BPX

About BPX

Established in 1965, Leicester-based BPX is a major distributor of electrical and electronic control and machinery products. The family-owned company has nine branches across the UK and employs over 120 staff. BPX selected and went live with Web Builder, the integrated online trading application, to drive their business growth.

Business need

BPX is particularly proud of providing first-class service to its customers - the company offers 60,000+ products from 40 manufacturers and makes use of IT to increase efficiency and improve its customers’ experience.

Managing Director, Guy Collins, explained the rationale to offer online trading. “As a starting point, it was less about meeting existing customer expectations, but focussing more on using the technology to attract new customers, in the UK and internationally.”

Web Builder

As a OneOffice user, BPX decided that Web Builder, with integrated SOP, stock and accounting capabilities, was the most effective platform for the project. Given the size of the company’s product range, it was clear that this would be a complex project for BPX.

“The first priority was to understand Web Builder and the fine-tuning required for our processes,“ explained Guy. “Essential for us was the need to safeguard our customer relationships and therefore, unlike some distributors who use central warehousing, we wanted our system to trade online at local branch level.“

Online Catalogue

System infrastructure was a key aspect of the project – a new server investment was required to ensure that the new website, carrying the online store, performed quickly and efficiently. However, the biggest challenge was the creation of the catalogue itself - it amounted to an eight-person-year project.

We had to ensure that, insofar as possible, customers could access a consistent level of information across our product range - making their selections without having to phone to check specification detail. The new website went live with 35,000 products ready for our customers to buy.

Guy Collins - Managing Director at BPX

A time for change

As a 24/7 ‘shop window’, BPX acknowledges that it represents an immediate opportunity to improve services – recognising that building awareness and transaction levels will take time. Furthermore, the company is preparing for some staff to migrate towards a technical advisory role - growing the knowledge base across the company will be a real asset for BPX.

“The roll-out was based on introducing the online trading facilities, including back-end processes, at each branch and worked with some of our larger customers, to begin with,“ Guy said.

We wanted everyone to feel confident about the processes, including back-ordering, and the added value to our services. Another key point was to re-assure customers about trading terms and credit account processes.

Guy Collins - Managing Director at BPX

Highlights

• Online catalogue of 35,000 products
• Multi-location process capability
• Self-service – task automation
• Improve upselling and related product offer
• Structured introduction for online trading
• Starting point for further online developments

Impact of online trading

Online trading can have a big impact on a multi-location B2B distributor. Some routines are immediately automated, some job roles become more advisory with fewer repetitive tasks. BPX also believes that its customer service function will be more productive.

Going online means immediately exposing our entire catalogue to the ‘risk of sale’. As a result, we expect our breadth of stockholding to broaden and thereby increasing service levels in this ‘want it now’ era. It’s also an imperative to monitor orders closely - if a customer buys product X, but omits essential product Y, we have to respond accordingly.

Guy Collins - Managing Director at BPX

A business milestone

Unquestionably, BPX recognises the value of the opportunities as a result of investing in an online experience and equally, that as the company’s use of IT develops, customer benefits will grow.

“In taking an evolutionary approach, we want to build on our reputation and improve services in a controlled manner. Our new website, with Web Builder, is positioned to be a milestone initiative for BPX,” concluded Guy.

Results

• 24/7 trading facility and global shop window
• Opportunity to extend customer base
• Customer-branch relationships maintained
• Improved customer service experience