Some of the team at Blue Rock have worked together for over 30 years, and we remain surprised at the pace that information technology continues to evolve.
We would like to think that, in our 17 years of business, we have pushed the boundaries of innovation.
By fine-tuning the world-class solutions that we sell, we squeeze out every last drop of productivity across our customers’ businesses.
From smart inventory management, powerful sales tools and automation, to linking with suppliers systems, e-commerce and much more, the value to be gained from modern, industry-relevant, technology is huge and wide-ranging.
Blue Rock has sponsored this award for 5 years to celebrate the innovative merchant – those that invest in and embrace information technology not begrudgingly, but because it makes them more competitive against the nationals and global players, makes life easier and ultimately brings improvement to their bottom line.
The visionaries amongst our customers tend to fare the best when it comes to modern technology because they are genuinely excited about how it can help them reach their goals – which they invariably do, helped significantly by their positive attitude towards it.
Either with our help, or independently, they are able to configure and flex their “systems muscle” to combat challenges on a real time basis.
The last 18 months have been testimony to this as we’ve seen that companies with the right software tools and mindset have excelled.
Blue Rock have always sought to provide merchants with a choice.
Those that prefer a single point of contact for their information technology, a “one-stop-shop”, can opt to take on board the business software, hosting, e-commerce, ancillary software, and hardware from Blue Rock.
Alternatively, if customers wanted to work with other suppliers for the ancillary software and infrastructure, we would never stand in their way.
Blue Rock’s ethos of supplying industry-standard technology and non-proprietary solutions facilitates both approaches and lends itself to further innovation on the part of the merchant, with no barriers other than imagination, time, and budget.
A fifth of our construction material supply customers now use e-commerce in one form or another.
The majority use Blue Rock’s industry-standard solution while the others either link to existing e-commerce solutions or one of the ‘best of breed’ solutions available.
Our aim has always been to keep e-commerce as easy as possible to implement and maintain by providing an exceptionally high level of live integration into the back-office system, coupled with the features and technology that a world-class e-commerce system could provide.
Blue Rock’s logic is that there is no point in offering e-commerce if it isn’t financially viable or is resource hungry; it has to be within the reach of the independent merchant and supplier.
We have seen a growing trend in independents starting their digital journey by implementing a customer portal first, with the ability for their clients to access their account, proof of deliveries, quotations and make payments online.
This not only offers a great service improvement but reduces administration enquiries during the day.
An affordable customer portal solution is essential for trade suppliers, especially for those serving the smaller trade accounts where bookkeeping must be done out of working hours.
A vital component in the success of e-commerce remains the attitude and aptitude of the merchant – regardless of how simple we make it to achieve.
The merchant will need internal resources to gather imagery and videos, edit customer-facing text, ensure that categorisations are logical and friendly to navigate – and of course, the e-commerce shop must represent their business – not only in branding but also tone.
The role of your internal e-commerce person or team is as much marketing as it is information technology.
In this award – the Online & Digital Initiative of the Year – we celebrate the merchant who embraces technology in order to provide their customers with a seamless digital experience.
We reward the attitude, drive and determination which leads to achieving a successful online business; more than just a ‘web shop’, this is a virtual branch that enhances the merchant’s modern image and brand, whilst providing valuable user features that greatly improve both the internal and external customer’s experience.
