Plumbers & Heating
Customer: Primaflow F & P
Site link: www.primaflowfandp.co.uk
A modern system
The UK’s largest plumbing and heating wholesaler, Primaflow F & P, has implemented K8 ERP software across its three regional distribution centres, five regional sales offices and extended trans-shipment network, from which goods are delivered directly to independent merchant customers using the company’s own fleet of vehicles.
K8, provided by Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS), powers the sales transactions, stock allocation, warehouse picking and route planning and delivery completion. Invoicing and credit control are also managed in K8 through the integrated general ledger.
Following an acquisition four years ago, Primaflow and F & P merged to complement the shared customer base with a broader range of products. Primaflow was already using K8 software and a decision was taken to extend it across the new entity. Three months before go-live, Primaflow’s version of K8 was upgraded to match the latest version being installed at F & P.
David Dunbavand, Programme Director at Primaflow F & P explained, “Our key requirement was to standardise the platform within Primaflow and F & P and we had a number of options. It was a relatively easy decision to standardise the group by building on the K8 system already in use at Primaflow. We could see K8 was a modern, flexible and robust system that could cope with the demands of our industry, but it was also important for us to have an ERP backbone that was ‘open’ and that could be linked to third party applications such as eCommerce websites and ePOD. The Primaflow website was already integrated with their K8 software, with web orders transacting successfully through to the system, and all of these factors were key in our decision to implement K8 across the group.”
Once the decision was made the Primaflow F & P team chose to deploy their K8 software on the K-Cloud. This meant that KCS would take on the responsibility of maintaining the system and there would be more flexibility around disaster recovery and the ability to grow and scale the system as required.
Results
- K8 provides an ‘open’ ERP backbone linkable to third party applications
- Web orders transact successfully through the system
- Everything on day one picked and delivered successfully
- Clear stock visibility helps warehouse team maximise customer service
- K-Cloud deployment means more flexibility around disaster recovery
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We could see K8 was a modern, flexible and robust system that could cope with the demands of our industry, but it was also important for us to have an ERP backbone that was interfaceable to third party applications such as eCommerce websites and ePOD.
- David Dunbavand, Programme Director , Primaflow F&P
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