OGL Software transforms operations for family-run business with software systems overhaul to provide trade counter capabilities

Stourport-on-Severn headquartered OGL Software has pulled in yet another deal with a  business outside the region, after being selected by Gloucestershire-based business, Cotswold Hose & Fittings Ltd,  to transform its family-run business with the overhaul of its legacy software systems. 

In addition to boosting sales for its Gloucestershire client, OGL Software also made it easier for Cotswold Hose to catalogue over 6,000 hoses and fittings, enabling data collection for business planning and speeding up new hire training times, while improving efficiency, sales and customer service for further growth.

OGL Software focuses on providing software for stockist and wholesale businesses and employs several different roles from software developer to sales team members. This new deal is one of a number over the last 12 months and showcases how OGL is helping other businesses to grow. 

Cotswold Hose & Fittings Ltd supplies industrial hose parts and fittings,  to companies including Adler and Allen, Chandlers, Tallis Amos, Thames Water, Wessex Water and Wolseley. To ensure it was ready for further growth, the company sought advice from OGL Software on a software solution that transformed the management of its biggest profit areas – hydraulic assemblies. 

OGL Software provided Cotswold Hose with exactly the solution required. Now buying and selling processes are no longer laborious and manual with employees having to wade through two years of data on more than 6,000 products, to extract information for orders.  Additionally, Cotswold is building up data about its business. Armed with this, the firm can understand trends and areas for investment.

After researching several technologies, Cotswold Hose opted for an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, a cloud-based business intelligence software, called Profit4. With OGL’s dedicated support and development team, the new system was deployed and live within mere months. 

With all product data, complete with visuals, now stored and readily available in a digital format, OGL Software enabled the Cotswold team to have a new trade counter capability, with all pricing and product information and images available quickly, meaning faster sales and less room for human error or inconsistencies.

The company has also streamlined new employee training to a few months with the new system. Previously, it would take a year just to train them on the various product codes and processes.

Jeremy Johnson is Cotswold Hose’s first new team member since its ERP implementation, as part of the company’s continued regional recruitment, and Debs Smidt, Managing Director, Cotswold Hose said: “Thanks to Profit4 from OGL Software, we can now confidently continue our plans to grow both in employees and profits, with the knowledge that company data and information assets are safeguarded and future-proofed in a managed, supported and efficient system, rather than being siloed in the heads of one or two people. The modernisation of our system has meant better service for our customers and uplifts in sales. To anyone else considering something similar, I would say go for it, it feels like a big investment with risks, but our experience was of being in a safe pair of hands and it has paid off.”