How can you increase your sales and manage a growing number of transactions? It was a challenge Distribution Paral was facing, a growing SME specialized distributing dairy products in
Quebec, and cheese section leader. Alain and Denis Parent, Presidents, put in place a business process digitalization plan to overcome this challenge. He chose Fidelio ERP, an integrated
solution, to manage all of his operations. Today, Distribution Paral manages up to 1,000 sales transactions per day and continues to add new products. Learn how Fidelio has enabled the
company to continue its growth and increase its sales volume considerably.
Digitalization Strategy
Distribution Paral is a family business founded in 1991. Specialized in dairy product distribution, in 2006, it created a specialty cheese division. The company is progressively partnering with renowned names in the industry, like Lactalis (Parmalat), Fromagerie Bergeron, Fromagerie Champêtre and Fromagerie Polyethnique. In 2015, its market extends throughout the entirety of Quebec and its growth prospects for Canada are impressive, especially in the cheese sector.
However, despite significant business opportunities, Distribution Paral’s growth was hampered by the use of non-integrated tools and manual processes. The agri-food distribution sector is also a very competitive industry, access to real time information is a major asset: acquiring an ERP software is as important.
Up until then, Paral had no online ordering system that would let them manage the sales process. Its sales force did not have access to customer information in real time and the increasing transaction volume became too complicated to manage. For them, it was now a necessity to invest in an integrated management system.
“Fidelio became a favourite due to its rich features and integration: it was a great value-add for my company.”
Choosing a Fully-integrated Management System: Fidelio ERP
The goal of the investment was to manage all the operations of its business, Distribution Paral, with a single, fully integrated system. No more paper invoices and manual processes: every department must use the same integrated solution.
Another selection criterion: the solution needed to help their sales team reach their objectives by automating their travel. The integration with a mobile solution to allow for the tracking of sales objectives, prospects, appointments, orders and inventories, anywhere and any time was key.
He chose Fidelio, which has all of these features and fulfils all of his SME’s needs:
- EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) to meet the requirements of large distribution chains.
- Inventory control and stock management
- Management of sales processes, from quoting to invoicing to order taking and delivery.
- Mobile connectivity to make representatives’ work easier when they visit stores.
- Accounting and financial management that includes cost calculation, handling accounts payables and receivables and generating reports.
“It was also essential that the management software fit perfectly with what our suppliers were using.”
A Profitable Investment
Today, not only are all of Distribution Paral’s departments integrated into the system, its suppliers’ tools are too.
Thanks to Fidelio’s digitalization process and its EDI, paper use has been practically eliminated.
What’s more, sales representatives are better equipped to achieve their goals. They can quickly view client information and take orders on their tablet when visiting a store. Their sales volume has increased and over 1,000 transactions per day are directly managed in the system.
“We are completely satisfied with Fidelio. Our sales are strong and we can manage large transaction volumes every day. “With regards to our representatives, they have become more effective in stores and their analyses are more accurate.” Says Denis Parent, who then adds: “Fidelio’s EDI
enabled us to increase considerably our transaction volume over 4 years.”
What about now?
In 2018, Distribution Paral’s offer grew again, with a partnership with one of the world leaders in the cheese market. Here again, using Fidelio has been key success factor. Store activity control, on-time information, easy tracking and communication: all supplier requirements are met!
For Alain Parent, another invaluable asset Fidelio has is the ability to develop new features to help him adapt to his growth and upcoming needs.
What his next project? The implementation of a CRM optimized for their burgeoning activities!
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