It's not really business as usual, but some good things are happening...

Truth be told, it’s a very challenging time for all of us at the moment.

We know that it’s likely to be a real test for all our businesses, and as a very valued customer of CAME BPT we want to make sure you know, we’re here to support you in whatever way we can. It's taken us a few days to work out what “extra things” we can really do to help and hopefully all that we are trying to do will make some small positive differences for both our customers and our employees alike.

The core value and belief of CAME worldwide, to put people at the centre of all that we do, has never been more prevalent than right now! We have taken the time to explain in detail all the efforts we are making as a company, as colleagues, as friends and like a big CAME family to put people at the centre of our decision making, not only the people in our business but also you and the people in your businesses too.
 

Centralised office working moves to remote home working in an instant…

Our main objective this week has been to manage the movement of all CAME BPT staff who can realistically work remotely and to do so with immediate effect. Our robust and leading IT infrastructure provided by our amazingly supportive Italian HQ ICT Team has allowed us to systematically deploy almost all of our staff to remote working, including all of our internal sales & technical support departments, full accounts team and full marketing team, all now operating trying to serve our customers as usually as possible and reducing risks for any remaining employees working in the key departments of production, logistics and despatch.

Our priority has been to support the most affected first, including those with dependents, those who are pregnant or who have pregnant partners, partners of key workers, and then moving further along the chain to the slightly less vulnerable (but still hugely important to us).

A huge thank you has to be extended to all staff who have patiently waited their turn to be issued with the ICT equipment and setup they need to return home for a safe setup and environment to go about their normal jobs.

Our intention is to have by Tuesday next week all our telephone-based workers fully operational from the safety of their homes, answering all your queries, processing quotations and orders, and offering valued technical support services to any customers out in the field who need that important help.

We apologise if there have been some outages this week while we make the transition but fingers crossed, broadband speeds permitting, we will be almost back to normal from next week onwards.

So, what does this all mean for our business operations?

Reduced Staff Levels inside our Branch Facilities

Obviously, not everyone can do their job remotely. So, with that in mind we are now operating a reduced team within each of our branches to keep the business operating and functional. Our dedicated warehouse and distributions teams are working as usual (which we’re hugely grateful for) and for those remaining in our branches, they now have extra working space to distance themselves from colleagues.

Furthermore, new procedures are in place to safeguard their protection while they remain at work, we've provided all the necessary PPE that’s available to us at this time, and the committed management team are overseeing that all operations remain as safe as possible for all concerned.
 

Equipment Collections ARE Still Available

We want you to know that your orders are still available for collection from all our branches. Precautionary measures have been introduced however with increased access control measures in place to prevent additional people from entering the branch. If you do wish to collect your orders, we’re happy for you to do so and they will be prepared and waiting for your arrival. All that we request from you is to please inform internal sales of your expected arrival time so we can make the necessary arrangements and we kindly ask all customers respect the additional safeguarding that we have put in place.
 

Stock Situation & Delivery Updates

In line with our move to Castle Donington last year, we undertook a considerable investment of our UK stock profile. That stock upgrade resulted in at any point we are holding stock in excess of £3.5m!

This strong position means we can offer you assurances that we should be able to always provide you with what you need and importantly when you need it.

In addition to this, our stock profile has been further boosted last week following the welcome news from our HQ that we will receive two extra-large deliveries this week, allowing us to replenish essential lines. Our Italian logistics colleagues, who are also under very severe pressure and lockdown conditions, have entirely made this possible & must be applauded for their support for our UK & IE business in securing excellent supply lines in what is a most difficult time for all of Italy right now. Our team in CAME Italy are literally moving mountains to make sure that we can continue our business activities so you can be assured that the local UK & IE teams will make sure that all this extra effort doesn’t go to waste.

Our stock position is secure and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
We will be providing weekly updates via email on any potential stock issues we see appearing giving as much notice as possible to allow all our customers to plan appropriately.

Finance & Accounting

We are incredibly aware that this situation will have some very severe consequences for all business in general. Knowing this is on the horizon, our Finance Team, both locally and in collaboration with our Italian colleagues, are currently working on a number of ways on how we will be able support our loyal customer base lover the coming months.

Nothing is yet set in stone, but rest assured we are looking at every possible option available to us to try and facilitate the smooth uninterrupted ongoing supply of our products to your business over the coming months.

