The Libra Company

Luxury furniture and giftware company streamlines business with help of new accounting system

Company Overview

Libra Company Situated in the heart of rural Cambridgeshire, The Libra Company has been supplying an eclectic mix of exotic artefacts to retailers for more than thirty years. Inspired by extensive travel throughout the Far East, India and Africa, Joe and Christine McLaughlin established The Libra Company to bring luxury furniture and giftware into the homes of discerning consumers.

To this day it has remained a family-owned and run business, however far from its beginnings in a garage in Elstree, London,The Libra Company now occupies wholly-owned business premises covering twelve thousand feet, plus an extensive warehousing facility close by.As well as unusual gifts and accessories ranging from timeless sculptures to exotic wall art,The Libra Company is the sole supplier of traditional balance kitchen scales to Argos as well as supplying leading high quality retailers such as John Lewis and Selfridges.

Today the focus remains firmly on originality and in leading, not following, the growing number of wholesale importers.The Libra Company has a continually changing product range of more than 2000 items, which are welcomed by an increasingly diverse domestic market from independent interior designers to property developers of up-market homes. It is their unique ability to innovate that sets them apart from the national chains that now compete in this arena.

The Challenge

As early adopters of IT,The Libra Company implemented a number of different software solutions that were available at the time. By 2003 this amounted to the sales and purchase ledgers from one software house, a nominal ledger from another and a stock program developed in-house using Microsoft Access.

The stock information was regularly downloaded onto a Psion hand-held computer so that the salesperson, whether at exhibitions or on the road, could gauge stock availability without having to carry hard copy details of all product lines. However, as a large trade show could often last as long as a week, the time delay in processing the orders and lack of live information started to have an impact on their ability to take orders and assure delivery dates with total confidence.

As an increasing percentage of The Libra Company’s sales orders were being taken at exhibitions, it needed to satisfy the demand as efficiently as possible – before the customers moved onto the next stand. It was therefore essential to know what stock was available, in what quantities - or when a shipment could be expected to arrive in the warehouse. Being able to provide pricing and taking a quick and accurate record of the order was paramount, especially as a typical sale, for example, might comprise 50 different products in different quantities.

In line with this, the demands of the retail environment in general had intensified and traders were faced with increased peaks and troughs in business, as they struggled to manage stock levels.They were dealing with the uncertainties of public demand - very similar to the fashion industry where this year’s hottest selling range is next year’s old news. It became a balancing act to ensure adequate stock levels for each line were maintained to avoid missing opportunities, whilst making sure the business was not left with too much excess merchandise.This was critical especially as many items were made to order on the other side of the globe and ranged from heavy furniture to delicate giftware, taking several weeks to ship to the UK.

Finally, due to the originality and value of The Libra Company’s ever-changing product range, the business was faced with considerable growth in the number of orders being received.The speed with which these orders needed to be filled, especially at the trade shows, put immense pressure on the company’s existing multiple system structure.

It was at this time that the company began to look for a new system that was flexible enough to cope with continued growth, and which could offer a practical solution to the ordering and current stock visibility problems.

A Sound Solution

The answer was the award-winning business and accounting solution, Access Dimensions. Designed by mid-market software vendor Access Accounting, it provided a unified system with the flexibility required to cope with the business growth Libra was experiencing.

The Access team created a custom application called TransitApp to track the goods Libra orders from the moment they leave the supplier on the other side of the world throughout the duration of their journey until finally clearing Customs and arriving in the Libra warehouse.The final piece in the jigsaw was to link all the information in the accounts system with the PDA software from Trisoft using Access’ Transaction Broker software.Transaction Broker provides seamless integration and does not require technical user intervention or custom programming.The end result is a sales force that is kept totally up-to-date with the stock available and in transit, prices of stock and full customer account details.

Docking PDAs are used to achieve integration between Access and Trisoft so that sales orders taken in the field and at exhibitions can be quickly downloaded to the office and new stock items and customer details uploaded for the salesperson.The PDAs use bar code readers which make data entry and retrieval extremely fast and easy.This has allowed The Libra Company to significantly reduce errors, free up staff time and process orders far more quickly.

“As a company, we progressed from using a different system for each business process to having Access, with traceability, management of processes and stock control all from one business software suite. It has speed, stability and ease of use by the bucket load – such key things for any business software,” commented Andrew Blit, Financial Controller.

“The integration of the systems and specifically the ability to import orders directly into Access Dimensions has been a great improvement.At a recent show, we took £120,000 orders on the Sunday – the system at our headquarters was automatically updated so our warehouse could begin picking and dispatching the orders first thing Monday morning. Not only has the process been speeded up significantly, but our staff are now able to process orders in a much more disciplined way, which is helping to ensure accuracy”. He continues,“The scope for our field sales force is immense as they can see exactly what stock is available.They are using the Libra database to further the business and customer confidence in them has risen to a new high.”

