Timber merchants throughout the UK are facing the same business challenge: how to attract and retain loyal customers to whom they can sell their products more effectively than their competitors.
A combination of common sense business principles and new technology applications can transform a timber company of any size or business focus. This is being demonstrated by Timbmet Ltd, which has re-engineered its business practices and chosen Progressive Solutions Inc as its technology provider and the company’s Windows-based TimberTrack package.
Simon Fineman, Timbmet’s chief executive officer, recalls: ‘We knew we had to undertake business process engineering – looking at how we conduct business so we could do the same thing with a lot fewer people involved.’
This article describes the four main goals of business process re-engineering and the implementation of appropriate business software.
Goal 1: streamline processes, reduce waste and curtail errors
Bruce Marsh, president of Marsh & Associates Consulting, which specialises in helping organisations improve their operational performance, speaks of the abundance of waste in many organisations. ‘Many core business processes are burdened with waste,’ he says. ‘Data re-entry, approvals, physical movement, waiting, checks and double-checks and other similar examples of waste in our business process all drive up costs without adding value.’
Goal 2: Ensure accurate, up-to-the-minute stock information
Improved stock control is the natural result of a re-engineering of business processes, as described above. However, having up-to-the-minute stock information requires a comprehensive software system.
Goal 3: enhance customer service using improved information flow
Improved processes alone are not enough to maintain and grow a customer base in a highly competitive market. Customers are continually demanding faster service and more information about their orders and dispatches. Business software solutions such as TimberTrack provide immediate access to important information such as current stock on-hand, customer histories and dispatch status, giving sales people the tools they need to address customer orders promptly.
Goal 4: use information reporting to plan your business
The final outcome of better business software is the ability to produce reports that timber merchants can use to better manage their operations and plan for the future. Good business software must have standard reports plus solid report generating features.
In the rest of the operation, good reporting features will help merchants with product costing, customer histories, sales planning, inventory planning, production, cash flow and customer commitments. These critical reports provide management with a clear view of the entire business cycle, help recognise trends and pinpoint growth areas.
At the financial end of the business, information stored in the Progressive Solutions’ databases, for example, will quickly export as nominal ledger transactions. Merchants can use any major accounting package.
