Qnetex case study: Elite Fine Foods
What the Elite Fine Foods team love most about Qnetex
“The total package, because it enables a customer to order what they need, knowing it will be high quality and delivered when they need it.”
“We can always pick products accurately and correctly, so we can manage our stock with precision.”
“Our customers receive a constant flow of communication, so they always know exactly where their product is and when it will arrive.”
“Qnetex is integrated with our online platform, so the whole ordering process works seamlessly for our customers.”
“The platform enables our telesales colleagues to highlight products to the customer that they haven’t necessarily been ordering, so we can cross-sell.”
“One thing we pride ourselves on is being able to deal with trends and seasons, and Qnetex gives us the visibility to add products and resources at busier times of the year.”
Hear from Elite Fine Food’s Managing Director, about how Qnetex is helping the company
Why did you first turn to Qnetex?
“We originally had a platform that was predominantly more of an accountancy system than being stock-focused. It ticked the boxes for sales and purchasing, but in terms of the back-of-house it was quite cumbersome and didn’t really work for us. So it was difficult to manage stock. There were occasions when it was double-counting, or when we didn’t have a full understanding of where certain products were. Cimandis, our sister company on the Channel Islands, had already started using Qnetex and knew the team at CSD, so for us it was the perfect choice.”
What did the implementation involve?
“We brought together an in-house team from Elite and from our parent company, the Caterfood Buying Group. A number of people in the project team had already worked on implementing Qnetex in our sister company, so they knew what was involved. We worked closely with the experts from CSD and took on the learnings from the earlier implementation to make sure it matched our business.
We had to restructure our business at the same time, as we were enhancing our online ordering platform as well. CSD was able to work with our e-commerce platform team to make sure it all worked together. Members of the CSD team were present at all the project meetings and helped to roll out the system and train everyone who was going to need to use it.
To get the most out of an ERP system like Qnetex, you have to be sure that the data is reliable and consistent. Before we went live, we revisited the data to check on the quality and made sure that it was fully up to speed, which meant holding back the going-live date by a couple of weeks, to make sure we were all really confident with the system. ”
What benefits have you seen since implementation?
“We used to have quite a confusing system but Qnetex has made everything so much simpler and smoother for everyone, from people across the business to our customers and suppliers.
Most people don’t relish change, but everyone here got on board very quickly with the new system and are overwhelmingly positive about the transformation it’s created. They could see the benefits straight away, and have adapted to it very well and very quickly.
Qnetex instantly solved the glitches we’d been seeing with doubling up of stock or produce nearing its sell-by-date. Our drivers were able to see the benefits straight away, and our customers appreciate the ease of simply signing on glass and the paperless billing. Our colleagues have taken to it so well that they have come back with suggestions as to how we can tailor certain parts of the system to make it even better. So we’re constantly tweaking it and enhancing it for everyone.
In terms of our customers, they love having full visibility of our product range and also having the confidence that when they order a product, they know it will arrive exactly when, where and how they need it. They can plan their menus or events on the amount of stock that we hold. Our suppliers have also seen the benefits, as visibility of stock gives us a far better handle on our ordering.”
Have you seen benefits that you weren’t expecting?
“Our accuracy has improved incredibly and we are now counting our full inventory in a third of the time. Our telesales team love the fact that they are able to highlight products to a customer that they haven’t necessarily been ordering. In a changeable and competitive marketplace like ours, customers can switch to different suppliers for different products.
With Qnetex, we have full visibility of all the products in our range and can let customers know about particular products that they might not have even thought of ordering from us, or are perhaps thinking about getting from other suppliers. It helps us stay front of mind for customers and show them how we can deliver the products that they want.”
Find out how Qnetex helps you with everything from processing orders and managing stock to organising your warehouse and tracking deliveries – all in a single ERP