Background
William Wilson is one of the UK’s largest independent suppliers of electrical, plumbing, heating and building products. A privately-owned business founded in 1900 and with headquarters in Aberdeen, William Wilson has a turnover in excess of £88 million. Its 500 plus staff service some 7,000 regular customers, ranging from local authorities and major contractors, through to small traders and the general public, via trade counters and a growing telesales business. William Wilson boasts a product portfolio of over 30,000 stock items, sourced from more than 1,500 suppliers, together with an expanding range of value-added services such as technical advice, quotations and lighting design.

The business need
In early 2000, William Wilson began a search for a new business management system, recognising that in order to stay ahead in a competitive and price sensitive market, the company needed to make some changes. It needed a system that could handle all its purchasing, stock control, sales, invoicing, financial accounting and management reporting functions across the company, whilst enabling more efficient business processes. More specifically, the company wanted to develop improved buying practices, stock sharing across multiple locations and better rebate management, which together would drive down its costs and maximise its margins.

William Wilson also has ambitious expansion plans and realised that its existing business management system was not scalable and could not handle bringing any new outlets into a single centralised and shared system. If the company was to retain its market leading position and status as one of the UK’s largest privately-owned builders merchants, as well as remain profitable and dynamic, it needed to move with the times and find a business management system that could handle its changing company-wide needs.

The first step was to specify and evaluate a number of solutions that could address these requirements. With 39 branches across the UK at the time, the company needed a system that was robust enough to service all head office and remote staff, whilst being sufficiently flexible to incorporate new branches as required. The solution had to be user-friendly to ensure company-wide buy-in and needed to enable more efficient business processes and information sharing across the company. Working in conjunction with Edinburgh-based IT consultancy, Lumsden Lightbody Management Consultants, William Wilson shortlisted five potential vendors.

The solution
After an extensive evaluation, William Wilson selected Strategix based on a number of factors, including the company’s in-depth understanding of William Wilson’s industry and the provision of a scalable and resilient system that could be tailored to meet William Wilson’s needs. The purchase of the new Strategix system represented an investment by William Wilson of some £1 million.

Robert Skidmore, William Wilson’s joint Managing Director, says: “We chose Strategix for several reasons. Their people were able to demonstrate a good understanding of our industry and how Strategix software could be mapped onto our business processes. We needed a long-term partner with which we could work through an extended and complex roll-out cycle, and Strategix personnel worked well with our in-house team during the evaluation phase to manage that process. We wanted a scalable and resilient system and a modern interface, and Strategix could deliver all this for us.”

Following a pilot programme in six of its branches, William Wilson commenced the rollout of Strategix’s supply chain software across all its remaining outlets in April 2002.

As well as implementing these back office solutions (financials, purchasing and order processing), the Strategix implementation also incorporated a trade counter solution for each branch to enable William Wilson to service customers over the counter at each location. To make the overall system even more effective, Strategix tailored the solution to fit William Wilson’s business model. This included introducing enhancements to the software, which mapped the system onto the company's business processes and industry-specific requirements.

The results
The project was completed in the Spring of 2003 and the Strategix system is now installed in all 40 of William Wilson’s branches. The company has since experienced much better visibility and control of its margins resulting in increased profitability. Strategix allows William Wilson to enjoy stronger central and regional management of its stock, which is essential when handling its portfolio of over 30,000 stock items sourced from more than 1,500 suppliers. The greater visibility and control of its stock profile within each of its locations means that William Wilson can deploy less working capital. In addition, the introduction of more automated processes has had the direct result of reducing the burden of administration and introducing considerable cost savings.

Another significant improvement for William Wilson is better visibility and control over supplier rebates, which was virtually non-existent before the implementation of the Strategix system. Using functionality developed by Strategix specifically for the building supplies market, William Wilson can now see exactly how much rebate is likely to be due from suppliers at any given time, with appropriate accounting automatically underpinning the transactions. Rebate reports can be run at any time for an up-to-the-minute status and are produced in a format to suit the exact requirement of the department or manager that has the need. Such visibility means that William Wilson can better manage the distribution of anticipated rebate to branches to support sales and be aware of its financial position in real-time, rather that having to wait until year-end.

Robert Skidmore from William Wilson continues: “We are pleased with the improved control and management that the Strategix system provides. It has delivered a huge number of efficiencies that will consequently improve our margins and hence profitability and it has also enabled us to continue growing."

The future
With the new Strategix system, William Wilson now has a scalable platform upon which it can grow and develop its business. The company continues to looks at ways in which it can develop its business to stay ahead, and partnering with Strategix is enabling it to do this.

A key future strategy for William Wilson is to automate its collaboration with the business systems of its customers and suppliers using eBuild-XML, a construction-specific set of standards based on eBIS-XML, BASDA’s electronic business interchange standard in XML that defines document formats for electronic trading between businesses. eBuild-XML is set to revolutionise the construction industry by bringing a defined set of processes to the supply chain. Strategix is working with William Wilson to look at ways in which the company can e-enable itself and use eBuild-XML to make further efficiencies in its own supply chain.

Robert Skidmore concludes: “The next phase in our development is to fully automate our business and our relationships with our customers and suppliers. Strategix is continually developing these capabilities within its product set and we see the company as our ideal partner to enable us to realise our vision of investing in technology to retain our market leading position.”

Peter Lusty, Chief Executive of Strategix says: “The sector in which William Wilson operates is a traditional one that, whilst booming, could benefit from modernisation. We believe that the technologies we have pioneered in other sectors can be of enormous benefit to the building supplies sector - bringing enhanced customer service and improved margins. As a leader in the market, William Wilson recognises that developments are much needed and we are delighted to be providing the foundation for the company's continued growth plans.”

OctOct 2005