Capes MedicalImporter grows productivity & profitability via automation
Brand neutral medical distributor Capes Medical Supplies Ltd has used EXO to automate repetitive tasks and eliminate double handling, with growth now requiring 30% fewer resources.
Capes sources and distributes medical and dental equipment and products. It sells a range of over 40,000 products to a wide range of businesses including medical clinics, dental clinics, day surgeries, private surgeons, veterinarians, GPs, rest homes, tattooists and schools.
Capes was using an older DOS-based accounting system. This lacked the ‘default’ functionality of modern software, and had only rudimentary reporting capabilities. The company wanted to integrate all functions of the business onto a single platform, including customer orders, warehousing and delivery systems.
Automation
Capes considered various products and approaches – ranging from bolt-ons for its legacy system, cloud-based offerings and running software in-house on its own servers – before choosing Enprise and EXO.
“We like the idea of customisation to automate highly repetitive tasks, which is where EXO and Enprise are very strong,” says Capes Performance Manager Emil Verster.
Increased productivity
“We are using EXO to eliminate double handling. This strategy has significantly boosted our productivity as well as improving company morale. Our team are working comfortably and consistently, instead of having to over extend themselves for prolonged busy periods. The team thrive when they have time to do an accurate, high quality job. We are able to focus our resources elsewhere, yet our productivity has grown and will keep growing into the future – we are very excited by our ability to scale up our volumes.”
Capes has automated the capturing of much data. Customers will in the future be able to place their own orders which will enable a seamless system, with exceptions being dealt with through an in-house call centre.
Capes uses EXO to free its team to focus on customers and business development.
A better customer experience
“We concentrate on the customer experience, and let EXO do the ‘heavy lifting’ – the repetitious, high volume work - in the background,” Emil Verster says.
“We don’t compromise customer relationships, but we do want to use fewer resources to get a better return.”
Capes uses both standard and customised reporting. The creative use of dashboards reflects individual Key Performance Indicators. One example is how many quotes are supplied, the value of them, and the percentage that are converted into sales.
“Team energy and output are reflected in that dashboard. Giving team access to the dashboard motivates productivity and sales to rise for the business, and customers win because they associate increased service speed with quality,” says Emil Verster.
Boosting competitiveness
Capes has increased its competitiveness against larger players by using EXO to buy and manage stock. This strategy has reduced, by more than 30%, the extra resourcing needed to support growth in the business.
“It used to be that every time we created $1 million worth of business, we needed to hire three skilled people,” says Emil Verster.
“EXO has changed that equation for us. For $1 million of extra business we now only need two extra people, and one of those two can be lesser skilled than previously. We can now compete head-to-head with much bigger organisations, and we do it without having to hire extra team members. We also like the ‘bolt on’ tools that are available for EXO, such as Flow for our Electronic Data Interface. We can integrate with Hospitals and Government organisations accounting programmes. With EXO and Flow, it’s easy.
“In EXO we have a strong platform to improve and grow our business, with further customisation as required. We chose Enprise because they are responsible for 60% of all new EXO installs in New Zealand. They have provided direction and brought robust decision making. Our overall vision is in place. Looking to the future we will continue to implement innovative IT practises in order to grow.”
Highlights
Medical importer and distributor Capes has used the combination of EXO and Enprise to automate repetitive tasks, achieving what it describes as ‘steep’ growth in profitability. At the same time it has increased productivity, smoothed out spikes in its workload, improved and sped up customer service and boosted team morale. Growth now requires 30% fewer resources.
Download the full Capes Medical case study (PDF 584KB)
