Why did Brad Boult from CMI Optical select Unleashed to manage his inventory?
The first thing he tells us is that he wanted to know if there was ever a fire at his business that he would still have access to company data. Like so many businesses these days, Brad was looking for an inventory management solution that was cloud-based, secure, and easy to use, and Unleashed fit the bill. CMI Optical distribute optical frames and sunglasses to independent optometrists throughout New Zealand. Their frames are predominantly french-designed and manufactured, ensuring CMI Optical have the latest designs and best quality frames available. They also carefully select the practices they supply, so you won’t find their product in any chain stores. 
After working for CMI Optical for ten years, Brad bought the business in 2007, at the time of the fiscal crisis when the future was looking uncertain. Seven years on and the future is looking bright though, as Brad has been growing their range and reach ever since. When we visited Brad at his office, he was excited to introduce us to the Julbo eyewear range - a leading range of high performance sunglasses that CMI Optical have recently started distributing. As a distributor supplying independent optometrists around the country, CMI Optical often have consignment stock they supply to optometrists on ‘appro’ - which effectively means they distribute optical frames and sunglasses to the practices they supply, at no cost, and these frames can be returned if not sold. Unleashed enables CMI Optical to easily manage this process, so they always know what stock is on appro and which practice it has been shipped to. Brad’s favourite feature in Unleashed is the dashboard, which gives a graphic representation (there are some great screenshots on this page) of sales data on a daily, quarterly, month-to-date and year-to-date basis.
Just by glancing at his dashboard, Brad can tell if CMI Optical’s margin has increased or decreased, which products are responsible for this, and if one product range is selling better than another. As CMI Optical’s sales force spends a lot of time out of the office visiting customers, they particularly appreciate the freedom they have to log into Unleashed and view real-time stock movements wherever they have access to the internet, which enables them to supply accurate information to customers immediately, instead of having to respond to their customer later.
Brad sums up this benefit of using Unleashed nicely when he says, “Unleashed makes us very flexible, and I think that’s important in today’s business environment, that you can be able to change from day-to-day, and it’s also great value for money”. We really enjoyed talking to Brad and learning how the deep visibility of real-time stock movements in Unleashed and the ability to access this information from anywhere, has helped CMI Optical grow their business.
Watch the video below to learn how CMI Optical use Unleashed to manage their inventory, or click here for more case studies about how successful businesses are using Unleashed.
If you would like to learn more about CMI Optical and the product they distribute throughout New Zealand, check out their Facebook page.
