Southern Engineering Services stays on top of ERP technology with SYSPRO

During a decade of expansion – as SES has grown from a single business into a group of companies – SYSPRO software has remained the backbone of its business systems...

The resources boom of the past decade has been kind to Southern Engineering Services Group (SES).

A supplier of specialised engineering and key product support services since the 1950s, the organisation's close association with the mining industry has helped to ensure a steady increase in demand over recent years. So much so in fact, that the Group has averaged close to one acquisition a year for the past five years and total group turnover now exceeds $55 million annually. 

SES Group now comprises six separate companies each of which has a number of different divisions. Its diverse operations include the supply of bearings, industrial strength gearboxes and power transmissions, mining and projects services and process engineering. It even offers industrial hire equipment.

SES's customers represent the spectrum of Australian industry and range from steel, coal mining and metals mining, to fertilisers, heavy materials handling, chemical, construction, general engineering, water treatment process industries, medical, manufacturing, food processing and automated packaging and equipment.

The organisation is head quartered in New South Wales and maintains operations in most mainland states of Australia.  In its most recent acquisition the Group obtained its first international presence, with an office in Auckland New Zealand.

Despite its growth, the company has never lost focus on the essential importance of quality and customer service. In late 2007 SES received the Australian Bulk Handling Award for “Supplier of the Year” in the medium to large category. The award was recognition of SES's “continuous effort and consistency of good service”.

Just six months later the Group was named a 2008 winner of the NSW & ACT Family Business of the Year Award. In presenting the award, NSW Family Business Australia chairman, Terry Rowney, said: “Southern Engineering Services Group’s commitment to providing solutions for its customer base and going that ‘extra mile’ to assist a potential customer, even if they do not ultimately get the sale, was particularly noteworthy.”

A green screen start
In the early 1990's SES deployed a then state-of-the-art Unix-based SYSPRO ERP system along with a number of dumb terminals. The software was a boon to the growing company and soon underpinned the operations and management of almost every aspect of the business: from finance and accounting to manufacturing and distribution.

In the years since SES and its interests have expanded and technologies have been revolutionised many times over, yet the same system remains at the heart of SES's business.

Kevin Grimmer, Group financial controller explains, “We use SYSPRO for pretty well everything.  Apart from a little bit of Microsoft Excel and some design software, it's really the only software that's in use within the Group. We use it for inventory control, work in progress including job costs, quoting, purchase orders, assembly, repair and maintenance tasks, plus all the accounting modules that you'd expect for our kind of business.”

It also plays an important role in SES's quality standards certification.

The single-server system manages the six SES companies as well as providing an overall Group view of operations. Within the pure sales environment use of SYSPRO is extensive, beginning with an order being entered before stepping through each part of the sales work flow – production of a picking slip then delivery docket, raising an invoice, noting inventory changes within stock control and initiating purchase orders for additional stock.

The engineering workshops are more custom project-oriented and rely on the Work in Progress Module to accurately capture all job related costs, not just materials and labour.  On completion of a job this information is used to automatically create the project invoice.

Steady evolution
Grimmer attributes the success of the ERP system to a mix of the software's capabilities, the longevity and ease of relationship with SYSPRO consultants, and the dedication and knowledge of SES's long-term IT manager, Harvey Bailey.

Bailey has worked with SES since 1990. He watched over the original SYSPRO deployment and has been instrumental in the system's evolution. Although he is the only internal SYSPRO support resource, he finds that many of the system demands can be managed remotely, enabling him to work from a home office much of the time.

“We've made some major upgrades along the way,” Bailey notes.

Y2K concerns drove the first change in 1999 when SES replaced the terminals with PCs.  Then, in 2003 geographic expansion demanded the connection of additional locations.

“That's when we began using Windows Terminal Servers and ADSL connections to the internet. In 2004 we moved to Windows Server. That would be the biggest thing we've done,” he adds.

Expanding the system
The logistics of adding acquired companies to the corporate system has proven to be straightforward although there are often sensitivities on the part of the acquired company that need to be dealt with.

“Culturally, all companies tend to want to keep their history, especially the past ten years or so of whatever system they have been on. Depending on the software they used, converting some order histories or job histories can be a bit tricky,” Grimmer says.

Staff training is another issue that Grimmer acknowledges could be better handled.

“Because we do such a lot with SYSPRO we should do more about sending new people on courses.”

It would help to bring new staff up to speed faster and give them the comfort of familiarity in a period of change.

Planning for the future
The evolving business of SES means that management is always on the lookout for new functionality and new technologies that may help the Group to grow.  Grimmer says, “We're still looking at getting the most out of the system and leveraging the functionality that SYSPRO offers.”

He points to barcoding systems and handheld data readers as an example of a likely future direction. It makes sense given the recent acquisition that has provided SES with new distribution hubs in Australian States and overseas.

In the more immediate future, Bailey expects a busy lead-up to Christmas as SES Group moves all its companies onto SYSPRO version 6 release 10. It's a step that will deliver some new useful functionality and features, and that will ensure that SES's system remains at the forefront of ERP technology.

“Keeping an edge in technology is important but it's also a pretty traditional industry. The upgrades that we've made have certainly given us more useful features and more utility out of the system itself,” Grimmer says.

Bailey concludes, “I don't believe age of the system has limited us at all. There are a lot of things in SYSPRO that we didn't need in the early stages but as time goes on we get bigger and realise  that it could be useful. There's an awful lot available in the software that we don't use even now.”

For more information

SYSPRO Software
www.syspro.com.au
Phone:  1300 882 311
info@syspro.com.au

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