WFA Magazine November 2017

"Without any doubt, technology has transformed the way we work in the window coverings industry over the last decade," say Drape and Blind Software's Mira Krulic.

"Retailers have embraced specialised software to streamline quoting, ordering and tracking processes. Where we once had filing cabinets crammed with handwritten files, we now can access customer details and jobs with the click of a mouse. At Drape and Blind Software (DBs) we have been privileged to work with many businesses and we are always looking at how we can make our customers' work life easier. We have now introduced more flexibility across our systems and have also developed an easy to use dashboard that will enable business owners to analyse the performance of their retail stores."

"The benefits of DBs cloud are that employers and employees can work from any location, giving flexibility to working lives that did not exist before. If your child is ill, for instance, you can work from home and finish off quotes or business owners can keep an eye on things while away from the store. Sales consultants can also quote in customers' homes provided they have an adequate internet connection."

"The other benefit is that businesses can use any type of hardware: Apple, Android or PC and all the information is stored off-site in the one place so you don't have to worry about fire or theft or hardware failure."

Krulic says that despite the rise of 'working in the cloud', DBs also caters for businesses not suited to that way or working. "If you have inadequate internet speed or coverage the traditional approach may suit you best. Flexibility is the key and we ensure that both the cloud version and traditional version of DBs have the same functionality regardless of the computer environment the software is in which the software is implemented."

"Information is king and having data at your fingertips is vital to running a successful business in the 21st century. Retailers install software to overcome problems like quoting, raising orders and tracking jobs in progress. Once a system is working smoothly and these day to day operational hurdles have been overcome the next step is to drill down further and analyze sales figures, costs, make projections and set targets. At DBs we have now developed an internal dashboard that will give business owners the ability to review and analyze data week to week, month to month and compare to previous months and years."

She adds that the new DBs dashboard gives business owners the power to access and customize the information in a flexible and informative way. "You can display information in graph format and also choose the data you want display. For example, you may want to look at how many days on average it takes to convert a quote to a sale or how many jobs are still active or the total profit in a given period. You can then drill down further to individual quotes if you need to. This ability to access information meaningfully gives the business owner valuable tools to plan for the future or highlight areas that need attention."