Product naming note: Setra Wood Products originally implemented Intact iQ. The product has since been renamed GenetiQ. Historical product names are retained in customer quotes and references to reflect the customer's experience at the time.
Creating greater control across a growing timber business
Setra Wood Products is a timber merchant, wholesaler and processor based in King's Lynn, supplying a range of timber products to customers across the UK.
Following the merger of two UK businesses, the team needed greater control over increasingly complex processes and a more efficient way to manage the workload across the business.
The pressure on existing processes was beginning to affect employees as well as operations.
“We were reaching breaking point really, and I think if you look at people's general wellbeing, they were struggling with the workload.”
The business needed a more integrated system that could bring information together and make everyday processes easier to manage.
Bringing stock, accounting and operations together
One of the biggest benefits for Setra Wood Products has been having greater visibility across the business.
GenetiQ gave the team more control over its accounting processes while also improving visibility of stock and stock availability for the sales team.
As the business explains in the video:
“It's the visibility of everything through the system that has been crucial for us. It's just having all that data at the click of a finger.”
For a business that had historically relied heavily on spreadsheets, bringing more information into one connected system helped reduce reliance on separate processes and gave teams easier access to the information they needed.
Taking a phased approach to implementation
Setra Wood Products also took a phased approach when going live with the new system.
Rather than switching every process at once, the business initially went live with stock before bringing accounting into the system two weeks later.
This allowed the team to make sure its day-to-day operational processes were working correctly before moving on to the next stage.
“Going live with any new software is always going to cause some disruption. The beauty of when you go live with Intact was more about making sure that everything was set up in the right way at the start.”
The business also recognised that changing an established system could make employees nervous.
Having support available during the transition helped the team work through that change:
“There's always going to be nervousness because nobody likes change, but by having somebody from Intact here to guide us through that process just helped make sure it was a success.”
Tracing timber from supplier to customer
Traceability is particularly important for Setra Wood Products because of its sustainability requirements.
The business needs to be able to demonstrate where timber has come from and that it has been sourced from appropriately managed forests.
Using GenetiQ, Setra can trace material as it moves through the business and on to the customer.
“Using Intact iQ we can trace that material all the way through our systems until it goes to the customer.”
That information can then be used to trace products back to suppliers in Sweden and support Setra's sustainability requirements.
For a timber business, this provides more than stock visibility. It creates a clear information trail from source through to sale.
Managing the different ways timber is bought and sold
Timber businesses also need to handle products in different units of measure.
Setra sells some joinery and structural products in cubic metres, while machined products may be sold in hundred metres or running metres.
GenetiQ supports the different conversions required, allowing Setra to manage products internally while presenting quantities to customers in the format they expect.
“It's about being able to have those different conversions for customers so that we can present to the customer what it is that they want.”
This is an important part of making the system work around the practical requirements of a timber merchant, wholesaler and processor rather than forcing every product into the same way of working.
Making information easier to access
Ease of use was another important benefit for the team.
The familiarity of the interface helped make the transition to the new system easier for users:
“The best thing is the ease of use. All the little parts in the system are similar to web browsers and stuff like that which we all use every day, so for anyone just to use the system, it's an easy transition over.”
Moving more information away from spreadsheets and into GenetiQ also gave the business greater visibility across its different activities.
Setra describes itself as more than a merchant. Alongside wholesale distribution, the business also carries out timber processing, making visibility across the wider operation particularly important.
Greater visibility across the whole operation
For Setra Wood Products, the biggest change has been the ability to see more of what is happening across the business from one system.
Stock, accounting, sales information and timber traceability can all be managed with greater visibility, helping the team streamline processes and reduce the pressure created by disconnected ways of working.
Reflecting on the impact of the system, the team concludes:
“It's the visibility of everything through the system that has been crucial for us, and I have no doubts in recommending Intact to other users.”