Changes in the Company
The company decided to change its business structure for economic reasons. Its network of factory warehouses was reduced to four outlets and more emphasis was put on using its network of facilities for mixing paints and plasters, which is the largest in Poland (240 facilities nationwide). End users can purchase Bolix products from more than 900 trade representatives of the company including wholesalers, construction suppliers, Castorama chain stores, and contractors. This network allows for almost immediate deliveries of products offered by Bolix. The change in company philosophy required a change in structure. Trade and customer service departments recruited more personnel, and logistics began to play a more important role. Tomasz Czub, IT Manager, says, “We introduced mobile solutions as of the beginning of 2005. We divided our field staff into two groups: the Technical and Trade Department, and the Investment Managers. The former service resellers; the latter seek and develop investment projects and offer advice to our field force. Our technical and trade advisors needed very fast access to information on resellers, including their volume of trade, debt, and product-instock volumes. E-mail at offices was not enough to solve our problems so we equipped field staff with palmtops. Our investment managers, who generally load more information into the system and develop trade proposals, use laptops with a full CRM application. The same application has been provided for the palmtops, but in a slimmer version. Everybody can now work online with the company via mobile telephones. Or they can work offline and synchronize their data as soon as they get a GSM signal. Each of our field representatives has a GPS, so we can locate them immediately. GSM data are delivered to the IFS reporting system as well.” The introduction of IFS Applications has facilitated production control. Customer orders can now be stored and consolidated, making it considerably easier to handle repeat orders down to the smallest details of formulas and color.
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Meeting the Market Challenge
Formerly, customer orders were received by one of 12 branches, which delivered them to the head office, where they were incorporated into a group manufacturing order. Finished products were delivered to the branches and then to customers. Now, orders from resellers are sent directly to the head office, which automatically generates manufacturing orders. The products can be sent on palettes via regular delivery systems to the resellers, or, in emergency cases, resellers can collect them individually from the nearest of four company storage facilities. The change in operating philosophy meant that the IT system required restructuring and development, mostly in the head offices. However, IFS Applications is so agile that there were no major problems along the way. The legacy system serviced manufacturing to a limited extent, supported the whole sales procedure including customer orders and invoicing, and was used also for warehouse management. In the new situation, the range and speed of information exchange had to be increased. The company implemented the entire IFS Manufacturing™ solution, introduced automatic invoicing, simplifying customer order recording as well as lot and sample tracing. Other new elements included support for the high-piled storage facility, IFS Human Resources™ and IFS/Payroll Administration™. Sales, which are almost wholly done in the field, are supported by IFS CRM™.
Better Focus on Core Business
The change in business structure and the switch to IT hardware better adjusted to the new style of work allows the company to focus more on its core operations, manufacturing. The lot and sample tracing system related to the manufacturing process considerably reduced the number of complaints. Moreover, automatic checking of stocks improved product flow and cut down stocks to a minimum, reducing warehousing time twice. New structural and IT solutions together resulted primarily in faster order processing, which now takes 72 hours on average, although for some standard “express” orders it can be reduced by half. In addition to that, Bolix guarantees delivery in 96 hours.
Plans for the Future
Tomasz Czub, says, “The changes in our business model have spurred us to seek new, effective solutions for faster information flows and greater efficiency. We have become increasingly dependent on the Internet; now, many employees can log on to company servers. Soon, we will implement a fully secure Internet access to company resources. At present, we are gradually providing laptops to our technical and trade advisors to replace PDA devices, as this group of employees is processing greater amounts of data.“
Benefits
- Fewer goods in stock
- More efficient customer service
- Untied funds
- More efficient trade representatives
Software
- IFS Financials™
- IFS Distribution™
- IFS Manufacturing™
- IFS Human Resources™
- IFS/Payroll Administration™
- IFS Maintenance™
- IFS CRM™
System and equipment platform
- Unix-controlled HP rp5400 server for 9i Oracle databases
- Windows 2003-controlled Proliant DL380 G4 server
- At present, the system has 64 head office users and approx. 60 mobile users with palmtops or laptops
About Bolix
The company was established in 1991 and has been known as Bolix Sp. z o.o. (Co. Ltd) since 2001, the same year as it started to use IFS Applications. Bolix has steadily increased its market share in the construction chemistry sector ever since. Currently, Bolix employs approximately 230 persons, mostly in its head offices in Zywiec, Poland. Its turnover in 2003 exceeded PLN 80 million.
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“The changes in our business model have spurred us to seek new, effective solutions for faster information flows and greater efficiency.” Tomasz Czub, IT Manager
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