The Client:

Founded in 1975 and working closely with associate Chinese company Sunnex, the Zodiac Stainless Products Company is established as one of Europe´s leading importers and distributors of catering and domestic houseware products.  Zodiac boasts an extensive and comprehensive portfolio that includes cookware, cutlery, tableware, glassware and food service products, and pride itself on supplying both catering and domestic markets with quality products at competitive prices.

Located in the heart of the West Midlands and with a wealth of experienced and knowledgeable sales and marketing staff, Zodiac pays great attention to current trends in the market place, constantly adding to its ranges so that it can offer customers the latest technology and the best product solutions.

The Issue:

Zodiac’s existing financial applications could no longer keep pace with the company’s ever-increasing business. Some years earlier, Zodiac had developed its own DOS-based bespoke accounting package which was subsequently augmented with a Sage application to handle the Nominal and Purchase Ledgers. “This was an extremely cumbersome and frustrating solution,” explained Keith Evans, Zodiac’s Office Manager. “With two different systems we had to do a lot of rekeying which wasted a lot of time and introduced errors.”

Recognising that the existing system was no longer fit for purpose, Keith began to investigate replacement solutions. Having met with some 12 specialist IT organisations, Keith was disappointed to discover that there appeared to be limited accounting solutions specifically developed for kitchen and catering distribution companies. “Most of the solutions available were standard accounting solutions that could be enhanced and customised through additional development to deliver the specific capabilities that organisations in our line of business needed,” added Keith.

Eventually Keith identified an organisation that was able to meet most Zodiac’s requirements and which had already enhanced its offerings for other high volume distribution companies. “We were quite far down the negotiation processes when I came across Blue Rock Systems,” said Keith. “I met with the company and quickly realised that they had an integrated accounting solution that had been specifically developed for the catering distribution business.”

The Solution:

The solution that so impressed Zodiac was Intact – a Windows-based Wholesale, Distribution and Merchants business software solution that had already been successfully installed in other catering and kitchenware distributions companies.

“Intact is an easy-to-use yet commercially advanced solution that was developed with the catering distribution industry in mind,” explained Glen Jewell, Blue Rock Systems’ Sales Director. “The standard package was written from scratch to take full advantage of Window’s technologies and features and delivers a host of capabilities, including credit control, stock management, margin check and review, and an innovative ‘iManager’ that provides managers and key staff with immediate, up-to-date and accurate summaries of the business.”

Keith Evans agreed. “Intact appeared to provide a lot of features and capabilities that were optional extras on most other integrated accounting solutions. I liked the company; I liked the product and felt that in Blue Rock Systems, Zodiac had found its partner of choice.”

Following detailed discussions on Zodiac’s immediate and long term objectives, and having analysed the company’s current and planned business procedures, Blue Rock Systems proposed a solution based around Intact. “From the outset, Blue Rock’s attention to detail was extremely impressive,” explained Keith. “They took the time to understand our unique issues and designed a solution that would meet our accounting requirements and which could also be integrated with our other automation projects, including warehouse bar-coding.”

The Benefits:

Zodiac’s new integrated accounting solution is due to go live shortly, with training and knowledge transfer commencing a month earlier. Keith’s development of the existing bespoke application will ensure that the data transfer process will run smoothly thus allowing a quick solution usage and maximise Zodiac’s return on investment. Zodiac anticipates some substantial benefits once its new Intact integrated financial system goes live:

Intact’s primary strength is in its simplicity; screens are exceptionally intuitive and the solution does not need the level of administration and IT skills associated with most competitive products. And with standard Windows integration, documents can be imported and exported to and from Windows applications with ease – a feature that Keith welcomes as Zodiac will soon be able to email invoices directly to clients.

One of Zodiac’s major requirements was for its new accounting system to be able to handle all aspects of the business from order taking, through detailed CRM and Marketing to easy-to-use management reporting tools. Intact delivers an all-in-one approach to all facets of the business, which Zodiac intends to take advantage of with plans to run and maintain all areas of the business effectively through a single, central point.

“Intact  will be an excellent fit for Zodiac,” explained Glen. “All the typical distribution capabilities are included with the base system. In addition to standard features such as back-to-back ordering, detailed price books and fast and easy order entry, Intact has several powerful features which will allows us to handle overall control of the business via easy-to-use reporting and business analysis. The simple to use point-of-sale and stock control elements will enhance overall business management and when combined with Intact’s in-built and powerful CRM, will give time and money savings across the business.”

