Bultex 99 improved its sales analysis and inventory management with the businessPace BI solution

The workwear and personal protective equipment industry manages thousands of items, different industry standards, and short-term orders, and making timely and accurate decisions is crucial.

In such a dynamic environment, intelligent technologies become a tool for achieving operational clarity and business predictability.

Data analysis software enables the consolidation, processing, and visualization of large volumes of information, providing a reliable basis for strategic planning and daily control.

A new Business Intelligence (BI) system gives Bultex 99’s management clear, consolidated, and visualized information about key business indicators in real-time. The company’s data analysis software has become a management navigator in a dynamic and logistically complex business.

Bultex 99 is a Plovdiv-based company with 30 years of history and a significant market share. Specializing in the manufacture and supply of protective and workwear and the import and trade of protective and personal protective equipment, the company strives for growth and improvement in both its professional competencies and the goods and services it offers to the market. To date, Bultex 99 has over 50,000 customers, including 15,000 corporate customers, and provides more than 100,000 items (with sizing). The company has 22 retail outlets in the country and an online store.

For an innovative company of the scale of Bultex 99, the use of an ERP system and spreadsheets proved insufficient to respond to the business’s dynamics.

“We managed processes using the existing ERP system, combined with additional processing in Excel. We relied on periodic and standard reports generated by the ERP’s standard functionalities, supplemented with manually built analyses and improvised reports in spreadsheets.

We had set up automatic updates and report generation outside of working hours—early or late at night—to avoid overloading the system during the day. In some cases, however, processes had to be started manually, which created additional workload.
Our sales teams, including store and retail employees, use the ERP system daily. Therefore, it was essential to ensure that reports and analyses did not block their access to it during working hours,” said Miroslav Slavov, Sales Director at Bultex 99.

In their desire to automate their sales analysis and reporting, Bultex 99 turned to the consulting company Balkan Services and the business analytics platform businessPace.

“We chose a ready-made solution to implement immediately and subsequently upgrade. Compared to developing something from scratch, the difference in budget is significant, and when there is no complete clarity about the return on investment, launching such a project is difficult to justify,” said Miroslav Slavov.

A two-phase project

The first phase of the businessPace software implementation project at Bultex 99, which takes several days, covers the company’s sales.

“Colibri ERP – Bultex 99’s business management system is well known to our team, and over the years, we have had excellent collaboration with the team from the ERP system implementer, This was also the case during the implementation of the BI software at Bultex 99,” said Dimitar Prodanov, Senior BI Consultant at Balkan Services. He emphasized that this was one of the factors contributing to the rapid integration of businessPace into Bultex 99’s processes.

During the project’s second phase, the Balkan Services team is upgrading the platform’s functionalities by adding additional data sources for inventory, item movement, deliveries, and orders.

“This next step happened about a year after the first phase. During this time, the system users were actively working with it, which helped them get a clearer idea of what extra info they wanted to add,” explained Dimitar Prodanov.

How did businessPace make analysis easier at Bultex 99?

In its daily work, the Bultex 99 team monitors key indicators such as sales, turnover, and profit, as well as inventory, goods movement, minimum and maximum stock levels, and financial flows, including overdue liabilities.

“We have analyzed all these indicators before, but the process took considerable time. Some of the reports were not even produced, even though we had a clear idea of what they should contain – we did not have the resources, and the task was not a priority,” the company says.

One of the most useful features of BI software is the periodic extraction of data from a company’s ERP system.

“businessPace collects sales information for the relevant period and reports it simultaneously. To make a historical reference, it is no longer necessary to exit the audit period to transform and process the data in Excel, which saves time and effort,” explained Dimitar Prodanov, adding that the software has been drawing data since 2019.

With the implementation of businessPace, the analysis process has been transformed. Information reaches management much faster, shortening response times and improving internal coordination.

“We can now inform the sales teams promptly based on the data. Although five key managers mainly use the BI solution, the effect on operations is tangible – this is a project with real value for our business,” said Miroslav Slavov.

Automation without additional investment

The Bultex 99 team is testing automatic notifications and reports in businessPace, such as overdue payments sent by email or via Teams.

Learn more: 5 Benefits for Companies of Working with a Business Intelligence System

“We are optimizing our work with the system so that the necessary information reaches people without everyone having to work directly in it,” explained Miroslav Slavov, adding:
“We maintain active communication with the Balkan Services development team. Of all the products we have implemented so far, it is with them that we receive the highest level of service.

The successful integration of businessPace at Bultex 99 is the result of a good partnership, clearly defined goals, and a high level of commitment on the part of both organizations. Combining a ready-made BI platform and a team with practical experience makes businessPace a robust real-time decision-making tool.

At Balkan Services, we have expert knowledge of business, technology and legislation, and we speak all three languages. We will listen carefully to you and advise you on choosing the right business system for your needs.