Posted: Tue, February 19, 2002
Profile: Netalogue
Technologies Plc.
Many SME’s now have a web
presence. Many have what is essentially an on-line brochure – an extended advert telling people who they are, what they
do, how to contact them.
Whilst
this kind of site is ideal for many, for those SMEs who sell or procure
products and services, the next step is to into e-commerce. But this is no
small jump in technology. itwales.com spoke to Managing Director of Netalogue, Richard
Condon, to find out why when it comes to e-commerce solutions, it’s best to go
to the software experts.
“Why risk a fortune and many months of development and testing when
you can purchase a ‘ready to go’ standard application that is guaranteed to
work, looks great and will link right into the heart of any enterprise?”
– Richard Condon, Director, Netalogue Technologies
Plc.
itw: What can e-commerce and e-procurement do for an
SME?
For most SMEs who sell products to other businesses, the
impetus for putting in place e-commerce ordering facilities is largely led by
growing pressure from one or more key customers wanting more efficient alternatives
to the fax or telephone. Once in place, however, advantages to the SME include
a reduction in the time staff spend dealing with product related enquiries,
generating quotes and repeat orders, together with a considerable reduction
in costs associated with the production and distribution of printed marketing
material. It also means that orders can be taken 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
An example of an E-Procurement Interface
For larger SMEs, the benefits of connecting
with suppliers and ordering through an e-procurement system include
better control over purchasing procedures (i.e. budgets, permissions,
etc.) and a huge reduction in the time staff and management typically
spend requesting quotations and creating purchase orders. When you
consider that more that 75% of purchases made by companies are for
amounts less than £250 it is easy to see that in many cases
the cost of manually administering an order will exceed the value
of the goods themselves. e-procurement puts an end to this.
itw: Invoicing costs money. e-Procurement
removes the need for too many invoices. What are the benefits of
this?
Most traditional purchasing cycles are time-consuming
and expensive. Once a request to purchase is made, it usually passes
through several layers of authorisation, generating many documents
along the way. The average procure-to-pay transaction cost is £50
for most SMEs and includes an invoicing processing cost of £5.
With many low value invoices relating to non-urgent purchases from
the same supplier, massive savings can be instantly achieved if
orders are automatically grouped and the number of invoices reduced.
itw: According to your slogan, your aim
is to ‘humanise’ online purchasing. Do you think that the key to
successful e-commerce and e-procurement is making the service people-friendly?
Online sales and e-procurement initiatives
will not work unless Joe Bloggs the buyer actually “prefers” using
them to their conventional manual methods of ordering. Netalogue
have placed great emphasis on developing system interfaces that
are people-friendly so buyers use them out of personal choice because
they know they are saving time.
A Netalogue Online Catalogue Interface
itw: Many SMEs already have a ‘brochure’
web site, and are considering taking the first step towards making
it an e-trading site. Their budget is often very limited. What kinds
of solutions do you offer these companies? Can the systems be upgraded
over time?
The beauty of products from the Netalogue
range is that they are all upgradeable. We have a wide range of
extremely competitively priced packages ranging from versions that
link to basic spreadsheet or database packages such as Microsoft’s
Excel or Access, right through to much larger-scale solutions that
utilise Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle, and can link directly to
the IT systems of their key customers who might be using ERP systems
such as SAP. With a free consultancy service that includes a personalised
demonstration, all companies get the opportunity to try Netalogue
systems out before buying. This enables them to select which level
they want to start at. This will often be a stand-alone solution
that will be upgraded to integrate with their internal IT systems
and those of their clients at a later date.
itw: What kind of after-sales support do
you offer to your customers? Is this an important part of your services?
For many years we have operated a comprehensive
helpline and backup service for our UK- and Ireland-based clients.
Since many of our solutions are in round-the-clock operation and
considered mission critical to the companies that operate them,
this is an extremely important aspect of the packages we sell.
itw: Integration is a major concern for
many companies – they need software that will work with existing
systems. How do Netalogue technologies cater for this need?
Whilst all Netalogue software products are
capable of operating independently of any other company systems
they support all the key data integration standards (e.g. XML, SQL,
ODBC, etc.) enabling them to be linked seamlessly to companies existing
accounts, inventory, warehouse, ERP and CRM systems. The software’s
ability to link to the systems in use at both the buyer and supplier
end of the chain allows customers to cement better relationships
with their trading partners and achieve better long term value.
itw: In what ways does e-procurement improve
supplier relations?
There are less fulfilment problems as e-procurement
provides the buyer with real-time knowledge of their supplier’s
inventory levels. The time saved by the supplier not having to deal
manually with enquiries or new and repeat orders means that more
time can be spent serving their customers and growing their business.
itw: You’ve developed a series of standard
e-commerce and e-procurement software solutions. What are the advantages
of having standard solutions?
