Product category:
Software
News Release from: XKO Software | Subject: Builders Merchants miss online sales opportunities
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 28 June 2007
Builders Merchants miss online sales
opportunities
Builders merchants continue to ignore the online channel for business to business sales.
Steven Hargreaves, Product Director at XKO Software, asks why so many UK builders merchants continue to ignore the online channel for business to business sales citing complexity, cost and a lack of customer demand But such attitudes are not only outdated, they are fundamentally constraining business expansion and limiting customer choice
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 11 Mar 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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These organisations claim excellent customer service lies at the heart of their business success.
But failure to offer 24 hour product ordering, access to accounts information or stock availability checks is beginning to look far from impressive, especially when compared with the online services offered by the majority of larger competitors.
It is true there is no customer demand for poorly designed, stand-alone web sites.
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Yet by extending core ERP technology onto the web, an organisation can seamlessly deliver consistent pricing, delivery and product information across a range of sales channels.
The result is greater customer choice and improved service at a lower cost of sale and a platform for significant market expansion.
So how can any builders merchants justify the lacklustre, unintegrated web sites that typify this marketplace? .
Comments from readers
Angela Kennedy writes: I think we will soon see a Polish workforce within the software arena, delivering quality Windows based back office systems with an online front end for both business and consumers to take advantage of at a fraction of the typical cost. As for support, relying on a smaller more focussed group of individuals to deliver software often brings better customer service. However, what the real issue is is ?attraction and outcomes?. As a landlady that enjoys stripping out and re-building apartments quickly I require the flexibility of a good local merchant that opens early, takes telesales orders and delivers before 8am, however the whole process fails when skip hire companies fail to offer a flexible service. Until the entire ?supply chain? provides a better service there will always be areas where I fail due to the lack of others in-flexible working methods. Admittedly I am small fry in the scale of things, but let?s face it unless software houses address the need for a standard bit of kit that addresses the need to ?attract? customers there?s little choice but to have a trade counter as the core channel. Taking Leyland SDM as an example, there back office system is windows based and easy to use allowing for high quality customer services, although the website is just a nice looking brochure site it does support a quality brand image and once fully e-enabled I would be more than confident to use this service. If this project were given to a bespoke software house the project would have taken twice as long, incurred costly consultancy and required a presales scoping exercise. It?s a merchant trader, not a city bank! That aside I think the real issue is the change in our technological and workforce environment. The introduction of shared services, Polish workers and free software fails to support the need or attraction to software houses. Perhaps if software houses adopted a more flexible approach to software development, for example ?Agile Estimation? then perhaps they too would agree that there software developed 5 or 10 years ago un-fit for modern day trading? Having a website that allows me to buy online is fine, but I?m interested in traffic and its outcomes. Personally I think traditional software houses need to address current business trading environments and by that I mean there pricing of software, how to attract an online audience and what the outcomes will be, along with this the workforce and technology needs addressing, a more flexible approach to software build perhaps a new method of software engineering needs to be adopted which puts the emphasis on stake holders to generate user stories to assist in its development? Rant over! lol
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