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Sage Enterprise helps precision metrology company go
global |
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Client profile
Wherever precision manufacturing takes
place, the Renishaw Group’s products ensure that exacting specifications are
met. The company designs, builds and supplies high-quality metrology systems to
its manufacturing customers across the world, enabling them to carry out
measurements to international standards – in some cases down to approximately
one two-hundredth of the thickness of a human hair, in others to the wavelength
of light.
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“Operating a successful global business demands tight
management control of finance and distribution. Sage Enterprise has measured up
to all our expectations in providing a consolidated system to support our
worldwide operations, with cost-of-ownership benefits, too.”
Steve Ponting
Group Systems Manager
the Renishaw Group |
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The first Renishaw company was formed in the early
1970s. Today, the Group stands at the forefront of automated metrology. Over
the years, its workforce has grown to over a thousand, with around a third of
employees being employed overseas.
The challenge
The Renishaw Group’s success over the past
three decades has been assisted by impressive growth in its export markets,
which account for over 90% of its sales. To help manage these international
operations, Renishaw plc, based in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire, UK,
co-ordinates the design, manufacturing, marketing, sales and service of all the
Group’s products worldwide and liaises with Renishaw’s overseas companies,
distributors and agents, as well as providing support for the UK sales
operation.
With rapid expansion came the pressing need
for Renishaw management to increase company-wide control. In the late 1990s,
they investigated the likely benefits of implementing a standard finance and
distribution system to support the constant flow of information between
Renishaw plc and its subsidiaries.
Transforming the ten or so existing
different systems across the Group into one system offered all the benefits of
consolidation, with Head Office and every subsidiary working to the same
standards. There were potential savings on cost of ownership to be made as
well.
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| Solution
summary |
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| Sage software: |
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Sage Enterprise – Finance/Distribution modules |
| Operating system: |
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Windows NT® |
| Database: |
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Microsoft® SQL Server |
| Hardware: |
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Hewlett-Packard |
| No. of users: |
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150 user licences worldwide |
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The solution
The Finance and Distribution solution
chosen by the Renishaw Group comprises a Sage Enterprise system on an NT
platform, with a Microsoft SQL Server database. The company also bought
software modules to handle repairs, warehouse management, telesales and EDI
(electronic data interchange).
Three factors influenced the choice of Sage
Enterprise: its scalability, which enabled it to fit the varying sizes of subsidiary;
its availability on NT/SQL, already chosen as the strategic platform; and Sage
Enterprise Solutions’ support in most of the countries where Renishaw has a
subsidiary company.
The plan was to start with a prototype
system at Renishaw’s headquarters in the UK with a subsequent worldwide
roll-out, beginning with Hong Kong and Ireland and moving on to Italy, the USA,
Switzerland, France, Japan and Germany. Countries needing help with Year 2000
compliance were given priority.
As an important component of the
implementation process, representatives from the financial, distribution and
logistics operations were co-opted into regular ‘virtual conferences’ over a
three-month period. Their involvement and commitment right from the start
ensured that standard business processes could be implemented across the Group
and that the prototype system matched local operational needs.
As a result, while some tailoring was
subsequently needed to meet each country’s legal and fiscal requirements, the
roll-out work could be carried out by Renishaw itself, with some support from
Sage Enterprise Solutions’ overseas offices.
The benefits
With all business information now being
presented in the same format, whatever its country of origin, Renishaw’s
management can more readily interpret data on sales, stock, debtors, and so on,
and identify any areas requiring attention. This, in turn, has led to greater
business control.
The flow of information from the
subsidiaries to the parent company has been much improved by the use of Sage
Enterprise. Renishaw continues to grow its sales in its subsidiaries without
incurring additional administration costs.
Under the new system, the former
multiplicity of reports is replaced by a daily consolidation of the subsidiary
accounts to a central server and then all Head Office reporting requirements
being satisfied from there.
The future
The roll-out of the finance and
distribution system across the Renishaw Group is continuing according to plan.
As the business grows, the Group will be
able to set up new subsidiaries more easily as they adopt the tried and tested
standard system.
Steve Ponting sums up, “In Sage Enterprise
we found a system which met our immediate requirements for closer management
control without increasing administrative overheads. We now have a strong
platform in place on which to build our business in the future.”
For more details on the solution provided
for the Renishaw Group, please contact Sage Enterprise Solutions on 0845 600 5999 (UK only) or +44
(0) 118 927 0100.
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