A "final" conclusion, for Niklas Hummerich, tends to become more of a forward-looking outlook.
"It's clear that such a step into a completely new IT world comes with a considerable investment. But we also expect a lot from digitalization. For this year alone, I have another seven steps planned. We also want to make it clear in our showroom that we are set up in a modern way. To this end, we want our colleagues at the point of sale to work even more with their tablets and use the SHD XcalibuR Configurator there for planning. The infrastructure, meaning Wi-Fi and tablets, is already in place in the store. This puts our sales colleagues in an even better position and lets them work more efficiently. We also want to use more large screens at the point of sale that customers can interact with and use for planning. Here too, the Configurator comes into play. The project is right on the verge of being commissioned. I would like to explicitly highlight the trusting collaboration with Armin Fahl and Philipp Heger. It's really a lot of fun!" says Niklas Hummerich.
To remain well positioned for the future, the furniture store will migrate its data platform from InterSystems Caché to InterSystems IRIS. "That's also a current project. The server offers even higher performance, scalability, and resource efficiency than Caché. Since there's no end to digitalization in sight, the new database is an essential foundation," explains the managing director.
Möbel Hummerich is also always open to forward-looking projects, as Niklas Hummerich emphasizes: "With self-checkout solutions, to name just one example, other industries are years ahead of us. We would like to get this going. However, we're counting heavily on support for such pilot projects. Associations and software companies need to put development funds on the table to make such promising projects a reality in a timely manner."
Niklas Hummerich is also certain that he would take the same approach again for the IT changeover: "We're admittedly one of the later SHD ECORO changeovers, but I think we did it very well, perhaps precisely because of that. In any case, it was exactly the right decision. Absolutely clear!"
"But we're not done yet. Digitalization is an ongoing process. I'm in constant contact with Philipp Heger. We're currently already planning follow-up projects, of course always taking our financial options into account. Knowing that Mr. Heger stands behind the project is an extra source of motivation for me, because we feel we're in very good hands with him."
Since August 2023, the Hummerich furniture store from Emden has been working with SHD ECORO. The generational shift from the MHS inventory management system to the fully integrated SHD ECORO system world was initiated by Niklas Hummerich, who has been running the company together with his father Ludwig Hummerich since 2020. The furnishing specialist is taking this forward-looking digitalization project into the new digital world together with SHD, where they have felt in the best of hands since 1989.
If my generation doesn't drive digitalization forward, who else is going to do it? I don't think you can afford the luxury of only addressing digitalization in five years' time. You have to take action now and examine what can be optimized and digitalized.
Niklas Hummerich, Management, Möbel Hummerich
In 1890, Möbel Hummerich, a company that remains family-owned to this day, was founded by Ludwig Hummerich in Emden, East Frisia. From this family business, now run in its fifth generation, the Hummerich furniture store has grown to over 50 employees and a showroom area of 12,000 square meters. Today, Möbel Hummerich is one of the largest furniture stores in the region. As a member of the furnishing partner network VME, customer satisfaction and the highest quality are an absolute priority.
The MHS inventory management system was in use at Möbel Hummerich for 34 years, where it served the company well but was used primarily in administration. In sales, on the other hand, purchase contracts were written by hand, collected via internal mail, and re-entered in administration afterward. Niklas Hummerich: "Since digital transformation doesn't stop at the furniture trade either, we needed forward-looking IT that could meet changing requirements."
After successfully managing many changeovers in recent years, and thanks to the inventory management bridge that automatically transfers item data from MHS to SHD ECORO, such a system change is no longer a particular challenge for the experienced SHD team and Philipp Heger, SHD ECORO organizational consultant.
But Niklas Hummerich didn't let it rattle him either: "With the test system we set up, we were able to try out how SHD ECORO works, and our employees were trained using this system. As the project lead, it was very important to me to bring the team along, stay calm, and take time for the changeover and for each individual person. Our approach contributed to broad acceptance of the solution among all employees. I'm very satisfied with the changeover. Sure, here and there something didn't quite work, or employees didn't immediately know how something worked. But we can rely fully on Philipp Heger and our team here in the store for that."
For Niklas Hummerich, there was no question that the IT landscape needed to be fundamentally modernized. Nor was there any question about who to take this path with. "For us, it was actually always clear that we wanted to keep working with SHD and using SHD solutions in the future too. We've been a satisfied customer for many years, so why would we have switched?"
Only the timing was still undecided at first. That changed when the dynamic managing director and accountant learned about funding opportunities for digitalization projects from the state of Lower Saxony in a 2022 conversation with SHD sales manager Armin Fahl. "We applied right away and were actually lucky enough to be selected. In October 2022, we received the state's approval. The liquidity grant is really what got the digitalization project rolling in our store," recalls the 28 year old. The subsidized digitalization initiative implemented SHD ECORO, SHD ECORO POS, and the SHD XcalibuR Integrator. "Since we worked with virtually no IT in sales until the changeover, you can genuinely call this a digitalization project. It's a completely new world."
Alongside SHD ECORO, the Emden furniture store now works with SHD ECORO POS, SHD ECORO Portal, the SHD XcalibuR Integrator, and financial accounting via SHD perfacto. "Our top priority was to get our core business running on SHD ECORO, with other systems to follow after that. We actually started step by step in spring '23 with the POS system, followed by the actual ERP system in August. SHD ECORO really was a catalyst for digitalization within the company."
Through the intensive review of company processes during the changeover, Möbel Hummerich was able to identify a number of areas for improvement. "Just because things have always been done a certain way doesn't mean it's still the right way. We've already been able to automate and optimize many processes in the company. We now have a completely different dynamic in the store."
One example of this dynamic is order capture. Order data is now entered directly by sales staff and arrives complete in administration right away. "This has taken a huge burden off administration, since the entire process of re-entering orders is now gone. And order confirmations are no longer printed out and placed on the salesperson's desk for review either. They now receive this information via SHD ECORO. We could have had a lot of this under MHS too, but we no longer wanted to invest in the old system, since the switch was already on the cards."
Another example is the use of VME central clearing (ZR). At Möbel Hummerich, many invoices are now processed fully digitally and automatically through the central clearing system of the VME furniture association, linked to the corresponding transaction in SHD ECORO, and checked there. After review, automatic posting suggestions are generated for the also-connected accounting software SHD perfacto. This eliminates manual document entry and many other manual review steps for the Emden furniture store. Central clearing also reduces transaction costs, since payment flows are consolidated, which in turn reduces the volume of payment transactions.
In the process, an interface to online banking was also created, automating bank statements. "We were already able to digitalize large areas of administration. As an accountant, that means I have significantly more transparency and a very precise view of our numbers. That lets me act quickly whenever needed. On top of that, the error rate has dropped noticeably thanks to central clearing, and things are much clearer between individual creditors. We now immediately see where we've paid too much or too little. It really works perfectly."
"We've also set up a ZVT POS interface for communication between SHD ECORO POS and the card payment terminal, tailoring the checkout to our exact needs. As far as I know, only a few SHD customers use this interface so far. This solution completely eliminates possible sources of error in EC card payments. Errors that could easily cost several hundred euros basically can't happen anymore."
With the web-based SHD ECORO Mobile solution, Möbel Hummerich employees can use selected functions of their ERP system in the browser on their mobile devices and have mobile access to important information and functions. "Mobile use is naturally becoming more and more prominent for us too. We already have the solution in use in some areas, but we'll be expanding it further," says Niklas Hummerich.
In my own area of accounting alone, small digitalization measures have eliminated an estimated 20 percent of the time and effort required, and I can now focus on other things.
Niklas Hummerich, Management, Möbel Hummerich
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