The Client
The Homemade Brownie Company was set up by gluten-free baker Laura Bland after she fulfilled her quest for the perfect chocolate brownie recipe. The award-winning company sell a mouth-watering range of brownies in 20 flavours to individuals, companies, and wholesale customers.
The Challenge
Manual data processing took time away from growing the business
Each week, The Homemade Brownie Company bakes around 6,000 brownies on average – up to 15,000 at peak times. Orders arrive from multiple sources: their website, Amazon, by phone and email.
Director Adam Bland was spending up to 4 hours daily manually collating orders in a spreadsheet. He used this to generate a business-critical report listing everything that needed to be baked, wrapped, and packed that day.
Not only was this time-consuming and laborious, but the spreadsheets were so huge and complex that nobody but Adam could manage them. His time was being swallowed up by basic admin, rather than more strategic, value-adding activities to help the business grow.
Adam tried a few off-the-shelf software systems to automate the order processing. But none did exactly what he needed.
The admin burden and lack of efficiency was crippling us. Each morning there was a frantic rush for the first 3 hours to process the orders. Often, I was in the office at 3am to do it, because we didn't have any means of automating it or delegating it to anyone else.
The solution
A custom software integration that automatically processes order data
CmdShiftR built a customised piece of middleware for The Homemade Brownie Company to act as a bridge between separate software systems.
It automatically pulls in real-time data on all website and Amazon orders, and translates this into the right format for the daily itemised lists for baking, wrapping, and packing. Then it sends the complete order information to Cybake, the bakery software system used by The Homemade Brownie Company.
The middleware also extracts all gift messages from orders placed, and formats them ready for printing – something staff used to have to do manually.
CmdShiftR have been fantastic. They've given us a system that has really changed our business and made a huge difference. They've delivered everything we asked, plus a few more bits. I wish I’d found them 12 months ago because it would have moved us a lot further forward a lot quicker.
The results
3 hours saved daily to focus on business development
Implementing the new middleware has eliminated three hours of manual data processing every day, freeing up that time for higher-value activities.
Adam no longer spends half his day wrangling spreadsheets – and day-to-day business operations no longer rely on him personally doing so. Instead, Adam spends that time meeting customers, planning new product launches, updating the website, refining strategy, and other vital tasks for a growing business.
Now, The Homemade Brownie Company team start each day knowing the exact number and types of orders they need to bake, wrap, and pack that day. This removes uncertainty and helps them manage their time effectively.
Taking away the admin burden and the efficiency savings has made an unbelievable difference. It’s allowed us to refocus our time and generate more sales. And it’s transformed our working environment – it feels much calmer and more under control instead of operating inside a frantic rush every day.