Johannesburg, 11 May 1999
Samancor, a key supplier of chrome and manganese products to steel industries worldwide, will use the SAP business enterprise software solution to achieve shorter turnaround times - creating a more responsive and efficient organisation.
The SAP solution will co-ordinate the marketing, sales and distribution of more than 200 Samancor products to over 80 countries.
"As Samancor has a large and scattered worldwide customer and operations base, we need the SAP solution to assist us in tracking our sales and distribution process and to consolidate information. We have 2000 clients spread over numerous countries and products stored in some 110 warehouses in South Africa and around the world."
Neels Castle, Business Solutions Manager at Samancor, says: "From a market and business perspective a number of critical factors, such as growing competition, more demanding customers and changing market conditions, necessitated a more efficient process. On the technology front, outdated systems, Y2K compliance problems and the need for easy access to sales and marketing information, led us to choose a solution from SAP.
The sales and distribution, materials management (for finished goods/stock), financial management (sales related transactions), cost control (profitability analysis) and cash management modules will be used to regulate Samancor`s business activities. Samancor`s SAP programme, currently in the training and testing phase on these modules, will be commissioned shortly.
Castle says: "Our sales teams need up-to-date information at their fingertips to provide a proactive response to clients` needs. We want to improve sales and marketing effectiveness and reduce duplication of work.
"We considered 27 different packages before deciding on a SAP solution, which has a 98% business fit with Samancor. Our choice was also influenced by SAP being the largest supplier of business application software in the world, with top-notch support levels, long-term sustainability and superb solution functionality.
"Previously Samancor was running an in-house system which was not fully Y2K compliant and had an outdated marketing and sales set up.
"We are only in the first phase of the project but if this is successful, which it no doubt will be, we will consider implementing SAP wall-to-wall. We achieved a very high level of management buy-in, with business users as full-time members of the SAP project team and this has worked very well," says Castle.
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