Case Studies Selector


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Summary
Name :
Wylia & Alexander Ltd
Business :
Importers & Wholesale Distributors
Reps :
5
Comms :
Vodafone & Telecom
Financials :
Infusion
Device
HP Ipaq 2190
Business Situation
Wylie and Alexander have two of their five commission salespeople utilising SalesLink and taking approximately 30 sales orders per week. Previously these two reps were hand writing orders of up to six or seven pages..
Solution
SalesLink Mobile is utilised on HP Ipaqs which transfers wirelessly via mobile cellphones with Infra Red capability. The wireless transfer both sends orders to the warehouse and also receives the latest product pricing and customer information from the Infusion accounting software.
Return on Investment
In a smaller business this has been difficult to quantify in $ terms.
"It's been worth it. It's definitely made our business more efficient" said Bernie Dean.
Introduction
Based in Christchurch the Company is an importer and wholesale distributor of games, a wide range of toys, novelties and New Zealand themed products.

Company Background

Wylie and Alexander started trading 20 years ago in 1988. Current owners Bernie and Graeme Dean purchased the business four years ago – Bernie’s brother founded the business and Bernie has been working in the business for the past seventeen years.


Business Operation

Wylie and Alexander have an extensive range of products with approximately 3,500 different lines carried. A sales call can take up to two hours and a single order could be for over 60 -70 items – there could be six to seven pages of hand written notes.
The company employs commission reps throughout New Zealand and has two reps covering the South Island where the majority of their sales are generated. When taking the sales orders the reps would be required to write them up and then fax them through to the office. From there the orders would be picked in the warehouse from the hand written faxes and then keyed into their accounting system.

Their accounting system was no longer supported so Wylie and Alexander installed Infusion. During this installation Fusion IT made Wylie and Alexander aware of SalesLink Mobile and the benefits it could bring to their business. With the implementation of two systems almost simultaneously there was a lot of pressure on the business.

“Everything went very smoothly” said Bernie Dean,” any problems that arose were attended to quickly and the helpdesks at both Fusion IT and I.T. Link have been very good. With SalesLink we could choose what settings we wanted and this is a good feature. We could mold the system  to what was appropriate for our needs. Overall it was not intrusive to set up.”

  
“It’s definitely made our business more efficient” Bernie Dean Director

Benefits to Business

“The orders come in and print out in the warehouse automatically – they’re clearer to read and therefore easier to pick “said Bernie.”  We’ve released one staff member for other duties and it’s evened out the flow of work into the office which allows us to plan better.”
With the size of the sales orders, automating the sales order entry out in the field has saved up to 20 minutes data entry per order, for some of the larger orders.

When a new rep came on board this year she picked up SalesLink really quickly. “It only took her an hour or so to learn, which was great,” Graeme Dean observed.

Wylie and Alexander attend Gift Fairs in Auckland and Christchurch. By capturing customer’s orders at these Fairs the orders flow through really quickly and this has also smoothed out the “bump” in processing the picking of warehouse orders.

Testimonial
"It's definitely made our business more efficient" Bernie Dean Director
Wylie & Alexander.