Case Study
Seafood Wholesale Distribution Company
Seafood Wholesale Distribution Company
Who are they?
This business is Scotland’s leading live shellfish supplier, specialising in high quality live products; namely hand dived scallops, creel-caught langoustines and native lobsters. They supply their products throughout the UK and Paris both commercial and retail clients as well as top quality chefs and restaurants.
“Our sales processing system was gradually slowing down and becoming increasingly unwieldy. We knew for some time that we needed to upgrade but we weren’t looking forward to all the upset that comes from installing a new system.”
This business recognised that they had outgrown their previous system, yet carried on for a number of years getting by using Sage 50, Excel spreadsheets and manual paper processes. However, their increase in sales and demand for information exacerbated their system issues, which found them waiting impatiently to retrieve any data needed.
As a live shellfish supplier, their stock management process was complex. Efficiency is highly required to maintain freshness, and each species needed to be sent to one of four specific warehouses to avoid cross contamination and prevent the stock from fighting or eating each other.
A key issue was that the company could not predict the quantity and type of catch they would receive on any given day. This was complicated further by the fact that fisherman sell their catch by weight, while chefs want to order by quantity of shellfish, and then invoice by weight.
As a result, the company had to accept orders based on unknown stock quantities. This often caused them to under or over sell produce, which had a negative effect on both profit and customer service.
Their finance director told us – “We outgrew our old accounting system when our turnover leapt from £3 million to £6 million. The increase meant the volume of data we were handling began to overwhelm us. Our sales processing system was gradually slowing down and becoming increasingly unwieldy. We knew for some time that we needed to upgrade but we weren’t looking forward to all the upset that comes from installing a new system.”
The Problem
Complex Stock Management
“Our previous experience of working with the wholesale industry and specifically fish wholesalers, along with our own Sage Addon products and technical expertise made us the obvious partner.”
The Solution
Sage 200 Upgrade and Enhancement
This company got in contact with Sage directly about upgrading their system, who in turn recommended Eureka Solutions due to our ability to deliver customised solutions which would meet their exact requirements. Our experience of working with the wholesale industry, particularly fish wholesalers, along with our award winning technical expertise and Sage Addon products made us the obvious partner for this company.
As they were previously using Sage 50, the natural upgrade was Sage 200 due to their familiarity with the system. The difference was, with our bespoke, integrated solution, Sage 200 could easily handle the increase in sales orders that their previous Sage 50 system could not. By automating many of their manual processes the new system would also deliver substantial time savings and reduce errors across their business.
The addition of our Sales Order Plus for Sage 200 module has also helped the sales process through its rapid access to customer information such as order history, customer favourites and special offers. Working closely with this company, we were able to understand their processes and despite their fears, we made the switchover from Sage 50 to Sage 200 as painless as possible.
This business now have a system that enables them full control over their stock, providing full access to accurate stock information which allows them to fulfil all of their orders correctly. Customisation to their Sage 200 means that they can purchase their stock in catch weight, which will then be converted into quantities by the system to sell to their customers. They can also meet customer expectations by invoicing by weight.
Their inventory data is now available in Sage 200 via an integration, which allows the sales team to have real-time information on what has been caught, bought and sold with ease. This is made possible from field staff entering the data through mobile devices at each of the warehouses.
Our Sales Order Plus Addon has given unprecedented, fast access to information on individual customers including order history, special offers and customer favourites. This has improved their customer service as drastically reduced their average call handling time.
“We have benefitted greatly from the increased capacity and functionality of the Sage 200 upgrade. The sales team can now take phone orders more efficiently with full confidence the orders can be fulfilled.
We are still on a learning curve and working hard alongside Eureka Solutions in training our colleagues on how to make the most of the many and sophisticated elements of the system. It is steadily becoming an essential management tool.” – Finance Director.