BACK OFFICE 15
STINKYINK.COM AUTOMATES BUSINESS PROCESSES
S
hropshire-based
Stinkyink.com sells manufacturers’ and compatible third party ink and toner cartridges for every
make and model of printing device. With sales growing rapidly – up 70% in 2009 and 60% in 2010 – John Sollars,
Stinkyink.com managing director(pictured), was struggling with a manual, poorly integrated warehousing, purchase order, accounting and order processing systems. “Before we had a manual system where the accounts, purchasing, stock, fulfi lment and e-commerce elements weren’t integrated, which meant it was labour and time-intensive to keep abreast of the business and left me worrying that things were slipping through the net,” Sollars said. After shopping around, he selected
AxisFirst with its specialist electronic offi ce supplier (EOS) software, Axis Diplomat. It has streamlined and automated the back-offi ce systems and the suppliers’ electronic data interchange (EDI) plus real-time stock and prices feeds have improved margins. “It has some brilliant features which I couldn’t live without now. Such as the real-time stock and price feeds with my wholesalers, so I can run a comparison to
ensure I go for the best deal when I order – very important as margins are small,” he added. “And for my customers there’s the handy printer wizard: a database that tells them which cartridge fi ts their printer. This really minimises returns.” With cash freed up for reinvestment, the company is now set on expanding into other
niche websites, all running off the same back- offi ce resources. “Within a very short time the overall
effi ciency of the company has increased by over 40%, net profi t has grown by 22% and, as our turnover has increased, our stock has decreased. Plus customer retention has risen to 50%,” Sollars said.
TILESTYLE FINDS RIGHT ERP FIT
TileStyle’s use of fi nancial management software in support of its business and back- offi ce operations has stood the test of time. To deal with rapid international growth and prepare for the 2002 euro currency changeover, the supplier and retailer of ceramic and porcelain tiles, natural stone and related products based in Ireland decided to update its accounting software. Andrew Crotty, TileStyle director,
explained: “We chose V-Line due to its fl exibility and the willingness of the Intact programmers to meet our bespoke requirements in relation to stock control and point of sale. “Before Intact our processes were
very manual,” he added. “Accuracy was a problem, as was invoicing. Stock control was
a nightmare and our customer service was affected. Intact changed that completely.” Ten years on, TileStyle is still using V-Line as its enterprise resource management (ERP) system of choice. Since the initial implementation, TileStyle has branched out into bathrooms and moved premises to boast Europe’s largest tile showroom. This growth meant many modifi cations had to be made to the company’s business processes. The company has been able to adapt the V-Line software to meet the organisation’s new requirements. In November 2010, TileStyle decided to add Intact’s customer relationship management (CRM) module to enable its sales team to record, in a centralised location all correspondence, communication
and pertinent information regarding existing customers, prospects and suppliers across the organisation, offering the company a real-time view of the business’ customer pipeline.
With a centralised database of customer
information, TileStyle staff can access customer details and history instantly from anywhere in the organisation, allowing warehouse staff to track each individual order via its ‘current status’. “It was not a costly add-on and has been a great investment for us,” added Crotty. “The team were resistant at fi rst but have since fully embraced the system due to its effective and effi cient nature. Over the years the V-Line system has saved TileStyle immeasurable man hours.”
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
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