Demon Tweeks

Demon Tweeks is a true multi channel business with sales from traditional mail order, web and via the 10,000 sq.ft. retail showroom. A new web site, fully integrated with Maginus using Maginus' e-Commerce module was launched in 2003 and now delivers 11% of the company's turnover.  Plans to market the site further will increase this to 15%.  The site has contributed to the increase in turnover by generating new business as well as offering an additional channel to the existing customer base. Demon Tweeks also use Maginus in their showroom where sales staff take customer details at the till, ensuring there is a full customer sales history. This applies whether goods are purchased in the retail outlet, by mail order or over the web.

Demon Tweeks have a significant export business accounting for 16% of turnover. Maginus allows sales to be made in local currencies of euros, sterling, dollars and yen. An 85,000 sq.ft. warehouse in Wrexham, North Wales, allows Demon Tweeks to stock over 140,000 items from which any stock item is available for same day despatch. Warehouse operations have been significantly streamlined following the implementation of Maginus, with less paper, more efficient processes and an integrated carrier interface which has freed at least one full time person to do other work.

Customer service staff have access to track and trace (access to the carrier website to identify where a package is in the system) and it is planned to make this available to customers via the Demon Tweeks web site. Each member of the sales team has their own targets for turnover and margin and negotiates with customers using the margin information readily available within Maginus. This gives them the freedom to get the best deal for Demon Tweeks as well as satisfying the customer.

Customer service is a key element of the Demon Tweeks offering, so access to information is key to ensure that customer queries can be answered quickly and efficiently. Louise Jones continued, "Our staff use the contact log screen all the time. It's the main CRM screen in Maginus and is the hub of the system for customer service. The system also allows the staff to drill down into different customer and product information. Maginus has been designed to handle multi channel businesses so our staff have access to all order details - whichever channel the customer used to place the order."

With Maginus, Demon Tweeks now have much tighter control of costs and overheads, which has contributed to increased profit margins. Louise Jones commented, "Everything is easier to monitor and manage with Maginus."

For example, the use of recommended replenishment in Maginus has given Demon Tweeks a clearer idea of optimum stockholdings and volumes. Updating products and prices used to be very time consuming; now the dataload utility automatically updates prices using Excel files and files from suppliers. This can be done in advance of a price change and set with a future start date. Mail order returns and supplier returns have also been streamlined and now take far fewer resources.

Demon Tweeks plan to develop barcoding and RF facilities in the warehouse to further improve efficiency. They also plan to further develop the web site. The business plan is to achieve significant future growth and Maginus will continue to support this. Louise concluded, "As long as Maginus continue to satisfy our needs as a business, I certainly don't see us needing to change systems in the future."