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customers: success stories |
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the strongest link
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UK computer hardware distributor, Midwich, is ensuring it is the
strongest link in a supply chain that connects vendors to customers
to end users in one seamless, integrated management solution.
“In a supply chain that stretches as far as ours, we need to ensure
that all the links are in place and interconnected,” said Nick Pye.
“With product lives becoming shorter and shorter due to
rapidly-changing technology, it is critical that the transfer of
information, from beginning to end, happens as smoothly and swiftly
as possible.”
As a director of Midwich, one of the largest and most successful
computer hardware distribution companies in the UK, Nick Pye should
know. In the period since the company was bought from a large
American group, Pye and his colleagues have maintained consistent
growth thanks to a combination of market savvy and technology
support. Since day one, technology has helped make the company the
strongest link in a supply chain that, perversely, isn’t so much
about product, as information.
“We realised from the start that our biggest trading asset was
customer, product, vendor and purchasing information,” Pye
continues. “An essential step after the buy-out was to take
ownership of our own computer systems, so we researched the market
for supply chain management solutions and considered all the
contenders, including SAP, Oracle – and Strategix.”
Pye maintains it wasn’t a difficult choice. Strategix stood head and
shoulders above other offerings as being a dedicated supply chain
management system with all the functionality and flexibility he
needed. Furthermore, the Strategix team demonstrated a high level of
understanding of Midwich’s business and the market pressures it
would be facing once it began trading as an independent entity.
Strategix even installed a discrete server at Midwich so Pye’s team
could migrate data across before the purchase went through.
“The transition was very smooth,” Pye attested. “We continued to
roll out the system to more than 100 users over the few months after
independence with no disruption to business. As a result, we were
able to maintain consistent profitability and growth in the ensuing
years.”
The issues for Midwich were to streamline back office procedures
with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capability that would
optimise information flow and achieve a professional and efficient
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Strategix delivered
with OneOffice, a comprehensive supply chain management package that
provided the functionality Midwich had been seeking in order to
remain ahead of the competition.
“At just the right point in our development as an independent
company, Strategix came along with OneOffice. I immediately
implemented it and our users have been benefiting from enhanced
functionality ever since.”
With most commercial CRM systems, users can only find the
information behind the data by trawling through a confusing array of
menus. And even then, they not only have to know how the application
itself works, but also how each individual user within the
organisation stores data for their particular department.
OneOffice is different. It represents a new generation of supply
chain software that combines all aspects of Pye’s operation into one
view that encompasses operations, finance, customer management and
event management. This provides real-time information, such as
special discounting on a product line or a revised delivery date, to
relevant personnel as the events occur. The result is that human
error is eliminated and a transparency is achieved that ensures
faster, more accurate and more informed decision-making.
OneOffice interrogates the data and reports back with the
information it has gathered from other parts of the system –
information that a user would not necessarily have known how to
find, even if they knew it was there in the first place. OneOffice
not only has knowledge of the customer but also the role of the
user, so that if someone in Purchasing logs on, the system delivers
purchasing information relevant to the vendor relationship.
According to Pye, this new approach makes a fundamental difference
to customer service – allowing the company to stay ahead of the
game.
Pye gives a typical example: “A customer rings me and I type in
their customer number as we talk. The system sources information
about that customer and their transactions from our Accounts
Department, from Purchasing and Sales, as well as information about
past orders and previous quotes supplied. In seconds, I know the
customer’s credit limit, available balance on account, outstanding
returns issues – plus quotes other sales people in my organisation
have given them. It’s all context-sensitive, so I could just as
easily input a product number and the system will focus on how many
times customers have asked for quotes on that particular product.
This is at my fingertip and represents critical information that I
wouldn’t normally have time to search for.”
Another aspect of OneOffice appreciated by Midwich users is the
timely ‘alert’ feature that demands human intervention if conditions
unexpectedly change. This ensures departmental users are in control
and in touch with real-time information throughout the sales cycle
of the order.
The system also provides a ‘dashboard’ function. This is a powerful
and flexible mechanism for building customised, context-sensitive
information into the OneOffice WorkSpace.
The Dashboard is made up of web-pages that are displayed within
panels in the WorkSpace. It can be configured to display key
information to the user in the context of the task they are
performing. For example, when the operator selects a customer record
it would automatically show the last three sales orders, contact
notes and specific product promotions available. This means that the
information people need to perform their roles effectively is always
readily available.
Pye claims that, because OneOffice gives this real sense of being in
control, it helps to reduce stress. In a pressurised sales
environment, that is an important factor.
“In an essentially long supply chain,” Pye continues, “we are
providing a ‘virtual warehouse’ facility to customers who
necessarily don’t have a warehouse because that’s not their line of
business. Our customers, in turn, make promises about product
availability and delivery schedules based on information we pass on
from our vendors. The accuracy and timeliness of this information is
therefore critical to everyone in that supply chain if the end-user
is to be kept happy. We have to play our part in making sure this
whole operation runs smoothly for every customer order. That’s what
OneOffice does so well.”
Pye is quick to point out, however, that there is still some work to
be done in their drive towards achieving total control of the supply
chain.
“We have done as much as we can to get our house in order – to make
sure we had the best system available to provide information to our
customers,” Pye continued. “That was Phase One. The next phase,
Phase Two, is to ensure that we are being provided with timely and
accurate product information from our vendors.”
Pye acknowledges that with big multinational vendors such as Xerox,
Panasonic, Fujitsu,Toshiba and Acer, this is going to be quite a
challenge. The reason for this is that Pye and his team at Midwich
are, more often than not, dealing with the UK subsidiaries, in
effect, sales offices for these multinationals. This means these
sales offices are dealing further back down the supply chain
themselves and getting their information from Taiwan, Korea, Japan,
Germany or France. This can be frustrating and the objective is to
educate every participant in the supply chain, from the source
company abroad right on through to the end user, on the importance
of passing on timely and accurate information. How will they do
this?
“Technology is the enabler,” Pye asserts. “The first step is to
focus on those UK subsidiaries who do not have an automated,
electronic information system in place to handle this task. That’s
most of our vendors. Only two or three are currently providing
quality information to us electronically. When you are talking about
a supply chain this complex that just isn’t good enough. Our mission
is to work on the remaining vendors to enable them to be linked up
to our system, then provide accurate information we can pass on down
the chain.”
The solution Pye seeks could well be based on the OneOffice
Collaboration Manager technology. This key enabler for supply chain
management is designed to automate the flow of information by
passing XML messages between Midwich and its trading partners.
Pye places great value on his relationship with Strategix and is
confident that, whatever his requirements, the companies will
continue to work side-by-side to ensure future success.
“Since our inception, we have maintained continuous growth, both in
terms of sales and of profit,” Pye concludes. “I’m quite certain
that our relationship with Strategix and their ability to provide
system support and on-going innovation in line with our expectations
has been a significant contributing factor.”
Lessons learnt
• Improving information flow results in customer confidence and
satisfaction.
• Information accuracy and timeliness eliminates mistakes on
quotations, improves efficiency and minimises stock levels.
• Gaining control eliminates errors and reduces stress levels.
• Provides the ‘added-value’ factor in terms of enabling a more
professional and efficient customer service.
• Delivers outstanding ROI in terms repeat orders, satisfied
customers, less stressed staff, maintaining profit margins,
underpinning growth – and keeping ahead of the competition.
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