Bidfreight Port Operations (BPO) has selected Accpac ERP 500 5.5, Accpac CRM, and Alchemex BI, from Softline Accpac, to provide a complete end-to-end solution for its business needs.
Management says the unrivalled functionality of these products takes the company's “In place. On time” philosophy to a new level. The implementation was undertaken by premium software specialists GBIT, a Softline Accpac business partner.
BPO was formed in 2004 as a result of the merger of two leading portside companies, Rennies Cargo Terminals and South African Stevedores. This merger enabled BPO to become an organisation that is, in unity, greater than its component parts. BPO's understanding of its clients' needs is based on 150 years of portside experience in Africa.
Satvir Murray, Accounting Systems Manager, BPO, explains that while Accpac Dos had served the company well for more than a decade, the time had come to upgrade its systems in line with the substantial growth BPO has experienced since 2005. Accpac ERP 500 5.5 was selected as the preferred upgrade on recommendation from sister companies within the Rennies Group.
“The decision to invest in Alchemex BI at the same time came about as a result of the fact that we were running three separate companies on Accpac, which made providing timeous and presentable management accounts very challenging. The exercise was extremely labour intensive and finance was constantly under pressure to produce the Management Pack.”
Alchemex was able to automate the Management Pack at the click of a button - quite a feat considering that BPO's Accpac systems consisted of different charts of accounts, totalling about 23 000 general ledger accounts across 70 divisions, and including non-financial KPIs, as well as tonnage throughput from custom created tables.
Alchemex's ability to extract all this data into a single Excel workbook really proved the solution's flexibility to BPO. Line managers were impressed by the ability to automate profitability analysis reports for their divisions, with a real-time extraction into a pre-formatted Excel report in under a minute from a desktop shortcut. This is ideal for managers who don't have time to learn a BI solution, but still need access to information on demand in order to make informed decisions.
Desiree Marescia, a partner in GBIT, says the Accpac windows transaction processing was decentralised to the extent the users were empowered to input and extract reports, with minimal help and in quick time and at their convenience. The Accpac/Alchemex solution resulted in the monthly financial results and management packs being produced consistently in record time. “The system's flexibility to incorporate workflow will enable growth through efficiencies. BPO is now able to achieve accurate, effective, and efficient reporting on a consistent basis and, as an added bonus, is moving closer to its goal of a paperless environment.”
BPO's financial director, Ravind Sukdeo, also gives his version of what Alchemex has brought to the business: “Our expectations have been exceeded in the way Alchemex delivers critical business information from our system. We have converted weeks of repetitive work every month into a few hours. Now that's what I call a measurable return on investment.”
Keith Fenner, Sales Director, Softline Accpac, says Accpac ERP is a truly global solution, which offers the tools and flexibility to successfully accelerate business expansion. Accpac CRM provides the company's marketing, sales, and customer service teams with the tools they need to find new customers, close sales faster, and build lasting, more profitable relationships across all channels. He says that combined with the robust functionality and benefits of Alchemex BI, a solid foundation for positive future growth has been laid at BPO.
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