Spring 2009

Smeg, the manufacturer of highly distinctive kitchen appliances, has chosen Maginus to provide an automated order processing solution.

Although Maginus will be best-known to many of our readers for its multi-channel and e-commerce expertise, many of its skills can also be applied in the general supply-chain market, and Smeg says it was particularly attracted to Maginus's experience of the retail world.

Smeg wanted to improve the efficiency, accuracy and responsiveness of its order-to-delivery process, integrating its sales functions with its logistics business, as well as integrating its UK operations with manufacturing in Italy. The object was to reduce overheads.

'We needed technology that would let us conduct business how we wanted and not place any limitations on us,' says IT manager Simon Jarvis.

 

Maginus has supplied a system that typically handles 30 concurrent users. The 16 sales administrators and accounts people are regular users of the technology. The big beneficiaries are said to be the 24-strong sales team, who now have detailed information at their fingertips on a daily basis, and are better able to plan ahead. The company's invoicing system is also said to have been improved.

Remarkably, Smeg's third-party logistics provider went bust while it was selecting the software, and Smeg ended up using Maginus software for distribution management for a period as well.