CAN YOU OFFER AN EXAMPLE OF A RETAIL BUSINESS YOU'VE WORKED THROUGH THIS PROCESS WITH?

Duncan Fergusson: Sci-Net has successfully implemented our award-winning ERP>Retail solution for many businesses. ERP>Retail is built within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and fully integrated into the Dynamics system, and we have worked with companies such as Tapi Carpets & Floors.

We initially worked with Tapi in 2015 by implementing a fully customised ERP>Retail solution capable of meeting the demands of the national flooring retailer. ERP>Retail helped Tapi make informed business decisions to drive their growth plans, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of pounds in infrastructure costs. Today, Tapi is a household name, boasting a network of 200 stores and 1000 staff.

More recently, we supported Tapi with its continued growth, introducing a flooring measuring solution and an automated tool for its 150-strong workforce of home consultants. It has significantly enhanced the Tapi customer journey and boosted efficiency, saving over 100 admin hours daily.

At the touch of a button, Tapi home consultants can now provide professional quotes, estimates and updates during the consultation stage with their customers.

We’ve worked very closely with Tapi’s CIO Jason Turner since the initial implementation, and he describes the results of the partnership with Sci-Net as “outstanding”: “Time is precious, so we collaborated on how we could refine our processes, and welcomed an estimating tool that pulls measurements into our system and automates quotes. Using it improves the customer experience, which is incredibly important to us, but it also saves a significant amount of time. We calculated savings of around 4500 hours of admin in 40 days.

“The system we have now, managed by SciNet, means we have visibility of our business with accurate reporting in real time. It is suited to every aspect of our business, from estimating, sales, supply chain, inventory management and website integrations, right through to in-store operations.”

Sarah Friswell: Red Ant partnered with Furniture Village to build a comprehensive clienteling app which would allow customers to shop across multiple channels.

Furniture Village wanted to update its retail operations for modern digital retailing, to reposition itself to connect with customers on mobile devices, to have a single view of customers across all platforms and allow a checkout process which was remote from the stores. Consumers’ furniture-buying needs had changed, and customers were keen to shop in ways that fitted in with their lifestyles.

Red Ant helped to develop a dynamic, digital, customer-centric solution, which would bring all customer channels together for a seamless customer journey. Built to deliver a truly crosschannel experience, and integrated with their full retail estate, the powerful, easy-to-use app has removed existing boundaries between online and offline.

In streamlining all aspects of the customer purchasing cycle – from marketing, to shopping, to checkout and fulfilment – customers can easily choose and customise products and obtain support right through the decisionmaking process. With pre-booked appointments, customers can access the full product range, manufacturing information and delivery times. They can create a shortlist to return to later, and can easily continue with the purchase when they’re ready, or complete it at home. The app’s ‘colleague hub’ is motivating store associates and better connecting them with customers.

The feedback from Furniture Village shows that the app has improved the sales process for both store associates and customers, by removing the boundaries between online and offline. Customers can now shop anywhere, including completing purchases at home, with the speed of transaction reduced to less than five minutes from the previous 20–30-minute window. Store associates are more motivated and productive, and benefit from more accurate recording of their performance with the ability to check stats and receive correct sales attribution.

Mike Broughton, director of business development and IT for Furniture Village, said: “Rarely do you come across a solution which is so comprehensive, so exciting and so easy to sell internally to the business. The solution has allowed the company to serve more customers, and serve them better.” www.sci-net.co.uk www.redant.com www.iconography.co.uk

Wayne Robbins: An early adopter of OMNIS was a furniture retailer called Julia Jones. They tell us they have benefitted significantly from using OMNIS in a number of ways – they are now an effective online and store-based retailer, focusing on brands like Fama and Bontempi.

So, they have complex, made-to-order products, and significant options to manage and keep on top of. With OMNIS, a small team has managed to do this, and in so doing has seen solid growth. In addition, having all their orders and purchase ordering processes and delivery scheduling in one place has meant improvements in operational efficiency, fewer mistakes and happier customers, because Julia Jones are streamlined and organised.

Complete sales, supply, stock management, traceability and profitability reporting

Real-time analysis & management reporting

The last ERP System you will ever have to invest in!

WE

Swan Retail

Swan Retail’s SwanFRS (Furniture Retail System) has introduced a mobile salesperson app to give sales teams the data they need on the go. Designed to enable retailers to offer the best level of service to their customers, the tablet-friendly app pulls information from SwanFRS on products, customers, orders and more.

Couple that with comprehensive inventory management, customer ordering, warehousing and CRM, and SwanFRS can take retailing to the next level, says Swan.

RandiLynn Talsma, mobile owner of Blended Furniture Market, testifies: “Every part of running the store is right in front of you. I can practically run the front of the store from my tablet.”

OrdoConnect is a powerful and versatile platform that offers a wide range of benefits for furniture and bed retailers.

It is easy to use at the PoS, and incorporating route planning, real-time delivery tracking, automated delivery time confirmation and signature capture, says Ordorite. I also offers easy integration with multiple payment platforms, accounting, web platforms and other business tools –OrdoConnect is designed to help businesses save time, increase efficiency, and drive more sales.

“If you are a furniture or bed retailer looking for a better way to manage your business, you need to look at OrdoConnect. Contact Ordorite today to learn more and schedule a demo of this innovative platform,” the supplier concludes.