Jay-Be is a manufacturing company which makes stylish fold away guest beds which are available in stores like Tesco’s, B&Q and Argos.
The Jay-Be brand has an enviable reputation for innovative and desirable furniture and has enjoyed steady growth. But 4 years ago alarm bells started to ring when they realised that their basic and ageing IT systems required some strategic thought. It was time to upgrade.
Jay-Be operate on a 24 hour lead-time, fulfilling orders on demand. They turn around each order from scratch and deliver direct to the consumer within 24 hours – an impressive feat which requires highly efficient systems and crystal clear visibility. Every element of the supply chain and manufacturing process must work together seamlessly.
Jay-Be spokesman Greg Durrans told us; “We wanted staff to be making beds not acting as office administrators, so it was important to choose a system that put us in touch with our data so that we could see what the business was doing.”
Greg’s role running operations put him in charge of choosing IT and he was clear that he wanted his new system to be cloud based. “Cloud was the single biggest pull for me – you can spend a lot of time and money with on- premise based IT systems only to find yourself endlessly rebuilding them every time they need an upgrade. I wanted to spend my time running the company. Business ByDesign from SAP In cloud jayb case study a4 ds oct14 fianlis a massive win for us because the upgrades happen automatically and you don’t need an IT department. It is fantastic to be able to hand over responsibility for all that backup to our suppliers at In Cloud Solutions.”
As soon as they began using Business ByDesign people noticed how much more in touch they were with the company’s data on a day to day basis. The information was readily accessible to everyone and Greg was able to create a series of automatically generated and broadcasted reports to prompt tasks and provide vital information, for example; updating his suppliers on a weekly basis with up to material forecasts. Internally, sales reports, production and wages reports and stock adjustments information is scheduled automatically, daily weekly and periodically to the appropriate managers.
The flexibility of cloud was also a huge win for the company – giving the managers the option to sign off purchase orders from an iPhone or iPad app wherever they happened to be in the world.
Now, expanding IT is as simple as plugging in a new computer. Staff can bring their own devices or work from home with minimal fuss.
In 6 years Jay-Be’s turnover has gone from £1.8million to £8million and their IT costs have tumbled by moving to the subscription based Business ByDesign.
“Moving to Business ByDesign in the cloud” says Greg “I can’t emphasise enough what a massive improvement this has been and I would never ever go back.”
If you think a cloud based ERP system like Business ByDesign from SAP could help solve your manufacturing business problem then please call us at In Cloud Solutions for a chat. 01628 876723