Leading manufacturer of pumps and related products for the mining and industrial markets, the CH Warman Pump Group, has selected the Epicor Scala iScala 2.2 Collaborative ERP Solution to improve the management of its pan-African operations.
The CH Warman Pump Group offers a total solution to most pumping applications, and its focus is to provide quality pumps backed by the highest level of product support and technical expertise. The group's comprehensive range of products, which operate in the harshest mining and industrial applications in the world, includes horizontal slurry pumps, vertical spindle sump pumps, dredge pumps, electro-submersible pumps, and pumps suitable for sand, gravel, corrosive and abrasive slurries.
The CH Warman Pump Group maintains the exclusive rights to market, sell, support and service Warman products on the African continent and non-exclusive rights in selected international destinations.
According to Alex Flett, CEO of CH Warman Pump Group, the company sought an ERP solution that would deliver the required functionality in terms of controlling its manufacturing, warehousing, logistics and financial systems.
"As a company experiencing strong growth, we needed a solution that would facilitate our expansion with better access to company information which would provide rapid insight into our operations," he says.
Flett adds that with operations in several African countries, in Australia, Dubai and several eastern European locations, it also wanted software that would allow seamless collaboration while catering to the local tax and regulatory environments of each country. Seeking an independent recommendation for an appropriate solution, the company then approached Juan Le Roux whose company specialises in providing solutions for the extended value chain.
Le Roux says no fewer than 10 of the top providers of ERP solutions were evaluated. "Because this is a fairly large deployment of more than 200 named users, which represents a considerable investment for the CH Warman Group, it was critical that a solution that could meet its needs which included collaboration between geographically dispersed offices."
Additional factors that were considered in the evaluation process included vendor viability, vendor success rate in the South African and African market in terms of continent-wide support infrastructure, as well as the ability of the chosen vendor to implement the technology.
Says Flett: "Once we had mapped our business processes and examined tenders from various software providers, Scala Africa came out on top. A proven solution for our industry, we are confident that its implementation will result in improved systems, better service to our customers.
iScala is a collaborative ERP system that enables companies to automate and manage standard business processes, while also providing a complete e-business infrastructure.
Le Roux says Scala Epicor was a good fit for the organisation. "The Epicor Scala product suite is modern in technology and mature in its support for business processes; it also has an outstanding track record with reference sites in similar industries and spanning similar geographies. From the evidence presented to us the Scala Epicor solution is one of the few that offers full service and contract management capabilities, as well as localised payroll for any country to take care of tax and other statutory requirements."
Tiaan Grobbelaar, general manager at Epicor Scala Africa, which is supplying and implementing the software, adds that the proven Scala Signature methodology will be leveraged when deploying the solution. "Mitigating risk in an ERP project is of critical importance; for this reason, the project will be thoroughly scoped, planned and managed throughout the implementation process. Signature is proven to deliver results through its strict guidelines, regular checkpoints and a methodology that includes the client closely in the project," he says.
Ends Grobbelaar: "Vendor and product viability is only one aspect of the project's success, user buy-in is also vital. It is with this that we will be leveraging our training capability to manage change and equip the users of the system with the skills necessary to ensure the system delivers maximum value from the moment it goes live."
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