Johannesburg, 25 Aug 2005
An isoPOS point of sale software solution that seamlessly integrates into a ACCPAC Advantage Series back office accounting program has streamlined stock control, sales processes, rebating and sales forecasting for specialised surgical goods and equipment supplier Surgitech, headquartered in Rivonia. The original accounting software system used by Surgitech was unable to import and integrate sales data from the branches in Durban and Cape Town. It had to be manually captured at the branches, sent to the Johannesburg head office and recaptured again.
"Not only was this most time-consuming, it also meant the company was basing business decisions and forecasts on data that was already dated and not always totally reliable because of human error in the capturing and recapturing of sales figures," said Surgitech financial director Robyn Smith.
When ACCPAC Advantage Series was selected, the reseller recommended that isoPOS remote invoicing software be used to capture all data relating to stock and invoicing as it fully integrates into ACCPAC and could automatically update head office with the daily transactions from the two branches.
Smith said the IsoPOS software is installed at the Durban and Cape Town branches. The daily transactions are downloaded automatically via an ISDN connection to the Johannesburg system late at night, while the branches can run their own sales reports immediately.
"When we come in to work in the morning we have detailed information in the system about every sale for the previous day. The isoPOS software has powerful reporting capabilities, giving us exact stock levels at all three centres."
For Smith a most useful feature is the ability of isoSales History to access historic sales information and provide comparisons with current information on a single screen. The historic data from the original accounting software was easily imported into isoSales History.
"The isoSales History is the most powerful sales reporting tool imaginable," she said. "It is highly flexible and gives me accurate budgeting and forecasting detail to the point that the business knows exactly where it stands every day and there are no more guesstimates. With isoPOS I can export whatever data I want from IsoSales History and import it into Excel to generate reports that really work for me."
Surgitech imports and sells a wide range of specialised surgical goods from staplers and sutures to minimal invasive surgery instruments, a range of cardiac products such as chest drains, plastic surgery products and neurosurgery products, many of them disposable. The products are sold to the major private hospital groups, State hospitals and the few independent hospitals as well as directly to some doctors, dentists and veterinarians.
Another critical aspect of the business that isoPOS caters for are the rebates given to major customers. This used to be done manually but Smith said rebates are now automatically run after daily sales have been integrated into ACCPAC.
"So we know, quickly and with minimum effort, exactly what has been sold and what rebates have been given where. The result is that there are no surprises. Before isoPOS it was a case of guesswork for representatives to make their sales forecasts. Now they know exactly where they stand every day."
Smith added that the system has streamlined Surgitech`s procedures, eliminated work duplication and placed strategic business intelligence into management hands every morning. "We have easy access to comparative historical data to assess how the company is performing and we also get early warning of circumstances that we need to react to."
A comparison of all sales against the previous month takes place in the third week and it reveals discrepancies such as regular customers who have not ordered. Smith said that when such discrepancies are checked it is often established that the customer has forgotten to order and a timely reminder generates a sale.
"The isoPOS software has saved huge amounts of time and resources and has significantly reduced errors. It is also a secure system allowing control of access according to the level of staff and need to know."
Karl Wagner, managing director of isoPOS, said the system has simple, clear transaction screens covering quotations, sales orders, tax invoices and credit notes with all features easily accessible through the toolbar.
"It is an extremely flexible program that effectively integrates all point-of-sale requirements from both front and back office into ACCPAC`s Advantage series accounting software. It can also be quickly modified to cater for each end-user`s preferred methodology."
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