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The Client:

Founded in 1977, Rifina has grown from a small single branch in Cheltenham to become Gloucestershire’s leading Independent Electrical Distributor. In over 30 of years servicing electrical contractors and the local industry, Rifina has built up a justified reputation with its customers and partners for competitive pricing, comprehensive stocks, rapid delivery and outstanding technical ability.

The company has a large central warehouse at Tewkesbury and two further branches in Gloucestershire. The move into a new larger head office in Tewkesbury also allowed Rifina to centralise sales, distribution and accounts and establish a single point of contact for all customers, whether by phone, fax, mobile or email.

The Issue:

In 2008, Rifina took the decision to replace its existing green screen based computer system with a more powerful, comprehensive and feature-rich solution that would deliver the enhanced capabilities that the company now needed. “Our green screen system was just not up to the job,” explained Richard Bartlam, Rifina’s Managing Director. “The fundamental program was good but we had been promised that it would evolve with time, which it never did.”

Rifina invited several IT companies to outline proposed solutions but found that most could not deliver the specialist requirements that a multi-branch organisation with thousands of stock items and hundreds of customers needed. Promises that such features would be available in future releases, combined with a noticeable reluctance to organise visits to other satisfied customers in the electrical distribution industry left Rifina’s directors justifiably unimpressed.

“The way to prosper in this business is to make the right decisions at the right time,” continued Richard. “One of the biggest decisions that electrical distributors have to make was which computer system the business needs for the future. This has got to be the one that you get right; otherwise it could affect your business for years to come, sometimes with disastrous results.”

Becoming more and more frustrated with the apparent failings of existing solutions, Richard received a cold call from Blue Rock – a rapidly expanding software house specialising in the design, development, implementation and support of financial, logistic, warehouse and service software applications for small and medium sized organisations throughout the UK. “I invited Blue Rock to give a presentation to my colleagues as I was going on holiday,” added Richard. “Imagine then, my surprise when on holiday I received a phone call from my management team, saying that they thought we had finally found a system to replace our old computer.”

The software that Blue Rock recommended was Intact – a Windows-based Wholesale, Distribution and Merchants business software solution that had already been installed throughout the building supply chain industry. “Intact was developed with the supply and distribution chain industry in mind,” explained Simon Barber, Blue Rock Systems’ Sales Manager. “Although we did not have an electrical distribution client in the UK, we had already successfully installed Intact in Ireland and arranged for Rifina to visit the site to see how the solution improved credit control and stock management, and provided managers and key staff with an immediate, up-to-date and accurate summary of the business.”

The Solution:

Rifina partnered with Blue Rock for the design, implementation and support of its new computer system. “The time to put in a new computer system is when you aren’t busy, not when you are rushed off your feet,” continued Richard. “We signed the agreement with Blue Rock and told them that we wanted the solution installed and live in just over three months!”

Working closely with Rifina, Blue Rock met the tight deadline. Rifina’s first objective was that customers should not notice any difference in service and paperwork for the month end. “Almost without fail, we achieved this, including our consignment accounts,” said Richard.

Over the next few weeks, Rifina’s management team and Blue Rock technicians customised and enhanced Intact to meet the business’ specific requirements. Good communication and close co-operation were vital during this initial period. “We had asked for so many changes to tailor the new system exactly to our needs that issues were bound to arise,” added Richard. “Blue Rock’s technicians worked extremely closely with us through the rollout period, installing updates and enhancements to ensure that our solution did exactly what we wanted it to.”

The Benefits:

Rifina’s solution is fully operational. Customers now sign for the goods on LCD screens, get their invoices and statements by email and POD’s in seconds while they are still on the phone. Rifina’s accounts department finally have a computer system they like: “Intact’s accounting side is strong and flexible and not just a normal add-on,” explained Richard. “Conversations and the promises of customers are recorded and kept as they are made, for all to see.”

Counter staff now have margin and profit information at their fingertips, and can search quickly and easily for any product across a vast range of stock items. Quotes can be emailed or faxed to customers at the touch of a button.

And, after years of trying, Rifina’s sales department now have one sales office throughout the company. With an 0800 sales phone line, calls can be picked up by any branch of the company and, because of Intact’s transparency and built in CRM, a sales lead started in one branch can be concluded in another.

