How one forward-thinking investment could protect your business for years to come

Disruptive times provide the ultimate test for the resilience of a business. And as business owners across the UK are more than aware – the current economy is providing a more than generous amount of disruption. As a result, businesses across nearly every industry are under extreme pressure to evolve their technology.

One of the best ways to combat such turbulence, is to harness the power of business-wide automation. With a powerful ERP system, businesses are not just able to prepare for the challenges ahead, but approach them with a degree of flexibility.

How did an ERP investment protect businesses through the pandemic?

Before the pandemic, our customer, Finisterre, was seeing significant growth in all their retail stores, year-on-year. In-store, the staff were delivering the highest levels of customer service, safe in the knowledge that the wider business’ stock availability and checkout functionality were only a click away with OrderWise.

Whether orders were made online or in-store, our solution was there to produce traceable data sets on how products and services were being purchased and redeemed. From this data, it was simple to forecast sales and purchasing and further cater to the overall customer experience.

Then the pandemic hit.

As with most businesses in the UK, online sales skyrocketed. For Finisterre, that meant dealing with a 100% increase in online sales.

Thankfully, the business had future-proofed with its investment in OrderWise. And it showed.

During ongoing pandemic restrictions, the business could create, manage and organise nine mini-warehouses from their stores, all within OrderWise, to get orders to customers faster and more efficiently. There was simply no compromise on the high levels of customer service that their customer base had come to expect.

Thanks to their adoption of technology, Finisterre also gained the ability to integrate with a wide range of suppliers, couriers and platforms, allowing them to diversify their partners as and when required.

As well as ensuring seamless order processing, the team were able to use data in their central OrderWise solution to effectively track and add value to their customer communications. Stock was managed between their retail stores and back into their warehouses, and a seamless 90-day returns policy was made possible with the OrderWise returns module.

“Having the OrderWise team visit the warehouse was a game-changer for us, especially given it was just before the lockdown, as our online orders were about to shoot up so quickly. It made our warehouse operate even more efficiently at the best possible time.”

– Andy Hughes, Finance Director at Finisterre

When was the last time your business reviewed its tech strategy?

The moral of the story from Finisterre? Businesses must ensure the technology they rely on is able to react quickly and adapt to sudden changes in the market. In 2022 and far beyond, businesses have no choice but to start investing in technology because of its reliability and flexibility – not because it’s the cheapest available option to prop up current ways of working.

Businesses are also waking up to the value of their data and the power they can harness through having a single view of their entire operation, which can only be achieved with an integrated and end-to-end solution. With the right ERP or WMS software in place, businesses can use their data to inform forward planning, avoid unexpected hurdles, and continue with plans of growth.

You have less than a year to save 25% on your next investment

Introduced in 2021 by the British Government, the ‘super-deduction’ is a reward for businesses that invest in qualifying plant and machinery assets. This ‘super’ tax break was announced in March’s Budget to provide 25p off tax bills for every pound invested.

This super deduction was created from a need to help stimulate growth and recovery following the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, making it more cost-efficient for businesses to future-proof their operations.

Critically, this opportunity ends on the 31st March 2023.

You can find out more about your business and the super-deduction here.