Johannesburg, 26 Feb 2014
Synergy Group, a provider of complete business solutions and a solution provider to Sage ERP Africa, has been appointed by Luba Freeport, a joint venture between Lonrho and GE Petrol, the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea to manage the implementation of their Sage ERP X3 solution.
Sage ERP X3 provides the perfect fit for Luba Freeport, a deep-water gateway and logistics hub to West Africa. "We decided to implement Sage ERP X3 to improve efficiency and internal controls, particularly between the financial and operations department," says Nick Hollowell, CFO of Luba Freeport.
Luba Freeport provides a strategic natural sheltered environment for the burgeoning oil and gas industries in the Gulf of Guinea. The port provides a range of services from accommodation and catering to the supply of oil industry chemicals, fuel and water. It is a 'one-stop shop' facility with vessels coming to the quay to refuel and load bulk chemicals, water and any other cargo without the need to change berths. This speeds up turnaround times, making port calls more efficient and more economical for both clients and shipping lines.
Hollowell continues: "Our current system was one-dimensional and only managed the financial aspects of the business. By selecting Sage ERP X3, we will have a combined solution that manages both the operations of the port as well as the financials in one online system. The new software will automate our existing processes resulting in better efficiency and accuracy. Sage Intelligence reporting, forming part of the Sage ERP X3 product, provides us with the opportunity to electronically measure operational activity and financial performance at the port, replacing the manual creation of KPI (key performance indicator) reports. The result is that information is now more accurate and reports are created much faster.
"Sage ERP X3 provides Luba Freeport with a customised solution, which is able to run all aspects of the business from port operations, to stock control and management of the financial system. The implementation will be done without requiring any specific additional software development," says Ashley Regenass, CEO of the Synergy Group.
A thorough situational analysis was completed and the most suitable approach was mapped to fully integrate Sage ERP X3 into Luba Freeport with the least amount of interruption as from June 2014. "Even though essential business processes will not change dramatically, the users will have to get used to the new system and its processes. As a result, progressive change management will be implemented until users are completely familiarised with the system and our team will be on site for user acceptance testing, user training and final data conversion," says Regenass.
"Companies such as Luba Freeport have to strike a careful balance on a daily basis. They have to meet the demands of their customers and maintain high levels of satisfaction while keeping down costs. Sage ERP X3 is the perfect solution because it integrates data into all the systems, and in the end creates a powerful planning engine," says Keith Fenner, Vice-President of Sales for Sage ERP Africa and Head of Sage Middle East.
Hollowell concludes: "Luba Freeport, being the gateway to West Africa, continuously needs to improve efficiencies in all departments and we now have an ERP system that will definitely support us in aligning all processes, providing us access to quality data at all times."