Integrate Your Business Operations
More than ever, flooring retailers are investing in improving their business management systems. As providers of IT systems and tools to the industry, we see three things driving this increased interest. Firstly, flooring businesses are being sold to people from outside the industry. In their previous business experience, these people have been used to more control and transparency, and they want to see it in their new business. Also, improving this aspect of the business is a quick way to enhance their investment. Secondly, the number of flooring businesses moving into the hands of the next generation is driving change. Sons and daughters taking over the family business are more IT savvy, and they have no intention of continuing to run the business as it has been run for the past three or four decades. Finally, more and more flooring retailers are simply seeing the need to improve their systems to keep pace with their competitors.
“More than ever, flooring retailers are investing in improving their business management systems.”
What do they want to achieve? In short, business integration.
Most flooring businesses consist of a bunch of totally separate systems; measuring, quoting, stock management, installer management, financials, and all the other systems used to run your average flooring business, all of which run independently of each other. The result is double and triple handling of information, leading to mistakes and omissions; lack of visibility as to how the business is performing; difficulty accessing and analysing business performance.
A fully integrated business solution, on the other hand, manages all of these elements in one system, removing the need for double handling, eliminating the resultant errors and providing business owners real-time information about how their business is performing.
“What do they want to achieve? In short, business integration.”
A fully integrated business management solution will provide access to data that will drive sound decisions. Every transaction going through a business currently generates data that gives insight into that business; information about products, customers, suppliers, sales performance, margin, and much more. None of which is accessible from the systems running 90% of flooring businesses today.
“A fully integrated business management solution will provide access to data that will drive sound decisions.”
If you want to understand what business integration looks like, think about the last time you visited your local hardware store. On locating the screwdriver you need, you take it to the checkout, where the item is scanned, a cash sale docket is generated for the correct price, and you pay. Behind the scenes, the integrated system identified the product to determine the price, updated the payment to receipts and removed one screwdriver from inventory—all in the time it takes to process your purchase at the checkout. At days end, the owner of the hardware store can run a report to show sales for the day, what was sold and the profit made. At any time, he can run a report to analyse his screwdriver sales to see which are selling and which are the most profitable.
How many steps are required to achieve the same end when you make a cash sale in your business?
“Integration essentially means that work you must do manually is done automatically, saving time, preventing errors, and generating real-time data.”
If you say selling flooring is more complex than a cash sale, you would be correct, but the same principles apply. Integration essentially means that work you must do manually is done automatically, saving time, preventing errors, and generating real-time data.
Imagine the benefits of capturing customer information when you first issue a sample and then never keying that information again; not when you book a measure, not when you do a quote, and not when you generate the final invoice. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of integration.
If you are not currently working in a fully integrated environment and would like to see what it looks like, we would be happy to show you RFMS, the only fully integrated solution designed for the flooring industry and supported by people who understand your business.
Chris Ogden is a consultant and Managing Director of RFMS Australasia, a supplier of IT solutions specific to the flooring industry. Chris has an extensive background in all aspects of the flooring industry, and he can be contacted at cogden@rfms.com.
