Explosive growth
In 2014 Tim Rijs decided to start a company in the textile industry, following his father and grandfather. Where his predecessors sold their fabrics and haberdashery on the market, the youngest family member chose to sell his products exclusively online. That turned out to be a bull’s eye. Rijs Textiles B.V. has grown into one of the largest web shops in Europe for quality fabrics and haberdashery.
Growth spurt
Because Rijs Textiles is a largely digitally operating company, the functioning of the technical infrastructure is of great importance. Every minute that the website is offline, or the underlying technology does not work, means that income is lost. Due to the growth spurt that the company has experienced since its inception, the IT environment also grew out of its shape and no longer met the required capacity. In addition, a number of processes were due for replacement. Tim Rijs, founder and director of Rijs Textiles, was aware of this: “Due to our explosive growth, a number of processes had to be modernized and automated. The hundreds of orders and invoices that came in every day from all over Europe were still entered manually. ” There was also a plan to introduce a new logistics system, using wireless hand scanners. In addition to these adjustments, Rijs indicated that he needed complete unburdening of his IT environment: “We were not only ready for a modern infrastructure, but we also did not want to have to worry about the underlying technology, so that we can only focus on our core business. to keep. ”
To modernize the business processes, Rijs was looking for an integrated system that could provide answers to the issues that the organization was dealing with. Rijs therefore decided to call in the help of Exact Software. They in turn recommended Qexpertise because of their experience with the implementation of Exact’s ERP systems within the retail sector. After an exploratory meeting in which customer wishes were discussed, Walther van Gool, Sales Consultant at Qexpertise, started with an extensive situation analysis in which current and future work processes were examined. A number of options were evaluated based on the situation analysis and the customer’s wishes. Together with Van Gool, Rijs came to the conclusion that Exact Globe was the most suitable solution. Exact Globe is a business software package developed by Exact Software, which offers a total solution for the most diverse financial and logistics processes.
In addition to a new ERP system, Rijs was also looking for a way to unburden his organization. Van Gool and Rijs quickly agreed that a cloud solution is the right way to achieve this. That is why it was decided to enlist the help of Parentix Cloud Solutions. Parentix specializes in the management of Exact software in the cloud and is uniquely able to help organizations with the transition to a hosted Exact environment, in which full management is taken over. By using the services of Parentix, Rijs Textiles can run all its systems on external servers managed by Parentix. They also take over the management and monitoring of all software and hardware and ensure that the latest updates are carried out. Rijs: “The advantage of Parentix is that they offer a full service package. They take over the entire management from us. We do not have to run a server locally and do not have to worry about our technical environment. In addition, we can scale up and down on a monthly basis if necessary and we can contact them at any time if something arises. ”
An implementation like this requires short lines and clear communication. Fortunately, the cooperation between Rijs Textiles, Parentix and Qexpertise went very smoothly from the first meeting. Rijs: “I could count on a lot of involvement during the collaboration with Parentix and Qexpertise. It was immediately clear to me that both parties are only satisfied when I am too. ” Walther van Gool: “There was actually an immediate click after the first contact, because I myself also have a history in the textile and haberdashery trade. I found it very interesting to see how Rijs Textiles has grown into an organization with customers all over Europe in just three years. It was a very nice challenge for us to ensure that the IT environment can grow with the current status of the organization.
The old system consisted of a number of simple tools that did not synchronize with each other. This simple infrastructure had to make way for a fully integrated ERP system, which would be made available on an external cloud server. After the decision had been taken and Exact Globe was chosen from a cloud environment, the three parties sat down to discuss further details. After that, the necessary licenses were requested and the implementation process could actually start.
Where Qexpertise was the first point of contact towards Rijs Textiles, Parentix ensured that all technical facilities were installed in the background, on a cloud server managed by them. Parentix was involved in things like installing the software, moving the data from the old database to the new system, creating the right users and tailoring the system to the specific needs of Rijs Textiles. Qexpertise was then able to get started with the functional design of the software. This clear division of tasks ensured that the transition to the cloud went very smoothly.
Customization
In addition to the implementation of Exact Globe, a number of custom solutions were required. For example, a connection had to be made between the web shops - which are hosted on an external cloud server - and the database that would be hosted by Parentix. A new shipping solution, Transsmart, also had to be integrated with the new ERP system. In addition, Rijs wanted to work with a new order picking system with handheld scanners to speed up the logistics process. Rogier van Nimwegen, Sales Manager at Parentix: “These kinds of custom solutions require flexibility from the technical partner. Because of the knowledge and experience we have in the field of Exact software and our close relationship with the software suppliers, we knew what to do to meet these special requests. ” An example of an assignment that required extra attention was linking the handheld scanners and printers in the warehouse of Rijs Textiles to the database on the Parentix server. It is important that the correct scanners are selected, the WiFi is strong enough and that a VPN connection is established between the printer and the database.
Rijs: “We are very pleased with the result. With the new infrastructure, we can process more orders with less staff. In addition, the error margins have been significantly reduced and we have a better overview of the stock, so that we can better respond to any peak times. An example of the success of the implementation is the handling of international invoices. Where we previously had to calculate the VAT percentages ourselves, the new tool is able to automatically detect where the invoice comes from, so that the correct VAT code is immediately loaded. In addition, thanks to Parentix’s service, we no longer have to worry about the functioning of our IT. ”
“We also expect to grow in the coming years, so we will most likely have to expand the current functionalities of our IT again soon. Our collaboration with Qexpertise and Parentix is therefore one for the long term ”, says Rijs. Van Nimwegen: “The optimization of the technical infrastructure is a constant process. We will therefore undoubtedly continue to talk to each other. ”
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