Stock Management

With Access Dimensions,The Libra Company now has a stock system which puts staff in complete control.A unique transit reference and estimated time of arrival is entered into TransitApp, allowing staff to interrogate the progress of every item ordered through the purchase order processing batch and stock enquiry windows, either from the central system or a PDA. It also enables them to keep track of goods that have been dispatched by suppliers but which have not yet arrived as well as being able to analyse returned and damaged goods instantly. Consolidated reports for individual stock items or product lines can be produced with ease to discuss with suppliers and carriers. In addition to these benefits, purchase transactions can be entered in any number of foreign currencies – essential for any company dealing with overseas suppliers - and creditors can be re-valued automatically at month or year end.The analysis of purchases by country and by supplier is now very straightforward and commission payments can be automatically calculated for the sales force.This provides an instant picture of overall availability and usage of stock, as well as enabling detailed analysis for improved stock management.

The stock system has also facilitated significant time savings in the picking process. Picking lists now cover multiple orders rather than a single order.This enables part delivery of orders and specifies the location from which the stock should be picked, on an oldest first basis.

“The picking list is quite complicated because our stock is stored in batches in multiple warehouses but the Access stock system is very effective and has significantly increased efficiency.We are also able to track and analyse customer returns in order to pick up any trends,” Andrew comments, adding,“Another favourite feature is having pictures of products we have in stock.They’re incredibly helpful for operators and impressively fast to load.”

The Implementation Process

The implementation of such a fully integrated system hasn’t been without its pain for Libra, as the staff faced a steep Windows learning curve.“Initially there was a difference in expectations,” says Andrew. “All Libra staff had years of DOS experience so there was a largely educational process to get comfortable with Windows, as well as with the Access Dimensions software.We had to address the lack of Windows knowledge first, which proved to be quite a challenge. However,Access is flexible and as a result we are constantly discovering new ways of working because there is so much potential in the Access system.”

A pivotal point in the project was when a single point of contact was achieved;Andrew Blit was employed and a dedicated Access project manager was assigned.Andrew comments, “The specialist and the rest of the support helpdesk are incredibly effective and helpful - despite the fact it can often be difficult to interpret user input!”

A Winning Team

Following the successful implementation and training on Access Dimensions, the system has helped to totally redefine the way The Libra Company operates its business. Speed of response has also been pivotal to the company’s continuing success. Central to this has been the unification and integration of systems.A VPN link between the HQ and the remote warehouse means that the Access Dimensions system can be kept constantly up-to-date with available stock.The sales force are able to progress orders much more easily including the estimated delivery date, with the information now being directly accessible from their PDA.The effects of system consolidation and hence, the simplification of business processes, has enabled The Libra Company to move its products upmarket, winning contracts with high street names such as John Lewis and Selfridges.

The integrated system has also provided a level of accurate information that was not previously available.The data, such as sales performance by region, salesperson, customer, product, catalogue or division can be viewed in any number of meaningful ways, alongside order value, invoiced value and profitability.A clear view of the quantity and value of orders placed or invoiced by each salesperson is also readily available. As the sales and purchase transactions update the nominal ledger in real-time, Libra can print an upto- the-minute trial balance or profit and loss as required.The in-depth information that can now be drawn from the system provides a clear view of business progress and data on which to base future business plans with confidence.

Indeed,Andrew credits the company’s increase in management visibility to the Access solution.“The SQL architecture means we are building up a history that simply wasn’t there before.We now have 18 months of reliable data so we are starting to see exactly how the business has progressed which is something we couldn’t do before with any accuracy. All this readily available data has radically changed the way in which the management of the company know what’s going on, allowing us to more easily plan ahead.”

He continues, “This greater level of efficiency and transparency of information has further increased our professional standing with customers.We can dive about in the system with ease because it’s so simple to find information. We have gained more control because there is so much power to the system, and the higher quality information we have access to means we can provide an even better service to our customers.”

Benefits

Speed - Integration with the PDA software enables orders to be taken very quickly at trade shows using bar code scanners and then immediately shipped to the customer.Access Dimensions has also eliminated the need to re-key information, freeing up staff time so they can be actively engaged in more productive tasks.
Reliability – A combination of the SQL server database and the introduction of PDAs means that salespeople now operate with reliable and accurate information, resulting in greater customer confidence.They are always fully informed of stock availability and pricing and the orders they take immediately update the head office system.The combined solution gives them ready access to stock information on the move.
Real-time – A VPN link between HQ and the warehouse means stock is kept constantly up-to-date and the picking lists are created with much more efficiency. All transactions update every part of the system instantly including the nominal ledger, which gives total visibility of information.
Flexibility – Dimensions’ scalability, and the ease with which it can be tuned to a particular requirement, provides a total business solution.The custom designed TransitApp tracks progress of purchase orders and estimated arrival dates that is vital in this environment.
Better decisions – The real-time solution has been integrated into every part of the financial administration and has significantly increased management visibility of data for more effective decision making and business planning.

The scope for our field sales force is immense as they can see exactly what stock is available. This increase in efficiency and transparency of information has further increased our professional standing with customers.