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ERP

Case Etra

Digia Enterprise is reliable and enables flexible customer service


Digia Enterprise ERP has served as the heart of Etra’s operations since 2007.  Etra has been actively involved in the development of this comprehensive system in order to make the most of it. As Etra’s long-term partner, Digia helps the company on its multichannel journey so that Etra can serve its customers better and in even more varied ways.

 

When you drive from Hämeenlinna towards Helsinki on Highway 3, you can’t miss Etra’s logistics centre. The central warehouse, completed in 2011, ensures that all Etra Megacenters in Finland are stocked with just the right amount of products for delivery to customers at the right time.

Digia Enterprise ERP has served as the heart of the group’s operations since 2007. This comprehensive, reliable and user-friendly system is vital for Etra, as its range includes more than 300,000 items, and its active customer base contains over 20,000 Business IDs.

Before adopting Digia Enterprise, Etra faced a challenging situation. Following major expansion through acquisitions, Etra ran several stock management and ERP systems for a long time. Information on the same delivery had to be fed, several times, into the systems of Etra's different firms. In some cases, this meant dozens of product codes for the same product. In addition, salespeople had no view of the stock status of other units, let alone importers.

The implementation of Digia Enterprise streamlined and facilitated these processes. In addition, the creation of the Masterdata solution enabled Etra to significantly step up its operational efficiency and achieve major savings in storage costs.

At first, the system covered 17 Etra locations. Now, ten years later, that number has doubled.

“Digia Enterprise currently covers about 40 of our locations, plus our two central warehouses and four production facilities. In addition, the Etola Group uses the system even more extensively,” says Pekka Pöntiö, Director of Logistics at Etra.

What we did

 

What we used

 

Customers often turn to us for special products and solutions to their problems. Our service must be fast and our products easy to find. Digia Enterprise has proven to be highly reliable.

Pekka Pöntiö, Director of Logistics, Etra Oy

Operational reliability is vital for serving an extensive clientele

Etra serves a wide range of different kinds of customers, from massive corporations to small enterprises and ordinary consumers. The diversity of its clientele poses its own challenges to the company’s operations. Furthermore, Etra’s range and services must cater to different fields of business and their practices, as its customers include companies in fields such as the manufacturing, food and process industries, to name but a few.

Flexibility and service-mindedness thus assume an important role.

“Our competitive edges are our flexibility and product expertise: we can serve our customers and solve their problems to ensure that their core business runs as efficiently as possible. This calls for service-mindedness from both personnel and the ERP,” says Pöntiö.

Due to the diversity of the clientele, their needs also vary greatly. This emphasises the importance of the ERP.

“Customers often turn to us for special products and solutions to their problems. Our service must be fast and our products easy to find. Digia Enterprise has proven to be highly reliable.”

Digia Enterprise pioneers trends

Etra is constantly developing Digia Enterprise. Improvements are made incrementally rather than as massive updates. Thanks to this, changes and upgrades do not disturb the day-to-day work of Etra employees.

Etra has taken a proactive approach to system development.

“We’ve always sought to do things a little bit better, honing our operations constantly since the introduction of the system. There were greater operational changes when we shifted over to central warehouse functionalities. We carried that out in steps, too. First, we transferred the Helsinki and Tampere warehouses, and then the logistics centre,” says Pöntiö.

Digia Enterprise collects a wide range of data, enabling Etra to forecast future trends. For instance, the company can access customer data with the Qlikview analysis and reporting system built on top of Digia Enterprise.

Qlikview enables Etra to monitor the behaviour of customers and products in different product groups. Data has been collected since 2007. The company can use it to keep track of where trends are heading and react rapidly to any unusual situations.

Digia as a multichannel partner

One of Etra’s key development projects is digitalisation. The company pursues it in a variety of projects. Together with Digia, Etra is developing new mobile solutions, for instance.

“We want to be a multichannel company. We truly seek to be able to provide services in the way customers want and in their preferred channels,” says Pöntiö.

“Etra’s objective and vision is that, even though we might not necessarily be the best in the world at everything, we can still be the best multichannel partner to our customers. We want to be a company that can offer expert and professional service, channel-independently.”