Distribution & Wholesale Software and IT Solutions

Advantage gives UK distributors and wholesalers one connected Microsoft platform for stock, orders, warehouse, purchasing and finance, with AI and managed IT built around it. We focus on the problems that hold growing distributors back: disconnected systems, manual order processing, inaccurate stock and an ERP that can't connect to e-commerce sites, marketplaces or modern warehouse tools.

Core solutions include Dynamics 365 Business Central for distribution for inventory, warehouse and finance; AGR for demand forecasting and automated replenishment; HB SmartTrade for international trading; Power BI for live reporting; Microsoft Copilot and Power Platform for AI-powered automation; and Advantage's managed security and support services to keep everything running around the clock.

Most growing distributors and wholesalers need five connected systems. Running them on one platform means they share the same data instead of being reconciled by hand:

• ERP — inventory, purchasing, sales orders and finance in one system, such as Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Warehouse management — bins, picking, packing and barcode scanning (warehouse and operations management)
• CRM — customer accounts, quotes and sales pipeline (Dynamics 365 Sales)
• Reporting — live dashboards for fill rate, stock accuracy and margin (Power BI)
• Security and IT support — protection and uptime for the systems your business runs on (Advantage Secure365™)

AI and Microsoft Copilot then work across all of them, helping your team forecast demand, process documents and find answers faster. Distributors with large ranges or volatile demand often add a specialist replenishment tool such as AGR on top.

Business Central replaces the mix of spreadsheets, standalone stock systems and manual workarounds many wholesalers rely on with one live view of inventory and supply. Key capabilities include:

• Real-time stock visibility across one or many warehouses, showing what is available, reserved and on order
• Automated replenishment based on reorder points, minimum stock levels or demand, reducing both overstock and stockouts
• Supplier and purchasing management with lead time tracking, purchase order control and supplier performance visibility
• Multi-site warehouse management — goods in and out tracked across locations as they move, not at end-of-day reconciliation
• One set of data — inventory, sales orders, purchase orders and finance all work from the same records, so nothing is re-keyed

Find out more about Business Central for distribution and wholesale.

AGR is an inventory forecasting and replenishment solution that works with Dynamics 365 Business Central. It uses your sales history, seasonality and supplier lead times to forecast demand by item and location, then proposes purchase orders automatically.

It suits distributors and wholesalers with thousands of SKUs, seasonal ranges or multiple warehouses, where setting reorder points by hand is no longer realistic. The result is less cash tied up in slow-moving stock and fewer lost sales from stockouts. Advantage is an AGR partner.

HB SmartTrade is a purpose-built extension for Dynamics 365 Business Central for businesses that trade internationally. It handles the complexity of cross-border trade — multi-currency transactions, import and export documentation, international suppliers, landed cost calculation and customs compliance — inside Business Central, without costly bespoke development.

It is particularly well suited to UK distributors and wholesalers who import from overseas suppliers or export to customers abroad, and who need their ERP to reflect how cross-border trade really works. Advantage is an HB SmartTrade partner with implementation experience across UK distribution and wholesale businesses.

Business Central's item tracking records lot and serial numbers, and expiry dates where needed, from goods-in to dispatch. That means you can trace any batch back to its supplier or forward to every customer who received it, which makes audits faster and recalls far less painful.

The software has the capability; how it is configured decides whether your team follows the compliant process every time. Advantage sets up receiving, put-away, picking and dispatch so the right checks happen by default, rather than relying on people to remember them.

Microsoft Copilot and the Power Platform bring practical AI to distribution without the need for data scientists or custom AI development:

• Demand forecasting — analysis of historical sales and order data to predict demand, improving purchasing decisions
• Anomaly detection — spotting unusual stock movements, order volumes or supplier lead times before they become a problem
• Automated document processing — Power Automate and AI Builder extracting data from supplier invoices, delivery notes and customs documents, cutting manual entry and errors
• Supplier communications — Copilot helping draft supplier emails, purchase orders and chasers in seconds
• Plain-English reporting — Copilot in Power BI lets managers ask questions about stock, orders and delivery performance without building reports

Many distributors run the business on reports that are already hours or days old: end-of-day stock reports, weekly sales summaries and KPI spreadsheets compiled by hand. Power BI replaces them with live dashboards connected directly to Business Central and your other systems.

Dashboards Advantage typically builds for distribution and wholesale clients include fill rate and order accuracy, stock accuracy and variance, warehouse throughput and pick performance, delivery and carrier performance, margin by product line and customer, and supplier on-time delivery. Leaders get the visibility to make faster decisions; warehouse and operations managers see performance as it happens.

Yes. Advantage has supported distributors and wholesalers across the UK, including wholesale distribution, food and drink distribution, industrial and specialist products, and international trading. Clients include RCL Lighting (inventory and finance modernisation), Fish 4 Dogs (delivery system transformation), Kids Food Company (warehouse and inventory management) and Niko (Business Central transformation).

That experience means we understand how distribution actually works, from warehouse workflows to multi-currency purchasing, and bring proven process templates and configuration best practice to every project rather than learning the sector on yours.

Yes. Business Central can run production planning, bills of materials and manufacturing alongside warehousing, order fulfilment and finance, so businesses that make and distribute work from one system rather than two. Find out more on our manufacturing page.

If your systems go down, orders stop, the warehouse stops and deliveries are missed. Advantage provides layered security and resilience for distributors and wholesalers:

• Advantage Secure365™ — managed Microsoft 365 security covering identity, devices, email and data, with Zero Trust principles and continuous monitoring
• Advantage CloudVault365™ — backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 data, protecting against accidental deletion, ransomware and data loss
• Business continuity and disaster recovery — Azure-based backup, site recovery and tested DR plans, so critical systems can be restored within agreed recovery times
• AI-enhanced managed IT support — proactive monitoring that finds and fixes issues before they affect operations, with UK-based support throughout

The Advantage Transformation Sprint™ is a free, no-obligation consultation for businesses that want to understand where their biggest bottlenecks are and which systems are holding them back, before committing to any solution or vendor.

For distribution and wholesale businesses, the Sprint maps your current ERP, warehouse, order processing and reporting; identifies where AI, automation and modern systems will make the biggest difference; and gives you a clear, prioritised roadmap. Contact the team to arrange a Sprint, call 020 3004 4600 or email hello@advantage.co.uk.