BAT Industrial Products manufactures, imports and distributes industrial, hydraulic hose, valves and fittings for mining, agriculture, irrigation, transport, food processing and other industries. The Blacktown, Australia company serves more than 60 distributors across the nation with some 25,000 line items focused on the safe and efficient transfer and control of air, water, gas, food, fumes, chemical and petro chemical products.
With such a vast network of distributors and a large catalog of products, keeping track of customers’ buying habits is critical for this medium-sized business. Recently, BAT recognized that it was losing a percentage of its customer base, particularly across specific categories. The company was using a business intelligence tool for reporting, but it was not user friendly and the process of producing report to find out when and where customers were dropping off was a long and arduous task.
“Customers typically don’t tell you when they start to purchase from another supplier,” said Scott Hudson, Managing Director at BAT Industrial Products. “You need to be able to find out for yourself, to ask the right questions and find what areas need improving. If you don’t know that, then it may be too late. If you’re not on the ball, customers will spread out their purchases into the market and cut out categories all together.”
This was the situation for BAT when they decided to deploy Phocas Business Intelligence. While the company has only been using Phocas for a short period of time, the impact has been quickly felt, particularly with the sales reps.
Hudson uses Phocas during BAT’s Friday meetings to understand the company’s status with customers. BAT also has a large TV screen on the company’s main floor, which displays a Phocas Dashboard with sales for the day compared to last year; top 10 customers compared to prior year; and customers won, lost and dropping off. Hudson recognizes that there is a lot more than can be done with Phocas, from accounts dashboards and CRM activity to inventory management and purchasing. He also believes that Phocas will help the company generate more business. “We have already started to target categories that are down, and our sales reps are starting to ask why,” said Hudson. “Phocas is still new to us, but our sales reps are using it every day, and we are using our data to improve sales.”
Learn more at the Phocas Newsroom.
For the 2020 Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guide:
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Developed through a partnership with Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.
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