The Publication For The Grocery Trade

Town and Country Fine Foods' Creative IT Solution

Town and Country Fine Foods has more than 34 years' experience as an independent specialist food service distributor to the UK's hospitality, catering and pastry industry. With a range of over 750 products needing to be available for next-day nationwide delivery, the company found its Unix-based business administration system was causing a bottleneck in its customer service operations and potentially restricting future expansion of the business. Switching to a more flexible Windows-based business solution - Microsoft Dynamics NAV - provided the opportunity to grow the business while improving customer service and lowering running costs. The challenge: achieving real-time communications The key to success for Town and Country Fine Foods' (TCFF) distribution operation lies in ensuring that its customers receive the right products at the right time. Apart from fulfilling regular customer orders, TCFF is also proactive in suggesting order items before the customer has realised the need for more stock. Both of these scenarios rely upon the correct levels of stock being maintained in the TCFF warehouse to meet orders. To coordinate the whole process, the customer service team needs immediate access to up-to-the-minute information about product availability and customer requirements. Nearly three years ago, sales order volume reached a level at which it became obvious that the company's Unix-based business administration system lacked sufficient flexibility to allow the customer service team to achieve its full potential. Without real-time capabilities, information was frequently out of date, requiring regular overnight reconciliation; the process for sorting and organising information was unnecessarily complex; and the monthly reporting exercise burdened management with an awkward and time-consuming task. Peter Hearne, TCFF company accountant, summarises the situation at that time: "We had effectively become a victim of our own success, having reached the point at which our technology couldn't keep up with the demands of our people, who in turn needed to stay on top of the demands of our customers. We were certainly missing out on new sales opportunities, and there was a risk that we would seriously compromise other aspects of our customer service unless we took positive action." The first step in taking that action was to make the decision to invest in a more modern, flexible business administration system - but which one? Various Microsoft products were already in use throughout the company, and it made sound sense to ensure compatibility with these; other considerations included the ease (and preferably low cost) with which future modifications could be achieved, and how operator-friendly it would be in use. Initially, both independent bespoke applications and specialised accounting software packages were investigated, the latter introducing TCFF to Creative, the local Microsoft software reseller. The solution: a modular system that evolves with the user During the course of TCFF expounding upon the challenges that it faced, Creative quickly realised that Microsoft Dynamics NAV (or Navision as it was then known) would provide the optimal solution, and wasted no time in creating a working model. Peter Hearne again: "Creative clearly understood our business needs and literally redesigned aspects of the model in front of us as we tried out different scenarios. The functionality was instantly impressive, particularly the telesales module, and the flexibility and ease with which modifications could be made as needed made this the obvious choice for us." The core solution comprised individual modules for general ledger, receivables, purchases and inventory, warehouse management and customer relationship management (CRM). To suit specific telesales requirements, the CRM module was modified through bespoke development work by Creative, with the result that it could capture all customer history such as preferred product lines and purchasing trends, and enable flexible sorting and management of data. These modules were complemented by the Dynamics NAV Native database. Creative then began importing data from the original Unix system: test imports were first run and reconciled to the complete satisfaction of TCFF before the smooth transfer of some 160,000 lines of stock records, plus customer and supplier information with debtors and invoices stretching back three or four years. The new system was ready to go live in March 2004 with up-to-date stock balances and customer history, without any re-keying of data required. The benefits: improved customer service, reduced costs and compound annual growth Three years on from implementation, TCFF has a wealth of improvements and progress to report. An almost immediate impact was felt in telesales, every operator now having access to real-time data for each customer whenever needed. This has made it easier to nurture the client-customer relationship and build loyalty; such a focus on customer service is a key goal for TCFF, which remains an independent company without conflicting obligations to shareholders. This has followed through to an increase in sales, the company reporting an enviable ten percent year-on-year growth since installation of the new system. It has been possible to streamline many internal processes, with a corresponding reduction in management time spent on activities such as monthly accounts; using Dynamics NAV, even these are automatically produced. Certain activities that previously required the services of three people now only require one, allowing the others to concentrate on more proactive pursuits for the business, and the prospect of a paperless office becomes ever more achievable. In addition to addressing the customer service issues that faced TCFF, the new system has had a marked effect on the ability of the business to react to new demands; at any given time, an immediate and clear overview of the business is available to enable immediate assessment of the correct course of action. The e-commerce module, for example, has helped to attract new customers that prefer to conduct their business by electronic data interchange (EDI) - to date, at least five of the larger customers' ordering systems are directly linked to TCFF and more are expected to follow. Summing up progress approaching the three-year anniversary of implementation, Peter Hearne said: "As the company accountant, I would not have driven and supported this project without the expectation of tangible benefits. We needed better customer service, improved flexibility and lower costs - we started to see solid evidence of those happening within six months. Three years down the line, the new system has surpassed all expectations, allowing us to grow as fast as we can comfortably achieve while still adhering to our primary goal of striving to provide exceptional service to our customers. On the purely financial front, at the outset we expected to see a return on our investment in the new system within five years; we can be sure that we will easily achieve that, including any modifications that have been required. In a nutshell, Creative's implementation of Microsoft technologies has helped us transform the way we do business." Three years is a long time in terms of software evolution, but Dynamics NAV has continued to meet the needs of TCFF and its demanding customers with only minor 'tweaks' required along the way. The company is currently considering an upgrade to the latest version of the software, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0, in late 2007, plus an investment in new servers. Creative Computing Solutions Ltd Tel: 01628 660600 www.creative-computing.co.uk