bisTrack produced immediate time savings in stock taking and compiling reports. The software has proved invaluable in finance negotiations.

According to director and chairman Nigel Williams, Premier Forest Products' switch to bisTrack software came at a pivotal time in its development.

He and two co-directors started the independent importer and distributor in 1993 and the company grew rapidly, topping turnover of £13 million within 10 years later. It was at this point that Mr Williams and his team realised that, although they had the ability to source more products and get more sales, their operating software was holding them back.

“We had plateaued,” he said, “and it was our old computer system that was slowing growth.”

Premier had been using a basic American DOS system for sales and accounts, but its stock control functionality was very limited and it couldn’t cope with processing or adding value to stock items. It was also only designed to administer companies turning over up to £3.5 million. The time had come to invest in new software.

Premier Forest Products says its new software system helped unlock potential.

Finance and operations director, Dilwyn Howells and consultant established a short list of two potential suppliers, including Progressive Solutions. Pre-requisites were a stock control function which could cope with all value-adding processes, the ability to link with a bespoke accounts package and ease of use.

Following a demonstration and visits to other users, the Premier team decided bisTrack was the right fit. The system went live at its Newport head office in June, 2004 and it has now been installed at Premier’s Birmingham distribution centre and is used by account managers working from home.

Two-and-a-half years after implementation, Mr Williams says it’s made such a difference that he now tracks his company’s growth over two periods — ‘Before bisTrack’ and ‘After bisTrack’. “We saw benefits straight away, particularly with the time we saved on monthly stock takes and sourcing information for management reports.”

Adding value

Premier's value-adding processes include laminating and waterproofing materials for caravans. Now bisTrack automatically adds these in as well as other processing costs. When orders are entered, the system adds on import duties and distribution costs too. bisTrack shows how much profit has been generated by each order and won’t complete one until individual customer requirements, such as references or purchase order numbers, have been entered.

Alongside accurate stock control, access to real time management information has been one of the key benefits of the system, providing far greater control over the business.

Key performance indicators

“We had some bespoke key performance indicators (KPIs) written into the system, which are now part of the standard bisTrack package,” said Mr Williams. “There are reports covering transport costs, purchasing reports for our FFSE and PSE accreditation and average selling prices per cubic metre. We’ve set these up so we can see information at the click of a mouse and by whatever period we want. Other sales-led reports I use all the time include ‘profit generation per product sector’; ‘top 50 customers’ — as I like to check the contribution they are making to the business as a whole; and ‘active accounts’, which prompts me to speak to account managers about inactive customers. Product performance reports, by volume or distribution site, are also used by our buying team.”

Premier's old DOS system was limited to users with sales under £3.5m.

Mr Williams keeps bisTrack’s ‘order monitor’ live on his laptop and has set it so orders generating below a certain margin are flagged up. Keeping an eye on this report also allows him to spot any gremlins, such as an order inadvertently going through at a ‘nil price’ which customers might not point out!

Wireless working

Premier’s account managers working from home, access bisTrack by wireless connection. Mr Williams and the other directors also have this facility so they can access bisTrack on their laptops.

Before using bisTrack, preparing figures for the bank took Premier hours of work. “Now, when we were talking to the bank about buying our site in Birmingham, using our KPIs, I could show the manager what our budgets and projections were, quantify the figures in real time by showing him the margin we were working on and tell him how much money we expected to generate to pay him back” he said.

Premier is now growing at a phenomenal rate, importing 150,000m3 of products and projecting £38m turnover this year. “If we hadn't changed to bisTrack when we did, our growth would have been inhibited,” said Mr Williams, “and if we want to grow to £150m, then we're confident it could cope!”

_{© 2007. Kindly reproduced courtesy of Timber Trades Journal.}