Kilkenny Welding Supplies
KWS / Kilkenny Welding Supplies is Ireland’s primary supplier and distributor of welding machines, equipment, consumables and accessories. With approximately 20 workstations located over 2 branches, KWS operates a busy trade counter B2B business. Their previous software solution, which had been in place for over 12 years, was hampering their business in multiple ways.
Slow, restrictive and frustrating
Firstly, the old system was extremely slow. Operating in a fast-paced environment where customers expect to get answers regarding their specific pricing, product and stock needs on-the-spot is difficult when your system either doesn’t extract the information quickly enough or doesn’t store accurate data.
Secondly, the previous system had limited functionality and innovation was at a standstill. Speaking about the old system, Claire Power, Office Manager, notes,
"Our old system just felt so dated and was extremely slow. It was limited to what it could do. You couldn’t extract data to Excel and even simple things you needed to change or extract from the system required a call to the support desk which was frustrating. Innovation was also at a standstill so all of these factors prompted us to look for a solution that would better support our business."
Staff acceptance
KWS operates extremely low staff turnover rates with the majority of staff working at the company for 5 years or more. This meant that the KWS management team were fearful that the staff would not embrace a new software system. There is always that risk that old habits prevail and lead to employees working outside the system. This undoes the benefit of moving to a new software solution where the business is seeking to manage opperations in one platform to drive more efficiencies, improve the accuracy of data and increase customer service levels. The team at KWS were mindful of this risk.
After reviewing numerous solutions, the team at KWS felt that Intact Xline’s modern, user-friendly, intuitive design would make the transition to a new system easier for staff members. This turned out to be the case. Speaking about Intact Xline Claire notes, ‘It is much more user-friendly and is linked to Excel which is great. It is a quicker and easier system to use, especially at the trade counter, which is improving customer service levels.’
Company-wide solution
‘Before Intact Xline KWS’ branches weren’t linked which meant that branch information had to be intermittently manually updated. This meant branch staff weren’t working with live data. A customer would call in for an up-to-date statement and it would be a chore to check balances across branches etc. So we were wasting so much time on admin and frustrating our customers at the same time. Intact Xline is making our business so much more efficient in that regard. Everyone is now working with the same system with access to the same real-time information.’, notes Claire.
Fully integrated system
Post the implementation of Intact Xline stock management and control has greatly improved at KWS. Speaking of these improvements Claire states, ‘We have split packs and assembly components that we simply couldn’t track in our old system. They were dealt with manually, outside the system. Now with Intact Xline we can manage all of our stock in the system; accessing unit or pack prices, stock figures etc., which drives greater transparency, control and efficiency.’
Looking to the future
Intact Xline is a constantly evolving software solution with a bespoke development roadmap designed to continue to deliver value to its customer base for years to come. KWS can already see how availing of the Intact Access mobile app will add further value to their business in the very near future. In addition to this, the subscription pricing model appealed to KWS. ‘Rather than paying a fixed price for a number of users we can scale up or reduce our number of users easily, with clear visibility of the cost implication’, notes Claire.