Janda takes stock with SAP solution

With a move to offshore manufacturing, the Brisbane furniture supplier needed to track inventory availability closely, and economically. It did so with a SAP Business One solution from Enabling…

Scenario
Janda is a Brisbane-based supplier of quality furniture whose customers include the Harvey Norman store chain. Janda has been in the furniture business for more than 30 years, and has recently moved from local manufacture to manufacturing offshore.

This required significant reorganisation of operations, and their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, designed to serve the manufacturing business, was no longer deemed appropriate. They needed a solution capable of handling growing international sourcing and delivery needs and meeting the information demands of todayís trading environment. The solution also needed to be relatively low cost and easy to use. Finding a reliable local partner was also important.

After looking at a variety of possible solutions, they selected SAP Business One. Enabling was engaged to put the solution into place, provide support and training, and supply the customisations needed to run their business.

Requirement
With growth, Janda finally reached a point where local manufacture was no long a viable option, and it shifted its manufacturing to offshore. This brought about a wide range of new requirements affecting the company’s IT processes. Changes were needed in areas such as communications with suppliers, stocking, and inventory planning.

As a small non-technical business, Janda needed a solution that could be easily used, would handle the international side of the business, and could be easy to link to systems in place at customer and supplier locations. The new solution needed to provide a wide range of information instantly to ensure that the supply chain operated efficiently, as well as providing customers with immediate information on order status and delivery dates. They also needed a quick and painless implementation process with plenty of support to ease the transition.

Of particular importance to Janda was its ability to gain immediate and reliable information regarding delivery times for furniture items on order. This was needed both to satisfy customer requests and for inventory planning.

Solution
After looking at a number of possible solutions, Janda elected to use SAP’s Business One ERP solution. They selected Enabling as their provider. “Business One was the best fit to our requirements. It had the functionality that we needed at a reasonable cost,” says Janda Financial Controller Andrew Frizzell. “It also comes from a internationally recognised company, which helps us to work with overseas suppliers and freight forwarders. Enabling provided a solution based upon a small amount of customisation that brought the whole system together for us.”

Enabling undertook a detailed planning process, producing a detailed blueprint for the new system that kept the whole project on track and provided a fixed cost up front. A predictable cost and implementation process made the transition relatively painless and saved the company money.

The installed solution provides a range of standard functions, plus customisations to meet Jandaís more specific needs. It includes General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivables, Sales Orders and Invoicing, Purchase Orders, Inventory and Stock Management.

Capabilities are based around standard product components. SAP Business One provides all of the processes needed to run a business. It includes a complete set of business management functions designed specifically for small business. It integrates all critical processes and provides support for sales, customers, purchasing, inventory, operations, financials and human resources. It was designed to be installed quickly, and is straightforward and easy to use. These factors were all of importance to Janda.

“Business One handles all of our accounting requirements including General Ledger, sales orders coming in from customers, purchase orders going out, all of our stock management and stock control through all of the warehouses,” says Frizzell. “The built-in international capabilities were also important, because of our international supply chain.”

Handling Janda’s inventory was an important part of the installation. Janda provides a wide range of options for its furniture. There is a balance between stock availability versus efficient stock turns. This means that the ability to respond to customer requests swiftly and get orders to the factories is critical. Tracking of options is also important for planning. With Business One, inventory management capabilities are strong, and permit Janda to maintain extensive details on its products including things such as care instructions and fabric. It also needs to maintain warehouses around the country to service its national retail customers.

“One of the key requirements was capability to inform our resale customers of when stock would be available,” says Frizzell. “About half of the queries we received were about this.

Answering these queries and was labour intensive and took a good amount of time. We used to have to sort through different spreadsheets and reports and the like to get this information. Now, we can get the data with a few mouse clicks.

Improving this resulted in great savings.”

Unlike many small business solutions, Business One provides extensive international support. There 40 country-specific versions, including local languages and currencies.

This makes it much easier to work with businesses around the world and set up offices overseas.

Another important factor in using Business One is the capability to adapt the software to meet changing needs as the business grows. There are numerous add on modules available, and the software can be customised to meet special requirements.

The SAP solution was installed by Enabling rapidly, on schedule and on budget. A reasonably quiet time was selected for the changeover, and it went life without a hitch.

The project was approved in August, 2009, and went live in mid-November. Orders were being processed from the very first day, with no interruptions to business at all.

Results
“Overall, the Business One solution has resulted in considerable cost savings and more timely and more accurate information for our customers and suppliers, as well as for our own planning purposes,” says Frizzell. “Administrative staff was putting in a lot of overtime handling information requests, and much of that is now eliminated.”

Capability to provide an accurate date when stock will be available for customers has both improved customer relations and reduced administrative time. The necessary information is now just a mouse click away.

Janda is able to operate more efficiently because information what was previously locked in spreadsheets requiring labour-intensive manipulation is now instantly available. Sales analysis and forecasting are improved, and operations are more efficient.

Throughout the implementation process, Enabling has provided the expertise and professional presence that have made the transition quick and relatively painless.

“Enabling’s project management was very good,” says Frizzell. “The solution was sorted quickly, and the project was run with regular project meetings that kept everyone in the loop.

They also provided training and plenty of support, backed by an effective Help Desk.”

The system was put into place and operated well from the start. Enabling has continued to follow up, ensuring that the solution provides the best possible results.

Future
Janda is now in the process of evaluating a range of Web-based Business-to-Business (B2B) options for improving the efficiency of its operations. These will be much easier to implement with a modern and internationally recognised ERP solution already in place. Business One also supports B2B standards such as EDI, that enable businesses to transmit information to customers and suppliers.

The customisation capabilities of Business One will be called into play. This will be aided by the fact that at least one customer has an SAP product already in place. The B2B solution is still in an early stage of discussion, and Enabling is now being consulted to deliver the best solution to moving this project forward.






> ENABLING
P: 1800 ENABLING
W: www.enabling.net







10/4/9_ex_h_nl

View Solution Provider