Technology is changing day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year. But one thing is for certain, timber companies need to exploit the market potential with better use of business intelligence, technology, logistics, stock and sales information. The need is for all parts of the business to know what is selling (and what isn’t) and what the stock levels are (and where the stock is). Effective use of this information drives both sales and margins, while reducing stock levels and overheads.
This future can be seen in two main areas – e-business (including e-procurement) and CRM (customer relationship management).
The future is very much customer driven and customer-facing solutions are already well-proven as a major boost to sales.
The internet is also playing an ever more vital role for importers, distributors and merchants in doing business with both suppliers and customers. It provides new means of getting to market, receiving enquiries and payments. In fact, with the right system a timber company can now receive and fulfil an order from anyone with hardly any manual intervention.
This growth of e-business has now reached a stage where the network infrastructure at many companies can no longer cope with the workload. To enable traders to grow their business, networks need to be updated to provide solid IT foundations for future developments and expansions. It is imperative to look for extra efficiencies in the supply chain and ways of increasing productivity via e-procurement. So companies should look for systems that support e-business from both sales and purchase perspectives and make sure their current infrastructure is capable of exploiting e-procurement effectively. It should be borne in mind that new suppliers often use new technology as leverage into market place.
As IT expenditure comes under ever closer scrutiny, the trend to outsourcing IT activities to specialist third party partners is also likely to grow. Outsourcing allows businesses to concentrate on core competencies and, as this becomes more and more important to timber companies, they are likely to look to forming strategic partnerships with IT suppliers that can provide facilities management or “complete business solutions”.
And the next “must haves” are likely to be mobile devices attached to core software modules. Some suppliers are already providing access to back office systems through WAP phones, GPRS and other hand-held devices. This technology will allow non-office based staff and agents including field, yard and delivery staff to make order enquiries, check on stock availability, place orders on behalf of collection customers and send proof of delivery immediately back to the office.
Web-related business, secure payments and CRM will continue to be be important in a drive to maximise revenues and increase margins from all your customers. An integrated CRM solution will be key, as customer intelligence will continue to drive importers, distributors and merchants forward.
