Red Shelves in TradeTech

 

Ref.: Testimonial for Fero/Trade Tech
July 2012

To whom it may concern
 
Dear Sir/Madam
 
Pre-amble
The Warehouse is New Zealands’ largest mass discount retailer .
It ranges both recognised brands and house brands across all retail categories:-
Home appliances; Furniture/Home furnishings; Consumer electronics; Sports equipment; DVD’s; Health & Beauty; Apparel, Footwear and fashion accessories; Baby supplies; Electronic games and consoles; Books and magazines; Toys and music
It has sales in excess of NZ$1.4 billion and a network of x90 stores nationwide
 
Trade Tech strategic fit
The Warehouse undertook a competitive tender in April 2007 to outsource electronic spare parts (receipt, storage & supply to order). Trade Tech were awarded this business in July 2007 based on their competency, service and cost, along with their strategic fit and expertise.
 
In July 2010 the General Merchandise spare parts provider gave formal notice not to be considered for contract renewal and Trade Tech tabled a proposal to undertake this work as well. The business was awarded to Trade Tech based on the incremental added value in the service offering, namely:
 

• Simplifying The Warehouse business by having one point of contact or interface for Stores and Customers for all spare part requests and service
• Demonstrable inventory management systems and reporting at a unit level 9checking & re-packing of individual parts within a carton)
• Pro-active inventory management with recommendations on obsolescence and optimal inventory carrying levels
• Superior customer service offering including management of Customer back orders
• A well established and excellent working relationship with The Warehouse Repair Bay
• Leverage of existing processes and systems inclusive of current remote access licenses into Trade Tech software systems
• A solution to assist both Customer and Store with part identification through a digital on-line catalogue which can be hosted by Trade Tech or by The Warehouse (yet to be instigated)
• A sales growth opportunity aligned to The Warehouse Multi Channel strategy, by retailing Trade Tech products on line via the Warehouse web portal 9yet to be instigated)  

 
Over the past five years Trade Tech have partnered with The Warehouse, they have been:
- Responsive
- There have been no problems in getting in touch with them
- Have done everything to help
- Have kept in touch with our changing needs
- Have always given good value for money
- Are always looking for improvements
- Ask about our potential needs
- Notify us of any changes to their service
- There people understand our needs

We can depend upon them and could not do better elsewhere
 
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Kemp
 
Logistics Commercial & Development Manager

 

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A Day in the Life of a Service Repair Technician

A glimpse of how TradeTech and TWL have developed a highly efficient service for repair technicians.

It’s Tuesday at Tisco Christchurch Limited and Bryan Edwards has a busy morning with The Warehouse Ltd (TWL) warranty work - he has three televisions, an LCD TV and a microwave to repair on behalf of TWL. With his team of experienced service tech’s, they have no problem diagnosing the faults on the televisions, and the microwave and they believe that the LCD has a fault on the signal board.

Bryan’s admin team opens the TradeTech website, enters the TV and microwave model numbers, searches the descriptions, and identifies the correct part numbers. They click on these part numbers and add the items to the electronic shopping basket. Checking through their other work, the team finds some general repairs which also need parts and adds these to the order. They email the order to TradeTech and receive an immediate automatic acknowledgement.

Bryan’s team continue their work, and 45 minutes later, an email arrives with an electronic invoice and a courier trace number attached - showing that the parts have been picked and packed in Auckland and are on the way to Christchurch. Bryan’s team knows that the parts will arrive first thing in the morning. They also know from experience that TradeTech’s excellent back order system will take care of any part that is not in stock and he will be notified as soon as it is available.

Repair of the LCD TV is a bit more complicated and Bryan’s technician needs help from the TWL Technical Support Team.  Robert Thompson and the team at TWL have helped him with the more tricky solutions in the past. Bryan calls Robert at his workshop, just up the road from TradeTech on Auckland’s North Shore, to discuss the problem. Robert promises to come back to Bryan by the end of the day with a solution.

For the repair of the LCD TV the TWL Technical Support Team has to work through the problem. They search the TradeTech inventory system, by model number and find there are only limited parts in stock for this item and not a signal board. Robert sees on the inventory list that there is a sample LCD panel with signal board of the same model. He asks the storeman to retrieve the LCD panel from the TradeTech warehouse and send it to Bryan who in turn sends the damaged board back to the Technical Support workshop. The team analyses the faulty board, and creates a technical bulletin, which is posted on the TradeTech website, making analysis and correction of the fault a standard procedure for all repair technicians in the future.

During the day, the TradeTech Customer Services Team responds to a further 35 requests for TWL parts. Orders are taken by telephone, by fax or through the website. Most orders come from technicians who know the part number or have obtained it from TWL technical support staff.

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BayCity Technologies

Graham Henshaw, Operations Manager at BayCity Technologies in Christchurch, has been dealing with TradeTech for many years. Here’s what he has to say about the service he receives from the OEM Team.

“BayCity Technologies Ltd are an OEM customer for TradeTech and have been since our company started.

We are involved in collecting data from the farming community.
Our first large contract required that we source power supplies from a volume manufacturer, we had been handed a contact in China that could supply the necessary power supplies.

On further investigation we found that the Chinese supplier had a great relationship with a New Zealand distributor, TradeTech.
When we approached Trade Tech about being the import agent for our custom built power supplies they readily agreed, then went the extra mile and helped BayCity Technologies get the necessary regulatory approvals. They then proceeded to smooth the way by shipping direct to our customer.

As we are a small team this is all of great benefit to our business. It really took some pressure off us and we really appreciated the effort from Mike and his team.

We then had an issue with the supplier of Antenna’s, I gave our mates at Trade Tech a call and explained the requirement. After some too’ing and fro’ing we got a product that not only met the spec but exceeded our customer’s requirements due to the ease of installation. A change that was initiated by TradeTech as an option.

Since then we have built a solid relationship by buying our hand tools / anti static equipment and sundry items for our development workshop.
They are always a pleasure to deal with and are very helpful. We just have to ask and they’re always willing to help or come up with a solution, communication is the key”.