ROBUST AND EFFICIENT DELIVERY OF OFFERS WITH ENSURED PROFITABILITY

Reliable and accurate models for drawing up offers are essential to minimize errors and ensure solid profitability. To the Nordic Houseware Group, implementation of exacto's solution with one unified digital platform provided optimization of the offer process and support of a new approval hierarchy matrix.

Nordic Houseware Group (NHG) is a supplier of a wide range of homeware within storage and organization with four independent sub-brands. Their products are retailed globally.

René Dethlefsen is Group CFO at NHG, and he explains the motivation for implementing the service from exacto.

Robust and profitable

"Many different elements are included in the total COGS, and each item number has specific conditions and specifications that must be taken into account when an offer is drawn up. In addition, other variables, such as exchange rates or shipping costs, fluctuate daily. Getting a full overview and ensuring that all cost drivers are entered correctly with updated data is – if it has to be handled manually – a very time-consuming task, which also entails the risk of a large margin of error. Therefore, we wanted to implement a digital solution that could standardise, systematise and to a greater extent automate the process and provide the ability to update master data centrally".

Furthermore, René Dethlefsen points out that the integration with NHG's ERP is a particular advantage:

"The solution integrates with our Business Dynamics, and every night the master data is automatically updated. Thus, we can always have complete confidence that offers are based on the most realistic cost prices”.

Streamlined and automated workflows

According to René Dethlefsen, the transition to a unified digital platform has entailed that the entire workflow has become more efficient and much leaner:

"Our employees have one place and one standardized format to work in. A large part of the information is predefined with updated master data on the item number in question, and they only need to focus on the unique data of the delivery. We continuously add new information with more options for extracting centrally defined master data and data from external sources", explains René Dethlefsen.

Process optimization and approval matrix support

However, valid and robust offers are not all the solution has provided:

"We have introduced a more stringent process for approval with a well-defined hierarchy or chain of command, if you will. The platform is the digital support for the practical implementation of this. The solution is integrated with our AD, which defines access and permissions, but also means that it is automatically forwarded to the right person to approve. Thus, the process has become much leaner", concludes René Dethlefsen.