Forget the jargon. Working with an IT solutions provider can identify business issues and the benefits a merchant will get, says Arthur Duffy of Progressive Solutions.

What working with an IT solutions provider should deliver is the identification of business issues, and solutions to those issues which benefit the merchant, says Arthur Duffy sales director of Progressive Solutions.

2007 was, by all accounts, Progressive Solutions' best year — ever. Established in the UK seven years ago, the IT solutions company saw 40% growth last year and continues to increase its implementation, development, sales and support staff. bisTrack is the company's flagship offering. "We feel that we understand builders' merchants well in terms of operational functionality," says Mr Duffy.

"But we recognise that we are no longer just a software house. We are now also a system integrator and a company that gets involved with companies to help them to improve their business processes.

"I'm a great believer that software is nothing other than a tool that helps people run their businesses better. While software must have a check against it that it can handle all of a company's functional needs, more firms in a competitive world must ask how they can be smarter in terms of how they operate and how they can make use of business intelligence and information."

"I'm a great believer that software is nothing other than a tool that helps people run their businesses better."

Enter Progressive Solutions. As one of the leading companies in this sector, its chief success, says Mr Duffy "is whether a company is a five-user system or a 600-plus user system, it uses the same software. They might have different features of the soft¬ware turned on, but people can pick and mix how much of the software to utilise in their business."

He admits that every company can claim to have a ‘differential’.

"In terms of software, it is only a differential until someone else develops the same function." He believes Progressive Solutions' differential lies in its relationship with its customers, "how we work with them and how we can make an effective difference." This, he states, is not something that happens overnight. "You need the staff and the expertise to be able to do that."

bisTrack is a product that has primarily been developed in the UK. Progressive Solutions is a Canadian company based in Vancouver that also has additional development resources in Seattle, US.

"We have eight project/account managers to look after a project until it goes live. Our support desk offers 7am to 7pm support to all our customers as standard."

Progressive Solutions has seven sales staff who continue to work with their accounts after the sale, he stresses. The builders' merchant industry, you see, is like no other industry he has ever encountered.

"It is very close and you won't get away with selling something badly twice," he comments.

What he also finds fascinating about the builders' merchant industry is that while they all come under that appellation, each has its own individual practices and the software needs to reflect this. "A merchant should not be constrained by their software. A package needs to provide adaptability to these individual requirements.

"Our differential is the way people engage with us —initially and then long-term. We have a proactive user group, we hold one-to-one events, we hold product workshops — part of our cycle is not only addressing people's business issues, but making them aware of what they can do.

"It is all about identifying business issues and delivering solutions to those issues which benefit the merchant."

The user group is run by merchants. It meets twice a year with Progressive Solutions.
"It gives us an opportunity to tell merchants about new product developments and what is going on in the business. It also allows them to make presentations and use the day as a networking forum."

Progressive Solutions, he says "is constantly giving users roadmaps to help them get a better return on their investment. I believe we can make a difference."
At present, the company has just under 90 UK com¬panies using bisTrack, repre¬senting around 4000 users. "The product has a pedigree and I like to think that our profile has got a lot higher lately.

"The company's largest merchant is in a roll-out programme of 650-plus users.

"We also have some five-user systems. This gives us a good cross-section of the different sized merchants out there."

No IT interview would be complete without raising the thorny issue of EDI.

Merchants, while keen on it in principle, have been hamstrung over its implementation.

In what way can this be addressed to enable merchants to get onboard without tears?

"EDI solutions have been around for a very long time. The problem for merchants is that there haven't been sensible standards available to enable them to talk to a lot of other customers or suppliers under a single EDI `umbrella'.

"If they can use one standard or format, EDI becomes much easier to do.

"The key to EDI is not so much a technical solution, but managing the whole supply chain process of booking stock in, matching invoices, reducing the cost of raising purchase orders right through to the purchase ledger.

"Merchants should ensure that they have a foundation in place that can recognise and understand customer and supplier part numbers and can cross-relate back to their own details in the system, so that those transactions can happen," Mr Duffy comments.

"We have a number of companies — some of them very large — processing EDI orders to both customers and suppliers.

"There is a mindset out there that says it is difficult, but that is only because a lot of systems merchants may have installed do not have the hooks in place to run transactions in an easy way.

"bisTrack's eBusiness module has all the hooks! Once it is in place EDI becomes a very easy mechanism and costs disappear.”

Mr Duffy's first exposure to timber companies and builders' merchants was in 1989. Initially, a software programmer he moved into sales, because "selling software is not about selling a product, it is about selling solutions."

_{© 2008. Reproduced courtesy of Builders' Merchants News.}