When brother and sister Tom and Hannah joined the business five years ago they made changes to help them take it forward for another generation. We spoke to them about their new ERP system, if you want to hear more you can listen to a podcast or watch a longer video below

Dunsters already had an ERP, but the system wasn't giving them what they needed. They wanted better performance data to help them run the business, and to help them to take advantage of the opportunities to be nimble and agile which come with being small. They also wanted to increase their efficiency and deliver better customer service. Any system would have to deliver on those objectives to be considered

The system has given Dunsters huge benefits in the areas they were trying to address.

On customer service the new system helps ensure they get orders right first time, so they give better customer service and don't need to work so hard to resolve issues which come from mistakes. This also drives large cost savings.

In terms of efficiency, their team can get lots more done, with picking speeds in the warehouse roughly doubling. In its first year the ERP system helped them double profitability, with later integrations with a CRM system opening up further improvements

Tom and Hannah started with lots of online research. They didn't really know what an ERP was and they weren't sure what they needed, but they knew they needed to get it right first time. After narrowing it down to five or six by asking lots of questions to get the right fit for them, they realised they would have to choose between two different types of product and supplier. They could go with a big household name product which would need to be customised to fit their business, and where they would have to work through a third party provider, or they could go with a smaller providers which had a specific solution for their industry. In the end they opted for a smaller player as it meant they had a direct contact with the people designing the software, but they were very careful to ensure that the provider was stable, and well equipped to be a long term partner of theirs.

Once they had gotten down to the last two potential suppliers, Tom and Hannah went all around the country looking at the systems in action to see how it could work for them. Crucially they wanted to see it being used by businesses just like theirs which had similar requirements. It's all very well seeing how it could work in another warehouse, but they needed to see how it would perform in another business which specifically dealt with food, which also had to deal with issues like weighted products, refrigeration, and temperature control

When it came down to the final decision, Dunsters went with the partner who they felt they could work with the best. They don’t have an in-house IT team so they needed someone who could work with closely to implement the solution, and who wouldn't charge them for every minute of what was likely to be a challenging implementation process. The provider team was a key part of the decision process. They felt sure they could get the support they needed without going over budget

The new system meant a lot of changes for the team. After a long time of working the same way this system required a new way of doing things. It was difficult at first, but once the team were on board and some of the benefits became apparent, it was a revelation. People couldn't believe the problems the system solved, how much time they were saving, and the way in which things were done to a higher standard. Tom had a warehouse picker come to him on the second day and describe how he had just picked a large order in half the time it would normally take.

But there were teething problems. It was a very large change for their workforce and they had to make it overnight. There were issues on day one when the signal for the voice picking system failed and the warehouse team were unable to work until it was fixed. This put a lot of pressure on Tom and Hannah as new leaders in the business who had led this change.

After successfully implementing the ERP, Dunsters are now looking for opportunities to extract further benefits from it. They have now integrated it with a new Customer Relationship Management system, allowing for further improvements in data and efficiency and also opening up new sales opportunities.

We carried on our discussion with Hannah and Tom once the cameras stopped rolling. You can listen to the rest of the discussion here.