There will be challenging times ahead, financially speaking, and CAME like any other business up and down the country have the highest priority to keep our people busy, safe and employed. So please do bear this in mind if you receive a call from our finance and accounts teams enquiring about outstanding balances being paid ;-)

Over the next few weeks we will be informing each customer by email of what the options look like and how each company will be able to take advantage of them. More details will follow very soon.
 

Regional Sales Support

All of our Area Sales Managers are now operating on a remote basis from home. While we have instructed them to minimise all face-to-face meetings with customers, we are actively encouraging them to maintain contact as best they can in a support capacity. They have all been provided with the necessary tools to conduct meetings and calls remotely so please feel free to contact them via Facetime, WhatsApp video call, Skype or whichever method is most convenient for you at this time.

None of our salespeople will be calling you to ask for an order or to promote or try to sell you anything! Please be assured that any contact they will be making will be 100% with a view to providing any possible service and support that we can offer given these challenging circumstances.

Each and every one of them are ready and willing to provide remote support in any way they can… so please keep them busy, no matter how trivial your request! ;-)   

Marketing SUPPORT

Our marketing and design team have also disappeared home to work remotely but of course, fully operational. The cancellation of many significant events in our marketing calendar has meant their workload priority has now shifted from our work to hopefully answering your requests.   

We'll be dedicating at least 50% of our working week to customer support requests. So, if you do require FOC marketing support services during this period, all you have to do is ask.

Our team can provide marketing, graphic design, content or creative support throughout this time and will be using an online ticketing system to manage all your requests, the details of which will be made available to you soon. We may not be able to cover all the requests but each one will be dealt with on a first come first served basis and we will work our way through them as they arrive and won’t stop until a more normal working environment resumes.

We are also launching very soon a series of free to use business tools for all of our customers to personalise and help them during this period.

Firstly, we’ll be providing some electronic literature that you can share with your customers offering them reassurances that your business is operating using best health and safety practices for this situation, following government guidelines while maintaining business operations, and that you are upholding the duty of care for both them and your staff.

We figure that if you can reassure your customers about the steps that you are taking this should help minimise any cancelled or delayed orders for your business. We know that any of our customers are already doing this but for every one that is there are also smaller customers who value the help and support with small details like this which is where we think we can help.  Look out for this first email from the CAME BPT Marketing team early next week.

Details of the ticketing system and the type of projects we can work on for you will hopefully be shared late next week so start to have a think if there is anything you need help with…
 

Customer Training: Moving Online & Almost Ready to Roll...

The sensible decision to temporarily suspend all our face-to-face training until 1st May is already in place. The reality is that it is very likely to be extended.

If you need to cancel any pre-booked training that’s not a problem at all and we will be more than happy to facilitate, all you need to do is email training@camebpt.co.uk with the details of your booking and one of our team will arrange for an immediate refund, no questions asked.

But in true CAME style, our training won’t just stop. We have got some quite exciting plans for full online training that we will be rolling out over the next few days.

All training courses that can move online immediately will do so & information on how to book these courses will be made available very soon.

We will also be introducing a series of weekly product webinars available for all customers, engineers, office staff and also our own remote staff.

You will also be able to book one to one on-demand e-training with either of our two dedicated Training Managers to discuss and specific project needs, areas of our product range you would like to go deeper with, or anything else CAME BPT.

Our two dedicated training managers are available and waiting to take your calls for any immediate support you might require.

Intercom Training Requests – Karl Cullen – kcullen@came.com      
Automation Training Requests – Robert Stocks – rstocks@came.com

A very positive message coming from CAME Italy...

Yesterday we met via video conference with our company owners in Italy from the lockdown of their home. Though they are experiencing extremely testing times in isolation, they are buoyant, high spirited and defiant of the challenges they themselves are facing.

CAME have given assurances, that we will continue to support our customers throughout this challenging time and our very strong market position combined with an unwaivering   strong will of all the CAME people worldwide.

So, while it is very clearly not 'business as usual' as many seem to be suggesting on social media channels, our CAME business is still operating very effectively and will be working tirelessly to ensure we support you with whatever help and support we can, within the restrictions that we find placed upon us.

We absolutely want you to know that if there is anything, we can do to support you better, you only have to ask. We cannot promise everything will be possible, but what we can promise is that over the next few months, nobody will be trying harder for their customers than the people on the CAME Team and inside our CAME Family!

Please pick up the phone and talk to us, we are all here to help.

Warmest regards,
James Bostock