Zoho (Case Study)
Customer: Food Wholesale Distributor
Key Focus: Automated Inventory Control, EDI
Customer:
A mid-size Distributor that is part of the food wholesaler industry dealing with consumer-packaged goods (CPG). With over 70 years of industry experience, they are a distributor in a specialized key market to grocery stores and the hospitality industry across Canada.
Challenge:
The Distributor had been managing their inventory comfortably using basic spreadsheets. When they acquired a competitor with a greater volume of orders, they knew they needed automation to keep pace. Order volumes increased so steeply and so quickly that their ERP system was not up to the task. Their existing manual process was problematic in general and inadequate for EDI in particular. In the past their business had primary involved drop shipping directly from manufactures, now the business demanded that they assume responsibility to ship directly from their warehouse. The new business volume required a more formalized and comprehensive way to control and monitor stock levels to keep up with more orders both incoming and outgoing.
The inventory system they chose needed to manage online and offline orders. It needed to easily track stock levels across multiple sales channels. It also needed to be able to work with their backend systems. Of equal importance, this new inventory system needed to be blended into their current technology environment and be able to be incorporated seamlessly into their workflow. Integral Group was already successfully managing all of the Distributors EDI transactions, so it was an easy decision to involve Integral in integrating this business-critical inventory module.
Solution:
After in-depth market review the Distributor chose Zoho Inventory. In answer to ‘why Zoho’: Zoho has been in business for over 23 years, it has millions of satisfied users and it has all the features that the Distributor required to service their growing business.
With the addition of their new business, the Distributor would be adding an additional 25 retailers. To be able to make all of their retailer relationships work, they needed their inventory streamlined and to be managed and updated in real time across many selling channels.
The final, and arguably most critical piece of the puzzle for the Distributor, was that Zoho Inventory needed to function in the Distributors existing environment. To be able to effectively manage their new higher volumes of transactions, all of their systems needed to work together harmoniously.
This is where Integral Group is, indeed, integral to the process. We connected to all of the retailers – existing and new. We facilitated the inventory automation by using technology to connect to Zoho’s API in order to integrate all internal systems for a seamless flow of orders. And then we connected to the Distributors 3PL. All of this connectivity and integration resulted in a superior total order management system.
Once Integral Group had integrated the Distributors systems with Zoho Inventory, all orders are captured, inventory is tracked and real time stock levels are maintained across all channels. Integral Group is the lynchpin connecting the Distributor and Zoho Inventory for the stock tracking automation that will propel the Distributors business forward to realize the growth and prosperity they expect with their new business win.
Key Focus: Automated Inventory Control, EDI
Customer:
A mid-size Distributor that is part of the food wholesaler industry dealing with consumer-packaged goods (CPG). With over 70 years of industry experience, they are a distributor in a specialized key market to grocery stores and the hospitality industry across Canada.
Challenge:
The Distributor had been managing their inventory comfortably using basic spreadsheets. When they acquired a competitor with a greater volume of orders, they knew they needed automation to keep pace. Order volumes increased so steeply and so quickly that their ERP system was not up to the task. Their existing manual process was problematic in general and inadequate for EDI in particular. In the past their business had primary involved drop shipping directly from manufactures, now the business demanded that they assume responsibility to ship directly from their warehouse. The new business volume required a more formalized and comprehensive way to control and monitor stock levels to keep up with more orders both incoming and outgoing.
The inventory system they chose needed to manage online and offline orders. It needed to easily track stock levels across multiple sales channels. It also needed to be able to work with their backend systems. Of equal importance, this new inventory system needed to be blended into their current technology environment and be able to be incorporated seamlessly into their workflow. Integral Group was already successfully managing all of the Distributors EDI transactions, so it was an easy decision to involve Integral in integrating this business-critical inventory module.
Solution:
After in-depth market review the Distributor chose Zoho Inventory. In answer to ‘why Zoho’: Zoho has been in business for over 23 years, it has millions of satisfied users and it has all the features that the Distributor required to service their growing business.
With the addition of their new business, the Distributor would be adding an additional 25 retailers. To be able to make all of their retailer relationships work, they needed their inventory streamlined and to be managed and updated in real time across many selling channels.
The final, and arguably most critical piece of the puzzle for the Distributor, was that Zoho Inventory needed to function in the Distributors existing environment. To be able to effectively manage their new higher volumes of transactions, all of their systems needed to work together harmoniously.
This is where Integral Group is, indeed, integral to the process. We connected to all of the retailers – existing and new. We facilitated the inventory automation by using technology to connect to Zoho’s API in order to integrate all internal systems for a seamless flow of orders. And then we connected to the Distributors 3PL. All of this connectivity and integration resulted in a superior total order management system.
Once Integral Group had integrated the Distributors systems with Zoho Inventory, all orders are captured, inventory is tracked and real time stock levels are maintained across all channels. Integral Group is the lynchpin connecting the Distributor and Zoho Inventory for the stock tracking automation that will propel the Distributors business forward to realize the growth and prosperity they expect with their new business win.
