One CRM, Many Industries: What We’ve Learnt from Working With Hundreds of Australian Businesses
One CRM, Many Industries: What We’ve Learnt from Working with Hundreds of Australian Businesses
Most CRMs only focus on sales. But Australian businesses don’t work that way. They sell, manufacture, assemble, import, pick, pack, ship, install and service — often all inside the same company. And they want one system that keeps it all together.
After working with hundreds of Australian and New Zealand businesses, we’ve learnt that every industry is different… but the operational chaos holding them back is surprisingly similar.
Here’s a look at the real patterns we see every day, across manufacturing, wholesale, ecommerce and service-based industries — and how Tall Emu helps bring order to it all.
1. Manufacturing: Serialised Items, BOMs and Production Control
Industries we see: railway components manufacturers, timber manufacturers, fitness equipment builders, automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, electrical and electronics
Common challenges:
- Serial numbers tracked in spreadsheets
- Zero traceability for warranty or repairs
- BOMs spread across documents, notes or someone’s memory
- Limited visibility across multiple stock locations
How Tall Emu helps :
- Proper serialised inventory management
- BOMs and multi-step production workflows
- Full traceability from component to customer
- Live inventory management software replacing spreadsheets
Manufacturers often tell us the same thing: “Once all the serials are in Tall Emu, we actually know what we have, where it is, and what it’s worth.”
2. Wholesale & Distribution: Landed Cost and Margin Control
Industries we see: health and wellness distributors, dental and medical wholesalers, construction products suppliers, catering, food and beverage, fashion distribution, textiles suppliers, pet products.
Typical issues before Tall Emu:
- Landed cost guessed, not calculated
- Freight, duty and customs tracked manually
- Backorders hidden inside spreadsheets
- Pricing affected by wrong cost data
- Too many tools: Xero/MYOB + Excel + inventory app + quoting system
Tall Emu replaces all of this with:
- Accurate landed cost calculations
- Purchase order management
- Backorders, supplier pricing, margins and stock in one CRM
- Easy MYOB/Xero integration
- No more stitching together disconnected tools
3. Online retail & Ecommerce: When Shopify and WooCommerce Doesn’t Talk to Your Systems
Industries we see: lifestyle retail brands, catering companies, health supplement stores, boutique product sellers, building and renovation supplies, recreational goods.
Common frustrations:
- WooCommerce orders flowing in but stock not syncing
- Staff re-keying orders into accounting
- Spreadsheets used to “double-check everything”
- No central customer history
- Fulfilment bottlenecks and lost orders
What Tall Emu’s WooCommerce and Shopify CRM integration solves:
- Orders, customers and products synced automatically
- Real-time stock levels
- Fulfilment workflows built-in
- Inventory + CRM + accounting + operations in one place
- Removes multiple expensive add-ons
4. Trades & Services: Jobs, Scheduling and “Who’s Doing What?”
Industries we see: recycling/environmental services, construction services, equipment repairers, whitegoods servicing.
The pain points usually look like this:
- Jobs written on whiteboards or clipboards
- Photos scattered across phones relating to jobs
- No status updates once a tech leaves the depot
- Lost invoices because jobs aren’t tracked
- Quotes created manually, taking hours
Tall Emu fixes this with:
- Job management built right into the CRM
- Quotes > jobs > invoices all connected
- Time, materials, stock and notes in one place
- Recurring job reminders
- A clear schedule without double-booking
5. Niche & Unusual Industries: The “We Didn’t Think a CRM Would Work for Us” Group
Industries we see: taxidermy, boutique wholesalers, artisan producers, specialty metal fabricators, jerky manufacturers, subscription services, eco-friendly goods.
These businesses all assumed CRMs were “too generic” for what they do. Once they see Tall Emu’s inventory, jobs, quoting and workflows, the lightbulb moment happens.
They usually say something like: “We didn’t realise a CRM could run the whole business.”
And that’s because most CRMs can’t. But an operations-focused CRM – or “mini-ERP” – absolutely can.
What We’ve Truly Learnt: Different Industries, Same Problems
Across manufacturing, wholesale, retail, ecommerce, services and niche industries, the patterns show up again and again:
- Too many disconnected systems
- Manual work everywhere
- Zero visibility
- Costly mistakes
- Stock inaccuracies
- Duplicate data entry
- Customers slipping through the cracks
- Growing businesses stuck on old processes
Tall Emu replaces all of that with one connected CRM for:
- Inventory
- Sales
- Jobs
- Quotes
- Orders
- Production
- Accounting integration
- Automation
- Reporting
- Ecommerce workflows
Whether you manufacture railway components, distribute dental products, run a taxidermy shop, sell fitness equipment or operate a recycling fleet, the goal is the same:
One CRM. One source of truth. Less admin. More clarity. More growth.
Check out Tall Emu for Your Industry
👉 Book a live demo with our CRM Consultant, or
👉 Watch a demo on demand to see Tall Emu CRM in action.