Century-old Saxon business stays up-to-date with SYSPRO

One of Australia’s oldest hot water systems brands knows a good ERP solution is one of the keys to an efficient manufacturing operation...

Established in 1897 by the Sachs family, Saxon is one of the oldest and longest surviving brands of electric and solar domestic hot water systems in the country.

For an Australian owned and operated family business to have weathered the storm for 108 years, they must have some secrets for success.

Direct involvement from the Sachs family has been a significant factor in this success and, as IT director Michael Sachs explains, another secret is foresight.

Twelve years ago Michael Sachs personally recognised the need to upgrade an ageing IBM System 32 and implement a modern ERP system – and this was before the ERP boom.

Sachs evaluated SYSPRO along with a number of competing packages such as SAP and Mfg Pro.

Fifteen years after the decision to implement the modestly priced SYSPRO solution, Sachs is still upgrading SYSPRO modules, retraining staff in new enhancements and re-educating himself on the latest and most advanced solutions available to ensure the family business continues to excel for another hundred years.

According to Sachs, a secret for Saxon is to lead the way in all aspects of technology – whether it is automation, information or the latest improvements in ERP. With Sachs’ first-rate knowledge and understanding of the software he has personally experienced the evolution of SYSPRO, with all its improvements and re-designs to make it what it is today.

“SYSPRO V6 has well designed enquiry screens and runs on Windows Server 2003 with clients running a mix of Windows 2000 or XP. SYSPRO has also evolved as technology and business processes have changed in recent years,” says Sachs.

“New modules and enhancements have incorporated electronic trading capabilities such as EFT and B2B and the software has become extensible with the adoption of XML and .NET technologies. The beauty of SYSPRO is that it is modular - small and medium sized businesses can expand their modules when they grow, or their business processes evolve or change. SYSPRO is always enhancing and improving their system and we receive regular updates and newsletters that enable us to keep abreast of the changes.”

Saxon was SYSPRO’s first client in Queensland and one of the reasons Saxon has remained with the solution so long is the support received from local partner ProActive Integrators (PI).

“As our manufacturing operations have grown, so has the requirement to automate processes and interlink departments with timely and useful information flows. If you are looking for accuracy, efficiency and real time manufacturing data then you need a system like SYSPRO,” says Sachs.

So what is SYSPRO?
As a recognised world-leader in the design, development and implementation of ERP solutions, SYSPRO has been a leading provider of fully integrated software solutions to manufacturers and distributors for more than a quarter of a century.

SYSPRO ERP is the foundation of successful supply chain management and meets the comprehensive information technology needs of emerging companies with a totally integrated solution encompassing ERP, APS, CRM and E-Commerce.

SYSPRO enables companies to maximise the planning and management of business processes to better position themselves to ensure customer fulfilment, and ultimately improve bottom-line results.

Business flows are integrated throughout the organisation and this enables companies to optimise processes and provide management with more accurate, up-to-date information.

This in turn allows management to make more effective and efficient business decisions.

Benefits for Saxon
SYSPRO gives Saxon complete control over the planning and management of all facets of its manufacturing plant and company operations including: manufacturing, accounting, inventory and distribution. Saxon utilises fourteen SYSPRO modules including: Accounting, Receivables and Payables, Sales Analysis, Sales Orders, Bill of Materials, Work in Progress, Report Writer, Cashbook, Inventory, Purchase Orders, General Ledger and MRP.

“Whether it is requirements planning, bill of materials or simply tracking our business processes, Saxon can achieve it all as real time information via SYSPRO. We no longer have to manually do the ‘big nasty calculations’ when we need to re-order stock since SYSPRO does it automatically. We always know what we have in stock, on back-order and what is being used for a job and being shipped out the door,” says Sachs.

SYSPRO partner provides assistance whenever required
If Saxon has any issues, PI is helpful in resolving them quickly and efficiently. When there was a requirement to sell solar system components (water heater and panels) combined as a kit; as well as separately as spare parts, PI assisted.

There were differing and specific requirements on how the various components were to be presented and priced during invoicing, how they were grouped or combined for forecasting and sales analysis reports, and how work orders needed to be placed on the factory floor.

This involved changing a series of set-up parameters in a number of modules and testing the resulting combinations - a potentially time consuming task. PI suggested ways to utilise SYSPRO’s standard set-up parameters to adapt to Saxon’s needs.

“ProActive ran a series of tests on various configurations of options and came up with a spreadsheet defining the different set-up parameter combinations, together with their different effects on the total system. They found the ideal solution, saving us a lot of time and headaches,” says Sachs.

“SYSPRO is capable of this level of complexity; and to have a system that is so configurable and flexible is a rarity in my opinion for the manufacturing industry,” he says.

With access to easy-to-view, real-time information, Saxon can leverage SYSPRO to respond rapidly to changing circumstances, react quickly to customer demands, reduce operating costs through streamlined processes and workflow automation.

Because SYSPRO can extend the enterprise with sophisticated CRM, APS and e-commerce functionality, Saxon easily extends control to the entire supply chain.

“The modular nature of SYSPRO ERP allows us to select the functions needed to increase operational control and effectiveness; it also helps that SYSPRO is enhanced and upgraded on a continual basis,” Sachs says.

With a foundation of leading-edge technology, SYSPRO enables Saxon to reap the rewards of a more efficient manufacturing operation.

“My secret?  Life would be much harder running an efficient modern manufacturing company without SYSPRO,” concludes Sachs.

For more information

Roslyn Young
Marketing Communications Manager SYSPRO – Asia Pacific
Ph: +61 2 9870 5555
E: roslyn.young@au.syspro.com
W: www.syspro.com.au

8/7/27_ex

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