Caudwell Distribution - A Case Study

Introduction

The Caudwell Distribution Group was founded in 1987 as Midland Mobile Phones and has since become the UK's largest independent distributor of cellular phones and accessories. Today, the group employs over 5,000 personnel worldwide and has a turnover in excess of £3 billion. Its trading partners include major retailers like Dixons, Tesco, Wal*Mart, Argos and Homebase.

This case study describes how Freeway Commerce helped the company install a new eCommerce solution when they upgraded their back office accounts software to a JD Edwards "One World" Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package.

Background

Caudwell Distribution Group's old Sage CS3 accounting software had been installed in the early 1990's. After over a decade in service it was decided the time had come to install a more powerful and up-to-date ERP system that could cope with the company's vastly increased turnover and multitude of business operations.

The plan was to transfer the UK-based businesses in the Caudwell Distribution Group to the new One World system one-by-one, over a two-year period starting in 2002. It was at this stage that Freeway Commerce was asked to design a software solution that would allow the electronic exchange of orders and invoices based around the new JD Edwards environment.

Although Caudwell was previously using another EDI system, this too was showing signs of age. It was DOS based and did not have the range of features, nor the flexibility the company now required. As a result, Caudwell took the opportunity to review the market and see what was available. It opted for Freeway's Spectrum Professional software. At the time Freeway were also able to
offer a very competitive package on transmission charges which helped convince the client this was the route to go down.

Software solution

Spectrum Professional is a Windows based software package that can integrate most common Commerce messages. Caudwell are now using it specifically for orders and invoices. With Spectrum Professional's standard flat file format, it was a straightforward process to link with the One World system and send message formats via a single interface. Caudwell chose to do all the data 'look-ups'through their main back office system rather than use Spectrum Professional. This was to ensure the system was as simple and robust as possible.

Installation

The fact that Caudwell Distribution Group were rolling out their new back office system over a two-year period meant that Freeway had to provide a prompt yet flexible ongoing sales support service.

A number of issues were faced during this period including the requirement to accommodate a unique direct-to-store trading relationship with Tesco. Freeway provided additional support as and when required ensuring all customers were migrated to the new system in line with the planned deadlines.

Benefits

With the new Spectrum Professional system in place, Caudwell Distribution Group's business is benefiting in a number of key areas. Spectrum Professional allows the company to exchange orders and invoices with 15 trading partners and it can be easily expanded to incorporate more customers as and when required.

Another important benefit has been the ease with which the system can be amended and updated. This was important to Caudwell. The company deals with millions of pounds of invoices every week involving hundreds of stores around the UK. Inevitably there are look-up issues centred on product and store codes which have to be resolved quickly and easily. With Spectrum Professional information is also editable within the EDI software. This has saved time that would have been spent on searching out raw data in the back office system.

Since the installation, Spectrum Professional has also proved extremely reliable and this has been a critical factor in the successful implementation of the rollout of the JD Edwards One World package. A one hour delay in getting an order in can have a massive knock-on effect on Caudwell's business operations in terms of hitting delivery deadlines and ensuring the warehouse is managed effectively.

Conclusions

Freeway's Spectrum Professional is a very flexible,easy-to-use and reliable solution that allows the customer a great deal of control over the implementation process. It is also capable of using AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) to exchange messages in real-time using a secure internet connection, should Caudwell Distribution Group require this type of facility in the future.

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