New software transforms The Health Store’s business
Natural and organic products wholesaler The Health Store says its business has been transformed after it introduced enterprise resource planning and voice directed warehouse management software within its operations.
The Health Store commissioned Business Computer Projects to supply the Accord ERP solution and Voice WMS software to help it improve pick accuracy. The company had been considering investing in Voice technology for some time, initially looking at either a middleware solution or a full Voice WMS. As investigations progressed, however, it became clear that The Health Store’s existing wholesale solution was no longer adequate for its needs and BCP’s Accord emerged as being most suitable replacement.
Tim Ryan, The Health Store managing director, explained: “We realised that as a fully integrated warehouse management and ERP solution we could replace all of our systems with one integrated system from BCP which would make running the whole business far more straightforward.”
The 60 user system encompasses BCP’s complete Accord software suite from purchasing through sales order processing to financials, manufacturing and Voice WMS. “It was the most seamless implementation of an ERP system I have ever seen,” said Ryan adding that it had transformed the business and brought it into the 21st century.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Key benefits, according to Ryan, include data accuracy, visibility, scheduling and efficiency. The Health Store also found that Accord improved accuracy throughout the business from goods receiving, to stock through to picking where accuracy rates are now above 99%.
Ryan added: “Those errors which do occur are usually simple human ones which are often unavoidable. Retail customers have commented upon how much more accurate orders are since the implementation of voice, claims have dropped massively – by over 60% – and levels of trust have skyrocketed.”
The Health Store said that visibility of data within the business is now much better and Accord has transformed reporting giving the company the ability to slice and dice data to show exactly what it needs to know about the business. One of the biggest efficiency gains has been in picking, where The Health Store is now picking more orders with fewer pickers.
Ryan concluded: “We are delighted with the results and absolutely convinced we made the right decision in choosing Accord. The investment was substantial, but it paid for itself within just 9 months. It’s improving efficiency throughout the business, both in the offices and in the warehouse, making our business – and those of our customers – much more competitive. Plus, it’s scalable, so we’re already seeing other opportunities to use it to further improve our business.”
