How this becomes real
From concept to a live pilot in six to eight weeks
This demonstration uses fictional data and connects to nothing. This page sets out, honestly, what would be required to make it real inside Videcon — and what would deliberately stay untouched.
Start with what your systems already report
Nothing is duplicated. The ERP remains the system of record, and the platform only adds the interpretation and reporting layers that sit on top of it.
the ERP
ERP reporting & Customer 360 already report products, pricing, stock and account balances.
Your trade website
Trade website orders, catalogue and installer portal activity.
Google Analytics & Search Console
Demand signals and which ranges customers research before ordering.
Existing integration layer
The existing pipeline between the ERP and the trade website.
Approved public sources
Company-level company posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, Google reviews, job adverts, Companies House filings and website news, matched to the trade account. Never personal profiles.
What the action layer reads from
The five additions on the Act side of the platform, and the source each one needs. No new systems: saved searches, an events feed and the agreements you already hold.
The ERP saved searches
Order history, last invoice date and stock cover per account, read nightly from saved searches finance already trusts.
Trade website events feed
Basket, quote, search and product-view events, joined to the ERP customer IDs and refreshed hourly.
Supplier rebate agreements
Tier thresholds, rates and period end dates per supplier, held alongside purchase spend so the gap to the next tier is live.
Teams or email for the digest
The 07:00 action list, one message per account manager, with the same ranked list on screen all day.
The action log
Who closed what and when, then the account's trading 21 days later, scored automatically into won back, partly recovered or no change.
The rules stay on Videcon’s side. The thresholds behind lapsing, basket gaps and margin leaks are set and reviewed by sales leadership, and every action shown carries the evidence that triggered it.
Architecture
Read-only connections into the systems of record, one intelligence layer, and role-aware experiences on top.
Systems of record
- the ERP
- The trade website
- Google Analytics
- the existing integration layer layer
Unchanged. Read-only API roles only.
Ingestion
- OAuth 2.0 · read-only
- ERP queries queries on a schedule
- the trade website REST, incremental
- Customer matching on verified account IDs
Intelligence layer
- Metric engine, one definition per measure
- Account identity and health model
- AI services with company data controls
- Human review before anything is actioned
Outputs: executive overview, Buyer 360, advisor, board reports.
Ingestion — read-only
- ERP reporting queries via REST, OAuth 2.0, read-only role
- trade website API, read-only token
- Nightly plus hourly incremental sync
- No writes back to any source system
Intelligence layer
- One customer identity per trade account
- Agreed commercial definitions applied once
- Metric engine: sales, margin, mix, cover, momentum
- AI services under company data controls
Experience layer
- Executive overview for directors
- Buyer 360 for account managers and sales leadership
- AI Commercial Advisor for management questions
- Board Report Studio for the monthly pack
Read-only access and customer matching
The two things that decide whether the numbers can be trusted.
Read-only API access
ERP reporting queries through the REST API with an OAuth 2.0 integration record limited to read scopes; the trade website REST with a read-only API account; Google Analytics and Search Console reporting APIs; optionally reuse the existing Existing integration layer rather than adding another pipeline. No write scopes are requested, so the platform cannot alter a price, a stock figure or an account.
Customer matching by verified account IDs
the ERP customer internal IDs and the trade website customer IDs are matched to a single platform account, with the trade account number as the join key. Anything unmatched goes to a human review queue rather than being guessed, so a branch of one installer is never merged silently with another.
Agreed commercial definitions
Written down once, implemented once, and shown on every screen.
| Definition | Proposed rule | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Net invoiced value on trade accounts, excluding VAT, credits and internal transfers. | Confirmed by finance |
| Gross margin | Net sales less landed cost of goods at the point of invoice, including rebate accrual. | Confirmed by finance |
| Active account | An account with at least one invoiced order in the rolling 90 days. | Agreed by sales leadership |
| Customer value | 12-month gross profit, not turnover, with momentum weighted over the last quarter. | Confirmed by the board |
| Flagged for attention | Declining more than 6% year on year, or no order in 90 days with prior spend. | Agreed by sales leadership |
| Slow-moving stock | No sales in 90 days, or cover above 150 days at current run rate. | Confirmed by buying |
Role-based access
Directors see the financials. Sales managers see their own accounts. Nobody sees more than their role requires.
| Role | Sees | Can produce |
|---|---|---|
| Directors | All financials, all accounts, all regions | Full board pack, all reports |
| Sales leadership | Their regions and teams, all commercial metrics | Regional and account reports |
| Account managers | Only the accounts they own | Account review packs |
| Category and buying | Products, stock and margin by category | Category and stock reports |
| Finance | Everything, read-only | All reports, no action approval |
Enforced inside the platform, not by asking people to look away. Every export is logged against a named user.
AI with company-approved data controls
Useful, but never unsupervised on commercial decisions.
Figures are calculated, never generated
Every number is computed from the source data. The models are shown those numbers and told they may not invent any others.
Company data controls
Prompts and outputs stay inside the company agreement; no Videcon data is used to train a third-party model.
Two perspectives, one recommendation
An analyst view and an independent reviewer view, reconciled into a single recommendation.
Human approval required
Action lists are proposals until a director approves them, and approval is recorded.
UK GDPR and data protection
Straightforward, because most of what the platform handles is company data rather than personal data.
Account data is company data, not personal data, but named contacts are personal data and are treated as such.
Only contacts needed for the commercial relationship are held, with a lawful basis of legitimate interest recorded.
Marketing engagement is reported only where an individual has consented, and consent is stored with its source and date.
Role-based access and audit logging: every view and export is attributable to a named user.
Retention is aligned to the existing CRM policy, with deletion on request handled by the same process.
Data stays in the UK or EU regions, with the AI providers bound by a data processing agreement and no training on Videcon data.
Suggested pilot: six to eight weeks
Small, measurable, and reversible. One scope, agreed definitions, and a review at eight weeks.
- Weeks 1–2
Access and definitions
Read-only API credentials provisioned, commercial definitions signed off by finance, customer matching rules agreed.
- Weeks 3–4
Data and reconciliation
12 months of order, stock and account data loaded. Figures reconciled line by line against ERP reporting.
- Weeks 5–6
Pilot views and AI controls
Executive overview and Buyer 360 for one chosen scope, plus the AI Advisor under agreed data controls.
- Weeks 7–8
Embed and measure
Team training, monthly pack produced end to end, results measured against the success criteria below.
Success criteria at eight weeks
- Every figure in the monthly pack reconciles to the ERP and the trade website within 0.5%.
- Accounts flagged as declining are contacted within five working days of the flag appearing.
- The monthly board pack is produced in under two hours, start to signed off.
- At least one cross-sell campaign is launched from the platform in the pilot window.
- Named owners confirm the action list is complete and useful at the eight-week review.