By integrating the solutions from Integrated Worlds, HARDECK is moving closer to its goal of becoming a fully digital company. As part of the Begros association's EDI community, the next step planned for HARDECK is connecting with additional suppliers. The comprehensive expansion of the Begros association's digital network shows that both individual members and the association as a whole benefit from it, allowing them to advance together.
Hardeck Möbel GmbH & Co. KG is a furniture retail chain with stores in Bochum, Hilden, Senden, Bramsche and Hamburg, as well as a furnishing store and kitchen studio in Hamburg and an online shop. The company was founded as a family business in Bochum in 1937 and is now a well-known furniture store. HARDECK offers over 1,000 branded kitchens and a wide selection of upholstered furniture, living room, dining room and bedroom products, as well as countless boutique items, home textiles and lighting. Over 1,500 people work for the furniture store. In 2020, HARDECK expanded its offering with a new concept: the first furnishing store plus kitchen studio, covering an area of 1,500 square meters, opened in Hamburg on Gänsemarkt.
It has increasingly proven crucial for sales staff on the shop floor to be able to give their end customers precise and reliable delivery times. Hardeck Möbel GmbH & Co. KG, which uses the MHS merchandise management system (WWS) from SHD, digitized and automated this information in collaboration with Integrated Worlds. As a result, sales staff can now quickly retrieve delivery times and use them as a compelling sales argument.
An online shop without an exact indication of when the goods will be delivered is unimaginable. But why should we limit this view to the online world? Alongside information on available stock, delivery time is also essential information and a decisive factor influencing the purchase decision. With precise delivery times, sales staff can advise their customers competently and specifically offer alternatives with shorter delivery times for certain products. For manufacturers too, reliably providing precise delivery times to their trading partners is critically important. It has a direct impact on how their products are presented and sold in retail. By ensuring accurate delivery times, revenue can be increased on both sides, for manufacturers and for retailers alike.
Before delivery times were integrated as an EDI message at HARDECK, there was no way to transmit and process messages automatically. Integrated Worlds and HARDECK therefore began working closely with the Begros association to develop the requirements for this new message type. A model or item can have many different delivery times, depending on factors such as the delivery destination or the chosen logistics process (for example warehouse or direct delivery). Once all requirements had been defined, the next step was to provide the corresponding interface between SHD's WWS and the suppliers. It is designed so that EDI delivery times are automatically processed and adopted by the WWS in use. Integration with MHS was quick and simple. In addition to the digital interface, Integrated Worlds also provided various templates to make connecting suppliers as easy as possible. Using this template, suppliers can easily specify the delivery times for their goods and send them to Integrated Worlds, and from there directly to HARDECK's point of sale.
The EDI interface now enables HARDECK to receive delivery times digitally, eliminating the time-consuming manual entry in the merchandise management system. Once received via Integrated Worlds, the delivery times are available in almost every system, for example directly in applications connected to the point of sale. This increases the efficiency of sales staff and their ability to advise customers competently. Thanks to the simple provision of delivery times through the IWOfurn template, a large number of suppliers quickly agreed to provide them via the new interface. The added value was noticeable at the point of sale in no time.
Faster and more accurate delivery times, thanks to automated data processing. These measures allow us to give our customers the exact delivery time for every model, achieving increased customer satisfaction.
Olaf Polk, Head of IT Consulting, Hardeck Möbel GmbH & Co. KG
Experience in a personal demo how SHD solutions move your business forward.