Currie Young Insolvency & Restructuring is redefining what innovation looks like within a traditionally conservative professional services sector, helped by a collaboration with University of Staffordshire.

The business has offices in Manchester, Lichfield and Halesowen alongside its head office in Campbell Road, Stoke.

Operating within the advisory, restructuring and business support environment, it recognised early that the profession was facing increasing operational pressures. Rising regulatory demands, growing client expectations, recruitment challenges and significant administrative burden were placing strain on traditional operating models, many of which still relied heavily on manual processes and legacy systems.

At the same time, businesses increasingly expected professional advisors to be more responsive, commercially agile and technologically capable, without losing the reassurance and expertise that come from experienced human advisors.

Rather than viewing innovation as a standalone technology exercise, Currie Young approached it as a long-term business strategy focused on modernising service delivery, improving operational efficiency, scalability and future-proofing the business for sustainable growth.

Central to this journey has been a collaborative relationship with University of Staffordshire  through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, enabling the business to combine industry expertise with academic research, digital capability and innovation-led thinking in a way that remains relatively uncommon within the wider professional services sector.

Currie Young wanted to address the genuine operational challenge of highly skilled professionals spending disproportionate amounts of time on repetitive administration, duplicated data entry and fragmented information gathering, reducing efficiency and the time available for strategic advisory work and client relationships.

Through analysing internal workflows and operational bottlenecks, it identified onboarding and information capture as one of the most resource-intensive stages within the client engagement process. Historically, the collection, organisation and processing of information had remained largely manual despite growing demands for speed, accuracy and transparency.

Working collaboratively with the University, it developed a bespoke digital First Day Information onboarding and information management system designed around the practical realities of complex professional service workflows.

The resulting platform automates aspects of document collection, workflow preparation and data structuring, creating a more streamlined and scalable operational model while improving collaboration and responsiveness across the business.

The impact of the innovation has already been significant. By modernising onboarding and workflow processes, Currie Young has materially reduced administrative burden, improved consistency across case handling and enhanced operational responsiveness. Teams are able to access and process information more efficiently, collaborate more effectively and dedicate greater time to strategic and advisory work.

Currie Young Insolvency & Restructuring has entered the Innovation, Business in the Community and Small Business of the Year categories of University of Staffordshire Business Awards.