Jenny McIntyre, owner of JM Health, an online business which supplies health products such as vitamins, solutions for obesity, probiotics, protein supplements, performance sports nutrition and health and fitness advice for men, women and children. JM Health was initially launched as a mail order business in 1998 and was formed to provide quality health supplements to people of all ages to improve their quality of life, delivered conveniently to their door.

Since the initial launch of the business JM Health has grown significantly both in terms of its product range and customer base. The website which was introduced in 2010 is no longer adequately supporting the business's orders and customer enquiries and undermines Jenny's ability to be responsive and maintain a competitive edge.

In 2010 Jenny invested in a website, adding online as a key channel. At the time Jenny consulted a website developer who built a site that looked great. However, as the business has grown, order fulfilment has slowed. Initially, orders were placed via the website and were handled manually but as the volume grew significantly Jenny and her staff found they were spending the majority of their time on administrative tasks involved with placing orders, managing stock, fulfilling and dispatching product and answering customer enquiries.

At the time when Jenny's site was built unfortunately there was little if any discussion about what her business may look like in two or more years' time and what her technology requirements may be. So, as the business expanded it effectively outgrew the capabilities of the website.

For example, the current site did not enable Jenny to automate order and stock fulfilment, capture customer details, or make even small changes, such as, adding a new product offering or changing as price point, requiring her to consult the developer each time to make effectively a cosmetic change which was expensive, time consuming and often resulted in Jenny being less competitive as she could not always respond quickly.

Further, whilst the website developer had strong creative skills around layout and design, he lacked the skills to advise Jenny about other technology solutions which would complement her website, address her challenges and support her growth aspirations. At this point Jenny felt trapped and hamstrung by her technology choice and she was concerned about the costs involved with upgrading her current solution.

Jenny contacted NetReturn Consulting, web strategy and integration specialists, and outlined her issues and business plans. A phased plan of action was developed to address the current problems and to support business growth including the implementation of a content and order management system which captured orders, relayed them for despatch and updated stock levels automatically!

In addition, an improved and flexible website was built which meant Jenny could make product changes herself without having to wait for the developer so she could be more competitive. The enhanced site was also easier for customers to navigate and place orders so Jenny acquired more business than before.

NetReturn Consulting also implemented an improved website payment capability which meant the dollars were in Jenny's account faster than the old site and methods allowed.

NetReturn Consulting worked closely with Jenny to implement changes over time to suit both her business cycles around demand and cash flow. In addition NetReturn Consulting provided Jenny with the source code for her technology solutions which is essential for any future programmer or system administrator who may wish to modify the program, giving Jenny supplier flexibility in the future. Overall, Jenny is now spending less time and money on admin, more time on business planning and growth and getting more time with her family.