Client profile
Shropshire-based Colour Supplies Ltd has two branches
to its well-established decorating supplies business: trade sales
are through its Colour Supplies arm, based in Wrexham, while retail
sales are through its Housemakers store in Whitchurch.
The company employs 40 people altogether and has
a healthy £3 million turnover.
The challenge
Colour Supplies Ltd was a satisfied long-term user
of Sage Tetra based systems, running on a SCO UNIX platform. However,
as a forward-thinking business, the company recognised the need
to keep pace with changing technology.
As Pauline Elsley, Finance Director at Colour Supplies,
explains, “It was not only the expertise and professionalism
of the reseller involved that enabled the transition to Sage to
happen both accurately and quickly. But what was more important
to us was the personal backup and the reassurance that whatever
the problem there was always someone there to help.”
From careful analysis of the requirements of the
business, flexibility, ease of use and a manageable platform emerged
as the top three criteria for the eventual solution. In particular,
Colour Supplies investigated the long-term benefits to be gained
from adding variable reports, to match the changes in growth planned
for the two businesses.
Colour Supplies looked closely at the reporting
facilities offered by Sage Line 200 on an NT platform, combined
with the Impromptu report-writer, and were attracted by the increased
business control such a solution offered.
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| Solution
summary |
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| Sage software: |
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Sage Line 200 –
Finance/Distribution modules |
| Operating system: |
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Windows NT® |
| Database: |
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Microsoft®
SQL Server 7 |
| Hardware: |
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Hewlett-Packard |
| No. of users: |
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8-user system |
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The solution
Colour Supplies purchased a full suite
of modules for their business, covering functions such as general
ledger, accounts payable, sales ledger, cash management, order entry,
invoicing and sales analysis, inventory control and payroll.
Like any ambitious business, Colour Supplies wanted
their new system up and running as quickly as possible. In fact,
from start to finish the implementation phase took under three weeks,
including data conversion and testing.
The benefits
Through the powerful report-writing functions of
the new system, Colour Supplies is achieving even better control
of its business than with its previous system, enabling it to track
costs carefully and achieve greater profitability. This is essential
for success in the competitive world of DIY and decorating supplies.
Importantly, the system works the way the business
works. The solution was integrated with the Microsoft Office systems
that Colour Supplies already had in place, giving users the benefits
of a powerful new system which has a familiar ‘look and feel’.
Although the trade and retail arms of the Colour
Supplies business operate independently, both are linked via a kilostream
connection. As a result, the two locations can operate seamlessly
and can be managed centrally. In addition, product bar-coding increases
the accuracy of inventory control and pricing.
The future
Having experienced the advantages of the
Sage Enterprise Solutions system within the business, Colour Supplies
is keen to expand the scope further to perform more functions for
more users.
Pauline Elsley sums up the company’s outlook, “The
system has been extremely reliable and in a business that is open
7 days a week. This is extremely important to us.”
“It has given us the opportunity to become
more efficient and have all the information that we require to deal
with our customer requirements without keeping them waiting. As
for the future potential – this seems endless as we are still finding
out as we learn more about the benefits on a daily basis.”
For more details on the solution provided for Colour Supplies,
please contact Sage Enterprise Solutions on 0845 600 5999 (UK only)
or +44 (0) 118 927 0100.
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