Wheeling and dealing is the lifeblood of the merchant, but keeping track of a multitude of prices, who pays what and which products make the most money is a staggering exercise.
For the small merchant still processing sales and stock manually, it is difficult to operate on little more than gut feeling. Even those with a small computer and an off-the-shelf accounts package still have to rely on experience and nuance.
Now this is changing as suppliers of information technology look to the smaller users, who have had no need – or budget – for big ticket systems linking a head office with branches and departments.
IT suppliers say these smaller businesses need the technology to compete, especially with the large groups and DIY outlets.
One supplier said: ‘We are seeing a lot of start-ups in the industry. When you have one of the big players go in and swallow someone up, the key people start up on their own. They are familiar with technology and its advantages, and know how important it is.’
However, there is a big market among well-established smaller merchants who continue to process their business manually. Advice notes are handwritten, prices worked out on a calculator at the counter and the paperwork is duplicated and handed on to the accounts and stock control. Standard computer accounts packages, such as Sage and Pegasus, cannot easily handle timber-related matters, including timber tally, converting cubic metres to lineal metres and four or five prices per item.
Another supplier said: ‘This is the heart of being a timber merchant, wheeling and dealing. You can’t computerise this without a sophisticated system. Also it gives you precise information. Merchants have a gut feeling for margin, but they have to wait until the end of the month to see which products are producing margin. Now they can find out right away.’
There are two new small systems on the market. One is a UK version of a system that has several hundred users in the US. The other is being launched this month by Ten-25 Software Ltd, based in Dorset.
UniTRADE is a development of Ten-25’s UniSTRIP software that has been the backbone of the company.
Director Ian Oldrey said: ‘We have got what we believe to be the best timber trading system in the UK and we are trying to include more people. We tend to find that a lot of people phone us to ask about stock control, but the entry level of UniSTRIP is too high. UniTRADE is less advanced, but it has all the timber handling functions, which is what merchants are there to do.’
The company was founded from a self-build stock control system developed by Mr Oldrey’s father more than 20 years ago for the Dorset timber and builders merchant Sherry & Haycock Ltd.
The system built by Baird Oldrey was further developed until it was sold alongside the timber. When Sherry & Haycock decided to concentrate on its core activities, Mr Oldrey, with his wife Sue and colleague Norman Symcox, bought the rights. Ten-25 Software now has 20 employees.
Ian Oldrey said: ‘They were selling mostly to timber merchants, sometimes to builders merchants – and to some agricultural merchants. The company now has about 50 customers at 130 sites with about 1,500 users.’
The product began life as STRIP and became UniSTRIP in the late 1980s when it was re-developed on the Unix platform. The core of the system covers the entire trading cycle from sales, order processing and purchasing to stock management, management reports, invoicing and ledger integration. There are then a range of utility programs, such as transport planning.
Mr Oldrey said: ‘Most people have the core system, then add to it as their requirements change. It’s modular and designed for that.’
A basic UniSTRIP system, which is designed for a minimum of 10 users, starts at about £30,000 for the server, software, service and support. UniTRADE, which is designed for three to 10 users starts at £9,000 for the basic package and about £1,200 for each user. The user workstations can be supplied by Ten-25.
Terry O’Reilly, sales director of Spruce Computer Systems (UK) Ltd, is confident about the scope for business among smaller merchants. His company launched SpruceWare, a PC-based system, last December.
Mr O’Reilly said: ‘Most of the systems around are Unix-based, fairly sophisticated, multi-branch computer systems, which can be overpowering for a small company – especially when they see the price.
‘Then you have the standardised accounts-based packages like Sage, but these do not handle stock control, point of sale, the issues relating to being a timber merchant. There’s a big need for a system for the smaller merchant.’
The company was founded in the US 10 years ago by the owners of a dozen small lumber yards in New York state. They now have 300 other family-owned yards as their customers. It has a Unix-based system, LumberBase, for large users, but is marketing only SpruceWare in the UK.
The system had to be completely overhauled for the UK. The dollar/pound, metric and spelling conversions were not difficult, but the date (written in the US with the month first) had to be given a lot of attention. ‘So many things look at the date – the stock handling, ledgers, accounts,’ said Mr O’Reilly.
SpruceWare is designed for a five to 29 user base, after which the additional power of Unix makes alternatives more economic. A small system will start at about £1,000 for the software and hardware and another £4,000 for PCs and a printer.
A typical installation for a merchant, though, might be two PCs, a printer and cash drawer at the sales counter, another two PCs and a printer in the sales office and a PC and printer in the accounts office for invoicing and access to more restricted financial information. Mr O’Reilly said this type of installation would cost about £10,000.
