Ridgeons look forward with bisTrack

The independent merchant took a measured approach to changing the software for its branches. Here, the Ridgeons management team chart their conversion to bisTrack and how it has helped improve their business.

How should a 22-branch merchant, with in excess of 20,000 active trade account customers, invoicing around 104,000 sales transactions each month, go about choosing and implementing the right business software?

Ridgeons took a well-planned and measured approach, with a project team documenting what each branch did and did not want, speaking to industry contacts and meeting more than 40 potential suppliers.

Implementation took place in divisional and regional stages over 12 months and an in-house team of group and super users were trained to teach nearly 600 more end-users how to use the software.
David Bryan, now a director at the East Anglian-based group, initially headed the project team before taking on his current role.

“We needed to change because our previous system had been customised to such an extent for Ridgeons that it was impossible for us to take any further upgrades from the supplier,” he says. “This situation prompted us to look for something new. Because of my background in merchanting and operations, our managing director asked me to head the search. Initially, it wasn't about looking for a supplier, but rather opening our minds to the limitations of our existing system and thinking about what we wanted a new system to do.”

The 40 potential suppliers were soon narrowed down to nine companies who were asked to make presentations to Mr Bryan's project team. It quickly became obvious that only three needed to be taken seriously and these were invited to tender.

He was unable to oversee the implementation due to being offered a position on Ridgeons' directors team. However, before taking on his new role, he was heavily involved in the decision to go with Progressive Solution's bisTrack.

“One reason we chose Progressive was because the team was so approachable. It wasn't just because the software was better. We really felt we could work with them,” Mr Bryan says.

By the time new IT manager Vince Badcock joined the company in September 2008 to manage the eight-strong IT team, bisTrack was live in the group's bathroom wholesale distribution, forest products and independent living divisions.

Technical services manager, Jason Dear and IT systems/support manager, Gary Stroud, had already helped set up a data centre, organised hardware in the branches and all the networking was in place. Then, bisTrack was rolled out in the eastern, southern and central region merchant branches in three stages, during October and November that year.

Mr Stroud was also responsible for converting the old system's database for use in bisTrack. “This involved a lot of spreadsheet work as we could only take limited information out of the old system and had to export customer, product and supplier records in a very long-winded way,” he says.

A dozen group users (representing different areas of Ridgeons' business) learned bisTrack 'inside out' by spending a week off site having intensive training from the Progressive team.

This also gave the system a good test, a chance to fix any problems and to tidy the data up further. Before each branch went live, a further 60 'super users' were also trained by Progressive so each branch had staff on hand who could train the remaining end-users at each site. A test system was set up at each branch before the system went live enabling users to become familiar with bisTrack before each 'go live' date.

Immediate benefits

Post implementation, Mr Stroud saw immediate report writing benefits. "The old system was slow and I could not analyse sales down to product level very easily. It only held one year's worth of data so you couldn't compare this year with last. Depending upon the reports I was asked to write, it could take me five or six hours to pull the information out of the system. Now it's instantaneous and this was an immediate benefit for me," he explains.

bisTrack's 'Smart Objects' are an extension to the approach of providing users with their own tools such as user defined fields and 'Smart Views'. They allow users to create anything they want within bisTrack to store any type of content. “It's a real win-win situation,” Mr Stroud enthuses. “You have a terrific system to start with and you also have the potential to develop it yourself even further.

“Some of our users are doing their own Smart Views but Vince and I get involved in the more complex work.

“One of our forest products team managed to cut out five or six hours work each day by developing a smart view to merge and manage his manufacturing schedules.

“We're also using them to provide us with business intelligence on quotes, including the reasons why we've been unsuccessful.”

At the trade counter, product and customer searches are faster and easier and sales staff have a lot more information available to them. Purchasing benefits are delivered by the automation of suggested purchase order routines.

“Our stock control team comes in at 7.30am and by that time all the suggested purchase orders have run,” says Mr Badcock. “They simply have to review them. There's no waiting two or three hours for them to be generated. The system has also been configured to show up slow-moving or dead stock and it gives us a very thorough analysis of our stock at all branches.

“bisTrack has also improved things immeasurably for our finance department because we can now get the information they need out of the system much more quickly.

“We've seen particular improvements in credit control because we were able to set up routines so customers are automatically put on stop, and chasing letters generated. Our payment routines are better and debtor days are coming down.”

Scanned proof of deliveries

Scan Track is an optional bisTrack module which allows users to scan any documents, such as signed proof of deliveries, and relate them to an order within bisTrack.

“We installed Scan Track from day one and it enables us to resolve customer queries much more quickly,” says Mr Badcock.

Looking at what bisTrack has brought to the business from a higher, more strategic level, David Bryan says: “We have moved away from an old platform to a modern one which will enable the company to move forward. With our old system, we had stopped.

“That's not a reflection on that particular system – it would have been the same with any system of that type. We're now on a modern platform, and it is enabling us to look and move forward. It has opened up possibilities for us to integrate with third parties in the future.”

Plans for the future

What about the future of bisTrack at Ridgeons? The company already uses bisTrack's Web Track internet portal which lets customers view their account information whenever they want to. Another plan is to start using Web Track's eBusiness module next year.

As Mr Bryan explains: “Now we have a stable, faster platform, we're already looking at how we can enhance customer experience.

“We're trialling thermal printers to print till receipt sized tickets for both cash and account customers, and we're looking at some really exciting mobile solutions which will let us serve customers from anywhere in the branch.”

Progressive is a 'critical' supplier for Ridgeons and Mr Bryan says the two companies have a very good working relationship. “The Progressive team reacts very quickly and any problems are always resolved in a very positive way. Everything we perceived in their attitude from the start has come good. By engaging with us they know where we're going and this helps shape the product for the future. bisTrack is a terrific system and its potential is incredibly exciting. I have absolutely no regrets over choosing bisTrack and great confidence that we have something we can build on for the future – from a company who genuinely wants to work with us.”

_{© 2010, reproduced courtesy of Builders' Merchants News.}