Information gathering moves up a gear

Information gathering is said to have moved up a gear at Laver's, one of the largest timber merchants in the UK, thanks to bisTrack's new customisable smart views. Smart views are part of bisTrack's intelligence toolkit and help measure KPIs by providing individuals, or groups of users, with a snapshot of pertinent live data held within the system. Certain predefined views are provided but it is also easy for users to build their own, even with no programming experience.

Laver's Business Analyst, James West, uses smart views to produce the OTIF (on time in full) reports for national account customers, while others let him keep an eye on how many orders are being received via EDI. He explained "The software holds a massive amount of data but I don't necessarily need to see everything. Being able to produce smart views which pick out just what I need on one screen is really useful, and saves me going to several sources within bisTrack to find it."

Additionally, it is now taking Laver's Group Auditor John Worsnop less than half the time to complete monthly system audits using smart views. He said: "Previously I had to export information into Excel and filter it, but now I can see live information with just one click. I use around 20 views regularly for high and low margin reports, negative stock items, products without a cost, etc."

In further news from Progressive Solutions, former Government Minister Steven Norris was guest of honour when the leading merchant IT specialist bucked the economic trend by officially opening its new UK headquarters at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn. The ceremony marked the unveiling of Progressive House, a state-of-the-art, two-storey office block that has become the base for 30 of the company's staff.

_{© 2009, Kindly reproduced courtesy of Professional Builders Merchants.}