Debs Smidt
Managing Director, Cotswold Hose & Fitting
Cotswold Hose & Fittings began as two experts with niche knowledge about the challenges facing the hydraulics, aquatics and pneumatics industries.
They currently stock over 6,000 specialist products and supply hydraulic, aquatic, and pneumatic hoses, parts, and fittings to businesses in a vast range of sectors, from farming and agriculture to engineering and emergency services and from small manufacturing firms to nationwide utility companies.
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When Directors Jan and Debs Smidt took over the business, they quickly realised that the expertise and knowledge was only held by a few key people and on paper. Increasingly aware that this knowledge would be lost when team members retire, Jan and Debs identified the need to ensure that crucial information was preserved digitally for all employees to access.
Cotswold Hose's existing Sage system did not provide the solution they needed. Therefore the firm partnered with OGL Software and implemented Profit4 to transform their business.
After researching several technologies, Cotswold Hose & Fittings opted for Profit4, OGL Software's cloud and browser-based ERP solution. OGL's dedicated project management, support and development teams worked very closely with their team to get the new system live during the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning everything from signing the contract to Go Live was all completed via video calls.
Profit4 provided Cotswold Hose & Fittings a software solution that transformed the management of its biggest profit areas - hydraulic assemblies. Now buying and selling processes are no longer laborious and manual with employees having to wade through two years of data on more than 6,000 products, to extract information for orders. Additionally, Cotswold is building up data about its business. Armed with this, the firm is able to understand trends and areas for investment.
With all product data, complete with visuals, now stored and readily available in a digital format, the team now has trade counter capability, with all pricing and product information and images available quickly, meaning faster sales and less room for human error or inconsistencies. The company has also streamlined new employee training to a few months with the new system. Previously, it would take a year just to train them on the various product codes and processes.
Managing Director Debs Smidt reflects: "We concentrated on working with OGL, getting the team trained and learning as much as we could about the new Profit4 software. We had lots to learn but OGL held our hands each step of the way. Any issues were sorted, we were being listened to and felt important as a customer and not insignificant.
"I love the improvements and updates of the software, I'm excited to see the positive impact of the ones that are due to happen. OGL are proud and passionate about their product and so they should be, they are constantly improving themselves and all aspects of it. It's personal to us and you can tell it is for them as well. I feel we are now in safe hands, making us feel confident and secure.
"Having a dedicated Account Manager is brilliant, someone so knowledgeable to talk with and discuss how we can improve and utilise Profit4 as much as possible. I feel the OGL team have been there from the start and are continuing this journey with us."
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