Industry: Marine Parts Import & Distribution

HANDLING COMPLEX INVENTORY MANAGEMENT & DISTRIBUTION PROCESSES WITH WIISE & BIZMAXUS

About Client

The client has grown to be one of Australia’s largest, most well-known and respected import/export wholesale marine businesses. Their head office is in Sydney (NSW) and a second office is located at Coomera on the Queensland Gold Coast and maintains four other warehouses located across Australia. Client supplies to Marine Retail stores, Boat Builders, Marinas, Marine Electricians, and all general marine trade, so our products are readily available Australia-wide.

Challenge

This consistently high level of execution Is not easy. The Client relies upon a responsive, full-featured ERP system to make it all come together. To manage that system, The Client has established an all-star development team in-house.

The company implemented an In-house developed system roughly ten years ago with a team of developers. However, after meeting with us at the Dynamics Community Seminar, they decided to re-evaluate their needs.

Mukesh Mittal conducted a fit-gap analysis with team the client to determine exactly what the company needed for its ERP system. During the Business study, we found Client is struggling in managing the huge inventory (more than 25,000 SKUs) in multiple locations with an unreliable broken system. To get any information The client was totally relying on system developers and paying heavy fees weekly.

Procurement & managing order quantity & Vendor lead time in this pandemic era was the main challenge, Skids of products were being delayed frequently, causing the Client’s team a lot of headaches to get them moving again.

The existing reporting capabilities were not giving proper insights to make right decisions.  The Client honours itself on being data-driven, so the team wanted the accurate data in an accessible & informative format.

To stay ahead of the technology curve, the company wanted to upgrade its system to WIISE, but it needed the right partner. After meeting with Mukesh Mittal, the senior leadership team and weighing their options, The Client decided that a partnership with Bizmaxus would be the best way to meet its targets and equip its team to operate the business in Optimize way.

Solution

An Bizmaxus project team led by Mukesh Mittal took on WIISE Implementation project. They knew from the start that they needed to be in close communication with Client’s team on each step so they would be as ready as possible to offer support on their own in the future.

Perhaps because of this focus on training the team, Mukesh noted afterwards that the Client was one of the easiest projects he has worked on from a timing and communication perspective. “If every go-live is like the client, I’ll be a very happy project director.”

The Client’s system was upgraded to WIISE (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central) gone live in August 2022. This implementation involved significant customizations to centralize purchases for all locations as per the client’s guidelines. The implementation was a great opportunity to re-evaluate all the business processes that had been followed previously to determine if they were still necessary. In many cases, they were not.

To bring everything in Microsoft together, Bizmaxus became the Client’s Cloud Solutions Provider and offered them their Microsoft Office licensing at a significant discount compared to the company’s previous provider.

Results Achieved

Today, Client is live with its new Wiise (Business Central system). Because the company took the time to prepare data in advance and prepare for the switch, it has been a relatively smooth transition.

For shipping, the delays they experienced previously sending inventory out are all gone. They are operating far more efficiently, and in fact, estimate that labour /inventory holding etc. associated with their products have been reduced by 40%.

On the reporting front, today they can go to any location / Responsibility centre and easily find all the orders that are due for the day, view all sales entered, see how much is shipped each day, and more.

Finally, because the Client’s team worked so closely with Bizmaxus and completed much of the work and support on their own as a result, the entire project came in under budget. Not only that, but the Client will save in the long run because it can support users without incurring billable hours.

Moving Forward With Confidence

When asked about Bizmaxus ’s level of support both in implementing the solution and helping with any issue that has come up since Client could not be more pleased. “Whenever you contact with Support team, you get a solution quickly or get in touch with the right person that can help.”

Client’s View About Us

“My life is so much easier. Because I run all the technology for the business from the internet to phone to software solutions, to know I have a team in Bizmaxus that I can call on 24/7 if something comes up that we can’t solve ourselves means I can sleep a lot sounder at night.” – Colin Moran