Office Choice Australia rolls out a new end-to-end Pronto Xi enterprise software system including integrated eCommerce with ABT (Applied Business Technology).

Add in servicing a network of more than 130 dealers across Australia, carrying over 60,000 product lines as Office Choice Australia does, and decisions about software providers and implementation partners are particularly critical.

"We went through our requirements together with an extensive outsourced tendering process and found Pronto Xi from ABT (Applied Business Technology) to be a good fit for our stationery dealers’ processes." said Office Choice Australia, IT Manager, Greg Wiggill.

"In particular we felt confident that the software (Pronto Xi) was reliable and well proven over 30 years; and the future roadmap of development ensured we would be current and up to date for many years to come." Wiggill added.

Office Choice Australia is part of the world's largest office products buying group, with the Office Choice dealers ranging from 100% B2B dealers operating out of warehouses, to a small retail shops in local shopping centres.

Switching from disparate systems that included their own internally developed ChoiceBMS (Business Management System) and SBSWeb eCommerce system was a major undertaking for the leading office supply retail group.

"Our old ‘ChoiceBMS’ system was written in Cobol. We weighed up our options and chose to discontinue any further development on the legacy system. Rather than owning our own software company and develop internally, we decided to get this out of the office and into the hands of a current and up to date ERP system." said Wiggill

Office Choice chose to go with the Pronto Xi ERP system, including Pronto Xi POS (Point of Sale), Sales Orders, Inventory, Purchasing, Financials, ABT Supplier Catalogue and the fully integrated Commerce Vision 'Customer-Self-Service' eCommerce system.

"I am confident in our decision to move to Pronto Xi. Together with the integrated B2B and B2C eCommerce system from ABT, we feel we have a great agile solution (and are pleased we are not bogged down in a difficult alternative platform) that overall adds lots of value to us at head office and to our dealers and enables us to more easily adapt and change direction should we decide to do so." said Wiggill.

Some would argue that selecting the right implementation partner might be even more critical than the actual software selection. Office Choice chose ABT because of ABT's comprehensive Pronto Xi expertise and their ability to develop customised integrated modules, particularly for the multi-site retail industry.

"The value of the total solution from ABT, which included an integrated eCommerce system, concurrent user pricing, support, consulting, development and hosting; plus, being able to deal directly with a reseller that had implemented dozens of like retail customers were the primary factors in us choosing ABT." said Wiggill.

"ABT helped us set up an easy repeatable implementation process of cutting over each of our Dealers from our old system. That was really important to us. ABT have been behind us all the way through the project." Wiggill added.

Still no matter how much thought goes into planning and managing software system change, the proof is in the pudding, or in Office Choice's case, their dealers' appreciation of the system.

"Our dealers have realised definite efficiencies in processing and dispatching stationery orders. Also the reliability, availability and disciplines of the Pronto Xi system have been noticeable. Dealers report that they now have better access to their information which allows them to make quick critical business decisions." said Wiggill.

Adding to Wiggill's satisfaction was that the varied Office Choice dealer network is very happy with the upgrade to Pronto Xi.

"The feedback from dealers has been excellent. I have spoken to all our implemented members over the past year and they all report how Pronto Xi has been positive for their business." Wiggill said.

Office Choice dealers have been surprised at how easily their staff has picked up the new system, with some dealers now planning to implement more Pronto Xi modules such as CRM to further drive the competitive advantage they enjoy from the system.

"The training and knowledge ABT gave us at head office allowed us to then go out and train our dealers." said Wiggill.

Asked whether he would recommend ABT to others in his position, Wiggill was very succinct, "Yes." he said.

ABT is the leading Pronto Xi software distributor in Australia.

For more information about Office Choice Australia please see:www.officechoice.com.au/

The ABT Group includes ABT itself (www.abtgroup.com.au), alongside managed systems expert and provider, ABT Online (www.abtonline.com.au) and intelligent business security systems with ABT Security Systems (www.abtsecuritysystems.com.au)

For more information, please contact:
Paul Goldsmith
tinderbox marketing
M: 0404 871 220
E: paul@tinderbox.net.au