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. Their wide range is frequently updated, and CMI Optical will often ship samples to their customers, so it’s important for them to know where their product is, at any time of the day.
The Problem Brad Boult from CMI Optical wanted to know if there was ever a fire at his business, that he would still be able to access company data, and recognised the benefits of a cloud-based solution in allowing him to access accurate and up-to-date company data from anywhere he had access to the internet. Around the same time he learned about Unleashed, Brad was looking at changing CMI Optical’s accounting package to make their business more flexible, and selected Xero to manage their accounts. However Xero didn’t offer inventory management capability, and CMI Optical required a solution that would integrate with Xero to allow them to manage their inventory effectively. With Brad travelling regularly to visit the practices CMI Optical supplies, often promoting new optical frames and ranges, it’s important for him to have accurate information about what product is available, and how the business is performing while he’s out of the office.
The Solution After signing up for Xero to manage their accounts, the Xero team recommended CMI Optical implement Unleashed, as the two systems integrate easily, sharing important sales information, which eliminates the need for re-entry when it comes time for invoicing. Brad loves that he doesn’t have to be in the office to view his stock levels, saying “you can be anywhere in New Zealand, and still run your business”. His favourite feature in Unleashed is the dashboard, which gives a graphic representation 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. Brad’s staff also think Unleashed is great because they can see up-to-date stock levels and answer customer questions quickly because of this.
The Result 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 in to Unleashed and view real-time stock movements wherever they have access to the internet. This enables them to supply accurate information to customers immediately, instead of having to respond to their customers later. Brad sums up the benefits of using Unleashed for his business best 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.
