Time-saving app kicked off long-term cloud collaboration

K A Lundbladh is an independent importer of fruit and vegetables with around 40 employees in Helsingborg and Malmö. When the company that provided the then existing solution for delivery and complaints was acquired, K A Lundbladh wanted, among other things, to avoid paying the license cost and at the same time improve the solution.

Save time with a flexible and mobile solution

The users wanted the new solution to work and look like the old one. K A Lundbladh contacted WeSafe on the recommendation of another IT supplier and when WeSafe suggested using Power Apps, K A realized how quickly a solution could be created that was similar to an existing system. WeSafe developed a new app in about four weeks based on what they saw of the existing solution. Now, about 20 people, most of them in the warehouse, use the new app, which they access through the Office environment, without additional user accounts or logins.

"It is a very flexible and more mobile solution than before because it works just as well on a mobile phone as on a tablet in the warehouse, which saves a lot of time. The old one worked on some tablets. Previously, not all formats were correct on the mobile devices, so this saves time at all levels. The finance department also gets an easier administration of the supplier invoices."

- Björn Jonsson, site manager

Another improvement is purely in terms of price as K A Lundbladh does not have to pay the license fee to the previous supplier.

Of course, it cost to develop the app, but it still becomes cheaper over time because the license cost is in Power Apps, which we actually already pay for as an integrated part of Microsoft 365, Björn continues.

Reducing personal dependency

The app is a system for managing incoming deliveries with control, complaints, deviation reporting and history. Staff check that deliveries are correct using information and a checklist directly in the app. Correct deliveries are marked green and approved for payment, but if something is wrong, the person responsible for managing the delivery enters text and images that become a complaint report via e-mail directly to the supplier and the buyer.

- It is important that everyone involved receives information as early as possible, and the app could perhaps be called an information app as well because we inform the supplier if we have received the wrong quantity or something is of poor quality in the same way as we can quickly and easily approve the right deliveries to the organization. In this way, the new app reduces both the manual paperwork and the dependence on people. In the past, handling deliveries and complaints relied heavily on the human factor. If a colleague was away or quit, the flow was less efficient. Now colleagues see all the information about the deliveries immediately," says Björn.

Good personal contact essential for moving to the cloud

Once the app project had been completed, K A Lundbladh had to change its IT provider as the contract expired.

- We were in a hybrid solution with equipment and applications partly in a server hall and partly in the cloud. In addition, our Windows environment was old and server-based. For example, we could not have meetings in Teams when we were logged into the server. So we wanted to move as much as possible to the cloud," says Björn.

The tender showed that several suppliers offered the same solutions at roughly the same price. The close and strong collaboration on the new app made K A Lundbladh choose WeSafe.

"It's easy to write a good contract, but then you have to work with that partner for many years. Then you just want it to work. My colleagues and I had such good personal contact with the people at WeSafe and we enjoyed working together. That was decisive in the choice of IT partner."

- Björn Jonsson, site manager

Future solutions in cooperation

Now K A has completely shut down the old technology and is an end-to-end customer of WeSafe, which delivers Microsoft 365, AVD, the app, network and updates entirely in the cloud.

- We have a very open dialog with WeSafe and get good service and quick help. In addition, they ask us why we do what we do with the IT solution and suggest how we could use what we pay for anyway. In addition to being good, the soft values are important to both us and them.

Björn says that they are considering future solutions such as connecting the app to their existing business system and then connecting Power BI to it to avoid working in the business system and large Excel files.

We will do this in cooperation with WeSafe," concludes Björn.

Summary

Challenges 

• License cost for the complaint solution.
• Person-dependent and a lot of manual paperwork.
• Hybrid IT solution with physical servers and cloud.

Solutions 

• Mobile and tablet app in Power Apps.
• The entire IT environment in the cloud.

Values 

• The app saves time and gives everyone involved the right information right away.
• Automatic updates of the IT environment, possibility of more solutions and only one license cost for IT and app.
• Fast service and help with constructive cooperation in developing new solutions.