SCraft

A leading importer of window shutters approached Black Swan asking if we could help develop a more effective order taking process using Microsoft Excel.  This has grown into a full online ordering system.

The Challenge

Their supplier was processing orders in an Excel format that was not suitable for the UK market so the company employed somebody to copy and paste the information into another spreadsheet that was compatible with the UK operation. This process was far too longwinded and had to be changed.

As the company doubled in size and re-doubled again and again their need for their IT to work harder grew with it.

Sales Order Processing (SOP), Purchasing, Logistics, Credit Control and Invoicing were all areas that needed their data to be processed with less human input.

Our Solution

Black Swan upgraded the Excel spreadsheet, making it into a sophisticated order form with a series of ‘drop downs’ and limitations on what could be entered. This reduced the number of errors in each order and assured customers got exactly what they ordered.

Black Swan automated the transfer of each order to the factory, which included sending an email to the supplier, with an order acknowledgement to the customer. This meant that the process that previously took most of a working day to complete, now took an hour!

The business has grown and developed and whilst turnover is ten times what it was, the existing order processing team has grown from two to five people, comfortably managing the significant increase in sales orders.

With all these orders coming through we added a SOP (Sales Order Processing) database to track their sales and provide better customer service.

This was followed by an online ordering system creating orders directly into the database, automatically ordering from the factory and further enhancing the customer service.

Once the order had been manufactured, our system processed the shipment information and enabled easy delivery planning.

Finally, the invoice was produced and sent out.

Benefits to the Client

Improved productivity
Fewer mistakes
Better information
Fully Automated order processing including fulfilment and invoicing