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Sage
Enterprise helps heat transfer products manufacturer keep
a move ahead |
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Client profile
Heat transfer products
manufactured and supplied by Thermex are to be found in the automotive, marine,
hydraulic and mining industries the world over. For over 20 years, Thermex has
been producing components which are used today in diverse applications such as
London buses, JCB excavators and Hyundai geological survey ships. Many Thermex
products must operate in extreme conditions.
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“Sage Enterprise is fundamentally important in our
drive towards total customer satisfaction.”
Paul Northover
General Manager
Thermex |
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Thermex has built its success over the last two decades on a winning combination of advanced
technology, top-quality products, competitive pricing and a continuous
commitment to customer service. As well as offering standard products, the
Redditch-based company has a design and development department with test
facilities to design products to customers’ specific requirements.
The challenge
To retain its
competitive advantage, Thermex needs to be able to offer a fast turnaround. It
holds a large number of finished products and components in stock, enabling
standard products to be despatched typically within a day or two of ordering.
The company looked for
a replacement to its existing Sage system to support the business in its drive
to providing fast, high-quality service. Management decided to investigate the
marketplace for fully featured and integrated ERP software.
Realising the
imperative of the internet for business, they also wanted a system that would
bring all the benefits of eMail and the web and give them room for future
expansion into full eCommerce.
A long-term Sage user,
Thermex took the opportunity to make a seamless upgrade to a Sage Enterprise
solution.
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| Solution
summary |
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| Sage software: |
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Sage Enterprise – Finance/Distribution/
Manufacturing modules |
| Operating system: |
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Microsoft® Small Business Server with NT Server 4 |
| Database: |
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Microsoft® SQL Server 7 |
| Hardware: |
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Customer’s own (Intel-based) |
| No. of users: |
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16 |
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The solution
The resulting Sage
Enterprise solution purchased by Thermex is built around Microsoft Small
Business Server V4.5 which incorporates NT Server 4 and the SQL Server 7
database.
For enhanced
performance and fault tolerance, 100BASE-2 Ethernet cabling and a Mitsubishi
Dual Processor fileserver with a RAID array have also been installed.
Thermex personnel were
already gaining desktop productivity benefits from Microsoft Office and were
happy with the Windows environment. The solution incorporates a graphical front
end to the system.
The benefits
With the
implementation of the Sage Enterprise solution, Thermex now enjoys vastly
shortened processing times, as well as full analysis and control over the
manufacturing process. Integrated transaction processing is in place and Sage
Enterprise ensures euro compliance.
A significant benefit
is the easy access to all underlying data in SQL tables through desktop
Microsoft applications – drill-down and drill-around analysis and simultaneous
access to multiple ledgers or enquiries – all in an intuitive graphical
environment running alongside standard desktop applications.
Thermex Production
Controller James Tidy comments enthusiastically, “Sage Enterprise on Windows is
so easy to use. Having come to the system as a novice user, I really appreciate
the Graphical User Interface and the way I can easily cut and paste information
from other Windows applications for further analysis.” He adds, “It made
picking up the system very quick as I was familiar with the Windows interface.”
He also makes
extensive use of the in-built links between native Sage Enterprise data and
Microsoft desktop applications such as Excel and Word, explaining, “I find Sage
Enterprise very strong in manufacturing, and the open data structure allows me
to produce shop-floor predictions very easily in whichever application best
suits my particular requirement.”
Meanwhile the
salesforce benefits from a third-party sales and marketing application, which
seamlessly interfaces with Sage Enterprise and Microsoft desktop applications.
The application supports activities such as proactively reaching out to new
customers, producing quotations and enabling Sales Director Phil Ward to stay
in touch with head office as he travels the globe, through its database
synchronisation tool.
The future
Thermex hopes to
implement the added internet functionality that Microsoft Small Business Server
brings. Microsoft Exchange Server will be configured to handle internal and
external eMail and to allow individual and group calendar scheduling. With
Proxy Server, Thermex will also enjoy shared web access to allow members to
surf the internet for technological research and to explore new markets.
Thermex are also
investigating placing their catalogue of parts on the company website and may
take advantage of the Sage Enterprise Internet Order Taking Application to
enable their customers across the world to place orders directly on Sage
Enterprise round the clock, all year round.
For more details on the solution provided for Thermex, please
contact Sage Enterprise Solutions on 0845 600
5999 (UK only) or +44 (0) 118 927 0100.
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