IT IBMG CHOOSES K8
Independent Builders Merchant Group has implemented K8, an ERP solution that will allow it to consolidate across a network of 39 branches, but also allow its businesses to operate independently.
W
ith four customer- facing brands already under its umbrella –
Chandlers, Parker Building Supplies, Fairalls and Stamco Timber – merchant group Independent Builders Merchant Group (IMBG) needed to find a platform that would deliver both consistency and growth. Each brand delivers a personal service to its customers, but having access to a single, central platform is imperative to ensure consistency and efficiency of reporting across the group. Paul Barry, IBMG’s chief financial officer, said: “Before moving to K8, the brands maintained their own support functions for transactional processing in a head office-type environment.
“Through the implementation of K8, we have been able to support multi-branch operations, while facilitating the rationalisation and organisation of a central team to support the common areas of our business. We’ve got fantastic people across our business and we want to bring them together under that family umbrella so we can tap into that expertise and knowledge to the benefit of all.”
The key to success K8 was implemented during the first national lockdown when a number of essential branches were kept open. Having a functional ERP in place was essential, as was ensuring disruption was kept to an absolute minimum.
“Our counters were able to operate and continue operating all day - customers came in from 7am onwards to load up with goods and get on with their jobs for the day,” Barry said. “Fundamentally, the most important thing for us was to make sure our customers were served as normal, and in all cases, we’ve been able to do that. That’s a real plus, a real tick in the box. It’s a credit to the commitment of our team.”
Mark Routen, Head of IT at IBMG, added: “Now we are using K8 across the group, everybody is able to use the same platform, no matter what the brand or branch location. This gives us a powerful lever in terms of resourcing and addressing needs across the business as our customers move or change their buying approaches. It has given us that level of flexibility that a single ERP should, without a long, drawn-out and cumbersome implementation.”
Accessing data insights IBMG needed to be able to access consistent information at both a branch and management level, and a K8 dashboard provides branch managers with a complete overview of their operations and business KPIs, with drill down into data from a single home screen, including sales, orders placed and
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net August 2021
general activity throughout the business.
“The implementation of this innovative dashboard has been a real win for many of the branch managers - the quality of information they can retrieve for decision making has improved dramatically,” Barry said.
One of the challenges was being able to consolidate legacy data that had previously been stored in three separate ERP platforms, information which has now been brought together within a single database.
Anna James, head of marketing at IBMG, said: “You can’t underestimate the power of consistency of management information. When you’ve been working across different systems and suddenly you’re working with just one, it means that no matter where the data is coming from, it represents a single source of truth and makes it so much easier for us to be able to do comparable analysis. We want our customers to enjoy a seamless experience when they buy from us online. It’s been a big project to get these
websites up and running and K8 seamlessly integrated into these portals is the clever bit. Moving to a modern ERP with digital services has facilitated the launch of these sites and allows us to really make the most of our ecommerce offering.”
Future-preparation IBMG is currently launching several transactional websites and is using the range of K8 digital APIs to integrate their web partner’s platform.
Routen added: “K8 opens up significant operational and digital opportunities for our business. If you implement an ERP that doesn’t offer any functionality beyond what it currently does, then you quickly become limited in what you can achieve. With K8, we are now able to optimise our operations, improve the quality of our data
and enhance our customers’ journeys. You do not replace your ERP every couple of years, it’s a long-term partnership. In K8, we have a great platform to build our business on.” BMJ
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