Flow Software & Lewis Road Creamery
February 22, 2018
Flow Software & Fliway
April 22, 2025Award winning wine producer stays ahead of the game, and on top of orders by using Flow Software's integration platform.
Statistics
- 100% of NZ customer orders are processed via Flow
- 160+ hours of manual data entry eliminated each month
Testimonial
One of the reasons I love working with Flow Software is their service. Whether it's a new project or just logging a support request, the Flow team are always responsive, professional and easy to work with. I measure other vendors against the high bar that Flow sets.
BRETT HARVEY, Technology Solutions Manager, Villa Maria
Challenge
Over more than 60 years, Villa Maria has grown to become one of New Zealand's most award-winning and globally recognised wine producers. Their journey with Flow coincided with growing pressure from customers demanding EDI connections, automatic updates and inventory information. At the same time, their own customer services team were struggling under the weight of a manual ordering process and the need to hire new staff was a barrier to growth. Villa Maria chose Flow Software to provide an integration solution flexible enough to grow as their requirements and their business grew alongside it.
A fully connected ecosystem: Villa Maria's key systems are connected by Flow, so incoming orders are now all automated. Customer orders received via the CRM system or EDI are managed by Flow, which checks pricing, availability and stock levels in other internal systems before confirming the order and recording it in the ERP. Orders are then delivered automatically to the warehouse management system to be picked and packed. All this workflow, automation and connectivity is managed by Flow Software's middleware platform.
Connecting electronically with customers, suppliers and freight provides and automating the ordering, dispatch and invoicing processes, has saved Villa Maria's internal teams over 160 hours of order checking and data rekeying each month. Staff can now focus on high value, productive work meaning faster, more effective processes and better customer experience.
Efficiency done effectively: Once Flow was implemented, the resulting integrations and EDI connections drastically improved the teams' efficiency, saving at least a full FTE and over 160 hours of manual work each month.
Because orders are automatically checked by Flow, if correct, they can be released straight to the warehouse. Only orders that fail the automatic checks and validations are reviewed manually. This 'manage by exception' approach has improved order turnaround times dramatically. Orders can be dispatched the same day they are received, keeping customers happy with bar fridges full and supermarket shelves stocked.
Find out more about how Flow can free up manpower by automating business processes. Contact us today.