One of the biggest changes that Rifina has seen is the way the business manages buying, stock management and pricing. All supplier prices are loaded onto the computer (including rebates) and the computer then works out the best place to order. Gone are the days of separate Excel spreadsheets and trying to keep up with price changes.

“We finally have a system that is REALLY looking after stock levels,” concluded Richard.”I know it sounds like Utopia, but we have a solution that really can suggest sensible stock levels, for either the company or branch. It’s good to know that we have a computer system that is, as they say ‘Fit for Purpose’.”

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The Client:

C&S Builders Merchants (Stamford Hill) Ltd is probably East and North London’s largest independent timber, building materials and plumbing supplier.

A family owned business founded in 1986, C&S Builders Merchants employs 40 staff and has grown from a single branch to a three branch operation including a central distribution depot. The firm has a long history of success based on customer satisfaction, reliable delivery services and huge stocks.

The Issue:

In a business in which protecting margins whilst offering real value for money is critical, and accurately maintaining and monitoring outstanding accounts is crucial, the implementation of a specialist IT solution can have a real effect on the bottom line – particularly in ensuring a positive cash flow.

For several years, C&S had relied on a hand written counter ticket process, keying the information into a standard accounting application at the end of each month. “Initially this was an adequate solution but our business grew, stock lines increased, the number of customers increased along with our fleet of delivery vehicles,” explained Rav Sumal, a Director of C&S Builders Merchants and son of one of the original founders of the firm. “The manual process was becoming exhausting and arduous, was tying up staff and was prone to error as the information from each ticket had to be manually keyed into the system.”

The original founders of the business: Michael, Mengha and Gian Singh Sumal were initially reluctant to invest in an automated solution, questioning whether it would deliver a return on investment and how the firm would cope with a computer system failure. This was a major concern but advances in technology, ever reducing investment cost and the realisation that the firm could become far more efficient by automating an integrated accounting solution finally convinced the founders to investigate the benefits that such a system could deliver.

“Our fathers remain extremely passionate about their business and were adamant that a reliance on technology was not the C&S way,” added Rav. “After all, when has a manual counter ticket let you down?”

The business peaked to a £12 million turnover over the three branches, and the need for accurate and up-to-date records of all transactions become even more important. “Some years ago we had looked at various solutions and although we were unsuccessful in purchasing a system, we did find something – a team of software professionals that gave us confidence and who we liked,” continued Rav. “These guys really understood our business, recognised our requirements and suggested solutions that would be extremely cost effective – a refreshing change from other solution providers that appeared to be more concerned with booking our business rather than partnering with us for the long term.”

C&S decided that the time had come to implement an integrated financial system. “We reviewed several leading industry systems but were pleased to see that the team that had impressed us when we first looked at computerisation had decided to form their own business,” said Rav. “And by all accounts, they were doing rather well within our industry.”

The Solution:

The team that has so impressed Rav and his brothers Dal and Suki, had worked together for over 20 years before forming Blue Rock Systems – a rapidly expanding software house specialising in the design, development, implementation and support of financial, logistic, warehouse and service software applications for small and medium sized organisations throughout the UK.

The software that Blue Rock recommended was Intact – a Windows-based Wholesale, Distribution and Merchants business software solution that had already been successfully installed throughout the building supply chain industry. “Intact is an easy-to-use yet commercially advanced solution that was developed with the building supply chain industry in mind,” explained Glen Jewell, Blue Rock Systems’ Sales Manager. “The standard package delivers a host of features, including credit control, stock management, margin check and review and an innovative ‘iManager’ that provides managers and key staff with an immediate, up-to-date and accurate summary of the business.”

Intact compared favourably against the competition in terms of functionality and price but the team that came to demonstrate the system over several visits once again inspired the confidence that we so dearly needed,” added Rav.

The Benefits:

C&S purchased Intact from Blue Rock Systems in 2008. The accounts department went live on the system in October with the trade counter following in 2009. “Dal was handed the task of compiling from scratch with a stock file of 20,000 lines,” explained Rav. “We had to train a 20 man team, who had little or no computer experience, to enter orders into a fully computerised trading system. Blue Rock got us there in a relatively short space of time. Even the staunchest pre installation objector is now a fan of the software.”

C&S’ primary target was to computerise the order process. Now that has been achieved, the firm is working with Blue Rock Systems to introduce other major benefits to the business.

