IT
EH SMITH SAVES MAN HOURS WITH KERRIDGE CS
Independent builders merchant EH Smith found that time-saving was one of the major benefits of its collaboration with Kerridge Commercial Systems.
T
he business management software K8 provides KCS merchant customers with a range of industry-specialist features designed to ensure they have that competitive edge, providing the tools they need to source effectively, stock efficiently, sell profitably and service competitively in their respective markets.
EH Smith Architectural Clay Products, a division of independent builders’ merchant EH Smith deals with companies specifying large- scale projects across the UK.
James Cave, senior business analyst at EH Smith, says that creating a tailored application was necessary for the administration team, and the results have led to considerable time and efficiency savings.
The division operates differently to a traditional builders’ merchant. Cave says: “We work with architects, house builders and the like to specify major infrastructure and skyscraper-type projects in London and beyond, with huge material requirements and a complex supply base.”
In many cases, the products need to arrive on site over a long period of time - sometimes up to two years - which makes the operation very complicated. He explains that being able to keep track of, and manage,
these projects within K8 is a necessity for the business.
“We were setting the projects up within K8
and configuring a certain schedule of deliveries in line with the intended project timescales agreed with both customers and suppliers.” “However, in the real world, delivery schedules and timescales are subject to change for a wide variety of reasons, which on projects of this scale meant even seemingly minor changes could lead to hundreds of sales and purchase order lines being manually updated and paperwork reissued.” EH Smith and KCS combined their knowledge and expertise to provide a solution that really delivered the efficiencies the business needed. As a result, EH Smith was able to deploy a solution to simplify its day- to-day operations and deliver great customer service.
“We worked in partnership with KCS to develop a solution whereby we had a mass amendment ability within the projects module,” Cave says.
Cave worked closely with KCS to specify, develop and test the software in a process that took over 18 months, but the benefits it has brought to the business are considerable. The administration team is now able to swiftly
deal with a variety of scenarios, such as when a customer chooses to delay the start of a project and does not want to accept any goods on site.
“We can now identify a project, select the changes that need to be made and use that application to bring up all those orders and associated lines. This enables us to change data such as dates and pricing in a single mass amend grid before processing and regenerating the paperwork in one go.” “This development has saved dozens of man hours per month in the team and has been really well received.”
The spirit of partnership does not stop there as Cave explains. “The next challenge will be handling our year-end supplier price increases - historically this has been a big administrative task for our business when all of these large projects are entered into the system, with delivery lines spanning calendar years. “Brick suppliers often adjust their pricing at year end, so we have to go into the system and amend future delivery pricing on thousands of lines. Amending these costs has been a huge manual undertaking in the past. We now have a solution to do that in a much more efficient manner.” BMJ
February 2021
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
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