Big-ticket retailers attending this year’s January Furniture Show (24-27th April at the Birmingham NEC) are being offered a bespoke business health check with the company that helped Tapi Carpets become a 160-store, 800-staff operation in just seven years.
Business solution expert Sci-Net was brought in to help Tapi with its IT infrastructure when it launched its first store in April 2015. Since then, the Tier-1 Microsoft Gold Partner has become a critical extension to the company’s lean head office team, seamlessly integrating back-end technologies that improve efficiencies, reduce staff admin and keep the customer front and centre, thanks to improved automation and communications.
Tapi Carpets’ CIO Jason Turner describes the results of the partnership with Sci-Net as "outstanding", saying it enabled the business it to upscale steadily and set up a customised Dynamics NAV cloud-based system within months, which potentially saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in infrastructure costs.
Working closely with Sci-Net, last year Tapi also introduced a flooring measuring solution and automated tool for its 150-strong workforce of home consultants – allowing them to provide professional quotes, estimates and updates while with customers, at the tap of a button – fully integrated into the Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP system.
“Time is precious,” says Jason, “so we collaborated on how we could refine our processes and welcomed an estimating tool that pulls measurements into our system and automates quotes. Using it improves the customer experience, which is incredibly important to us, but it also saves a significant amount of time. We calculated savings of around 4500 hours of admin in 40 days.
“The system we have now, managed by Sci-Net, means we have visibility of our business with accurate reporting in real time. It is suited to every aspect of our business, from estimating, sales, supply chain, inventory management and website integrations, right through to in-store operations.”
Bookings are now open for an exclusive, 30-minute Going for Growth slot with Sci-Net during the four-day NEC show. Sci-Net’s team, which has proven expertise within the furniture sector, promise to give honest and practical advice that can support businesses facing challenges and opportunities relating to everything from supply chain management and stock management, the customer journey, self-service customer portal, payment and delivery management, through to aftersales care.
Sci-Net MD Duncan Fergusson explains: “The current retail landscape has altered significantly, and issues relating to supply chain, staffing, logistics and rising costs mean retailers need improved oversight of their operations if they are to weather this period. Through our free health checks, we aim to share our insight with those business leaders who need it the most – getting them on track to where they want to be in 2022, and beyond.”
As well as its business one-to-ones, Sci-net will also be demonstrating its proprietary platform, ERP Retail, to visitors to its stand (Hall 2, stand A-218).
The ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution is built around Microsoft’s world-leading platform, Dynamics 365 Business Central, and has been tailored to the furniture and flooring sector. It offers retailers, like Tapi, a single solution which replaces often-complex business insight and management tools.