Whilst web site design companies have in recent
years been a great resource for SME brochure style web sites, now
that the emphasis is moving towards conducting business online the
development of such facilities really should be undertaken by software
companies with proven track records in creating and supporting business
applications. With the costs of commissioning the services of a
software house to develop bespoke systems from scratch being costly
in terms of both time and money, we believe that our range of standard
online business packages are unique and well timed to assist the
many SMEs who need comprehensive, trusted and reasonably priced
solutions. Why risk a fortune and many months of development and
testing when you can purchase a ‘ready to go’ standard application
that is guaranteed to work, looks great and will link right into
the heart of any enterprise?
itw: You list ‘ease of use’ for new users
as one of your main priorities. Is this a major consideration when
you develop new products?
It has been reported that 40% of online buyers
get disillusioned during the ordering process and actually abort
their orders half way through. This is a huge indictment to most
online ordering facilities – ease of use is therefore our No.1 development
consideration and something that we have invested heavily in perfecting.
itw: Netalogue Technologies is one of only
23 Welsh companies that have been successfully floated, and you
are still a young company. What’s been the key to your success as
a business?
Great products and a willingness to take the
trouble to understand our customers requirements – above all it’s
our realisation that when clients are genuinely delighted with our
solutions, that is when we grow in stature as a company.
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the impetus for
putting in place e-commerce ordering facilities is largely led by growing
pressure from one or more key customers wanting more efficient alternatives
75% of purchases made by companies are
for amounts less than £250
massive savings can
be instantly achieved
Netalogue have placed great emphasis on
developing system interfaces that are people-friendly
the beauty of products from the Netalogue range
is that they are all upgradeable
all companies get the opportunity to try
Netalogue systems out before buying
for many years we have operated a
comprehensive helpline and backup service
all Netalogue software products … support all the key
data integration standards
more time can be spent serving their customers
and growing their business
why risk a fortune and many months of
development and testing when you can purchase a ‘ready-to-go’ standard
application that is guaranteed to work, looks great and will link right into
the heart of any enterprise?
40% of online buyers get disillusioned during the
ordering process and actually abort their orders half way through
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Case Study: Anglia Blinds
How to put a 500,000-item catalogue on-line
Anglia Window Blinds have supplied both retail and
trade customers across the UK with quality window blinds for the last 25 years.
Since the late eighties they have heavily utilised Sage accounting products
and also use a custom built ERP system that manages their entire factory’s production.
Last year Anglia’s operations manager, Julian Dyer began looking for a solution
that would satisfy the growing demands of a number of their trade customers
who wanted to purchase online instead of by fax or telephone.
Finding A Solution: “Our biggest obstacle after deciding to implement an internet
ordering facility was how to present and organise our half a million plus product
catalogue without it looking messy,” explains Dyer. “For us, being able to guarantee
our customers a lightning quick way of navigating and finding the products they
wanted was paramount - without this we might as well have stuck with telesales.”
The Web Application Approach: After investigating
solutions from a number of companies, Dyer’s search led him to UK business software
specialists Netalogue Technologies. “We made the initial mistake of looking
to web design companies for what was in fact quite a complex business solution.
Whilst the web companies all had innovative ways and means of creating good-looking
web sites, the actual e-commerce catalogue technology on offer was very basic
and in most cases unable to cope with large specialist catalogues like our own.
Netalogue, however, had a different approach, a powerful and self-contained
web application able to present unlimited products graphically on a single ordering
screen.
No Risk: Because the Netalogue solution was effectively
a software product it was possible for Anglia’s management team to see the solution
working with a cross section of their product data prior to committing themselves
to the project.
Quick Deployment: “Having already seen the core
product and knowing that is was ready to use we knew that we were not looking
at a lengthy period of development and testing. As well as standard features
such as discounted pricing for our best customers, repeat order facilities and
a telephone call back feature we also required a small amount of customised
functionality which took just a few weeks to complete. The overall advantage
of not developing our solution from scratch was that it could be delivered quickly
without us having to pay for costly programmers and consultants.
Product Data: With such a large number of product
variations, Anglia’s initial concern was the initial task of data entry and
it’s ongoing maintenance. Fortunately Netalogue was compatible with a number
of data connectivity standards that allow it to connect to just about any data
source. Anglia’s product information was obtained by linking in real-time to
a standard Microsoft Access database which was part of their back office systems.
Back Office: “The linkage of the system to our
accounts system was solved through Netalogue’s back office management console,”
Dyer explains. “As well as transferring online sales directly into our ERP and
Sage applications this screen also enables us to personalise catalogue views
for known trade customers, set account limits and manage catalogue access.”
The Future: Having successfully incorporated this
new online ordering facility into the heart of their business, Anglia Window
Blinds have protected themselves from the potential loss of some of its key
customers who were looking for more efficient means of ordering. Now comfortable
with their solution they are looking to expand into new overseas markets and
are upgrading their solution to incorporate French, German and spanish language
plug-ins.
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Cymraeg
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