Brief Introduction
Warmington Fires' products are proudly designed and manufactured right here in New Zealand. They specialise in open gas fires and outdoor fires and are the leaders in custom designed fires.
Requirements
Before becoming a customer, Warmington Fires had a very basic website presence.
Warmington Fires' most important requirement was to have the ability to virtually build and quote for custom fireplaces online. The previous paper system was inefficient and quotes were getting lost due to the fact that a home-owner may request a quote and then not need the product built until 1 or 2 years later, by which time, the quote would no longer be valid.
Their other key requirement was the website had to integrate into their existing accounting and manufacturing systems.
Solutions and Add-Ons
Creating an online system for quoting custom fireplaces proved to be a real challenge. The process took over 10 months to complete. The quoting system automatically calculated the price, weight, height, volume and freight of each quote. Quotes could be emailed or printed.
Later Warmington abandoned their in-house manufacturing system and added two upgrades to the online quoting system to add these features:
1. Estimated delivery notification and delivery confirmation system.
2. Time clocking system for factory workers to clock their work hours and time spent on an order.
Results
The online quoting system made the quoting process 5 times faster, and 10 times more organised than the previous paper based system.
A quote, even after 2 years, can be found in 10 seconds and the figures can be recalculated with a press of a button.
Over 100 resellers nation-wide, such as Mitre 10 Wanaka, can login to create quotes for their customers.
The online time clocking system means admin can calculate hours worked with 2 clicks of the button. Production managers can also see who is at work and what orders they are working on.
The online estimated delivery system and delivery confirmation system allow resellers to know when they are likely to get their fireplaces once the quotes have been accepted. A delivery confirmation is sent once the final product has been fabricated and sent.
With the addition of the Delivery and Time Clocking systems, quotes transition seamlessly into production. This saves at least 1 full-time job of manually entering quotes into the a separate manufacturing system and constantly responding to requests for progress updates.
Warmington now plans to expand into Australia.
Testimonial
"It takes just as much effort to deliver to the South Island as it does to the Gold Coast, Sydney or Melbourne. The online system allows us to easily expand into Australia."
Greg Stevenson - Director - Warmington
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