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  • K8 enables Chamberlain to processes around 169 000 cash sales and 23 000 trade account transactions each month

K8 enables Chamberlain to processes around 169 000 cash sales and 23 000 trade account transactions each month


Johannesburg, 27 Sep 2017
Chamberlain warehouse.
Chamberlain warehouse.

Chamberlain is a privately owned family business, with roots stretching back to 1903. Currently the fourth generation of Chamberlains are continuing the family tradition. Operating as a traditional builders' merchant as well as a retail business, the Pretoria-based company supplies building materials, tools, paint, bathroom, plumbing and electrical products as well as garden and outdoor supplies. Chamberlain is a service-driven company, with state-of-the-art paint mixing, as well as cutting and edging machines. Chamberlains prides themselves on offering deliveries free of charge within a 25km radius.

There are currently seven branches with the eighth about to open in Strubens Valley. The company also owns two factories. Chamberlain has been the national leader in roof truss technology for over 30 years. It employs some of the most experienced designers, craftsmen and technicians in the industry. Its top-notch modern factory is able to produce over 300 trusses per day.

Fact sheet
Solution: Kerridge K8 ERP
Industry: Building
Provider: Kerridge Commercial Systems - ERP
User: Chamberlain

Since its inception in 1972, the in-house joinery at Waltloohas has produced goods of unparalleled quality. Mouldings, skirtings and balustrades are among its standard products. It alsos specialises in custom-made items.

ERP Systems Manager, Morne Nell, explained: "The core values of the company are integrity, hard work and progressing with caution. This is how we've been able to survive downswings in the economy and maintain a policy of not retrenching anyone. We look after our staff and, in turn, our staff's priority is delivering excellent customer service."

K8, an ERP solution developed by Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS), has been used at Chamberlain since 2009. When the new branch opens in November, there will be 420 users of the software across the company.

Morne explained: "K8 was chosen over other providers' solutions because it was the best fit for the merchant part of the business without much customisation. Today it processes around 169 000 cash sales and 23 000 trade account transactions each month."

Kerridge paint Plumbing.
Kerridge paint Plumbing.

For even greater flexibility and scalability, K8 can be deployed on-premises (on your hardware) or hosted in the K-cloud. The hosted solution supports your growth so you need never worry about restrictions due to hardware performance. It also takes over all the day-to-day hassle out of managing your K8 system. The latest version of K8 offers a range of disaster recovery and business continuity options. One of the key reasons Chamberlain recently upgraded its system was to improve its disaster recovery capability. Morne explained: "We now have two systems on two separate servers so, as well as continuing to trade, we can also have functional head office operations when the server fails".

Further, new functionality within the latest version of K8 ensures there is no impact on the system performance as data is mined for reporting purposes. These additional benefits further motivated Chamberlain to upgrade, as their high volumes of data were causing slow reporting and long end of day processes.

K8 is a fully integrated trading and business management solution for distributors, wholesalers, merchants and retailers. It's designed to work for all types of distributive company, from small, single site operations to those with central distribution centres and many hundreds of users.

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Kerridge Commercial Systems (KCS)

Kerridge Commercial Systems provide specialist software, services and support to deliver fully integrated trading and business management solutions to distributive trades customers, large and small - wherever they are in the world. Immersed in the distributive trades for over 35 years, our technical experts are thought leaders in trading and management technology, and our innovative and flexible approach ensures our customers partner with us for the long-term.

Editorial contacts

Gaby Lipschitz
Kerridge Commercial Systems - ERP
(011) 707 3333
marketing@k8.co.za