The BCN Podcast

ERP Solutions for Wholesale and Distribution

• BCN

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This week’s conversation focuses on the vital role of ERP solutions in the wholesale and distribution sector, emphasising how Business Central helps businesses stay competitive amid operational challenges. Through a comprehensive discussion with our experts, we explore the integration of AI that enhances efficiency and decision-making.

• Overview of operational challenges facing the wholesale and distribution sector 

• Insight into how Business Central addresses these challenges with an all-in-one solution 

• Discussion on the importance of accurate data and AI integration in improving business processes

Don’t forget to visit our website, www.bcn.co.uk, where you’ll find a wealth of information along with contact details to help you on your journey towards digital transformation.




Peter Filitz:

Hello and welcome to the BCN podcast. Today we're going to be exploring ERP solutions for the wholesale and distribution sector, and with me today I've got Ban Hassan, one of our Business Central consultants, and Fraser Deer, our head of AI and data. Ban Fraser, thank you so much for joining me on today's conversation. Let's start with an introduction for our audience. Shall we start with you, ban.

Ban Hasan:

Sure? Hello, I'm Ban Hassan, a Business Central Functional Consultant here at BCN, and I come from an industry background with hands-on experience in supply chain management. I also hold a master's degree in business psychology and global supply chain management, which gives me a bit of a unique perspective on how technology, processes and people come together to drive efficiency and growth.

Peter Filitz:

Excellent, ben. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us, fraser.

Fraser Dear:

Hi there everyone. My name is Fraser. I look after our AI and digital data innovation piece here at BCN. My background, similar to Ban, is quite wide and quite varied. I've worked in lots and lots of different sectors defence, fast-moving consumer goods, high-tech and now work here at BCN trying to support our teams and our clients, work out a digital transformation journey and, in particular, thinking about how data and AI come together to drive efficiency and to drive business process.

Peter Filitz:

Now, today we're talking about some of the biggest challenges in wholesale and distribution and how Business Central are helping businesses stay competitive. You know, and I think it's fair to say, that data, ai, along with Business Central and the combination of those different elements are making some huge changes in the distribution and wholesale space. So, ben, from your experience, what are the biggest operational challenges that wholesale and distribution businesses face today?

Ban Hasan:

Well, businesses today are facing multiple challenges in warehouse and distribution, so from inventory inaccuracies and inefficient order fulfillment to supply chain disruptions and rising operational costs. So many companies are struggling with full end-to-end supply chain visibility, making it difficult to track stock movements, optimize demand planning and improve customer service levels. And some companies still rely on outdated systems or manual processes, so this increases the risk of human error and operational insufficiencies. Other businesses use a combination of standalone finance, inventory or in-sales tools. So even when businesses collect data in one place, turning that data into real-time, actionable insights is a challenge in itself, so this is where a unified system like Business Central becomes essential. It provides businesses with real-time data and automation capabilities to improve decision making and enhance operation efficiency.

Peter Filitz:

Okay, that's a really interesting overview on those operational challenges. Now for businesses who are struggling with these challenges, because, from what we know, being in this space for so many years, what does Business Central bring to the table and how does it help businesses address these challenges?

Ban Hasan:

Well, you can say that Business Central is an all-in-one, cloud-based ERP system. So it connects core business processes for example, finance, inventory, sales, purchasing, warehouse management and supply chain operations into a single and integrated platform. So it eliminates the need for multiple disconnected systems and it offers real-time visibility into every single stage of your business. So, because Business Central is modular, so businesses can start with essential functionalities and scale up as they grow. So some of the key benefits that would be within Business Central is its elimination of manual processes, so this is through automation of invoicing, approvals or reporting and so on. And it also offers cloud accessibility so it allows businesses to access the system from anywhere. So this is especially valuable for businesses that operate in the warehouse and distribution environment. And it has seamless integration with Microsoft 365. So tools like Excel, Teams and Outlook, and also third-party applications ensuring that these businesses can extend Business Central capabilities based on their specific needs.

Peter Filitz:

That's great, yeah, so I mean, if businesses are already leveraging the Microsoft cloud ecosystem and they're using things like Office 365 and they're on the hunt for an ERP system, and then Business Central definitely sounds like it could be a good fit for those.

Ban Hasan:

Exactly Bill.

Peter Filitz:

Now, I guess let's look at addressing some of the key risks and challenges. Many businesses rely on different tools for accounting, warehouse management and sales, leading to disconnected data. So how does Business Central bring everything together?

