Client Overview
Tiles Plus is a design centre for the kitchen and bath market place. They provide a wide range of top brand products to architects, interior design and high end renovation contractors and consultants. Products are sourced for a wide variety of exclusive manufactures and presented in on-line catalogues and showroom displays.
The Challenge
Tiles Plus was growing quickly as a successful company but their information system was holding them back and failing. Few tools to support the sales growth were available in the existing software. Management used multiple spreadsheet forms to support the business information needs. Information was out of date between the software and the various ad-hoc spreadsheets used to track inventory flow and sales data. As the business grew, it became more difficult to manage client needs for product and inventory accuracy.
The Solution
Beckard Associates worked with management to consolidate various business units to provide more centralized reporting, planning and forecasting. Masterworks Wholesale Distribution system was implemented to allow centralized business intelligence (BI) for accounting, sales, purchasing and warehouse management functions.
Staff are provided tools to create detailed and professional quotes for clients. These quotes are turned into orders on the system in one step. Purchasing functions were simplified using a Recommend To Purchase (RTP) system that automated purchasing of inventory and matched real product demand from the sales staff. The financial system allowed two people to manage and control activity across multiple companies and multiple divisions with little effort.
Sales staff have tools that make creating quotes and orders for customers much easier. They spent less time working in the software and more time working with clients on design solutions and presenting products to interested buyers.
A web server now provides a graphically rich environment for sales and showroom staff to present items to clients in the store and job sites. eWorks on-line catalogue and ordering lets in-house designers work one-on-one with customers to assemble a complete solution in minutes rather than hours. This is then offered in a graphically rich proposal to the client. Staff now make more sales and high value orders by using the eWorks tools from their iPad and tablets while on-site with the customer.