A new IT-era reigns at Water Systems Manufacturer
To meet the rigorous quality demands of overseas markets, this 100 year old water systems company turned to Greentree to help benchmark the internal systems and processes required to support its export aspirations.
“Our challenge was finding our way through the feature-rich goldmine of Greentree functionality. Early-on we needed lots of telephone help, now we learn as we go and a phone call is fairly rare. I guess that’s a solid testimony to both the system and our enthusiasm for it.”Ivan Ramsey, Managing Director – HJ Cooper |
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The difference between implementation success and disaster = Endeavour Solutions
After 12 months of market research, Greentree was chosen as the system to help HJ Cooper evolve into a more competitive, best practice environment but as anyone who has experienced a new systems implementation will tell you, picking the right system is only half the story. The other half, and some would argue the real disaster-buster, is picking the right business partner to transform the system into a solution.
Practically speaking, all the features, functionality and clever stuff are entirely irrelevant, if you can’t work with the people charged with the responsibility for making all the clever stuff work for your business. Ivan Ramsey, Managing Director at HJ Cooper concedes there were expected teething challenges, but these were quickly and effectively dealt with by Endeavour’s expertise.
“The effort & expertise of Endeavour Solution’s consultants and ongoing support from help desk staff have been the critical implementation success factors for us – they’re more like friends and they believe in what they’re doing,” says Ivan.
Consultant expertise quickens decision making and deployment
HJ Cooper – users of Greentree financial management softwareIt was envisaged that key Greentree modules could be implemented reasonably quickly and in fact, they were. Ivan noted that Endeavour had several specialists who collectively brought a significant amount of expertise to the table. Consultants were able to offer informed answers about all aspects of the implementation and as a result, HJ Cooper had a clearer picture about where they wanted to go and what decisions they needed to make. Ivan believes this paved the way for a smoother, faster and more successful implementation.
“With the right training and information provided at the right time by Endeavour, we’ve moved from virtually no IT infrastructure to being reasonably IT savvy in just 6 months,” says Ivan.
But as H J Cooper Financial Controller, Neal Taylor explains, the speed of deployment presented some learning hurdles for users who rose to the challenge of getting up-to-speed very quickly.
Inventory – the ‘hub’ of the manufacturing business
Working closely with Endeavour’s consultants, it was quickly decided that since the business was divided into 3 reasonably complex production areas, the obvious place to start was inventory as a key part of the manufacturing process. A newly appointed Inventory Manager is leveraging a whole new level of flexibility within Greentree to innovatively track and monitor over 3,000 inventory items plus madeto- stock and made-to-order requirements which hasn’t been possible until now.
QlikView = competitive insights
To help garner more intelligent insights into burgeoning amounts of business data, Qlikview for Greentree is enabling HJ Cooper to drilldown, traverse and analyse Bill of Materials, labour rates and other significant costs to determine for example, if the cost structures are in fact contributing to profitability. Ivan says this is particularly significant since this enables them to accurately ascertain costs and margins and ensure these are competitive. Again, this is something they’ve not really had much insight into in the past and Ivan says “QlikView has been a revelation”.
MRP, Bill of Materials, Job Cost – a disciplined manufacturing environment
Manufacturing is a core business activity and Greentree is enabling control over the end-to-end process and in so doing, enforcing a more disciplined approach to job costing. HJ Cooper are now getting a clearer and more accurate view of all job related costs as they happen which has implications for multiple business management purposes e.g. inventory management, sales, forecasting, marketing etc.
ROI within 12 months
Already, the real-time value of Greentree’s integrated modules and single data entry point have come through in more accurate reporting to better inform the decision-making process. The value of in-depth data analysis and a lower cost of ownership compared to other offerings has returned really tangible business benefits. Ivan expects that even more significant returns on investment will be realised within the next 12 months when CRM will being fully utilised. He’s convinced that moving forward Endeavour’s expertise will continue to be pivotal in the successful maximisation of the business benefits provided by the Greentree solution.
“We needed to define our competitive difference through systems and processes and Greentree and Endeavour have come together to provide both a solid IT infrastructure and technical expertise, well able to support future growth and planned entry into the Australian market.”
Ivan Ramsey, Managing Director – HJ Cooper
About HJ Cooper
HJ Cooper is New Zealand’s iconic plumbing industry business looking forward to celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2008.
HJ Cooper has a well-earned reputation as a respected manufacturer and supplier of water heating and rainwater products and also supplies an extensive range of gas, electric and solar water heaters and boiling water units.
Based in Avondale, Auckland, the company distributes throughout New Zealand and across the Pacific region.
For more information visit: www.hjcooper.co.nz
