Howdens is the UK's leading designer and manufacturer of fitted kitchens, appliances, and joinery products. Since the nineties, the company has become a market leader in the trade sector, operating through a nationwide network of over 850 depots across the UK and expanding operations in France and Ireland.
As Howdens continued its growth trajectory, the company faced an increasingly complex operational landscape. Each local depot functioned as a crucial hub for dozens of trade professionals, managing multiple projects simultaneously while striving to maintain the personal service that had become synonymous with the Howdens brand.
Preserving this high-touch relationship model while scaling operations became increasingly challenging as the business expanded within a fragmented technological landscape. Depot staff found themselves navigating between multiple systems throughout their day, piecing together customer histories from various sources and relying heavily on manual processes to track interactions and opportunities. This fragmentation not only consumed valuable time but also created gaps in customer service that could potentially impact relationships with their trade partners.
Watch our interview with David Sturdee, Chief Customer Officer at Howdens, to gain insights into their transformation journey
Key Information
Solutions
Unified Customer Management:
Rapid Deployment:
Performance Analytics:
Automated Workflows:
From RFP to Reality
Howdens required a solution to unify their operations that would be quick to implement and easy to adopt. They selected Creatio’s no-code platform, enabling them to build custom solutions tailored to their evolving needs with agility and flexibility. The platform implementation was supported by Praesto Consulting, whose expertise and experience provided invaluable guidance throughout the process. The partnership was instrumental in driving change management and user adoption across the pilot depots, while maintaining seamless integration with existing systems.
When we were going through the RFP, there were the usual incumbents, and then there was Creatio. The difference was very clear around truly being no-code. Our deployment journey was truly remarkable. We were up and running in the first depot within just 12 weeks from the start of design and build.
Zero Code, 6x Faster Implementation
Digital transformation projects typically stretch across multiple years, but Howdens shattered conventional timelines with Creatio. What traditionally would have been an 18–24-month implementation journey was condensed into a remarkable 12-week timeline from initial design to successful deployment in their launch focused on 20 depots. This 6x acceleration in implementation speed isn't just about doing things faster – it represents a fundamental shift in how enterprise technology can be deployed.
The key to this unprecedented speed lay in Creatio's genuine no-code approach. Rather than getting bogged down in complex coding and customization cycles, Howdens' teams were able to configure and adapt the platform through composable architecture and no-code tools. This also meant that business users, who understood the depot operations intimately, could directly participate in shaping the solution.
Traditionally, that process would likely have taken multiple years. It would have been highly complex, involving many different partners, with cost and time overruns and a lot of inflexibility. With Creatio, the no-code aspect was really impressive—we're just putting the blocks together. This truly speeds things up and allows us to configure everything quickly, taking out the time and expense.
Praesto Consulting's expertise helped in achieving this accelerated timeline. Their implementation team worked closely with Howdens' business users, providing guidance on Creatio's no-code capabilities and best practices for rapid deployment. This collaborative approach ensured that the solution was not only delivered quickly but also precisely tailored to Howdens' operational needs.
Boosted Sales Conversion
The implementation of Creatio didn't just transform Howdens' operational processes—it catalyzed a remarkable uplift in sales performance. The company witnessed an improvement in its sales effectiveness, with the strike rate increasing from 32% to 38%. This six-percentage-point difference represented thousands of additional successful sales conversions and significant revenue growth across the depot network.
In just half a year, depot teams accumulated over 1,200 new qualified leads, a volume that would have been impossible to track and manage effectively under the previous system. This wasn't just about quantity – the quality of lead management improved substantially as the platform enabled teams to capture and nurture opportunities that previously might have slipped through the cracks during busy periods at the counter.
Revolutionizing Customer Relationships via a Single Source of Truth
What was once a fragmented landscape of multiple systems, paper trails, and disconnected processes has been replaced by a unified digital ecosystem that serves as the backbone of daily operations. At the heart of this transformation lies the creation of a single source of truth for customer data. Now, every interaction, preference, and transaction history is instantly accessible from Creatio, enabling depot teams to provide informed, personalized service at a moment's notice.
The impact on team dynamics has been equally profound. Communication between staff members, once reliant on verbal handovers and scribbled notes, now flows seamlessly through the platform.
Perhaps most significantly, the platform has revolutionized how Howdens manages customer relationships. The system's advanced analytics capabilities now alert teams to potential issues before they become problems, enabling proactive relationship management. This early warning system for at-risk accounts has proven invaluable in maintaining strong customer relationships and preventing account churn.
We've got the entire depot team all facing in the same direction, all going after leads in one system. This wasn't the case previously. Additionally, we now have much better visibility into what's happening deep within our account base. This insight empowers the depot teams to proactively manage relationships, engage with customers before they become inactive, and truly deepen those connections.
Analytics Driving Business Transformation
The implementation of Creatio's analytics capabilities has fundamentally revolutionized how Howdens approaches business decisions. Through real-time dashboards and comprehensive performance metrics, depot teams have gained unprecedented visibility into their operations and customer behaviors, transforming their daily workflow from intuition-based to data-driven decision-making.
The impact of this analytical change is evident from the moment depot doors open each morning. Teams across the network begin their day by analyzing their personalized dashboards, which have become the operational command center for each location. These intuitive interfaces provide instant access to critical business metrics, enabling staff to identify priorities, track performance, and spot opportunities within seconds rather than hours. The unified dashboard system has also revolutionized team communication, creating a shared understanding of goals and progress that keeps everyone aligned and focused on the same objectives.
Creatio has become an integral part of our daily operations. It helps us stay organized, improves team communication, and makes it easy to track and manage tasks throughout the day. The dashboard is simple and consistent for everyone, allowing us to collaborate seamlessly and focus on what needs attention. The ability to filter and target specific tasks has made our day-to-day much more efficient.
The AI-Powered Future of Trade Relations
As Howdens continues to push the boundaries of digital innovation, the company is already mapping out the next frontier of customer service enhancement through artificial intelligence and automation. This forward-looking vision centers on transformative AI applications that promise to further revolutionize how Howdens serves its customers.
The first focus area aims to amplify individual effectiveness through AI-powered assistance. By implementing Creatio Copilot, Howdens plans to automate routine tasks and enhance decision-making processes across its depot network. This AI assistance will evolve progressively, starting with basic task automation like scheduling and content creation before advancing to more sophisticated applications that provide deeper insights into customer behavior and needs.
The second, more ambitious application of AI technology will leverage generative AI to unlock unprecedented levels of customer understanding. This intelligent system will analyze patterns within the vast repository of customer data to predict potential customer churn before it happens and identify sales opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed. By processing and interpreting complex patterns in customer behavior, the AI will enable depot teams to take proactive action—reaching out to customers at exactly the right moment with exactly the right solution.
About Praesto Consulting
Technology consultancy specializing in CRM, Data and Insights, EPM/CPM, Marketing, and Business Strategy. Praesto’s consultants drive global solutions, implement major marketing systems, and deliver real-time P&L insights, providing clients a one-stop-shop for Business Analytics.
