Summary
• Ridgeons has implemented bisTrack software across all its East Anglian sites.
• Office and sales administration is now highly automated.
• Seamless integration of software into another product is seen as key.
• Hand-held terminals have become a practical solution.

When timber and builders merchant Ridgeons Ltd decided to implement Progressive Solutions’ bisTrack software across all its East Anglian sites, it joined a growing breed of companies that have turned to timber-specific software to handle the daily management of their operations.

Standard software systems are simply not able to cope with the challenges that timber presents – which is why specialist business systems like those from Ten-25, Progressive Solutions and ADP Commercial Systems have grown in importance, as companies realise the benefits of using timber-specific software.

“The fundamentals of the timber trade, and therefore suppliers of applications like ourselves, haven’t changed,” said Norman Symcox, managing director of Ten-25. “There are still the same requirements: timber is still a complex product, it has to be bought, sold, converted and the sales analysed. So the problems are still the same – it is the expectation and the way that people operate that has changed. But underneath it all, you still need a specialist system.”

Mr Symcox said timber companies were looking for the ability to express their sales units and stocking units in different measures, as well as looking for stock control. “But where it’s changed is that, where a lot of work had previously been done manually, this is now automated.”

One of the main reasons Ridgeons chose bisTrack – which is Windows-based – was because of its ability to deal with importing and processing timber – a growing part of the group – while at the same time giving cutting-edge POS, telesales and back office support for its merchant, hire and wholesale operations.

The growth of timber-specific software is no surprise to Arthur Duffy, director of sales at Progressive Solutions. “Our system handles timber tallies, timber stock by length or volume and added-value treatments,” he said. “It integrates seamlessly with other business software such as Microsoft Office applications and accounts packages.” Other features include the ability to link products to suppliers’ websites for recall of technical specifications or COSHH information.

Progressive Solutions has also seen a trend for companies to interact with their customers online and has introduced a new feature to its bisTrack software that allows them to do this. “Our new WebTrack provides a secure internet trading function that bisTrack users can brand as their own,” said Mr Duffy. “Through WebTrack, credit card customers see a standard price list, whereas account customers log on to access their own prices. It’s designed to improve customer service and boost sales volumes for our users, while reducing their administrative overheads.”

Proof of delivery

Progressive Solutions has also developed the ScanTrack module to address the perennial problem of customers requesting proof of delivery (PoD) – frequently used as a method of stalling payment. Using ScanTrack, the signed PoD can be scanned into the bisTrack system on its return and, using the system’s “related document” function, can be easily and instantly retrieved when it’s required – even e-mailed to customers while the credit control team are speaking to them on the phone.

Meanwhile, Ten-25’s offering to the timber trade is its STRIP5 Trading System, with a new Windows interface. “There is a requirement for a Windows interface because people are comfortable with it and understand it. The other thing is the seamless integration of other product, such as outputting to a spreadsheet or to a Word document,” said Mr Symcox.

STRIP5 Trading supports a mix of PCs, and laptops, as well as EPOS and character terminals and hand-held devices. It will handle everything from sales order processing to invoicing, stock control to management information. “It has the ability to interlink with best of breed products that are around,” said Mr Symcox. Ten-25, for example, now offers automatic confirmation of sale, which, if replied to, provides a live-order status back from the system, as well as offering an alerting system and supporting hand-held devices.

And, with the internet increasing the transparency of information at the click of a button, timber companies want systems that reflect this technology. “We are starting to find that our customers’ customers are a lot more web-savvy and are used to buying products off the internet,” said Mr Symcox. “A lot of people would expect confirmation of sale from their system.”

Mr Symcox believes use of the internet for selling will continue to increase, as will use of the internet to support customers, such as solving problems remotely, while hand-held devices will make a bigger impact.

With computing becoming more mobile, people want information delivered to them – no matter where they might be. The idea of hand-held terminals (HHTs) has been around for some time, but it’s only with the emergence of suitably priced technology that it has become a practical solution, as John McCann, marketing manager for ADP Commercial Systems, explained: “This ‘mobile’ technology allows non-office based staff such as sales reps, yard and delivery staff to carry out many of their daily tasks ‘on the move’. Soon you will even be able to queue tasks to be completed over the course of the day.”

Access anywhere

By using HHTs, timber importers and merchants can handle more customers, more quickly and more professionally. And, it provides access to the system from anywhere in the business or wherever a mobile signal is available.

“The principle behind the HHT operation is to provide all the functionality necessary to make the job easier and without having to keep popping back into the office to check,” said Mr McCann. Any member of staff in the yard with an HHT is able to access a selected number of functions, including; sales order entry, price checking, stock availability, account status enquiry, stock cycle counting, stock receipting and recording stock movements around the yard.

The idea is that this information would integrate into a stock management system such as ADP Commercial Systems’ K8, which has specific timber units functionality that caters for fixed or mixed width, tally (in fixed or variable increments), sheet and unit timber products. The K8 system enables orders to be placed in running length, volume, tally specification and packs. Users will also have the ability to convert from imperial measures to metric and vice versa.

Stock management

“A major benefit for our customers moving to stock to tally is being able to respond positively to customer enquiries as to what lengths are available ex-stock rather than saying ‘I’ll check and ring you back’. Where different branches stock timber to a greater or lesser extent, the level of detail to which the same product is stocked can vary from branch to branch, thus one branch that stocks only a small amount of 47×100 carcassing may choose to hold just a total running meterage, while another branch with a larger stockholding may hold the same product by tally in packs,” explained Mr McCann.

One recent convert to K8 is Builders Supplies (West Coast) Ltd, based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, an independent, heavyside builders merchant. “Benefits have been immediate,” said managing director Peter Worthington. “Purchasing and pricing are key to our business – a big advantage of K8 has been the ability to manage and maintain these areas accurately and consistently.

“With the added ability of accessing daily management and accounts information, resulting in improvements in our financial controls, we now have better cash flow.

“We’ve also introduced greater stock management controls and recently adopted Perpetual Product Inventory. In our first year of using the new system, the annual stock valuation was achieved in record time.”