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Microsoft Navision† contributes to significant growth at Cambridgeshire Environmental Products CompanyJune 2005 Established in 1971, Burwell-based Delta-T Devices, specialises in the design and manufacture of systems and instruments for agronomy, plant physiology, eco-physiology, data logging, meteorology, soil moisture, solar energy studies and environmental monitoring. The company is co-operatively owned and managed and pursues an ethical sales approach. Selecting a Business Solution and a Business Partner In 1998, the company decided it needed a more sophisticated accounts and stock management system. A wide-ranging search led to a shortlist of five, whittled down from twenty five. Neil Wylie, Materials Planning Manger, explained that the co-operative ownership meant that there was wide consultation and agreement on this major decision: "There was a fairly extended period of debate on how each system would meet the needs of every potential end-user, but the eventual consensus was that Navision was the most powerful and flexible system. We chose Cambridge Online partly because they were so local and partly because of their reputation for quality services. They have also been around a long time, since 1978, and are one of the UK's leading provider of Navision solutions" Implementing Microsoft Navision† Apart from time-consuming data entry to populate the database, caused by the way in which Delta-T had historically managed information, the implementation of Navision proceeded very smoothly. The priority was to deploy it initially for accounting functions and then for purchasing and stock management. On the accounts side, Head of Finance, Peter Cockerton has found Navision user-friendly and extremely robust: "Overall, I am very happy with it. Quite simply, it never crashes, plus extracting data from it was very straightforward once we had set up the form templates and reports we needed. It manages all the usual financial accounting requirements, our multi-currency needs and foreign exchange exposure. Almost 80% of our business is achieved from export sales, and we do transactions in sterling, dollars and euros. We are still fine-tuning, and there's a great deal more we will be able to do with it as our knowledge of its functionality increases." Streamlining the Design & Manufacturing Process Delta-T handles large quantities of stock including raw materials, sub-assembly components and fully assembled items. Products are created from these in a wide range of configurations, sometimes for just a single, unrepeated project. However, Neil Wylie experienced an unexpected benefit from Navision: "Inputting data to the system meant we could clearly see the level of complexity involved in the way we worked. This led us to streamline our design processes and also to increase sub-contracting on sub-assembly activities. It's reduced our purchasing overhead and made manufacturing operations more efficient. In 2001, we reached more than £440,000 of stock on the database; that's now down to £280,000 and the objective is to reduce it further." Neil continues: "I use the minimum / maximum stock levels feature on Navision all the time to see where we can improve efficiency. I also maintain Master Production Schedules and use the Bill of Materials features extensively. We plan to purchase the Jobs module which should prove really useful for costing long-term sales projects. For instance, we may have a six-month contract to install an entire irrigation system. Navision handles all elements of this, making an extremely laborious task relatively simple. Overall, Navision has facilitated a steady reduction in stock-holding, plus enabled us to keep a tight rein on staff costs in the production area. In fact, the department is smaller now than it was five years ago. We no longer need to do massive year-end manual stock takes; we just run off monthly reports for the management committee." A Strategic tool contributing to Significant Growth "Navision has proved itself to be a strategic tool for us, and one that has definitely contributed to our significant growth in turnover." Like Neil Wylie, Peter Cockerton is confident of further payback from their investment: "Navision has so clearly demonstrated its usefulness that we are seeing increasing numbers of users wanting to share in the benefits it has brought to our finance, production, purchasing and planning areas. We may extend it into sales and prospect management, for instance, at some stage in the future. There's no problem with rolling it our more widely, either, as it's extremely user-friendly. In fact it's saved us a great deal of money on training compared to other systems I've known." Reviewing the choice of Business Solution and Business Partner Commenting on Delta-T's choice of solution and partner, Peter Cockerton continues: "We are very pleased with our choice, both of system and of supplier. Cambridge Online have been first-rate: they always respond effectively to our queries and, unlike some suppliers I have experienced in the past, they're highly professional at all times. We are looking forward with great confidence to the next stage in our development, and to utilising Navision even more productively." Delta-T run a 15-user Microsoft Navision system providing an integrated solution for accounting, sales, purchase, inventory and bill of material management. Contact us to learn about how Microsoft Navision can be implemented to help your organisation achieve significant growth. |
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† Microsoft® Business Solutions - Navision® is now known as Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV
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