“Our initial confidence in our chosen provider has been borne out”, concluded Rav. “The net result so far is a much more efficient and smooth day-to-day running of the C&S organisation. Orders taken at the trade counter during the day are invoiced at the end of the week or month with no additional work and the timely invoice run has meant an improvement in our cash flow. In addition the electronic POD system and the ability to instantly check on the last price paid has all but eliminated the ‘chances’ from the customer base – protecting margins and keeping the cash flow positive.”

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We may be in the midst of difficult economic times but Andrew Rutter, Director of DTW Ceramics Ltd, hasn’t let it get in the way of future growth. Whatever the economic conditions, he still wants the best for his business, staff and customers. His winning strategy is to develop a long-term relationship with Blue Rock Systems using Intact software to work smarter, make life easier and innovate through technology.

On the day we chose to interview Andrew Rutter he had already taken his constitutional 2 hour run -this time up a snow laden Butser Hill in West Sussex. In addition when he arrived at the office he spent an hour with the lads from the showroom to shovel off the snow and ice from DTW’s forecourt.

Driven. There’s no better word to describe Andy Rutter, Director, at DTW Ceramics Limited in Portsmouth. His love of fitness is only matched by his dedication for his business and the people who work with him (and we stress “with” as opposed to “for”).

DTW are a leading, independent, distributor of tiles and associated products based on the south coast. DTW distribute tiles to Independent and National Tile retailers. The business also supports local trade installers as well as serving the retail sector with both tiles and more recently bathrooms.

Andy laid his first tile when he was 13, working at weekends and during holidays alongside a tradesman. He left secondary school on the Friday and started full time work as a contractor on the Monday. By the time he was 18 had started his own tile installation business.

Having spotted a niche in the market place he decided to start supplying tiles and in 1996 formed DTW Ceramics.

“I’ve always wanted the best for my business and the people who work there as I passionately believe this supports our ideal of providing the best service, product and value for money to our customers”, stated Andy.

“We genuinely source our products from around the world, which means, normally, that we are always seen as competitive and providing a superb range. More importantly, however, the team at DTW has a genuine desire to put in 110% all the time and we look after them as a result, both in terms of working environment and financial incentives – everyone in the business from the Cleaner to the Directors have a performance related bonus structure. As a result the bulk of my staff have been here for between 10 and 18 years and last week when the rest of the British Work Force were struggling to get in to the work place, the majority of mine did.”

Andy and his fellow Director Gavin Buckner pride themselves on the range of stock that they supply and their ability to deliver the items to their trade customers within 48 hours. The 90 catalogues of stock are held in the 32,000 square ft warehouse in Portsmouth.

Since the business started Andy incorporated Information Technology into the business.

“I am a great advocate of technology and wherever possible I will endeavour to make our lives easier and more effective through innovation”, continued Andy.
The initial systems at DTW were Amstrad PC’s driven by floppy disk drives. Shortly after Andy installed Sage Line 50 and invested in a bespoke trading solution because he felt that nothing in the market place catered for his industry.

“The bespoke system was really very good and I don’t regret, for a moment, in making the investment as for many years we had an advantage over our competition. However I became increasingly aware that the bespoke element, supported by a single company, posed a serious threat for the business and decided upon reviewing the solution”.

This process started in 2007. The teams’ final choice came after two years and the review of six well known systems.

“We actually came down to a shortlist of 2. Both systems had experience and standard functionality to handle the complexity of tile distribution, trade and retail sales. We unanimously chose to go the Intact route via Blue Rock because, although they were slightly more expensive, we felt the software was much more user friendly. In addition, we were confident that we would get a more thorough service from this provider and would remain an important customer with them and, I am glad to say, we have been proven right.”

Next on DTW’s agenda:
• Laptops for their field sales team to give them direct access to the live Intact system wherever they are
• A customer loyalty points scheme which comes on line in a few weeks
• A web presence to enable their customers to place orders via a fully integrated Blue Rock web shop. This will also allow trade customers to self administer their accounts via the internet

The final word goes to Andy;

“We plan to continue our organic growth but at no point will the quality of our service be sacrificed in its pursuit. I am confident that Intact and Blue Rock will support this which is why I requested that they write this article as so many independent organisations, like DTW, could also benefit”.

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Software solutions provider & distributor Blue Rock Systems Ltd has purchased the Nottingham based IT software company Sense Computers Systems from the Sense Group for c£670,000.

The Southampton based Blue Rock sees the addition of Sense as a logical expansion that increases its geographic spread and gives it access to experienced staff, a wide customer base and new software.

