Byggmax

The construction sector has developed enormously in Sweden over recent years. Byggmax, Sweden’s fastest-growing chain of building materials suppliers, chose IFS Applications™ to support its continued growth. One of its goals is to double its revenue in Sweden over the next two years. With IFS Applications Byggmax is streamlining its purchasing, inventory management, goods administration, and financials.

Just over three months after signing the contract, Byggmax went live with IFS Applications in its first store. A month later, IFS Applications was fully supporting 10 stores. The go live was on time and took just three months.

Difficulties Overviewing Operations

“Our legacy IT environment made it difficult to get an efficient overview of our operations,” explains Jacob Notlöv, IT director at Byggmax. “This in turn made it hard to optimize purchasing and supply chain processes at corporate level.” 
Another problem was the amount of time it took to extract and compile financial information, which company management continuously required to be able to run operations and make the right business decisions. The financial information provided by the former system was not sufficiently detailed to fulfill the company’s requirements for efficient decision-making support.

Careful Evaluation

To meet the challenges it faced, Byggmax realized it needed new IT support to support its business-critical processes and thereby help the company to expand. So nine business applications vendors were evaluated. IFS was chosen for a number of reasons. According to Byggmax, the deciding factor was IFS’ ability to successfully demonstrate process management for retail companies without the need for customization.

“We were also impressed by the picture of IFS we got when talking to reference customers in the retail trade,” says Notlöv.

IFS Applications gives Byggmax access to real-time information that helps the company streamline everything from purchasing to inventory management and financial processes. Moreover, IFS Applications meets retail trade demands in respect of IT support for efficient supply chain management and stock replenishment.

Integration of Several Systems

Byggmax procured its business software, point-of-sale system, and operational partner at the same time. By integrating the systems, Byggmax has achieved a higher degree of coordination. This was possible because of the openness of IFS Applications, another of the reasons why Byggmax chose IFS as its business applications vendor.

“As well as integrating all our business processes, it means that even other systems, such as our point-of-sale system, can easily be connected to the business software. This enables us to continuously optimize inventory management based on actual sales,” explains Notlöv. 

In the next phase, Byggmax will implement an IFS component that supports advanced functionality for sales forecasting and inventory optimization.

Streamlined Processes Support Expansion

IFS Applications helps Byggmax streamline and integrate its processes. All flows are supported and at the same time, the company can continuously overview results at whatever level it chooses. Consequently, the solution from IFS is a critical element in enabling Byggmax to live up to its ambitious business concept—while undergoing rapid expansion. “The extent of our expansion puts tough demands on the business applications. And because IFS Applications requires very few customizations to fit our business we have been able to carry out the initial implementations in a short time frame and get the benefits almost immediately,” comments Notlöv. 

The company-wide coordination of purchasing and inventory management means less tied capital, which of course is crucial to creating room for investment and competitive advantage in this expansive industry.

Rapid Access to Decision-Making Information

Thanks to IFS, Byggmax can easily follow up KPIs at both store and article level, which contributes to making faster business decisions based on more accurate information. Last, but not least, Byggmax cites the excellent work done by the IFS consultants, which was a major factor in the smooth implementation processes at the first stores. It bodes well for future roll-outs at the remaining stores. 

“IFS quickly found an efficient way to handle the question of who takes responsibility for what during the implementation. We believe our collaboration with IFS will continue to be positive,” concludes Notlöv.

About Byggmax

Swedish-based Byggmax was founded in 1993 and has expanded on the basis of its business concept, which is to give its customers building materials of the best quality at the best price in Sweden and to ensure that all the articles in its assortment are available in the stores. All Byggmax stores, more than 30 throughout Sweden, have drive-in facilities so that customers can load their cars directly, making it more convenient to buy building materials.