built principles for growth A framework for how new services are defined going forward.
Secured buy-in Built relationships and demonstrated the value of their data.
Phase 2: Intelligent Quoting App From idea to impact in 6 weeks - a tool that transforms how Ground Control serves customers and supports their sustainability mission.
AI-powered enquiry analysis Analyses customer enquiries automatically.
Automated communication generation Generates appropriate customer requests.
Intelligent quote generation Based on the standardised services and pricing models.
Phase 3: FOIL Talent – Building permanent capability The most distinctive element of FOIL's engagement with Ground Control was the FOIL Talent programme – an approach that fundamentally differs from traditional consulting models. We embedded 3 members into the team who are thriving. Find out more about FOIL Talent here.
"With the standardised services project complete we have been able to build the Intelligent Quoting app, which will allow us to address our client's needs while reducing travel, fatigue, time intensive manual processes and emissions. It's better for our clients, better for the environment, and more profitable for us."
Chris Howell
Ground Control, CIO
The results
Growth + Sustainability + Independence
10,000 hours saved annually
The Intelligent Quoting app eliminates time-intensive manual processes and unnecessary travel, freeing the team to focus on complex work.
Foundation for innovation
The standardised services framework enables ongoing development of data science and AI capabilities, including planned carbon dashboards to estimate the environmental impact of each job..
£250k revenue potential
Time savings translate directly into capacity for more quotes, more opportunities, and more revenue – supporting the £300M+ growth target.
Sustainable in-house capability
Three FOIL Talent members embedded permanently in the IT team bring ongoing technical capability with deep project knowledge.
90% reduction in time
From two weeks to two days fundamentally changes Ground Control's competitiveness and customer experience.
Executive Engagement
The foundation work created buy-in and understanding across teams, establishing data as a shared organisational asset.
"I would absolutely recommend FOIL. The reason for the project's success is their human approach to connecting with people and data. Technology and data should augment people's work and decision-making, and FOIL truly understands the importance of the human element."
Chris Howell, CIO, Ground Control
1. Foundation work isn't glamorous, but it's essential Standardising services and cleaning data doesn't make headlines, but it's what makes everything else possible. Rush to AI without solid foundations, and you'll build on sand.
2. Speed and sustainability aren't mutually exclusive Six weeks from concept to production proves you can move fast while building for lasting impact – when you start with the right foundation.
3. Digital transformation serves business goals, not technology trends Every element of Ground Control's transformation directly supports their growth targets or sustainability mission. Technology for technology's sake creates waste, not value.
Key Takeaways for Leaders