Caterfish

No matter how great your ambition, marketing plan or sales team, the growth of your business is inextricably linked to your operational capability to process and fulfil orders. With Information Technology underpinning most modern order processing, purchasing, stock control and customer relationship management systems – IT really can help your business to grow.

Birmingham-based seafood wholesaler Caterfish Ltd are already established as suppliers to some of the region’s premier hotels and restaurants, but realised that their IT provision was holding back their growth.

Caterfish Managing Director, Keith Smith, explains: “We’d grown to a point where we were working around our IT systems, rather than them fully supporting the business. An ever-increasing amount of management and staff time was being spent sorting niggly IT problems, when we all just wanted to get on serving our customers and developing the business.”

Caterfish identified a new stock control application, but didn’t think they’d realise the full value by applying it to their existing infrastructure. Keith says: “We’d purchase new computers, software and printers bit by bit over time, but this patchwork was already inefficient, so we needed to look at the whole infrastructure and not just the stock control application.”

West Midlands IT support vendors Synium were selected for the project, thanks in part to a promise to ensure Caterfish could focus on their business and that there’d be no unnecessary technical jargon.

Keith says: “At the moment it’s the currency fluctuations affecting our supply of fresh lobsters that’s more important to us than the ins and outs of computer specifications, so we needed a company we could trust to sort the technical details. Fortunately, the Synium team have engaged us on the basis of our business objectives and processes – and have actually implemented kit that has produced cost savings.”

Several computers and the network connecting them together were upgraded to enhance the operation and productivity of finance and stock control processes. This also enabled Caterfish and sister company Tudor Seafoods to share parts of their IT infrastructures and reduce costs. Printing costs were significantly reduced by switching from small office printers to more appropriate high-volume printing and copying machines.

Caterfish’s previous patchwork of systems had made vital data security a time-consuming exercise, but back-ups are now made automatically and Synium monitor all systems 24/7 for threats from computer viruses, malicious software and hackers. This remote monitoring also enables Synium to spot and resolve other problems before they have any significant impact on the business.

Keith says: “I think the biggest compliment I can pay is that we now don’t really notice our IT systems, as we’re all just able to get on with our work. Our processes work more efficiently, our vital customer data is even more secure and I’m able to focus on managing the business, reassured that Synium are keeping on eye on our IT”.

To discover more about how IT is empowering businesses like yours to achieve more, you can view further case studies and request a free IT Support Buyer’s Guide. Alternatively, contact the Synium team today on 0121 663 0203 or via email to hello@dicanz.com.

Businesses with wholesale fish and seafood requirements should contact Caterfish Ltd on 0121 666 6752