Ban Hasan:

Business Central is built in a way to remove all these data silos, so it offers standard configurations for most business processes, but it can also be customized to fit unique business needs.

Ban Hasan:

So some of the core functionalities of Business Central is its financial management, so it automates financial operations, cash flows and financial reporting. It also has project management, so it tells businesses, plan, track resources and ensure timely delivery. It also includes operations and supply chain management, which manages inventory level, track orders and optimize warehouse operations. Then you have reporting and analytics, which provides real-time data-driven dashboards for decision making. And finally, you have sales and service analytics, which provides real-time data-driven dashboards for decision making. And finally, you have sales and service management, which gives sales teams the tools to manage customer relationships and improve service response times. Now, as you can see, all these core functionalities sit with one unified solution, and that's how it helps with the separation of the data that some of these customers have as an issue. Ai is also being integrated into all these areas. So, for example, Copilot and Business Central can help users generate insights. Users can ask Copilot how to use some of the functionalities that already exist in Business Central, and it can do that as well.

Peter Filitz:

Fantastic. So you know, that's where we see AI also being a real game changer in this space, providing the end users with the tools that they need to better use the systems that are being provided, thus improving the return on investment for the business. Now I know, based on previous conversations with Andy and the data team and Fraser, one of the biggest risks and challenges, shall we say, we see in the warehouse management is the inventory inaccuracy. Businesses are either overstocked or understocked. How does Business Central help address this particular challenge?

Ban Hasan:

Well, Peter, from my experience, the key to managing inventory efficiently is understanding what causes the overstocking and understocking of items. So these issues are often tied to inaccurate demand forecasting and lack of real-time visibility into stock levels. So some of the ways Business Central can tackle these issues is, for example, real-time inventory tracking, so businesses always know their stock levels across multiple locations, and they can also automate stock replenishment so they can set up order points and safety stock levels. This ensures automated purchase order creation when inventory hits a predefined threshold. Another thing is that we also have Demand Fore forecast module in Business Central so we can analyze historical sales trends and external factors to predict future stock, and AI-driven demand forecasting, where we can use the built-in demand forecasting tool to help predict future sales and production needs, and this allows businesses to plan according to all of that. And another point worth mentioning here is the multi-location inventory visibility. This is where businesses who are operating across multiple warehouses can track stock levels in real time.

Peter Filitz:

Yeah, but I mean to give businesses that sort of visibility and functionality is a real game changer from an efficiency perspective when it comes to stock management. Now we've all heard horror stories across all industries around changing ERP systems and sort of bringing things together. But I know you and the team at BCN have been doing this for many years, working closely with hundreds of businesses in transitioning them, automate and leverage AI in their ERP. What should they expect along the way and what is the approach that we sort of suggest from starting that journey?

Ban Hasan:

Well in BCN, the BC journey starts by understanding the business's current challenges and objectives, so it's really about understanding what the customers need.

Ban Hasan:

So the transition to business central typically follows a phased approach. So we start with discovery or pre-implementation, based on what the client's current system is, and this is where we aim to understand the pain points and insufficiencies with their current system. Then we do a system configuration and data migration. So this is to put it simply. This is where we set Business Central to align with the company's workflow and user acceptance. Testing will always follow system configuration to make sure all existing business requirements are captured by the system, and then training and change management. So this is ensuring teams are equipped with the knowledge to use Business Central effectively and users are aligned on the processes introduced by Business Central.

Ban Hasan:

And then we have Go Live. This is where we also include HyperCare to monitor the system performance after implementation. The goal here is not just replacing old systems, but it's transforming how businesses operate. So most of our customers start with basic functionalities like finance and inventory management, before expanding to more advanced capabilities like AI-driven forecasting, automation or power platform integration. But ultimately, when implementing Business Central and I'm sure Fraser would absolutely agree it's about getting your business data absolutely right.

Peter Filitz:

Yeah. So key Fraser, some thoughts on that. I know you've obviously worked closely with the Business Central team for a couple of years now. Always good to get your thoughts on it as well. Yeah.

Fraser Dear:

Yeah.

Fraser Dear:

I think, as Ben's described, the implementation journey of Business Central isn't just about recreating that carbon copy of your existing process. It's about challenging your existing business to say are we doing this the right way? Is this how we should be doing these activities? And I think when you then start to think about analytics and AI on top of that, as Ben said, if the data is right and the data is clear and structured and organized in one central location, it makes the rest of this journey so much easier. As we've talked about many times before, peter, ai for AI's sake is just awesome, and nerdy people like me get very excited about that. But the reality is that for businesses, ai is going to add to value, and so the modular nature of Business Central immediately lends itself really well to the implementation of AI. Because you can say, right, I'm going to bind finance, for example, because we've just deployed a finance module, we're allowing the business to continue its journey.

