VIEWPOINT
DIGITAL IS KEY TO UNLOCKING POST-PANDEMIC SURVIVAL
Purchasing behaviour has changed since the pandemic started and it will continue to evolve, says Pete Grierson, national sales director at Wolseley Pipe.
UNLIKE HIGHLY DIGITALISED industries such as retail and finance, the construction sector has often been accused of being slow off the mark in the adoption of digital technologies. Alongside sectors like agriculture, healthcare and mining, construction has also previously been highlighted in analysis from the McKinsey Global Institute as an industry that could be suffering from losses of productivity as a result of failing to keep up with digitalisation.
Anyone who works in a construction discipline knows this isn’t through lack of ambition. The industry faces its own set of unique challenges, and as a result adopting digital has never been a priority until now. Factors like a fragmented value chain, the treatment of every project as unique and low margins, differentiates construction from other highly digitalised sectors. Of course, the pandemonium of 2020 has brought about its own challenges and seemingly changed the way we do business for the long haul.
Reducing human contact
Despite Wolseley Pipe keeping branches open for business to support essential works and maintenance, minimising human contact and making our branches ‘collection only’ saw an almost overnight turnaround in the number of contractors using the Wolseley website to order goods that would have previously been made over the counter or over the phone. Like many businesses we began to modify our operations to reflect this new way of purchasing and fulfilling projects. Reducing human contact meant our website had to be able to handle a large quantity of the personal enquiries we receive. We
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therefore implemented features such as live stock availability, personalised pricing, order tracking and a range of eBilling services, to give customers all the information they need at their fingertips.
Winds of change With many customers becoming more used to managing their accounts and orders online over the course of the pandemic, we realised the appetite for these services had grown exponentially. M&E contractors are waking up to the productivity and efficiency advantages of streamlined processes and digital account management — the benefits of which are being passed on to their own customers in the form of better service and faster response times. Whether in the form of quicker quote and order turnarounds, reducing manual processes, or improving data quality. These processes are assisting not only our customer base, but also the wider construction industry in extracting the efficiencies it needs to thrive
in a post-pandemic world. Adapting to digital seems like a daunting (and often costly!) step for any business, particularly those in construction; an industry that is sometimes, to its detriment, rooted in traditional processes. This reluctance to adapt to digital has to be recognised across the industry if it is to move forward, and at Wolseley Pipe we are doing all we can to help customers, large and small, in becoming accustomed to these new ways of working. This includes a newly set up online support team and the training of digital experts across our branch network to help those who are less digitally savvy, or those who are uncomfortable with switching to digital processes.
One step further As a supplier to the UK’s major building contractors, we also needed to recognise the needs of larger contractors in this digital transformation; many of whom are further along the line in their journey than most.
To offer the same efficiency
benefits to these customers, Wolseley has implemented system-to-system integration, which allows us to exchange information directly between our back-office systems without the need for manual keying, phone calls or emails. By integrating with customers’ existing systems, documents such as quotes, orders, acknowledgements, invoices and credits can be provided in a consistent automated format. Customers have reported up to a 65% reduction in admin time by doing this, allowing them to focus on more profitable work. Some businesses have also reported improved cash flow as a result of reducing their end-to-end processing time and billing their clients more quickly. Those with engineers using handheld devices have also reported improved productivity. Orders directly inputted into their purchasing system are transferred electronically into ours, reducing the need to liaise with us or their office to place orders.
The future is bright It’s a cliché but true, Coronavirus has changed the world and the way we do things — for better or for worse. The building services industry is no exception; however, it has presented an opportunity for contractors to operate more efficiently than ever. In cases where adapting to digital has seemed daunting or risky, processes have been almost non-negotiable. Most business want to digitalise their operations but are unsure how. Look for a partner that can help implement the processes that work for you and where possible, upskill your workforce and new technologies to work in tandem for achieving greater results. BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2021
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