The combination of Business Central & Power BI helps us tremendously

365 days of Christmas

At the headquarters in Noord-Scharwoude, it feels like Christmas and multiple birthdays at once. In three showrooms, you are surrounded by a gigantic amount of gifts. In one of them, we speak with Guus Tesselaar, MT member and responsible for operations, and Pim van Straaten, data manager. Pim's background, when he started as an intern at The Gift, was logistics. His current position is new and arose from a transition that this story – among other things – is about.

A collaboration around Excel

"4 years ago, we were still using an ERP for the promotional industry," Guus says. "But we missed opportunities and depth. Our IT was a collaboration between multiple Excel sheets, Word, email, and other solutions. We were already market leaders in Christmas gifts, and an investor who came on board thought it was high time for a professionalization step in IT."

That investor advised Xperit. The transition to the new solution did not go completely smoothly. Pim: "We knew our way around Excel. Such a spreadsheet works extremely flexibly. We had hoped that the new solution would offer that as well, but that was not immediately the case in our eyes. It will be part of it, but it did take some switching and getting used to. Eventually, we found our way and discovered what else was possible." More on that later.

Freedom and service

What also did not help with a quick implementation is the dynamics at play in this industry. Especially when it comes to Christmas gifts. In the last months of the year, it's peak season at The Gift. Guus: "We work in phases: we speak with large clients, for example, during the Christmas package fair in February. Then they already indicate which items they want to carry. Those items fall under framework contracts. Later, parties join in who take options on items in certain quantities. For example, if they first want to gauge what their customers would like to have. And then there are the phone orders."

That variation says something about the service level of The Gift. Guus: "We want to give our customers choice and flexibility, even if that demands more from us and our automation. Products in our warehouses have multiple statuses, such as 'reserved/sold' or 'option' or 'free for sale,' and that impacts all the administration that goes along with it. All of this weighs extra in the last three months of the year when we receive the most items, prepare orders, and deliver."

Business Central + Power BI

Switching to another system during such a period was not seen as a good idea. Pim: "For a while, we used the two systems side by side. That was double work, but it gave us certainty." During the transition, they encountered a few stumbling blocks, but eventually, they fully switched over.

Ultimately, The Gift and Xperit ended up with a combination of Business Central and Power BI. Pim: "Power BI helps us to make our inventory more transparent and do more with data. This is how my new position came about. Now we make analyses, forecasts, and much more based on data that we previously simply did not have in view."

Step by step even better

After the switch, more and more processes that previously ran through, for example, Excel and Word, were integrated into the new system. The Gift discovered the big and small conveniences of digitization, such as order confirmations that are now automatically sent via Outlook. And no longer manually.

There is still plenty to do according to Pim: "Connections with certain suppliers and our warehousing are, for example, high on our wishlist. We still have to enter some data manually, and that is a hindrance to efficiency. Also, because we have to register multiple shipments for one customer separately, which means they would also be transported separately."

Optimizing

Processes that are within their reach are also being optimized. Guus: "We started with a webshop to relieve the pressure on order administration and reduce the number of phone calls. On our webshop, we provide all the info and the inventory status of our items, which means we receive fewer calls from customers. We carry out those optimizations with the help of Richard from Xperit. He has really delved into our company, understands how the processes work, and we have a pleasant contact with him.

Together we ensure clear agreements and descriptions of what we do. Because we certainly do not want to invest endlessly and in everything. With this new system, the investment is now yielding returns. Guus: "The optimization points ultimately provide us with a lot of convenience, time, and money. This allows us to continue to develop. And that's what we're doing it for."