With a legacy spanning over 145 years and one of the largest trade store networks in Victoria, Dahlsens has established itself as a trusted supplier to builders of all sizes across Australia. Delivering unsurpassed service excellence is core to their identity, but to continue delivering this, their CIO, John Bajan, recognised an urgent need to modernise their operations. He hired Fahd Khan, their Head of Enterprise Technology, entrusting him to devote himself to this quest.
Manual, Fragmented & Unscalable
At the heart of Dahlsens’ quoting process was a custom-built customer data exchange (CDX) tool, BuilderConnect, which pulled pricing data from their Frameworks ERP. Sales teams banked on this data to generate pricing books for BuildXact – a crucial tool for contractors (i.e. builders, plumbers, and electricians) to determine the final cost of projects. If pricing in BuilderConnect was outdated or inaccurate, it compromised their ability to generate fast, reliable quotes and directly impacted sales.
BuilderConnect, originally reliant on WSO2, increasingly struggled to handle pricing syncs reliably. Syncs sometimes failed, forcing teams to restart processes and causing inefficiencies. Stop-gap fixes using Logic Apps provided temporary relief, but the system was approaching its limits of scalability and sustainability.
Dahlsens stores also had varied approaches for quote approvals – some via email, others via Microsoft Teams. While this supported local flexibility, it limited overall visibility and consistency across the network. With competitive pressure mounting, Dahlsens needed a new approach that preserved local strengths while standardising processes for scale.
From Brittle to Brilliant Pricing Flows
Fahd took charge of the transformation. With no automation infrastructure in place and a legacy system reliant on Power Automate, he sought a more robust platform that could connect disparate systems seamlessly, support real-time data sync, standardise yet customise quote approval flows, and scale with business ambitions. The goal was to transform Dahlsens into a highly automated, data-driven organisation.
After evaluating multiple platforms, Workato was selected as the best fit for Dahlsens’ current and future needs.
Fahd and team swiftly used Workato to mend the data sync between estimation and offtake BuildXact software and their ERP, the source of pricing information.
This spurred them to also replace several fragile Power platform flows that touched other processes, such as using Workato to:
- Automate the processing of traditional supplier documents like EDI invoices and purchase orders (PO),
- Build an invoice approval process integrated with their ERP (as the ERP’s PO process did not fully meet requirements),
- Sync real-time data both ways between Salesforce CRM and Frameworks ERP,
- Streamline communication on opportunities and quotes across multiple departments.
Speed, Scale and Governance
In less than 90 days, Dahlsens achieved remarkable results with Workato:
- 90% faster pricing file syncs: With Workato syncing pricing files to BuildXact, a 9-hour process now completes in 40 minutes, allowing Sales teams to swiftly advise customers.
- 40% faster invoice processing: Workato accurately and automatically converts supplier documents into the required format, reducing overheads for suppliers.
- 20% increase in operational efficiency with full visibility: Staff no longer need to manually resync data, and processes are now fully visible and governed by Workato. Teams can focus more on retaining customers and acquiring new ones.
Future-proofing Australia’s Building Supplies Industry
At a launch party celebrating the success of the team’s efforts, Dahlsens’ Chairman suggested further opportunities. “Can Workato also help us improve how product catalog data syncs between operational technology (OT) systems, our ERP, and Bill of Materials (BOM)?” The answer from Fahd and his team was a resounding yes. This is now part of a roadmap to extend integration across Finance, Procurement, and HR systems, with proactive exception handling and issue resolution.
Fahd and his team are already on their journey to integrate with suppliers and partners via APIs, enhance real-time decision-making with event-driven automation, and train AI agents to improve predictive analytics and business insights.
Their longer-term vision is to empower non-technical teams to build automations on Workato, and reinvent how Dahlsens innovates for the future.