Nottingham Forest Football Club has successfully integrated its eCommerce and financial systems using Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform, as well as automated its order fulfilment processes to improve retail operations, customer service and reduce costs.
Over previous years, Nottingham Forest Football Club outsourced all of its retail operations. However, the decision was made to bring this back in-house to take more control and generate more revenue. In order to do this, it needed to update its financial system and introduce a full eCommerce package. Microsoft Dynamics NAV was selected alongside Magento – a leading eCommerce platform.
“My objective was to use ‘out of the box’ Magento and Microsoft Dynamics NAV and introduce an integration layer between the systems to negate the differences and allow the two systems to collaborate effectively. We use Magento for both retail and web sales. An order will come through and Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform determines whether it is a physical or web sale. This data is then uploaded into Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The BPA Platform then generates a ‘ship to address’ process and creates a cash receipt. It’s a true integration solution for retail which requires no manual administration.” Steve Dickman, IT Manager, Nottingham Forest Football Club
The efficiency of retail operations, with no margin for human error, was a primary goal for Nottingham Forest Football Club. In light of this, one of the main processes that it wanted to automate was shipping.
“We needed to be able to ship a product fairly quickly. Football supporters are impatient. They want their shirts as soon as possible so that they have got them before their mates do. In order to achieve this, sales from the website needed to be integrated with our courier service – DPD. The BPA Platform generates pick lists in our warehouse, the products are packaged and then the BPA Platform generates and prints shipping labels ready for DPD to collect. We have also integrated DPD’s tracking system. It’s a complete end-to-end solution.”Steve Dickman
The primary location for stock is the financial system (Microsoft Dynamics NAV) and not the shop itself. Therefore, a key consideration was that stock data needed to move freely to ensure that orders could be fulfilled and customers would not be let down due to incorrect stock information. As a result, the Club needed a solution that could manage stock levels across multiple locations.
“We decided that Microsoft Dynamics NAV would be the financial platform, which would hold stock and purchase orders, but the web shop (Magento) would also need to contain current stock levels as this would feed both the physical retail store and web sales. They would be taking stock from two warehouse locations, and therefore it was imperative that stock could be moved and systems kept up-to-date with correct stock levels.”Steve Dickman
When planning to bring the retail operations in-house Dickman predicted that there would be three people in the warehouse, not including front of house staff and people on the phones. Integrating the eCommerce and financial systems and creating tasks to facilitate the automation of key processes has meant that otherwise vital administration is not required now.
“Introducing Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform has meant that we’re running at a third of what was originally envisioned for staffing, and it’s working successfully. We’re now looking at bringing hospitality and catering in house. We’ll be extending the BPA Platform to cover purchase order processing for perishable items, in addition to the branded clothing and accessories for retail. We are also introducing an EPOS system into our kiosks and hospitality lounges for the sale of food and drink.”Steve Dickman
For further details regarding this news story download the full case study below, or if you would like to discuss ways to improve retail operations by integrating eCommerce, financial and courier services, please do not hesitate to contact us by email [email protected] or call +44 (0)330 998 8700.
