Building a Unified Business System for a Commercial Restaurant Equipment Company Scaling Across the Caribbean

The client is a commercial restaurant equipment distributor and service company serving the English-speaking Caribbean, with Trinidad as the primary market and regional expansion underway. Their customer base centers on franchises, large grocery chains with bakery and deli sections, and institutional buyers. Beyond equipment sales, the company provides installation, commissioning, testing, and training services — managed through a contractor network rather than direct employees due to varying labor laws across Caribbean jurisdictions.

Having evaluated multiple platforms including ERP systems, Odoo, and HubSpot before landing on Zoho One for its ability to handle international business requirements like duty structures, taxes, and multi-currency, the company arrived at Brockbank Consulting with the right platform but no implementation roadmap. With 30 hires imminent, a new warehouse coming online, and regional growth accelerating, the leadership team needed a system built correctly from the start — before chaotic processes became permanently embedded in a growing organization.

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A commercial restaurant equipment company serving the English-speaking Caribbean — with franchises, grocery chains, and large institutional clients as their primary customer base — was preparing for rapid growth while operating on disconnected legacy systems. Having previously used NCR Counterpoint and QuickBooks, the leadership team had already purchased Zoho One after extensive research but had no structured implementation plan and were operating on an urgent timeline with 30 hires planned for January and February:

- No formal HR infrastructure existed to onboard 30 incoming employees across warehouse, finance, sales, and marketing roles — offer letters were still being signed physically on the first day
- A recruitment agency was sourcing candidates but there was no system to track candidates, log interview feedback, or manage the hiring funnel across the leadership team
- Training materials were being created but had no platform to live in, and department-level onboarding was entirely informal with no standardization
- Payroll was processed through a third-party system (GTPA) with no integration to time tracking — time sheets were being manually compiled and cleaned in spreadsheets before each payroll run
- The quoting process relied on Autoquotes by Revitalize for manufacturer specs and pricing, but data had to be manually transferred between systems, creating duplication and errors
- Inventory of approximately $2 million USD across a 100,000 square foot warehouse had no unified tracking system connecting purchasing, receiving, and fulfillment
- Field service and installation — handled by contractors across multiple Caribbean islands due to varying labor laws — had no system for work order management, technician tracking, or job progress visibility
- The leadership team had attempted to self-configure Zoho through trial and error before engaging Brockbank, resulting in incomplete and unreliable setup across multiple apps

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Brockbank Consulting conducted a full discovery across people operations, sales, procurement, fulfillment, and field service — then designed a phased Zoho One implementation starting with the most urgent priority: getting HR and recruiting infrastructure in place before the January hiring push.

Key solutions delivered:

- Zoho People for HR: Configured Zoho People as the central employee management platform, with a digital onboarding portal so new hires can complete documentation, upload requirements, and access training materials before their first day — replacing the physical sign-on-arrival process
- Zoho Recruit integration: Set up Zoho Recruit to track the full candidate pipeline — from recruitment agency profile submissions through interview scheduling, feedback logging, and offer letter generation — with a one-click conversion from hired candidate to Zoho People employee record
- Payroll and time tracking: Configured Zoho People for clock-in/clock-out with geo-tagging for field technicians, and built a Zoho Analytics workflow to automatically prep and format time sheet exports for GTPA payroll — eliminating manual spreadsheet compilation
- Zoho RPA for payroll automation: Scoped Zoho RPA (robotic process automation) to automate the payroll import process into GTPA, so the full workflow from time sheet to payroll run can be triggered with a single click
- CRM and quoting pipeline: Built Zoho CRM with lead capture across all channels (email, WhatsApp, phone, walk-in), integrated with Autoquotes API to pull manufacturer specs and pricing directly into Zoho Books quotes — with automated follow-up sequences for non-responding prospects
- Quote to sales order to purchase order: Configured the full financial flow in Zoho Books — accepted quotes convert to sales orders, sales orders convert to purchase orders routed by preferred vendor, with automated vendor follow-up cadences and landed cost tracking for customs, duties, and currency conversion
- Zoho Inventory for warehouse management: Set up Zoho Inventory to track items received against purchase orders, manage in-stock versus committed stock levels, and log signed delivery confirmations from customers
- Zoho FSM for field service: Configured Zoho FSM for contractor-based installation management across the Caribbean, with work order creation, appointment tracking, technician geo-tagging, and progress updates from mobile devices
- Executive dashboard: Built a Zoho Analytics dashboard covering both the employee journey (recruiting funnel, onboarding status) and the customer journey (leads, quotes, orders, fulfillment) in a single view
- Internal AI knowledge base: Scoped an AI agent using internal documentation and manufacturer manuals so staff can answer technical customer questions without escalating every inquiry — reducing support burden as the team scales
- Zoho Learn SOP system: Installed Brockbank's standardized SOP framework across the organization so department heads can document and delegate processes consistently as 30 new hires come onboard

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