Wood Lane starts the new year with Counteract

Wood Lane Timber Merchants Limited is one of the fastest-growing independent timber merchants in the East Midlands.  Trading since 2003, it has built a reputation for providing a first-class service supplying top quality timber, joinery and sheet materials at competitive prices.  Wood Lane’s quality service has helped it build up a wide range of customers covering trades such as builders, roofer, shopfitters and landscapers.  It also supplies to local authorities and for public sector projects as well as to the general public.

In September 2018, Wood Lane Timber started looking for a new software supplier after learning that their previous supplier was going to cease trading.

Pat Kelly, managing director of Wood Lane explains – “We were given a year’s notice that our software supplier would be ceasing to trade. Prior to this, they hadn’t really been updating their system so we already knew it was time for a change.”

Wood lane quickly settled upon Border Merchant Systems and its intuitive software, CounterAct. “The reason for this choice was the great reputation of CounterAct within the industry, along with the fact that we felt it was nearest fit to the system we had been using previously,” Pat added.

Border discussed various options with Wood Lane before providing them with a quote for their specific business model. “We were impressed with how quickly Border got to know our business and our objectives; they were even able to help with the finance by spreading the payments over a one-year period.” Pat continued, “We have been delighted with the service they have given us and are already noticing real changes to our business in terms of speed and efficiency. The fact that the system is constantly updated means we always have the latest technology at our fingertips.”

The system has brought significant benefit to Wood Lane since going live on the 1st May 2019, including:

• the ability to email customer and supplier invoices and statements, a process which now takes minutes rather than the hours it used to take to prepare and post them;
• the recording and reviewing of customer history, which can be done in just a matter of clicks, even at the desk whilst serving the customer;
• the simplification of the special orders process, which can also be done at the point of contact with the customer; the system gives the option to ‘backorder’ with the supplier;
• easy access to, and interpretation of management information; and
• the use of Pro-forma invoices – something that is new to Wood Lane and but has already improved processing.

One of the real bonuses that Pat is keen to point out is the assistance Wood Lane has had from Border’s support desk. “Their expertise and knowledge has been outstanding. Border has helped Wood Lane ‘make tax digital’. They have also responded quickly to queries on Wood Lane’s ‘price book’. Of course, there will always be some teething troubles with a new installation – for us we had issues with transferring some information, but Border was able to step in immediately and help resolve any queries we had. The training was outstanding; Nick at Border and his team provided on-site training which meant a seamless transition on our go live date.”

“In general the system is so much more responsive than our old system and has certainly improved the speed with which we can service our customers. It has brought efficiency into the business in areas we weren’t even aware needed it. I personally believe we have 100% picked the right system to replace our old software, and would have no hesitation in recommending Border and its CounterAct software to other users,” confirmed Pat.