Blue Rock is purchasing Sense Computer Systems from the Sense Group, who will now concentrate on its Sense Enterprise Solutions Division.

The managing director of Blue Rock, George Troullis, said: ‘This is an excellent opportunity for Blue Rock to expand into the Midlands with an existing, happy client base with a first class team of engineers and support staff.

‘Having a base in the Midlands is a key requirement of our expansion road map and Sense’s excellent offices really fit the bill. I know Sense’s high quality engineers will enjoy being stimulated by working with the Blue Rock team.

‘This is a big expansion for Blue Rock and we will now concentrate all our efforts to ensure a seamless transfer and guarantee the excellent customer service that Sense’s customers have enjoyed continues and even improves! In addition Blue Rock will establish a new business sales team in Nottingham which will increase our turnover to approximately £ 4 million within 12 months.’

Michael Blatherwick, the Managing Director of the Sense Group said: ‘We took the strategic decision to focus on our Enterprise Solutions business- but wanted to make sure we found the right owner  for our Computer Systems division and one who would maintain the high levels of customer support and drive the business forward.’

‘All of our customers purchased from us because they trusted us to offer excellent ongoing support and we are confident that Blue Rock will deliver that – their track record with their own customers support my confidence in the company.’

Enquiries:

Blue Rock
Glen Jewell/George Troullis    +44(0)23 8083 9800

Johnquinnconsult
John Quinn    +44(0)7736 149410

Sales-i’s Reseller Channel Gets Underway with the Appointment of Blue Rock Systems

- Blue Rock adds sales-i to its product portfolio to plug the gap for portable sales intelligence and CRM solutions –

Sales-i, (www.sales-i.com) the sales intelligence service for front line sales people today announced that it has signed a reseller agreement with IT Solutions provider, Blue Rock Systems. Blue Rock is an established, highly regarded IT Solutions Company with a reputation for delivering and implementing sales intelligence, accounting, CRM and wholesale distribution systems to companies across the UK and Ireland. Blue Rock will now extend its offerings to include sales-i’s on-demand sales intelligence and CRM system.
“sales-i is low cost, ready to use and easy to deliver and most importantly it is exactly what our customers are looking for in a climate where clever sales and customer know-how can really make a difference to the bottom line,” commented Glen Jewell, sales director at Blue Rock. “sales-i fills a gap in our product portfolio by offering our clients a portable, on-demand sales intelligence and CRM solution with a very low cost of ownership.”

Blue Rock is a rapidly expanding software house based on the south coast of England. Its primary business activity is in the supply and support of financial, logistic, warehouse and service software applications for small and medium sized organisations throughout the UK. The company offers a choice of solutions including Microsoft Dynamics™, Intact Software and QlikView™ and works closely with its clients to thoroughly understand their requirements and to deliver a solution that meets with their current and future expectations.
sales-i is a very natural and complementary extension to Blue Rock’s solutions and expertise. Both companies target their products at small to medium distribution organisations with large product lists and hundreds of customers managing office and field based sales forces. sales-i is an easy to use, on-demand sales intelligence and CRM system that empowers these sales organisations and sales teams by providing them with up to the minute sales and gap analysis alerting them to upselling and cross selling opportunities. sales-i also offers a portable CRM solution integrating sales call outcomes and customer contact management thereby giving increased sales and customer buying visibility. sales-i works on any browser including mobile devices.

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model further increases sales-i’s appeal as Glen explains, “ Our customers can be up and running with sales-i in such a short time because there is no need for installation or infrastructure investment. The service is hosted and delivered by the sales-i team and once our customer data is uploaded they are good to go; immediately receiving sales alerts and customer buying information. This coupled with a low monthly fee really does make it an easy decision and we are already enjoying significant interest from our customers.”
Kevin McGirl is co-founder of sales-i and very upbeat about the new partnership. “The Blue Rock team understands the market for sales-i. They have an established footprint with the kinds of organisations that sales-i targets and they have strong expertise in sales technologies, so there is a natural synergy between our companies. We are delighted to welcome them as our first reseller and we look forward to working closely with them to boost their sales intelligence solutions sales.”