Fraser Dear:

But actually, by adding AI to the finance journey, we could then start to perhaps look at bottlenecks. We could start to look at predictive analytics. We could use that data to predict what's going to come next. There's a whole raft of elements that we could employ just on that one bounded segment and then, as the business scales and adds some different modules, different parts of AI then become relevant and appropriate in those elements. So there's loads and loads of ways that AI can infiltrate the data that you've got within your business central environment, extract it, as Ben's already explained, into other platforms and then infuse it with all sorts of other elements. But it's all about the use case. It's got to add business value or there's questionable value for a business to employ it.

Peter Filitz:

That makes sense, and AI is so often seen as a futuristic or complex technology. How does AI fit particularly into Business Central today?

Fraser Dear:

Yeah, it's a great question. With the advent of CoPilot appearing in almost every single Microsoft application. Business Central comes with AI built in in some respects, but it also enables a whole raft of further advances. So when we start to think about predictive analytics, we can start to say well, what's the likelihood and the statistical probability of X or Y occurring, based on the data that we've already got. It also enables things like automated workflows or intelligent decision making, so actually it doesn't need to go through a standard approval process, because we already know that it's gone through 300 of these previously, and therefore we can predict that actually the outcome would be positive.

Fraser Dear:

There's so many ways that we could augment the core of that business central implementation with AI that the world is your oyster from that perspective. When we really come down to the core of it, though, if you think about using, for example, copilot in the creation of a sales order, normally there's lots and lots of repetitive manual tasks that have to go in to create a sales order. If you ask Copilot to do it, you will reduce the number of manual errors and therefore the number of errors that are then within your supply chain, because you've used Copilot and AI to create those in the first place, because AI hasn't not had their coffee in the morning or their jam donut or whatever it is that's lying around in the office? Because, actually, the reality is it's always available and it's always right and it's always doing what you ask it to do. As long as you ask it to do the right thing, it will then generate the right response.

Peter Filitz:

Yeah, so true, arvind. It is a real game changer and we're seeing it across the industry, across the services where AI is certainly helping with those. How can I say human error prone tasks and activities? I guess an interesting fact what is the most unexpected way? Ai is being used in wholesale and distribution today.

Fraser Dear:

Well, something that crossed my desk the other day, which I almost jumped out of my seat at, was anybody that's listening to this will be, no doubt, maybe doing their end of year stock take, or maybe doing their end of month stock take, or maybe even doing their end of week stock take, and without paying too fine a point on it. It's probably one of the most boring, mundane tasks that any organization has to do. Now, what I observed was a drone being employed to do your stock take for you, because if you get your coding and barcoding, or QR coding, correct since they just let your drone fly around the fly around the warehouse and identify one or two stock locations that maybe the labels have peeled off or something doesn't look quite right. So we're using vision, we're actually transcribing where this drone is going to go and we're infusing it with data. Now, to me, that's pretty sharp.

Peter Filitz:

That is, and who knows where that's going to stop, but it is exciting to see that it's really making our lives easier in a lot of respects, allowing us to focus on the more important elements of our jobs. But I know we could probably sit here and talk all afternoon around AI and how it's making waves in that space. But I'll encourage the audience to tune in for our next podcast where we can do a deeper dive in how AI is changing the distribution and wholesale space. I guess that sort of brings us to the end of today's conversation. It's been extremely insightful on how Business Central and AI are helping shape the future of a wholesaler distribution. Just before we say goodbye, any final thoughts from you, ban?

Ban Hasan:

I think one important takeaway from this is that businesses can look at Business Central as more than just an ERP system. It's a stepping stone towards digital transformation. By implementing Business Central, they're building a solid foundation for long-term growth. So what makes it stand out is its scalability. Whether a company is just starting or expanding, and Business Central adapts and grows with them.

Peter Filitz:

Thank you so much. That is really really insightful parting thoughts, Fraser, anything from you.

Fraser Dear:

I'm going to keep it really simple Get your data right, and the rest is something that we can add. We can add our secret sauce on top of that data and make something awesome.

Peter Filitz:

Amazing. Thank you so much, ben. Thank you so much for joining us, fraser. Appreciate you taking the time, as always. And, just in closing, for the audience, don't forget to visit our website, wwwbcncouk. There you'll find a wealth of information as well as contact details for people who you can reach out to to get you started on your journey. Look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you so much.