Tyreman Develops Meet and Greet System, Researches Labelling
Nowadays a serious tyre distribution business simply has to have an effective e-commerce system. Many do and many software companies offer perpetually improving versions of their respective systems. Something about Tyreman that caught Tyres & Acessories’ attention was its recent efforts to – excuse the pun – interface with real people as well as all the necessary computer systems and future legislatory requirements.
At the start of 2010 Tyreman announced that development of its Tyreman B2B system had reached the point that an innovative B2B SMS module had been added. This allows a text message to be sent to the mobile phone of a customer who placed an order, confirming that the order has been received and will be dealt with. Not rocket science by today’s standards, but adding in the ability to keep customers up-to-date is valuable because it could be the difference between keeping continuing business or not.
Latterly, company representatives report that Tyreman has continued its philosophy of personal interaction by developing a handheld meet and greet system. This technology allows depot staff to meet consumers in the car park, take down tyre requirements and book in vehicles for work – all from the driver’s car window. The clever part is that the handheld computer is linked the branch’s network via WiFi, which opens up further options in terms of compliance with future legislation.
Interfacing with new legislation
From the moment that the 2012 tyre labelling legislation was first announced there have been question marks about how the requirement to display wet grip, noise and rolling resistance characteristics will be practically applied. T&A for one has long since suggested that technology could be the answer with e-tail sites arguably the best placed to offer images of the labels next to each tyre product. However, the suggestion in a recent conversation with Tyreman’s Bryn Jones that this could be implemented in a handheld systems such as the meet and greet computer was a first for us. Obviously this concept remains in the earliest stages, but seeing as a separate label will be required for each stock-keeping unit and that this all but rules of the possibility of having a printed label book, this seems like an interesting solution.
As far as the company’s core software products are concerned, currently Tyreman’s popular business to business solution has been receiving the most attention after customer – Southern Tyre Wholesalers (STW) – reported that it had experienced a 10 – 15 per cent increase in sales after just six months of running the Tyreman V12 system.
Software and systems firm is developing technology with a personal touch
According to STW office and accounts manager Leo Hall, STW pride themselves in giving their customers a quality, personal service with a positive response to any enquiry, and when evaluating which software to use they didn’t want to sacrifice this in any way.
Even though STW had worked with Tyreman for many years, the company did their homework before deciding on an upgrade, and after careful consideration decided that other systems on the market were not as user friendly. Tyreman V12 provides solutions to wide variety of business requirements and most importantly according to Leo: “For us as a customer, we found that Tyreman had listened to and addressed our needs. To this day there have been no regrets and the benefits of the new system are numerous.”
In fact, prior to upgrading, STW were reportedly looking to employ another sales person. However, with the business efficiencies made since the upgrade that expense is said to have been spared.
STW also took up Tyreman’s off-site server option on the basis that a hosted solution was not only secure, but also mirrored and backed up to within 10 minutes of the latest transactions. STW took this leap in March 2010.
Recently STW gave its customers access to the Tyreman ‘Tyre Portal’ web site which allows them to retrieve copy invoices and statements on-line, bringing yet further savings to STW.
As far as the future, STW report that they continue to look to Tyreman for the company’s IT solutions and see EDIWheel as one possible area, with Tyreman having 15 years experience with EDI solutions.
Related News:
Comments