It’s not complicated. That’s what David Marks says about what Klay European Tiles & Facades does. Which is why, when it was time to replace the wholesale tile business’s existing technology systems and end its reliance on spreadsheets, he believed the process shouldn’t be complicated either. And with BlueRock, it wasn’t.
During the three years that David has been general manager for Klay European Tile & Facades, the business tripled its revenue. Coincidence? Probably not, though David acknowledges that when he joined Klay (an Australian wholesaler that’s been providing premium ceramic facades, brick slips, and tiles for commercial, industrial, and residential applications for over five years), it already had a good brand, website, and supply chain in place.
“Klay differentiates itself by offering superb technical knowledge and installation skills during the early specification stages,” David explains. “And we also import a high quality product at a fair price.”
Yet, for all its success, there was something blocking further growth: Klay’s technology. That’s why, with the expert help of BlueRock (an advisory firm based in Australia that offers accounting, law, wealth management, finance, and digital solutions services), Klay installed Cin7.
Building a successful business in today’s digital world is really hard. Like porcelain hard.
Success requires businesses to anchor their operations on tech systems that are not only robust but also friendly with each other. Klay’s existing systems (ActiveCampaign for marketing and CRM, ShipStation for distribution, MYOB for finance, and Excel for inventory) had their good qualities, but they caused the team some major problems.
Even more shocking than operating with such manual, labor-heavy processes was the astronomical amount of time it took David and his team to enter a simple order. “From start to finish, it was taking 23 minutes!”
That’s about 18 minutes too long, which is just one of the many reasons why the Klay team began contemplating alternative technologies, starting with an ERP system.
“We looked at an ERP system that was really appealing with lots of bells and whistles and customizations,” says David. “But it required a lot of consulting, a long implementation, and we believed it wouldn’t give us the return on investment we’d need.”
In the end, Klay desired a powerful inventory solution that:
“To help us figure out which solution would be the right fit, we worked with BlueRock. They held our hand through the assessment process and led us to Cin7.”
It was through the herculean efforts of BlueRock Business Analyst and Consultant Andrew Branagan that Klay was able to find and deploy the best inventory management software for their needs.
It all began when Andrew and the Klay team first met. During the getting-to-know-you meeting, they told him in no uncertain terms that they needed an inventory management system—just not the ones they’d found on their own. Andrew knew exactly what to do.
“Our process has a couple of different phases,” he says. “The first phase is the planning phase, which for Klay, included a couple of deep dive workshops, like a CRM workshop to see how they manage their customer base, a finance workshop to see how they manage all their finances related to the business, and a workshop on their main focus, inventory management.”
What did Andrew discover?
Klay simply didn’t have the ability to accurately track profitability or inventory. Additionally, Klay needed a new and solid financial solution to underpin their entire operation.
“We looked at several options, including Cin7, Unleashed, and Zoho Inventory. We came up with a scoring method based on Klay’s list of requirements, what we deduced from the workshops, and the fact that we felt Xero was a good financial solution for Klay’s needs.”
After adding it all up, Cin7 with its crucial Xero integration, sophisticated inventory capabilities, and inherent scalability was the clear winner.
Phase two involved meticulously going through Klay’s data and deciding what needed to be migrated to Cin7. From there, Andrew carefully walked the Klay team through an approximately three-month implementation, providing stellar recommendations when they hit any crossroads and taking the business live on July 1, 2025 (which marks Australia’s start of the financial year) without mishap or huge stresses.
In fact, David called the whole process seamless (unlike those he’d been through before).
The relatively easy and fast implementation was followed closely by Andrew’s training sessions on the new system, which finally brought them to phase three: support.
“We got the system to a place where they were happy with it, they had all their data in, and they were using it,” Andrew says. “Now, we’re here for ongoing support for any questions that Klay may have as well as to help with the future state planning. And we’re going to help them get Cin7’s B2B portal live.”
Since implementing Cin7, Klay has embraced the solution’s comprehensive functionality, including its:
Cin7 has enabled the business to effortlessly track groups of tiles for quality control, traceability, and compliance through its batch management function, which Andrew says is something “Klay has been grateful for year round.” David is also grateful for the score of benefits they’ve accrued with Cin7, such as their now accurate stock count.
“Pre-Cin7, our stock would tell us we had a certain amount of product available for an important customer, but we had to walk down to the warehouse and look at the racks to make sure it was there. That’s not happening anymore,” he says.
What about the Cin7 B2B portal Andrew is setting up for them? It’s almost ready to go, and when it is, customers will be able to access the portal to check stock and make orders. “We won’t have to field questions anymore, and our customers will have a self-service way of getting answers.”
David, who says they’re still exploring all that Cin7 has to offer, also praises Cin7’s reporting options, like the profit by salesperson and low-in stock reports. “We’d run out of stock, which was happening a lot, and then we’d lose orders. Now we’ve got the tools that will help us get better.”
And remember Klay’s agonizingly slow order process? It’s a thing of the past. “We can now do an order in less than five minutes. The time efficiencies from Cin7 are the biggest return on investment.”
As David and the Klay team continue piling on the wins, they’re confident that Cin7 has shored up their crumbling technology foundation and will support their exciting growth plans, which includes adding new salespeople throughout Australia, taking on another supplier, and expanding their locally stocked inventory.