Between The Lines

The challenge

Between The Lines – an independent retailer that has been expanding at a time when others have been closing stores – chose iplicit after deciding that Exchequer was providing “quite poor value”.

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The family-owned gifts, cards and books retailer recently opened its latest store in Lymington, Hampshire – its 17th shop and the third new store to open since Covid.  

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All the stores are in the south of England but outside London. “Anywhere with a Waitrose is usually a popular choice as are those towns with a commuter route into London. We go for smaller towns away from the main big cities with large shopping centres,” says Finance Manager Mark Scorey.  The key, he says, is not just choosing the right town, but also settling on the right location within it.

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Between The Lines has a head office and warehouse in Chichester, from where stock is delivered to the branches five days a week. There are 170 staff, with another 30-40 temporary staff hired in the run-up to Christmas.  

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When Mark joined the business in 2019, Managing Director Florian Kleinlercher was already keen to move on from Exchequer.  

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“Exchequer was seen as quite poor value for the level of fees we were paying. The level of support and the level of ongoing development for the product had started to evaporate really,” says Mark.

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He had used Access before but found it “clunky” and not that easy to report out of.

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“We looked at iplicit and had a presentation made by the team and were really impressed. In the end, we were so impressed we didn’t really look at anything else, we were happy that iplicit would give us everything we were looking for” he says.  

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“We looked at iplicit and had a presentation made by the team and were really impressed. In the end, we were so impressed we didn’t really look at anything else, we were happy that iplicit would give us everything we were looking for” Mark Scorey, Finance Manager

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The solution

Between The Lines wanted a product that was modern and in “constant development” and being taken seriously by its owners.

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Mark was pleased to have a “true cloud” product, operating from a browser, so the business no longer needed to host a server, or have regular updates sent out. Instead, updates take place smoothly behind the scenes.

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His favourite feature is the fact that iplicit users can hop between screens using a menu bar at the side. Working with Exchequer involved repeatedly coming out of one screen and logging into another, but with iplicit “you can just jump between screens really easily without closing them down”.  

Time savings  

The finance team at Between The Lines saves a “good couple of days” each month because tasks can be performed quicker in iplicit. Carrying out routine work and processing, finding things in the system and getting a response to search queries are all faster.  

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The company needs to be able to analyse performance by month and by store and finds this much easier to do with iplicit.

Implementation and support

Between the Lines was impressed by iplicit’s implementation and feels the same way about the support team.

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“I can’t speak highly enough,” says Mark. “We’re happy with the product, happy with the development and there’s always something new coming out. When we were first implementing the product, I was impressed by how the implementation team would find solutions to specific issues that we had as a company and needed to ensure were covered off, the product is very flexible like that. I feel it is tailored to what we require rather than having a one size fits all product that we have to make compromises with.

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“Whenever I’ve had to contact the support team, not that I’ve had to use them a great deal, I always get an answer that day. That’s far quicker than I hear back from any other support teams I might have cause to use in my day to day work.”

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“I can’t speak highly enough.” Mark Scorey, Finance Manager

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