Valley Countertops designs, manufacturers, and sells premiere countertop solutions, including kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities, boardroom tables, signage, and vertical “wet walls” in granite and other materials.
The shift from paper to Experlogix reduced errors caused by inappropriate SKU selections and overlooked required SKUs, saving time and money overall.
Salespeople drew configurations by hand, calculated square footage, and determined which SKUs were required to complete each custom order.
Salespeople follow one consistent process while the system presents the appropriate products and SKUs based on each evolving configuration.
Challenge
Based outside Vancouver, BC, Valley Countertops serves the western Canadian provinces, including Vancouver Island. Until recently, it had relied solely on Microsoft Dynamics GP for developing customer quotes. But, its rapid growth since adding new product ranges, factory-sealed granite, and other high-end materials put a strain on how it processed custom orders.
“Valley Countertops is committed to using technology wherever we can to improve efficiencies and the customer experience.”
The company was using Dynamics GP, but it didn’t support the detailed quoting functions necessary to design and manufacture customer orders. “We were really left to use pencil and paper to do quotes. Sales would draw out the configuration, calculate the square footage, and figure out what the appropriate SKUs were to complete the order,” he said. “Each salesperson had his or her own process and style. Even though we had established operating policies, the main problem was consistency, which resulted in the opportunity for error and overlooking required SKUs.”
“The further you proceed in the manufacturing process before you realize there’s a problem, the more costly the problem becomes.” Some errors required going back to the customer with a new quote; others meant rebuilding the job, resulting in delays and dissatisfaction and sometimes, completely losing the job. In that case, Peacock stated, “we had to eat the costs.”
A company effort was initiated to custom build its own order configuration tool. “How wrong we were to try to build it ourselves,” Peacock says now.
Salespeople manually drew configurations, calculated square footage, and selected required SKUs.
Each salesperson had an individual process and style despite established operating procedures.
Manual configuration created opportunities to overlook required SKUs or select inappropriate ones.
Errors discovered later in manufacturing could require new quotes, rebuilt jobs, delays, customer dissatisfaction, or lost business.
Solution
The company began a search for commercial configurators. Its Microsoft Dynamics VAR encouraged them to look at the Experlogix Configurator. “In viewing demos, we quickly realized that Experlogix was exactly what we were looking for. Very importantly, that it would support one consistent process every time,” he said.
The Experlogix Configurator is tightly integrated with the company’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, so much so that Peacock says that his sales team “lives in Dynamics CRM and Experlogix.” The order configuration is generated in Experlogix and linked back to the specific profile in Dynamics CRM. When an order configuration is completed, the data is synced with the Dynamics GP (ERP) system through a natural workflow that eliminates rekeying, greatly streamlining the process, improving accuracy, and eliminating errors.
Result
Great as he thought Experlogix was, Peacock still expected “a huge eruption” of complaints from internal sales when the company implemented the on-premise version of the system. “Actually, it was very well received. The implementation and rollout went smoothly.”
The company gained tremendous benefit just from going through the implementation process. “The process forced us to look at our internal sales procedures. We got substantial benefit from looking at how we did things. We ended up re-evaluating all of our processes and procedures, deciding on what to keep and what to change.”
Another significant benefit is that the system now enforces those procedures. “Experlogix makes everything easier and more consistent,” he said. As an order begins, the system automatically presents elements that must be considered given the evolving selection choices. All sub-category SKUs pop up automatically as you move through the order, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked. Experlogix presents alerts when certain choices add unnecessary complexities and/or costs. “It ensures that you don’t miss anything,” Peacock said.
Experlogix greatly helps facilitate new hires getting rapidly up to speed, dramatically reducing the learning curve,” he said. “With Experlogix, you follow the same process every time. You don’t have to learn which SKUs go with which materials. The system automatically tells you which SKUs you can use. We’ve gone from having a piece of paper that gave you thousands of SKUs, to having only the appropriate ones presented.”
The shift from paper to Experlogix reduced errors that arose from selecting inappropriate SKUs and from overlooking necessary SKUs. “Though it takes a similar amount of time to do an order, it ends up saving time and money overall, because nothing gets missed,” he said. The end result is that in the first four months after going live, Valley Countertops has experienced a 33% reduction in rework.
Fewer inappropriate SKU selections and fewer overlooked required SKUs helped reduce costly downstream corrections.
From a customer perspective, customer quotes are now greatly more transparent. Before, it was a list of SKUs; with Experlogix, each SKU is described for every job in a home so that customers know what room is being referenced and why every SKU is required. “It enables the customer to quickly and easily know what they’re paying for,” Peacock stated.
Peacock finds Experlogix staff very knowledgeable and extremely responsive and helpful. “If I submit a question, I always get an answer back within a day. Being able to rely and build on that kind of responsiveness from a solutions provider makes my life a whole lot easier.”
Valley Countertops reported a 33% reduction in rework during the first four months after go-live.
The configuration process enforces established procedures and presents appropriate options as each order develops.
New hires no longer need to memorize thousands of SKU and material relationships before producing valid orders.
Quotes explain each SKU by job and room so customers can more easily understand what they are paying for.
“The shift to Experlogix reduces errors, saving time and money overall. The end result is that in the first four months after going live, there’s been a 33% reduction in rework.”
Matthew Peacock IT System AdministratorSpeak with one of our experts or download the complete Valley Countertops customer success story.
