T. B. Davies (Cardiff) Ltd was founded in 1945 by Thomas Bryn Davies, who sold whatever products came to hand in the lean post-war years. In 1968, the company took on a franchise distributorship for aluminium ladders, then a brand-new material for ladders.

Over sixty years on, the company is now one of the largest independent distributors of ladder and access products to the trade and consumers throughout the UK. The firm has an enviable reputation for delivering on time, carrying 95% of items in stock. Good relations with suppliers who reserve dedicated stock and with couriers who deliver awkwardly shaped packages across the country are instrumental in providing this level of service.

A member of the British Ladder Association, with unrivalled experience of the industry, T.B. Davies is a respected authority on access equipment and takes a pride in helping customers to make correct, safe choices, in line with increasingly stringent regulations on safety. The company is still based in Cardiff and employs twenty-six staff. Turnover is in the region of £8 million.

Seeking support for business expansion

T.B. Davies originally came to FD Systems with a Sage Line 50 system, but the rapidly expanding business clearly required a more powerful solution. FD Systems implemented a Sage Line 200 system with third-party customer relationship management software. Again in line with business growth, this was later upgraded to Sage Line 500 and Sage CRM SalesLogix.

In the late 1990’s, the company had created an on-line presence – ladders-online.com – aimed at the domestic sector which today accounts for 25% of its business. By 2001, this had become a fully fledged eCommerce site, able to accept customer orders.

However, the website had been built using software aimed at smaller enterprises and T. B. Davies quickly outgrew its capabilities. Moreover, it was a stand-alone solution with no integration to back-office processes. Orders had to be downloaded off the site and manually re-entered onto Sage Line 500 for processing, which was both time-consuming and error-prone.

Planning the right solution

Jaime Hindle, Marketing Manager at T. B. Davies, explored the options for developing a more robust, scalable and versatile eCommerce operation with FD Systems Director Nigel Griffiths and Account Manager Will McIntee.

FD Systems then went on to create a new laddersonline site using its own eCommerce solution which integrates with Sage packages. The implementation was seamless, with the old website going off-line and the new one coming on-line immediately.

A dynamic website for an enterprising business

Ease of use, better navigation and increased conversion were priorities for the new website and this focus is starting to pay dividends. The previous incarnation of ladders-online had been a great success and last year alone netted around £1 million in sales of ladders, work platforms, podiums, towers and staircases to domestic users. The new integrated site has this as a benchmark and since its launch in June is really gaining momentum. The autumn months should show a significant increase in traffic and revenue for the site.

The comprehensive nature of the site is a reflection of T. B. Davies’ huge experience in the industry, offering advice and information in addition to competitively priced products and easy ordering. This is reinforced with readily available email or on-line guidance from the knowledgeable T. B. Davies team.

The customer-facing eCommerce operation is now fully integrated with the company’s back-office Sage Line 500 and SalesLogix systems. Instant information is fed back to the business from the sales on the website, which is vital for efficient stock control and order fulfilment. Consumer trade in access equipment has a seasonal nature, with loft ladders becoming more popular in colder weather, for example, and the Easter bank holiday bringing a spike in business. Having a sharp eCommerce operation creates the agility to respond to changing demand.

SalesLogix has completely replaced the paper-based quality assurance systems. The impact has been dramatic, as Jaime reports, “There’s no lost paperwork and no time wasted archiving. Generating non-conformance reports, such as customer returns, used to mean laboriously keying in data and adding updated reports to the file; it’s now all handled electronically by the system. All processes are now integrated end to end and no re-keying is necessary. Accuracy has improved and contentions are no longer an issue, all of which are extremely important for an ISO registered business like ours.”

By recording all interactions, on-line or off-line, with every customer, trade or consumer, SalesLogix is building a valuable knowledge base for the company. Jaime notes, “However we come into contact with a customer – by phone, fax or on-line, in person – every transaction is recorded so that we understand their purchasing history and can respond to their requirements more sharply.”

With the majority of T. B. Davies’ business comes from trade customers such as resellers, tool merchants and industrial equipment catalogues, the next step is to offer these customers their own eCommerce access to T. B. Davies products. A trade portal – www.tbdavies.co.uk – is currently being developed by FD Systems.

This will provide many more facilities in addition to on-line ordering, as Jaime outlines, “They’ll be able to log into their own area, with their own pricing structure, and customer service area, where they’ll find information on the status of stock and orders and non-conformance reports on any issues.”

Jaime explains the all-round benefits this will bring: “Crucial though personal relationships are, you can’t rely on them entirely to sustain long-term loyalty if your key buying contact moves on. We have to become deeply engrained in the customer’s business and tied firmly into their supply chain. Through our new eCommerce trade portal, we will be empowering our customers with the information they need to serve their own customers better, and offering them a choice of channels of communication with us.” Jaime predicts that SalesLogix will come into its own in handling the more complex demands of on-line trade customers, who require documentation such as proof of delivery and invoices.

Long-term support from FD Systems

Jaime praises the high quality support T. B. Davies has received throughout these developments, saying, “Without a doubt, the relationship with FD Systems has blossomed over the years and we are very pleased with how they consistently help us to fulfil our vision for the business. They have that great mix of technical skills, experience and understanding of our business. We operate in an industry not renowned for being innovative in using technology, so we can steal a march on the competition by developing our IT systems with their help.”

For FD Systems, Nigel Griffiths comments, “We are pleased to have become a trusted business partner of T.B. Davies and look forward to being involved in their future business development plans and the solutions associated with them.”