HOW ONE BUSINESS IMPROVED
FENCING & GATE CENTRE WENT FROM CHAOS TO COMPLETE CONTROL AFTER IMPLEMENTING HARMONIQ
A major manufacturer of 100% Australian-made fencing and gate products, Fencing & Gate Centre has been servicing the fencing needs of the East Coast of Australia for over 20 years.
With multiple other business locations spread throughout NSW and QLD, Fencing & Gate Centre’s customers are many and varied. They often sell to major resellers, smaller independent hardware groups, contractors, and even walk-in DIYers at their retail locations.
With such a wide variety of customers, a high volume of jobs, and a dedication to maintaining exceptional customer service, Fencing & Gate Centre needed to be on top of their projects and their business data — but they were finding this hard to achieve.
For a long time, they had been relying on a mix of basic accounting software and Excel spreadsheets for their invoicing, ordering and inventory processes. The lack of flexibility and communication between the systems was causing them multiple problems with data clarity and production efficiency, which lead to a range of issues including:
Wasted time tracking job data
Incorrect measurements of material used per job
Inaccurate costing and revenue information
No way to provide job information to customers
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT
Fencing & Gate Centre decided to do some research into ERP systems, believing that it was the best option for their large, data-heavy and customer-orientated business.
There were a few well-known systems that came into consideration, but they decided that the most important things for them were:
> Flexibility
> Support
> All-in-one system
> Price Point
> Visibility
In the end, it was HARMONiQ that met these needs the best, and the final decision to go-ahead was made.
NEW SYSTEM, NEW BEGINNING
The transition and implementation of HARMONiQ was not a quick process, but it was one that ultimately proved more than worth the time investment for the Fencing & Gate team.
The HARMONiQ team started with a deep and detailed backend set-up to customise the system to Fence & Gate Centre’s needs, and trained staff to correctly use the system.
Shane and his team worked closely with HARMONiQ to add extra details to the system and ensure staff got the support they needed. They quickly began reaping the benefits.
“Thanks to the hard work and input from the wider team, it’s now the perfect system.”
– Shane Hubbard
A COMPANY-WIDE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
Since implementing HARMONiQ, there have been five visible improvements across the entire business:
Staff efficiency
Staff down the production line now have an easier job and waste less time searching for information, because it’s all entered at the start of the job. There’s no more back-and-forth, searching for the relevant job data.
“HARMONiQ has prevented staff from having to do things over and over again. Now they enter data once, and that’s the job done.”
– Shane Hubbard
End-to-end use
The team uses HARMONiQ to its fullest extent, tracking products and orders through the entire manufacturing process, from quote to distribution. Having a single system that manages the entire process provides Fencing & Gate with a ‘single source of truth’ that drives complete visibility and efficiency.
Customer service
HARMONiQ has enabled Fencing & Gate Centre to implement a barcoding system, allowing them to follow a job from stage to stage. This means office staff can see job progression in real-time, and provide accurate information to clients chasing jobs.
Accuracy
The Fencing and Gate team no longer has to worry about whether the data they’re looking at is right. Everything from costing, to the product, to writing off materials is visible and accurate.
“We can see the cost of goods sold, we know how much steel is going into a panel or a gate, we know how much powder we’re using. This system allows us to cost it for the exact size, within millimetres.”
– Shane Hubbard
Cost savings
Having accurate product and costing data also means better insight into costing, revenue, and ordering. They can see where they’re making money and where they’re losing money, even with imports. By receiving true stock movements, they’ve been able to improve their buying thanks to
visibility over which product codes are being turned over monthly and quarterly.
Shane Hubbard puts the positive results down to their commitment to get it right and see it through. He implores other businesses considering implementing an ERP system to ensure they focus on getting their team involved, and to commit to the new system.
“Make sure you’ve got all your skeletons out the closet; don’t drag bad habits to your new system.”
– Shane Hubbard
The Fencing & Gate Team couldn’t be happier with the results they’ve seen, and Shane is glad to see the team’s hard work during implementation has paid off.
Efficiency would have improved ten times over. I can’t describe how much chaos
there was before, compared to where we are now. It has transformed the business. – Shane Hubbard
With the undeniable business and efficiency improvements, Fencing & Gate Centre will be rolling out HARMONiQ to the rest of their business locations in the coming months.
If it’s time for your business to transition to the next generation of more user-friendly, intuitive, transparent and transformative systems — It’s time for us to talk.
Completely customisable and built to be the solution you need, HARMONiQ is an industry-leading business management software that will revolutionise the way you manage your inventory and do business.
CONTACT US
- Suite 8, Level 2,
2-4 Merton St
Sutherland NSW 2232 - +61 2 9542 2000
- hello@micronet.com.au