Sales-i is a real-time sales intelligence service for front-line sales people. Through sales-i, sales professionals are equipped with real-time customer buying behavior alerts which are delivered by email and text messaging, empowering them to make better informed, personalized and faster decisions which maximize repeat sales and reduce customer slippage.
Sales-i is a true Software-as-a-Service solution charged on a per-user, per-month, basis.
Sales and marketing organizations rely on sales-i to maximize their sales intelligence. This delivers protected customer share, better margins, visible cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and increased customer buying behaviour know-how resulting in more intelligent, profitable selling.

Question: How do you crack down on costs, improve efficiency, increase sales and improve your customers’ experience, without spending a fortune in these tough times?

Answer: Well, you could do worse than follow the example set by the UK’s leading bathroom distributor and long-time Blue Rock client, Ideal Bathrooms.
Ideal have worked with the staff of Blue Rock for more than 10 years, and have a 64 user computer system that operates from  four different sites strategically located across  the length of the UK.
With £5 million of bathroom products in stock, a fleet of 41 delivery vehicles and a next day, nation- delivery service to 99% of its customers, Ideal depend upon brilliant logistics and relies on the services of  Blue Rock  to keep it running.
When French building conglomerate Saint-Gobain, one of world’s top one hundred industrial corporations, took over Ideal it listened to the directors request to keep its tried and tested relationship with Blue Rock and not move to the corporate solution .
It is a fully integrated business system that handles the complete process, from stock checking at the initial enquiry right through to raising delivery notes, invoices and statements. It updates stock levels, warns the buyer when time to reorder, generates management information and runs its own full accounts package.

That wasn’t enough for Ideal’s operations director, Kim Kirby-Earnshaw. Last year she added the document management system (DMC) to the software and reckons the investment has all but paid for itself already.
Kim said: ‘Blue Rock installed the DMC in October and it went without a hitch. Now we send all our sales invoices and statements to our customers by email or fax, whichever method they prefer.
‘We have a large customer base so that alone has saved us £1,800 a month in manpower and postage, with taking into account the other benefits.
‘And we know the paperwork has been successfully delivered, so we don’t hear the “We’ve never received your invoice” story when we are chasing for payment!
‘Some customers ask for a fax confirmation once they have placed an order with us. We take some 30% of orders by fax; about 5% by email and the rest are handled by the 23 staff who work in our central phone sales office in Milton Keynes.
‘Whichever way the order comes in our system generates a mirror image of the order instantly which is sent within seconds to our customer, showing the full information, including any out of stock items.
‘We use the same system to place our purchase orders with our suppliers.’

The document management system has saved Ideal money, improved efficiency and given more information more quickly to its customers and manufacturers.
But Kim is still not satisfied and now plans to add automatic scanning of the 1,000 + delivery notes Ideal’s delivery drivers return to the depots every day.
Kim said: ‘By adding a barcode to the delivery note the DMC will be able to scan the document and automatically send each customer electronic proof of every delivery – no punching of delivery note numbers or manual filing required, so less errors and less staff required to do, what is, a pretty boring job.

Last year was a particularly busy one for Ideal with the company buying the Glasgow based bathroom distributor, In-Line Sales and Distribution. That business will soon complete the full integration of its computer systems to Blue Rock.
The sales side of Ideal has also benefited from add-ons to the Blue Rock software. The company added Sales Console to its system and it has proved a major success.
Kim said: ‘Our sales director, Rob St. Barbe, is always singing Sales Console’s praises! He says it tells him what individual clients are doing at any one time.’

Sales Console provides the ability to track, analyze, and understand all aspects of a business, and can easily and quickly be manipulated to fit an individual company’s actual requirements.
It enables management to see what is being sold to which customer, when, where and by whom, critical in identifying profitable customers, any low performing sales reps, and any slow moving products.
Drifting customers, missed cross sell opportunities, “cherry picking” accounts or salesman are immediately identified and alerts are sent out, allowing any potential problems to be acted upon before they become major issues.

Rifina - Trade Counter

Richard Bartlam, the forward looking electrical wholesaler’s managing director explains why Rifina trusted Blue Rock & Intact software to ‘run the business’

Rifina is an independent Gloucestershire-based Electrical Wholesaler and has just celebrated 30 years in business.  Being very much a private and somewhat conservative company, we have always looked hard at any purchase to ensure that it will give us the best possible return on our investment.

Our company motto is “We keep our promises” which seems a simple enough claim but can often be hard to keep, especially when manufacturers let us down. Within Rifina, much is dependent upon a chain of people working together.  We rely on members of staff working across all three branches – Tewkesbury, Cheltenham and Cirencester – and work as one company.  Thus we do not set one branch against another, but see ourselves instead as one warehouse with three doors.

