From inbox overload to operational clarity, how GMS Systems cut emails by 70% and lifted productivity by 30%

The company

GMS Systems' story began in Cape Town in 1999, when Tim Pienaar transformed the former GM&S Systems into a company dedicated to building integrated, more efficient industrial materials-handling equipment. Over the years, the business evolved into a trusted supplier of materials-handling equipment for both the warehouse and manufacturing sectors, providing everything from picking and packing systems to specialized material-handling solutions.

In 2024, Jan Tukker joined as COO, bringing with him years of retail experience and a strong focus on putting the right systems and processes in place to support the company's next phase of growth. Today, GMS Systems continues to help warehouses run smoothly with practical, reliable equipment and a commitment to operational excellence.

The challenge

Before adopting a CRM, GMS Systems relied heavily on Excel and Outlook to manage its sales process. Leads came in through conferences, cold calls, the company website, LinkedIn, and existing clients—but nothing tied the process together.

When Jan joined, he noticed a troubling pattern: They were losing work simply because they weren't getting back to customers quickly enough. There was no visibility into who was handling what, and no consistency in follow-ups.

Jan explored Pipedrive initially, but found its pricing too high for what the company needed. When comparing the mobile app and web experience between Pipedrive and Bigin, he felt Bigin was far more intuitive. He liked Pipedrive's project management tools, but was quickly won over by Bigin's simplicity, ease of use, and flexibility.

A recommendation from Neptek and a bit of Googling pushed him further into the evaluation. Over six to eight weeks, Jan and his team experimented, tweaked pipelines, and worked with trial data. Gradually, Bigin started to feel like the right fit. The turning point was Bigin's automation; once they saw how Bigin could seamlessly fit into their workflows, the decision became clear.

The solution

GMS Systems implemented Bigin to manage its complete lifecycle, from lead tracking to project execution. Jan and his team created multiple pipelines for sales, projects, R&D, and marketing campaigns to ensure every deal and project had a clear path forward.

They introduced workflow automation to trigger notifications whenever deals reach key stages and ensure engineering, design, and implementation teams are automatically informed when a project moves forward.

One of their most frequently used features is notes, which the team has adopted as a shared collaboration space within each deal and project record. This enables teams to maintain project discussions directly inside the CRM instead of relying on scattered email conversations. Additionally, they use tasks and reminders to ensure project activities are completed as scheduled.

Mobile access has enabled engineers and field staff further to retrieve drawings, project details, and customer information directly from the mobile app.

Benefits and ROI

Bigin's impact was immediate and substantial. GMS Systems achieved the following:

• Team productivity improved by approximately 30%, as centralized deal and project information reduced the time spent managing emails and spreadsheets.
• Since the team began using the notes feature extensively for collaboration, their number of internal emails reduced by 70%.
• Tasks and reminders replaced manual to-do lists, helping teams track responsibilities and follow-ups more consistently.
• The mobile app affords the team easier on-site access to project drawings, files, and customer data.
• Teams have a clearer understanding of every deal: who owns it, where it stands, and what needs to happen next.

Looking forward

Jan is confident that GMS Systems will continue growing with Bigin at the center of their processes. The company is now shifting their focus toward strengthening their invoicing and financial workflows, and they see Bigin as a core part of that evolution.