Over the years we’ve worked hard to bring the best possible service and new tools to our customers – by doing so we’ve entered into three partnerships that we believe do just that…
Testimonial
Micon Distribution Ltd adopt Merlin’s new Automated Accounts Payable module with great success.
“As one of the earliest adopters of Merlin’s Automated Accounts Payable module, we’ve already brought on board some of our highest-volume suppliers. Invoices start as email attachments and become PO-matched Merlin invoices without the manual typing of the past. Each document format is unique, and we’re delighted by how Merlin are responding to whatever quirks our suppliers’ invoices throw at the new system. Every week we notice new functionality, bringing all the benefits of automation to a busy part of the company.”
Plymouth-based Merlin user, Diamond Disposables, has recently gone live with a new website that fully integrates with their Merlin Software using Merlin’s dynamic Web Services Toolset Module. The new website, with full e-commerce functionality, is already providing many benefits to Diamond Disposables.
“We can now fully control our stock on the website, import all web orders, and take immediate customer payments directly into Merlin with little or no user input” says Paul King, Managing Director, “this is allowing us to pick and despatch customer orders at a much faster pace so our customers are receiving their goods quicker and with little human data entry, there are fewer mistakes being made too. We are already saving around 40 hours per week of staff time, reducing our cost base, and giving us additional time to focus on other areas of the business. We plan to enhance our website further in future with additional product ranges to provide our clients with an even better choice of products to purchase online.”
Royal Mail Click & Drop Website Integration
“We recently put in the new Royal Mail Click & Drop website integration Module and it`s working fantastically well. Not only are we finding an elimination of errors from re-keying etc and significant time savings to go with this, but we have also had a reduction in costs.
On speaking to our Warehouse Manager, he estimates the integration has saved the Warehouse staff 1 hour per day. His words were “it is so so so so so much easier!“.
We’ve also been able to improve our customer service as the integration automatically attaches a consignment number to the relevant order, which has enabled our Sales guys to promptly tell customers where/when their order will be delivered.
This cost reduction has come from them now not having to use the franking machine, which we had to “top up” with a card payment every so often. We now get invoiced from Royal Mail and can claim the VAT back (something we couldn`t do previously) – we estimate this module will save us over £3,000 per year (not including the savings made in staff time). This saving will inevitably increase as our e-commerce business grow…basically, the more orders we do, the more savings we make.”
Favourite Features
Auto Matrix Recalc after GRN
“The automation of this feature has revolutionised the way we calculate our selling out pricing.”
“In the power tool world, keeping up with the changing cost prices can be a challenge in itself. To implement new sell-out pricing on the back of these changes was always a massive time-consuming exercise for us. We launched our new B2C website 18 months ago, so it was imperative that our pricing was up to date from the moment stock was receipted on to our system. The Auto Matrix Recalc after GRN has given us the ability to do this. As soon as stock lands, by having matrixes set to work off cost, our selling prices automatically recalculate, working off predetermined GP’s set within the matrixes. This has saved us so much time and has helped keep our margins much more stable & our pricing much more competitive.”
Document Path Field: Sales/Purchase Ledger > Customer/Supplier Maintenance > General > Document Path
“It is a simple but highly useful means to link any customer or supplier on Merlin to their corresponding folder(s) and files on our Network. It offers the potential for massive savings in the printing, processing and management of all customer and supplier paperwork. It supports our vision for a more seamless, paperless operation. It is a significant step towards a more automated process for the matching and processing of invoices, receipts and payments.”
“In our Finance department, across both sales and purchase ledgers, this feature lets us link any relevant files stored on our network to the corresponding customer or supplier on Merlin. This includes account/credit application forms, correspondence, invoices, statements, remittances etc. Currently, it enables us to set up an electronic, system accessible and searchable library, in addition to our paper-based records. So it reduces the handling of current and past paperwork. In time, it offers us the possibility of massive cost savings in printing and storing paperwork, and massive time savings as we move towards more paperless, automated order and payment processing.”
Web API Feature
“I like about this feature how it allows us to be able to directly communicate with the Merlin Software. It works fast and allows us to be able to process lots of things which wouldn’t be possible without it.”
“Since starting to use the API, we have been able to pull off lots of customised reports. Using PHP, we are able to fetch the exact data we need from the database and display it exactly how we require. This allows a wide range of customizability for us as a company and makes the Merlin experience so much easier.”
Import-Module – Spreadsheets
“The ability to amend bulk stock code data and import back into Merlin.”
“By importing by bulk, more time has been reallocated to different projects from the time saved. The last operating system was one at a time manual line data adjustment.”
Routing Module
“As a wholesaler trying to keep thousands of customers stocked & supported, the logistics of distribution are key. We have become totally reliant upon the Merlin Routing Module, it is a fantastic part of the software, functional, easy to use and above all efficient. We can plan orders, staff, vehicles and resources at the click of a button.”
“Looking back to how we worked before implementing routing, we are amazed at just savings we have seen, Delivery/Load Planning has been reduced by hours each day and the volume of order picking has increased nearly 30% in a day, even with the same number of warehouse staff.”
Nominal Financial Reporting
“I love the fact that this feature means that the base information keyed into Merlin every day can, without much more input from me, be so smartly pulled together into a meaningful report that can be tailored to suit the particular needs of any business and generated at the press of a button! This makes light work of what would otherwise prove to be a very time-consuming job if attempted manually (or more likely left not done because it’s too much trouble!).”
“The Financial Reports that Merlin produces have enabled me to provide quicker and more accurate reports to the board resulting in an increased capability achieved to monitor trends in our business whether they be good ones or bad ones. This has been vital in 2019 due to the economic challenges many of us have been facing in business. The capacity to control month-by-month enables me to advise much more readily on GP rates and expenses which, as we all know, can be vital to the profitability and success of any particular financial year.”
Import
“The ability to take a new range of products from a supplier and have it setup and available to our customers within a few hours rather than days on our previous system.”
“The time-saving in setting up new products and prices. In the previous system, this would have need to be done 1 at a time – even with a copy last function which caused issues with data inaccuracies. Being able to take good quality product data direct from our suppliers and import to the right field on Merlin has saved days of time.”
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