Tile and KBB companies helped Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS) celebrate its 40th birthday recently. The company — a leading software supplier to the industry — marked this impressive milestone during its latest customer conference.
The company was established in 1976 — the same year as the Apple computer company. Chief Executive Officer Ian Bendelow guided delegates through a 40-year timeline of KCS software innovations, all of which have been designed to control every aspect of finance, trading, logistics and management — and to help customers develop their business and enhance customer service.
K8 is the company’s flagship product, with over 20,000 development days per annum being invested into the product. K8 Babbage is the company’s current major software release. It can be deployed on customers’ own hardware or hosted and managed in the KCS cloud — an increasingly popular option that delivers enhanced system performance, faster reporting and 24/7 trading options for businesses that just can’t afford system downtime.
Recent enhancements have been made to help distributors meet the expectations of their customers, who order remotely and expect next day delivery; integration with electronically maintained catalogues, the introduction of the K8 ePOD solution which enables drivers to manage deliveries on hand held devices (including capturing signatures) and is fully integrated with the Cognito Fieldforce IQ remote management software; the ability to apply multiple tiers to product promotions; telephony integration and the option to raise orders on a tablet by accessing K8 through a Browser.
K8’s web trading platform, Web Builder, already supports Paypal, Google eCommerce tracking and ‘ReCaptcha’ and conference delegates learned that next year Web Builder sites will be fully responsive across all devices, such as phones, tablets or PC’s.
The company also announced a strengthened support structure designed to enhance customers’ go-live and upgrade experiences and the imminent availability of e-learning courses for individual users — a significant benefit for smaller operations.
Workshops on day two of the conference were devoted to helping customers exploit some of K8’s powerful and fully integrated core modules — hire management, business intelligence, purchasing and forecasting, finance and supplier rebate management.
The KCS team emphasized that the evolution of K8 is driven by customers who constantly push the product forward — although the first in-house ‘hackathon’ where analysts and programmers worked in teams to develop candidate features over 24 hours had also delivered some useful prototypes!
This year’s customer conference coincided with the announcement of two major business wins for KCS. One of these new customers tweeted during the event “I know we have chosen the right solution to move our company forward.”
In addition to UK operations in Hungerford, Bourne End and Newcastle, KCS, which employs 400 staff, also has major facilities serving customers in Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa. In 2015, the company expanded in to North America opening offices in North Carolina. The KCS Group now has around 800 customers, serving 6,000 locations and 80,000 users in 18 countries.
