Andersen Furniture

We got a much better flow in the entire process

Re-election to CORNATOR as an IT supplier at Andersen Furniture

In the summer of 2017, Andersen Furniture decided to chance their old ERP system from an older version of TRIMIT Furniture to something more contemporary. When a company changes ERP system, they usually find a new IT supplier, but Andersen Furniture chose to continue with CORNATOR as supplier, and to implement the latest version of TRIMIT Furniture from scratch.

In over 100 years Andersen Furniture has produced design furniture in a Scandinavian stile. However, tradition and a long history do not make Andersen Furniture still as a company. On the contrary. In a relatively short space of time, Andersen has gone from being primarily a furniture manufacturer to also building customer-designed business furniture and selling accessories.

“We have moved a lot as a company, from being a production company where we had a very large part of the value chain, to getting external components send to our own production. We also pick up components and goods that we produce elsewhere that we then sell.”

Henrik Andersen
Economy and IT manager, Andersen Furniture

As a part of this development, Andersen decided in 2017 to start from scratch med a new ERP-system that supported their new business model. They also had a strong desire to streamline daily work processes.

Henrik; It was important to us that our business model should be simpler. We’ve been working to make it simpler, and that’s an essential part of the ERP system. That’s also why we would have cleaned up some of the old, so we could start on a fresh.

TRIMIT has facilitated the administration

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Henrik explains; In connection with the chance, Andersen Furniture searched the marked for ERP systems. They had among others looked at a standard NAV solution. There was a dialogue over the summer and at the start of autumn with different providers, to find out which way we should go.

In the end however, they chose TRIMITs industry-specific solution, and it was crucial here that the TRIMIT solution suited Andersen’s plans to facilitate administrative workflows. “The main reason for implementing the new TRIMIT solution was that we looked at how we could save some administrative resources” says Henrik G. Andersen.

Henrik continues; It was not just a matter of savings. It was also a matter of getting things done in the most optimal way, so that things are handled as few times as possible, and about having some systems that work quickly and efficiently.

For Andersen, TRIMIT has also meant fewer workflows, and the work has also been made significantly easier with the new version. It has been an ongoing process where Andersen has constantly optimized the system and their business processes.

“We have created a model solution where we can control it using TRIMITs models, so that way around it is smart, because through the models we get the parts list and the derived purchase orders, so we can order directly if there is something that needs to be picked up externally. This provides a relief in the workflow.”

Henrik Andersen
Economy and IT manager, Andersen Furniture

In the old version Henrik G. Andersen himself was responsible for the models. It required deep insight into the system, but today it can be handled much easier. The day-to-day administration has also become simpler, just as Andersen wanted.

“We also use some of the follow-up programs that you can get today”, explains Henrik G. Andersen. “Such as Document Capture, scanning of purchase documents, and Expense Management, scanning different expense documents from representatives or others. Then we get the documents scanned into the system and posted immediately. It saves time and reduces errors, and the setup we have, works well eventually.

CORNATOR understood Andersens strategy

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It is CORNATOR who delivers the TRIMIT-solution, and here it was also a very important factor that CORNATOR had been a capable and stable partner for many years.

Henrik Andersen: “There are two aspects to it. Since CORNATOR knew us, they would be able to join us easier and faster. It would be more expensive if we needed a new supplier to understand us and work through the whole project. So CORNATOR was cheaper than if we changed to anyone else. And the consultant that I’ve worked with, we’ve always had a really good relationship with, so it was very natural that it was CORNATOR we chose.”

The work of finding the right solution has also taken place in a spirit of cooperation, which Henrik G. Andersen has been pleased about. And then CORNATOR understood where Andersen wanted to go with the reimplementation of TRIMIT and what Andersen had been missing to lift their business.

“We have had a really good dialogue with CORNATOR,” says Henrik G. Andersen. “The feeling you get when you talk to them, is like you don’t have to shoot birds with canons, understood in the sense that it’s a matter of finding the right solution. You don’t have to overdo things. And there they have been great at helping us find the right solution, so we don’t overkill”

Henrik Andersen
Economy and IT manager, Andersen Furniture

Even though TRIMIT Furniture was implemented from the ground up, the whole process has progressed quickly.

“We basically started to create goods in the system right from the start again, didn’t really transfer any products and models from the old system, so it felt like we started all over again”, says Henrik Andersen. “We spend three months implementing it in the fall of 2017, and was ready to go live January 1st 2018”

Portal solutions should facilitate order intake

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Henrik explains; What we need to do now is to work with portal solutions. Then we can get customers and sales agents and external sellers to enter orders directly into TRIMIT. The next step is that we must simplify even more, so that the flow becomes as simple as possible, from an order entering the house to the moment when we send an invoice.

Special orders probably still need to be dealt with outside the portals, but Henrik G. Andersen sees great prospects for the portals when it comes to the accessories part of Andersen’s business.

Henrik; If we can get it implemented, then we have changed our procedures around the whole order taking. This is the way we would like to go, so of course we have some expectations. There is no doubt that it can help to develop the business.