This company ethos might seem strange to others but it has enabled us to centralise our sales office, streamline our deliveries, keep better stocks and, most importantly, still give individual attention to each and every customer.  This personal service aspect of our business is why I still publish on the back of all company literature my private telephone number, so that any customer can contact me directly if company standards fall.

After 20 or so years with our present software company, it was felt that we needed a much more integrated software solution that included the CRM that was currently lacking.  Indeed, we are at present running two sets of customer data, one for stock and sales, etc., and one for customer-related day-to-day information and reps’ reports.  We needed a package that combined both.

Other issues identified as necessary in a new system were:

·         Automatic maintenance of stock levels throughout the company.

·         Ability to drill down and examine in detail all company data.

·         The ability to import and export data into MS Excel or Word so that changes could be made quickly and easily.

·         A system where managers could be alerted when procedures and guidelines were not being followed, to prevent mistakes being made.

·         A system to keep Proof of Delivery (POD) paperwork scanned and attached to the relevant documents.

·         A more efficient purchasing process, allowing suppliers with advantageous prices to be recommended by the computer.

Having looked at many other systems on the market, we found Intact almost by chance.  Even at the initial meeting it became clear that this was a potential frontrunner.  However, because of the current lack of Electrical Distributors in the UK using the system, we had to go and look at an Irish Electrical Distributor – an eye-opening, but not unpleasant, experience – to see it working in our industrial sector.

We also visited other Blue Rock customers in the UK, in the Builders Merchants’ sector, who were using the software; it’s always interesting to see other markets in action.

What we have been most impressed with is the way Blue Rock listened to our specific requirements.  Even suggestions made during the initial sessions were taken away and thought about and, if felt necessary to improve the software, were quickly implemented so that at our next meeting they would come back and say, “Done that!”.  All this, even before we had agreed to come on board…

At the end of the day, our list of modifications required to the product was reduced down to one or two minor issues.  Successful implementation of a new system requires a lot of faith in the company behind the software and requires a real partnership.  I feel confident that the partnership between Rifina and Blue Rock will stand the test of time.

Richard Bartlam
Managing Director, Rifina (www.rifina.com)

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After months of fruitlessly scouring the Internet for a competent document scanning solution Blue Rock gave up – and wrote their own. Blue Rock have been able to provide our customers with the facility to barcode their delivery notes which, when signed and returned, can be scanned en mass and stored against transactions in their back office systems – enabling the customer to retrieve POD’s instantly, save paperwork and improve the effectiveness of debt collection and cash flow. However the generic scanning software never allowed for subsequent delivery notes to be scanned along side the originals (appending the files). In addition the scanning software was relatively expensive and complicated to use.

Now, however,we have developed our own application which resolves the issue, is far simpler to operate, scans at a faster rate (approximately 50% faster) and reduces the image size of the POD therefore reducing disk space requirements and improving the rate at which the image can be loaded. As we own the software we are able to reduce the cost of multiple scanner installations which up until now needed separate licences per scanner.

For further information please get in touch with the sales team.

“We ordered from Blue Rock because we liked the people…”
This is not the first time we had heard this from our customers and most recently Martyn Rees, one of the Directors of County Building Supplies in Malvern, echoed this sentiment after they placed their order for a 45 user installation of Intact from Blue Rock Systems in Southampton.
“We took references from members of our buying group and to be fair 3 or 4 suppliers were identified that we should look at” stated James Bradley, IT Manager. “It was immediately obvious that all the suppliers could provide improvements over our existing system and that each product was suitable for Builders Merchants”.
“However we didn’t just seek to replace the existing solution – we wanted to get the best solution that we could afford which offered long term security for our business, a level of practical functionality which would help us weather the economic unrest that our industry is facing but as Martyn made clear we really wanted to find a company that we could work with – and we found all of that in Blue Rock,” continued James.
The installation period is tight and we aim to have the system live by September. This includes rolling out new hardware, servers, cabling, data transfer, the Intact Software for 45 users and all the training and consultancy associated with an installation of this size.
Commenting on the new order, George Troullis, Managing Director of Blue Rock said, “When we established Blue Rock one of the primary drivers for our business was always to provide a personal level of service to our customers. Even though we enjoyed a 50% growth last year at least one of our Directors maintains direct involvement with our end users during the installation and beyond and this is a policy that we aim to continue”.