Carey & Fox Case Study

Based in South Kirkby, West Yorkshire, Carey & Fox are manufacturers of craftsman‐built bespoke timber windows, doors and conservatories. With the help of DMC, ACT! enabled them to organise all their customer information in one centralised location so every detail of every business relationship was at their fingertips.

Company name: Carey & Fox
Company site: http://www.careyandfox.co.uk/
Product: Sage ACT!
Date: 27/11/09
Region: West Yorkshire
No Of Seats: 16

Situation:

Carey & Fox has been in operation since 1985. Operations Manager, Jason Carey is the son of one of the founders. “We’re a family business, but not a small one,” he explains.

“We have over sixty people now – in the office, factory and on the road.”

He also explains the problems the company was facing prior to installing ACT!. “As bespoke manufacturers, every job involves complete site visits and lots of ongoing contact between ourselves and our clients. This occurs as the job progresses, right through construction, all the way to final delivery and fit. It’s absolutely essential that we stay on top at all times.”

A few years back, Jason realised that their simple database system simply wasn’t delivering. “It was built by a local man and it did a ‘sort‐of’ job,” he points out. “It generated numbers and a reference point but there was no single source for everyone to relate to. Every member of the team had his or her pocket of personal contacts, but there was no cohesion and as we grew this became more of a problem.”

As he explains, information wasn’t getting fed back to the main file and small office arguments of the “I told you about that!” “No you didn’t” varieties were occurring. “Worse,” he says, “clients were being asked to explain and repeat information they had already told us once, which is not the professional image we wanted to portray.”

Solution:

Jason began to search the internet for solutions. “Sage ACT! came up and seemed to be the best answer,” he explains. “Also DMC pretty much dominated all the search results.” So Jason got in touch and was immediately impressed.

“DMC are about ninety minutes away, but straightaway David Curtis came out to talk to us about what we needed and what DMC could do.”

David also had a suggestion for the company. “He told us that DMC were at a big exhibition in London. So we went down and they showed us ACT! in action. Seeing what it could do first hand was great and we’d already decided in advance that DMC were right for us.”

DMC then came back with a formal presentation to Carey & Fox’s newly installed MD and he was very impressed too.

“What we also liked, “Jason says, “was that DMC didn’t tell us we needed to spend a fortune on new hardware. Instead they simply recommended some small upgrades to what we already had – the server needed some more disk space and more memory, things like that. Economically it all made sense straightaway.”

Installation was a smooth process, too, as he recalls. “DMC came down and it took about two days in all ‐ one to install and one to monitor the system and to iron out any initial glitches.”

DMC also provided full training. “Pre‐installation we had an initial introduction followed by further training as and where we wanted it. We set up a small room here and DMC carried out the training in batches of five or six people. At their suggestion these were manageable groups which didn’t interfere with our day to day operation by taking too many people away from their desks at any one time.”

Benefits:

Jason is enthusiastic about ACT! “It’s absolutely fantastic! The efficiency gain is amazing. Everyone works together, everyone knows where to go for information and everything is in one place. With so many people on the road this kind of centralisation is critical. Everyone is synchronised to the main system, even though they might be miles away.”

He adds: “The information ACT! delivers is invaluable. We know exactly who needs calling back, what money is going through the system and how many leads we have on the go. It’s all information which we simply didn’t have before, or rather we did have but which was scattered about and so of little use to the company as a whole.”

ACT! also enables the field sales teams to priorities their days and make the best use of their time.

“They go onto ACT! and see who needs a call‐back that very day,” Jason concludes. “They can map their whole week of calls and contacts instead of waking up and thinking ‘what will I do today?’ and that is just fantastic. Now people here simply wouldn’t want to live without ACT!”