The Challenge
Manual Processes Couldn't Scale
Coricraft faced a perfect storm of integration challenges:
- 500-1,000 new product codes generated weekly from their acquired company
- 70 separate warehouse and store locations, each maintaining individual inventory
- Manual data entry between systems — SYSPRO ERP and the acquired company’s platform
- Hours-long processes for inventory updates that should take minutes
- Multi-day delays for stock movement updates between locations
- Growing staffing costs just to keep up with manual operations
The acquired company’s rapid product creation meant traditional integration approaches would be too expensive and time-consuming to implement.
Manual processes could not scale
500 to 1,000 new SKUs weekly, 70 locations, and manual SYSPRO updates caused hours‑long inventory tasks and multi‑day stock delays.
Start small, expand smart
Flowgear connected SYSPRO with the acquired platform, automated stock movement across 70 sites, and removed manual reconciliation. “We looked at various options but none came close to Flowgear,” said Mark Gawronsky.
The Solution
Start Small, Expand Smart
Coricraft selected Flowgear after evaluating multiple integration platforms.
Initial Implementation Focus:
- Connected SYSPRO ERP with the acquired company’s system for inventory synchronization
- Automated stock movement tracking between 70 warehouses and stores
- Eliminated manual inventory reconciliation processes
Scalable Growth Strategy:
Flowgear’s cloud platform allowed Coricraft to start in one area without high upfront costs and expand capabilities over time. “As our experience with Flowgear has grown we’re finding 101 more things we can do with it,” says Gawronsky.
The Results
From Hours to Minutes
- Hours reduced to minutes for routine inventory updates
- Days reduced to minutes for stock movement processing
- Eliminated need for additional staff to handle growing data volumes
Operational Impact:
- Existing staff redeployed to higher-value activities
- Real-time inventory accuracy across 70 locations
- Seamless integration between acquired and legacy systems
Platform Satisfaction: “As our experience with Flowgear has grown we’re finding 101 more things we can do with it,” says Gawronsky.
“Flowgear has been proven over and over,” he adds, reflecting on the platform’s consistent performance.
Time Savings
Routine updates and stock movements now complete in minutes, staff were redeployed, and inventory accuracy is real-time across locations.
Key Takeaway
Coricraft transformed time-consuming manual processes into automated workflows, freeing up resources while maintaining accuracy across a complex multi-location operation.
Looking Ahead
Expanding integration to unify retail and manufacturing.
With retail operations now running smoothly, Coricraft is expanding their Flowgear implementation to connect retail and manufacturing operations, further streamlining their end-to-end business processes.
Flowgear, Africa’s cloud-based integration platform provider, has enabled Coricraft to integrate inventory data in SYSPRO with the system of an acquired company, and also between warehouses.
Leading South African furniture manufacturer and retailer, Coricraft, has experienced continuous growth in the 20 years since it started as a single store. After a recent acquisition the company determined it needed to streamline data integration between the acquired company’s system and the corporate SYSPRO ERP system. The acquired company generated 500-1000 new product codes per week, so a system to automate integration was investigated. According to Mark Gawronsky, Applications Manager of Coricraft “we looked at various options but none came close to Flowgear.”
The advantage of the Flowgear cloud integration platform was that Coricraft could initially start in one area without incurring high costs, and expand it later. “As our experience with Flowgear has grown we’re finding 101 more things we can do with it,” says Gawronsky.
Coricraft started by ensuring inventory between SYSPRO and the acquired company was kept in synch, and that stock movement between its multiple warehouses and stores was updated properly. With 70 warehouse and store locations, each with their own inventory, this used a laborious manual operation. But using Flowgear has enabled the company to reduce tasks that took hours manually down to minutes, and in some cases, from days to minutes. The company was able to save on hiring additional staff and to deploy existing staff to more valuable and useful tasks.
Using Flowgear, Coricraft has been able to improve efficiency of inventory-related activities and streamline operations between systems. Now that the initial business needs in the retail operations have been addressed, Coricraft will be looking at how integration between retail and manufacturing operations can be improved. “Flowgear has been proven over and over,” commented Gawronsky.
