Sales automation launches Hunter Valley business into digital age

Digital transformation specialists, Cypher IQ, have revolutionised business operations for Hunter Valley business, Sweetmans Timber by digitally automating their sales order processes. Using a fully scalable and customised solution, Sweetmans Timber has been able to introduce the processes and systems to help them minimise the potential for errors, file and retrieve documents at the touch of a button and enhance the overall customer experience. 

Operating since 1921, and based in the Hunter Valley, the fourth-generation family-owned business supplies thousands of products and made-to-measure cut timber to a range of clients. Sweetmans Timber produces quality Australian hardwood products for a variety of fencing, engineered products and timber landscaping supplies. 

Sweetmans Timber General Manager Luke Crump explained how the business caters to a variety of customer requirements. “We’re nimble enough to handle the needs of our smaller DIY customers, and yet we’re big enough to be able to customise, scale up and adapt to the requirements of any size job – even large commercial projects,” he said. 
That adaptability comes at a cost. With so many different types of jobs going through at one time, good communication between multiple staff members became a vital requirement for ensuring the smooth processing of each order. “We can be running with anything up to 200 orders in the system at one time,” explained Luke. “We’d been relying on pen and paper to relay information – but with the hand-written system, there were up to five different places where inaccuracies could creep in.” 

“The new system has transformed our day-to-day efficiencies in a number of key areas,” reported Luke. First to be impacted was the mill itself. “Until the introduction of this technology, we’d never actually done product coding in the mill – but the new process has radically improved our ability to more easily search for and source products,” he said. 

Not only that, but the link between mill and office has also been enhanced. “With the digital system, everyone works with the same information, using the same system, which minimizes errors and improved efficiencies,” Luke explained. “Because updates are now in real time, we’ve eliminated any lag involved in relaying information between different employees, as everyone is working off the same data. And we can also clearly see the status of every order and keep tabs on where it’s at, and relay that to the customer.” 


Order process transparency and tracking has also been fine-tuned using the new solution. “With this system, orders can be completed a lot more quickly – and we’ve also been able to dramatically reduce the number of errors made, minimising incorrect order details before products reach a client, saving us a lot of additional processing costs.” 

The reduced time spent on paperwork, and the improved overall quality of the company’s documentation has also been invaluable, Luke continued. “We just load everything into the system, along with all drawings, purchase orders or other relevant docs. That enables everything to be fully visible to everybody at any time. Nothing gets lost or misplaced, and there’s no longer any need for complicated filing systems or time-consuming admin.” 

Going forward, Luke sees the company’s B2B links becoming increasingly important. 

“We’re already noticing companies either providing portals for us to input information or wanting to be able to do that for ours. Tighter integration with both customers and suppliers is something we’re looking forward to achieving with these types of automation solutions. 

We’re already talking to Cypher IQ about automating more of the process, they also have the systems and technology to integrate customer communications into our workflows,” 

Luke continues. “Our aim is to further improve customer interaction to give them even greater access to the system. Ultimately, they won’t even need to call us for updates, but will be given a link to directly access the status of their own order.”

“We’re also doing a lot more with SMS connections. Business to Consumer SMS communications can provide updates on order process, delivery of order, as well as links to documents for signing and marketing opportunities. Plus, we are also looking at linking our quoting in with that system, so that customers can digitally sign and accept our quotes without needing to print or scan them first.” 

To find out more about Cypher IQ’s business automation solutions, visit www.cypheriq.com.au or call 02 8003 5560.


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Contact: C7EVEN Communications
Adam Arndell, 0403 372 889
Kyleen Partridge, 0467 612 224