GPH Builders' Merchants implement bisTrack

GPH Builders' Merchants, the independent Aberdeenshire based company, was one of the first UK merchants to implement Progressive Solutions' bisTrack software.

A company with a strong reputation among local builders for service and quality, it celebrated 25 years in business last year.

Customers using GPH tend to be small to medium-sized building companies. Director Nikki Mortimer says: “The larger contractors and housebuilders tend to deal either direct with the supplier, or have agreements with national merchants chains, many of whom have branches in our area.

“Our largest customer represents just 3% of our turnover — but this means we deal with the owners of the business too, which we like.”

Director Fred Taylor (who was with GPH at the beginning) says: “We have been trading with some of our customers for 26 years and built up strong, mutually supportive relationships.”

GPH offers a number of products unique to the area including a large range of loose aggregates, popular with the trade and DIY customers alike. An award-winning display of landscaping products has grown sales over both their sites for paving, slabs and fencing.

Ms Mortimer adds: “We have seen consistent growth over the last four years, particularly in landscaping products, which I believe is due to our approach of displaying the products so effectively.”

The early days of using the bisTrack computer system were not always plain sailing and GPH encountered a number of issues which they worked closely with PSI to resolve.

"We’ve relied on working closely with our customers from day one."

Gary Brookshaw, Progressive's product director, agrees that early users of bisTrack, such as GPH, contributed enormously to the development of the software. He says: “We’ve relied on working closely with our customers from day one. Many of them have funded or suggested changes that we have then made generic enough to benefit all. This practice continues today and just makes bisTrack better and better.”

Four years on from implementing the core bisTrack product, GPH have become one of the earliest users of one of the newest modules – Scan Track.

“We looked at other scanning systems but we liked the way Scan Track dovetails with the core bisTrack data through related documents and it's been a big success for us.

GPH’s managing director Mike MacLellan explains: “We took the decision to invest in some sort of scanning facility to help us find related documents.

Typically larger customers or local authorities will demand a signed proof of delivery which used to mean someone wasting time searching through archives.

“We looked at other scanning systems but we liked the way Scan Track dovetails with the core bisTrack data through related documents and it's been a big success for us. We use it mainly to scan in proof of delivery notes but also for purchase ledger invoices. For example, if I want to double check a price or the unit of measure on a purchase invoice, instead of retrieving a folder from the archive I can just 'right click' and see the information on screen.”

Ms Mortimer uses bisTrack's reporting functionality to produce regular sales and margin reports for board meetings.

Mr MacLellan agrees bisTrack 'gives us plenty of information' and uses the software to produce reports which analyse transport costs, or sales and margin by customer or by product group, as well as comparisons between delivered, collected and direct sales.

Both directors regularly use the performance screen or 'dashboard' to compare monthly sales with the same time last year.

Steve Grieg is GPH's IT and communications technician and likes the way bisTrack can be configured to suit the requirements of individual businesses. For example, to speed sales transactions, the touch screens on GPH's trade counter include buttons linked directly to the top five customer accounts (by volume of transactions) — an idea suggested to him at a bisTrack user group meeting. He has also shown sales staff how to check what customers have been charged for a product in the past at the other branch.

"Many of our suppliers are set up to trade electronically through the buying societies, and so we’ve made a decision to put an EDI strategy in place and I think it’s the right thing to do."

Given the nature of GPH's customer base and the fact that some suppliers still use an ancient typewriter to produce their invoices, is EDI a function the team are keen to implement?

Mr MacLellan explains: “We know EDI will not work for most of our customers, but many of our suppliers are set up to trade electronically through the buying societies, and so we’ve made a decision to put an EDI strategy in place and I think it’s the right thing to do.

“We understand we will be one of the first companies to use Progressive’s eBusiness module and we’re looking forward to talking to the other users who have already implemented it.”

“We will be able to send our purchase orders electronically to our suppliers, they will go directly into their system and create a sales order that’s sent to back to us electronically and tie up with the purchase order and stock receipt.

“One saving for us will be in not having to physically fax an order or have someone sitting at a screen punching in the purchase ledger invoice. But I believe the biggest benefit for us will be that it will force our team to have purchase orders spot on, to have all our stock receipts up to date and the prices on the system right. I believe these benefits will outweigh the benefits of not having someone to key in purchase invoices.”

Ms Mortimer adds: “There is obviously a lot of planning to do first, not least the conversion of some units of measure. For example our supplier quotes us for concrete blocks 'by the 1000', but we buy and sell them 'each'. What should help is that many of our products already have manufacturers' codes on as well as our own codes.”

With Mr MacLellan citing pressure on margins as the biggest challenge facing him today, bisTrack helps by flagging up low margin sales on its message board.

He says: “Most of the time these turn out to be genuine price negotiations by staff who are authorised to do so, but it has picked up genuine pricing errors which we have been able to correct as they happen. We have a fantastic record for growth and we’re getting a lot out of bisTrack now, particularly over the control of the business.”

_{© 2008, Kindly reproduced courtesy of Builders' Merchants News.}