“SYSPRO is one of the better things we’ve done. It has been one of the major changes in the profitability and growth of our company. There’s no question about that.”
The Company
Since 1988, Australian-based Frontline Australasia has manufactured precision components and assemblies for the automotive and defense industries. Earning revenues of approximately AUD$50 million annually, the company provides full design and engineering services using the latest CAD design and modelling systems. Its high tech specialized equipment is shipped to customers locally and internationally to countries including
New Zealand, Malaysia and Canada.
More recently the company has begun moving into a third niche with the manufacture and commercialization of a new seamless Titanium pipe technology developed by CSIRO. Capable of being manufactured for approximately 25% of the cost of comparable pipes, Frontline’s management is confident that the new venture will have strong global potential.
Operating across a total of 15 production lines, all Frontline products are manufactured to Australian or internationally recognized standards and the company has a consistent record in meeting quality and schedule
requirements.
The Challenge
Like the proverbial cobbler whose children are left to run barefoot, high tech organizations caught up in the pursuit of customer demands often fail to consider their own technology needs. This was the situation facing Frontline Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Hooper, back in 2007 when he realized that his company’s nine year old enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was sadly neglected.
“We had a locally developed system that covered bills of material, MRP, accounting and payroll but it wasn’t fully integrated,” Hooper explains. “It wasn’t being updated on a regular basis. It was difficult to operate and too complex. We got to the stage where there was only one person in a company of 130 people who was prepared to take an interest in it.”
Worse, the ERP system and Frontline’s accounting software could not communicate, meaning that data had to be manually transferred from one system to the other. This was a major concern because, as Hooper
says, “We could never make sense of the data at a financial level.”
The Solution
Frontline used a team of senior IT / manufacturing university students who were tasked with making an exhaustive study of possible replacement systems. His requirements were simple: a manufacturing software system with a global presence and a track record in service and support. In addition, it had to be suitable for Frontline’s particular manufacturing environment, requiring no code changes.
“We had no specific functionality requirements other than bill of materials in engineering, control over customer costs and product costs, accounting, an MRP system, payroll and engineering change updates. They were all basic functions with nothing complex or unusual. We were after pretty much what most mediumsized
manufacturing firms need,” Hooper admits.
The students came back with a short-list of five options. This was soon whittled down to three. During the ensuing evaluations Hooper discovered that two companies operating in a similar market space to Frontline were both users of one of the short-listed technologies – SYSPRO. He sent staff to conduct reference checks, both of which came back positive. It was enough to help sway the decision for SYSPRO.
When it came time for the implementation however, Hooper remained cautious. “Personally, I have been through three ERP implementations or upgrades,” he says. “One went well and two were problematic.” To avoid any repetition of issues, Hooper hired a consultant to sit on the steering committee alongside internal users and SYSPRO staff.
Planning didn’t get far before the committee discovered that most of the available input data was inaccurate or corrupted. Realizing that they would never be able to sort the good data from the bad if they didn’t fix it before uploading to the new system, the project was put on hold for two months.
Once the data quality had been handled, it took just one month to set up SYSPRO and prepare the system for testing. No code needed to be created or rewritten which is something that Hooper remains particularly pleased about. “Once you start making changes to code it complicates everything and starts to cost a lot of money when it’s time to upgrade.”
On March 1, 2008 SYSPRO went live, operating in parallel with the previous ERP solution. After two weeks, Frontline staff were confident that there were no issues or bugs to be resolved and they shut the old system down.
The Result
Integration of data across the company quickly helped to gain management and administrative staff support for the new system. James Clyne, Chief Financial Officer at Frontline comments, “We used to find that end of month was our biggest issue. We’d still be here at 7 or 8 o’clock at night getting things done. These days we’re finished at 3 p.m. on the last day of the month.”
Another big advantage has been the improvement in data quality; people trust the numbers and reports coming out of the ERP system. “Margins in manufacturing are very tight,” Clyne adds. “So the ability to accurately report on costing is a vital part of what we have to do. In the past we found it hard to analyze the profitability of particular products. We used to waste a lot of time going round in circles. Now if there is a problem in any area we see it very quickly.”
Greater accuracy has also been introduced into the company’s overseas international activities through new multi-currency capabilities which automate previous manual calculations.
Clyne estimates that productivity among administrative staff has increased by around 20% due to easier user interfaces and a reduction in the time it takes staff to generate and interrogate data. His colleague, cost accountant and Frontline IT coordinator, Renee Liew agrees before suggesting that the shared integrated solution is also generating greater levels of cooperation between individuals and departments.
From Hooper’s perspective, the deployment has marked an important milestone in Frontline’s growth. “Before we had a system that was so complex nobody used it. Putting in SYSPRO is one of the better things we’ve done. It has been one of the major changes in the profitability and growth of our company. There’s no question about that,” he concludes.
For more information on Frontline Austrialasia, please visit here.
For more information on SYSPRO, or to schedule a consultation on how we can better serve you, please visit here.
Jan
27
SYSPRO News: SYSPRO Features, Technology and Customer Centricity Praised in Analyst Article
by admin
SYSPRO, a developer of best-of-breed, award-winning enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for on-premise and cloud-based utilization, today revealed the publication of a recent article/interview with SYSPRO USA executives. Authored by TEC (Technology Evaluation Centers) Analyst PJ Jakovljevic, the write up entitled, “SYSPRO—Taking a Quantum Leap or Simply Becoming Smarter?” states, “The company’s adherence to developing technology based on the needs of customers is among the reasons why it enjoys one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry.” The article goes on to state that SYSPRO’s single DNA product focus and .NET base enables solutions to be tailored to customers’ specific needs.
Describing SYSPRO’s marketing strategy, Jakovljevic notes: “SYSPRO’s global ‘Simply Smarter ERP’ mantra is about the vendor listening carefully to its customers, perfecting its implementation methodology and focusing its resources on education in order to enable SYSPRO ERP users to maximize business benefits. The word ‘SMARTER’ in ‘Simply Smarter’ is actually an acronym that stands for Strategy, Methodology, Accountability, Resources, Technology, Education, and (Customer) Rewards.”
Discussing SYSPRO’s newest marketing thrust, Quantum Architecture™, Jakovljevic notes: “This is a distinctly comprehensive ERP architectural framework for managing today’s technology and data diversity targeting the following six business areas:
1. ERP implementation
2. Communications and reporting
3. Workflow processes
4. Security issues (e.g., role-based authorizations)
5. Regulatory and financial changes
6. Mobile and cloud requirements
Additionally, Jakovljevic notes, “The Quantum framework apparently is an extension of SYSPRO STARS (Structured Technique to Achieve a Rapid Solution) Implementation Methodology in that it provides an even richer implementation experience by streamlining all aspects of a project…”
The interview details SYSPRO’s long-term growth strategy and mentions SYSPRO Business Live, the company’s Cloud offering.
The article by PJ Jakovljevic can be accessed here.
About SYSPRO
SYSPRO has earned the trust of more than 14,500 companies in 60 countries for its suite of visionary software that enhances the competitive thrust of small/mid-sized manufacturers and distributors. The company’s adherence to developing technology based on the needs of customers is among the reasons why SYSPRO enjoys one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry.
For more information on SYSPRO, or to schedule a consultation on how we can better serve you, please visit here.
Tags: .Net, Accounting software, Business model, Business philosophy, Business software, CRM, CRM Software, Distribution software, Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise software, ERP, ERP software, Inventory control, Manufacturing, Manufacturing software, Responsible ERP, software