- $1.2M in working capital freed up within the first year
- 25% reduction in inventory carrying costs
- 40% faster order fulfillment for B2B contractor accounts
- 15% increase in sales from high-value B2B customers
Background
Dami is a titan in the regional construction and home improvement sector. As a massive hypermarket, it has established itself as the go-to destination for both DIY homeowners tackling a weekend project and professional construction firms managing large-scale builds. With a sprawling retail space, a vast warehouse, and an inventory of over 200,000 SKUs—from bags of cement and lumber to high-value power tools and tiny boxes of screws—the scale of Dami’s operation is immense.
While the company had built a strong reputation on selection and price, its operational backend was stuck in the past. It was running on a patchwork of outdated systems, including disparate inventory logs, standalone accounting software, and a heavy reliance on spreadsheets to bridge the gaps. This aging foundation could no longer support the weight of the company’s volume and complexity, creating significant drags on efficiency, profitability, and growth potential.
The Challenge
Dami’s operational challenges were deeply interconnected, creating a cycle of inefficiency that impacted staff, customers, and the bottom line. The leadership team identified several critical areas where the existing systems were failing:
Chaotic and Opaque Inventory: The warehouse was an operational black hole. With no single, reliable source of truth, staff struggled to locate stock, leading to delays on the sales floor and for contractor pickups. Inaccurate manual counts meant the business was simultaneously suffering from stockouts on critical construction materials—delaying major projects for their B2B clients—while being overstocked on seasonal or slow-moving items, tying up millions in capital.
High-Friction B2B Sales Process: Professional contractors are Dami’s most valuable customer segment, yet they were served by a slow, manual process. Generating quotes was a time-consuming task, pricing was often inconsistent for loyal clients, and managing credit terms required cross-referencing multiple disconnected documents. This friction was actively harming relationships and putting valuable accounts at risk.
Disconnected and Delayed Financials: Data silos between inventory, sales, and accounting made a holistic view of the business impossible. The finance team endured an agonizingly slow month-end close that took more than ten days, dominated by manual data entry and reconciliation. This prevented them from seeing true profitability by product line, customer segment, or even project, leaving strategic decisions to be made on instinct rather than data.
Our Approach
We approached this transformation with a clear goal: to replace Dami’s fragmented systems with a unified digital core. We used our proven Diagnose–Design–Deliver framework to ensure the solution was not just technically sound, but fundamentally aligned with Dami’s business objectives.
Diagnose
- We embedded ourselves with Dami’s staff, shadowing warehouse pickers, and mapping financial workflows.
- We analyzed years of sales data to identify the most profitable (and unprofitable) customer segments and product categories, creating a data-driven blueprint of the key challenges and opportunities.
Design
Using the insights from the diagnostic phase, we architected a complete solution. We adapted the existing ERP platform specifically to complexities of the building material distribution industry. The design went beyond software to re-engineer core processes:
- Established a Dedicated B2B Sales Engine: We designed the digital framework for a new Pro Contractor Desk from the ground up, creating a centralized system to manage contractor accounts, automate complex quotes, and standardize tiered pricing—turning a major bottleneck into a high-value service hub.
- Real-Time Inventory Management: The solution included real-time, location-based inventory tracking (bin management) and an intelligent procurement engine based on sales velocity and supplier lead times.
- Integrated Financials: We designed a unified financial structure that linked every transaction—from a B2B quote to a final sale—directly to the general ledger, automating the entire procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles.
Deliver
Our delivery phase was planned to minimize business disruption and maximize user adoption:
- Data Integrity First: We cleansed and migrated over 200,000 SKUs, harmonizing product codes, supplier data, and pricing tiers to ensure the new system was built on a foundation of clean data.
- Strategic Pilot Program: We launched the new system first at the Pro Contractor Desk—the most complex part of the business. This allowed us to prove the concept and refine the workflows with expert user feedback before a company-wide rollout.
- Tailored Training: We developed and delivered role-specific training programs for over 150 employees, from warehouse staff using mobile scanners to finance professionals leveraging the new analytics tools. A 90-day post-launch support plan ensured a smooth and confident transition.
The Impact
The transition to a unified digital core provided Dami with a new level of control and insight, delivering transformative results across the entire business:
A Hyper-Efficient Inventory & Supply Chain:
- 25% reduction in inventory carrying costs by eliminating overstock and optimizing procurement.
- Freed up $1.2M in working capital in the first year, which was directly reinvested into expanding high-margin product lines.
- 99% inventory accuracy, dramatically reducing the time spent searching for stock.
Supercharged B2B Sales & Customer Loyalty:
- 40% faster order fulfillment for B2B accounts, from quote to pickup.
- 15% increase in sales from high-value contractor accounts, driven by better pricing, service, and reliability.
- Significant improvement in B2B customer satisfaction scores.
Strategic Financial Clarity:
- Month-end close cut from over 10 days to just 3, freeing the finance team to become strategic partners to the business.
- Real-time visibility into product line and customer segment profitability, enabling data-driven decisions on marketing and inventory.
What We Delivered
End-to-end solution that replaced operational chaos with streamlined efficiency and laid the groundwork for future growth:
- A Fully Integrated Cloud ERP Platform designed for the building materials industry
- A Dedicated B2B Sales & Quoting Module: We built the entire digital infrastructure to launch Dami’s first-ever Pro Desk, complete with tools for instant quoting, account management, and special pricing to capture and retain high-value B2B clients.
- Real-Time Warehouse & Inventory Management with mobile scanning and bin-level location tracking.
- An Automated Procure-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash Workflow, fully integrated with the general ledger.
- Live Executive Dashboards (via Power BI) providing on-demand insights into sales, inventory, and financial performance.
- A Complete Change Management & Training Program ensuring confident user adoption and long-term success.