Roofing merchants win or lose on getting the right materials to site fast and accurate. Tiles, slates, felt, battens, membranes, lead, ventilation and fixings all have to line up with a roofing programme that shifts with the weather. OptiFlow puts an AI layer on top of the systems you already run so the routine ordering and enquiry work looks after itself, and your team is free for the jobs that need them.
The pressures on a roofing merchant
Roofing is specialist and time critical. A contractor stripping a roof needs the load on site before the felt goes back on, and a wrong count, a missed batten order or the wrong tile can stop a job and cost a relationship. Meanwhile your counter and phones carry a steady load of the same questions: how many tiles to the square metre, what batten gauge for this pitch, is this profile in stock, what is my price. Your team answer these all day, quote jobs line by line, and re key orders that arrive by phone, email, text and the occasional photo of a written list. At the seasonal peak that work builds into queues and mistakes.
What OptiFlow does for you
OptiFlow reads incoming orders and enquiries across every channel and turns them into accurate, ready to confirm work inside your existing system. It answers coverage and product questions from your live catalogue, works out quantities, checks real stock and the correct price for that customer, and drafts quotes in seconds. Your people move from typing to checking, which is faster and far less error prone.
- Automate order entry from email, PDF, text and photos straight into your ERP, with no re keying.
- Answer stock and price enquiries instantly from live data, so a contractor gets an answer before they ring the next merchant.
- Work out roofing quantities such as tiles or slates per area and batten runs, using your own product data.
- Draft quotes fast and consistently, so warm enquiries turn into orders instead of going cold.
Where it helps most
The biggest wins are at the busy times and outside normal hours. When your counter is three deep on a Saturday morning, OptiFlow is answering the routine questions and building orders in parallel, so nobody waits. And when a contractor sends an order at nine in the evening ready for an early start, it is captured, checked and ready rather than sitting unread until morning. That responsiveness is exactly what keeps roofing contractors loyal to a merchant.
Works with your systems, no rip and replace
OptiFlow is an AI layer that sits on top of the platform you already run, whether that is Kerridge, Intact, Ibcos or another trade system, and acts on the data it already holds. There is no migration, no long project and nothing new for your team to learn, and most merchants are live in weeks rather than months. If you run Ibcos, Kerridge or Intact, OptiFlow connects to it directly. See the fuller picture on our AI for builders merchants page.
We can run a short proof of concept against a sample of your real order and enquiry traffic. Get a quote.
Related reading: order entry automation and delivery scheduling.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to replace my ERP?
No. OptiFlow is an AI layer that sits on top of your existing system, whether that is Kerridge, Intact, Ibcos or another platform, so there is no migration and nothing to rip out.
Can it handle roofing product questions?
Yes. It answers coverage, batten gauge, profile and stock questions from your live catalogue, the same answers your counter team would give, only faster and at any hour.
Can it work out roofing quantities?
Yes. It works out quantities such as tiles or slates per area and batten runs using your own product data, then builds the order for a person to confirm.
How does it handle orders that come in overnight?
Orders sent by email, text or photo outside hours are captured, matched to your catalogue and checked, so they are ready first thing rather than waiting to be keyed in.
How quickly can it go live?
Most merchants are live in weeks because there is no system to replace. We usually start with a proof of concept on a sample of your real orders.