Timber is a unique material. Not only is it a living, breathing commodity, it comes in many different types, shapes and sizes. While this variety is part of its appeal, it does come with inherent difficulties, not least in that it presents a big headache to timber merchants when it comes to stock control.

Standard software systems are simply not able to cope with the challenges that timber presents – which is why specialist business systems like those from Ten-25, Progressive Solutions and ADP Kerridge have grown in importance, as companies realise the benefits of using timber-specific software.

“If you are stock controlling cans of beans, you can count three and you’ll have three units,” said Ian Oldrey, director of Ten-25. “When you look at timber products that are measured, there are a lot more challenges. If you have a cutting list you have to work to, it’s a lot of information to get onto a small screen. This is where people need a specialist supplier rather than buying something off the shelf that simply ‘does the job’.”

According to Alan Hamilton, general manager of Progressive Solutions, timber companies still want what they have always wanted – a system that helps them to keep less stock and make more margin. Equally important, he agrees, is a system that shows accurate stock levels at all times, so when a customer calls asking for a certain product he can be told instantly if it’s available and how much it is, rather than having to wait until someone calls him back with the information.

“Many systems have this level of functionality but by choosing modern Microsoft Windows-based software instead of an old-fashioned character-based type, staff will feel more familiar with the look and feel of the system and will therefore work more intuitively and effectively with it,” said Mr Hamilton.

Stock control

This is particularly important when it comes to achieving accurate stock control. He believes many timber companies simply don’t try to stock control their timber. Individual items such as pieces of sheet material and doors, are easy to control but when a company has a product that can convert to something else, changing its characteristics and dimensions, it requires the discipline of telling the system what you have done.

“If your customer wants some 4.2m lengths, and you can’t find any, and give him 4.5s instead, again you need to tell the system or the stock figures will be wrong,” he explained. “If the system is easy to use, it is likely that such changes will be input, but if it is complicated and time-consuming it won’t be done.

“Most of our bisTrack users now keep accurate stock of timber items as well as the more generic products. As the software has been built on Microsoft technology, it is familiar to almost everyone, and operates like other Windows products.”

Ian Oldrey agrees that using specific systems can help timber companies improve their productivity. “The software is a close match to their style of operation, we can match their pricing requirements, but more importantly we can stock control their products accurately,” he said.

Ten-25 has recently introduced the fifth generation of its STRIP5 Trading System. A new Windows application, this retains the functionality of its predecessor UniSTRIP while delivering a genuine Windows operation. STRIP5 Trading supports a mix of PCs and laptops, as well as EPOS and character terminals and hand-held devices. It will handle everything from sales order processing to invoicing, stock control to management information.

And, with the internet increasing the transparency of information at the click of a button, timber companies want systems that reflect this technology.

“We are starting to find that our customers’ customers are a lot more web-savvy and are looking for more information off the internet,” said Mr Oldrey. “People want to be able to raise their own quotes and look up stock and price availability. It’s about needing to deliver that kind of information to their users, rather than it just being completely self-contained within the company.” Ten-25, for example, now offers automatic confirmation of sale, which, if replied to, provides a live-order status back from the system. “It’s not putting any extra burden on the operators within the company, but you are delivering a lot better service to your customers,” added Mr Oldrey.

On-line interaction

Progressive Solutions has also seen this trend for timber companies to interact with their customers on-line and has introduced a feature to its bisTrack software that allows them to do this. “Our new Web Track provides a secure internet portal that bisTrack users can brand as their own,” said Alan Hamilton. “Through the Web Track portal, their customers can access their own product catalogue and pricing information, enter their own orders, check the status of their account or track deliveries. It’s designed to improve customer service and boost sales volumes for our users, whilst reducing their administrative overheads.”

Mr Hamilton also revealed timber companies are finding transport costs a big issue. “If you don’t control them it’s possible to make big losses when distributing heavy materials such as timber in bulk,” he said. That’s why modern systems such as bisTrack can automatically factor in transport costs when quoting to a customer.”

This was a particularly important feature for Howarth Timber that has just installed bisTrack at its site on Humberside. “This is why we developed bisTrack to automatically take into account the distance, the vehicle, the number of drops and the total load when calculating quotations,” explained Mr Hamilton. “It then goes on to show not only the overall margin you’ve made on that sale but also the transport contribution.”

Hand-held terminals

With computing becoming more mobile, people want information delivered to them – no matter where they might be. The idea of hand-held terminals (HHTs) has been around for some time, but it’s only with the emergence of suitably priced technology that it has become a practical solution, as John McCann, marketing manager for ADP Kerridge, explained: “This ‘mobile’ technology allows non-office based staff such as sales reps, yard and delivery staff to carry out much of their daily tasks ‘on the move’. Soon you will even be able to queue tasks to be completed during the day.”

By using HHTs, timber importers and merchants can handle more customers, more quickly, more professionally. And, it provides access to the system from anywhere in the business or wherever a mobile signal is available.

“The principle behind the HHT operation is to provide all the functionality necessary to make the job easier and without having to keep popping back into the office to check,” said Mr McCann. Any member of staff in the yard with an HHT is able to access a selected number of functions, including sales order entry, price checking, stock availability, account status enquiry, stock cycle counting, stock receipting and recording stock movements around the yard.

The idea is that this information would integrate into a stock management system such as ADP Kerridge’s K8, which has specific timber units functionality that caters for fixed or mixed width, tally (in fixed or variable increments), sheet and unit timber products. The K8 system enables orders to be placed in running length, volume, tally specification and packs. Users will also be able to convert from imperial measures to metric and vice versa.

“A major benefit for our customers moving to stock to tally is where not all branches stock timber, but all branches sell timber,” said Mr McCann. “By stocking to tally you can begin to avoid the unreasonable demands placed by the non-stocking branches for delivery tomorrow of specific lengths of timber to specific customers.”

While stock control and increased information will continue to remain key, Ian Oldrey believes it will be the continued mobilisation of computing that will drive developments in timber-related software. “It’s about being able to record what’s happening in the business with the minimum of effort.

“The way you achieve that is by putting the computing in the hands of the guy doing the job.”