The Best Salesperson
They say a happy user is the best salesperson. And after European appliance importer and distributor Technika installed Greentree, financial controller Trevor Porter is a huge proponent of Greentree.
As the new financial controller for Technika, Trevor Porter inherited a system that just couldn’t do what was required for the current business. Historically Technika had been handled by a system that was designed chiefly for point of sale, but experiencing growth and being importers and distributors, they really needed so much more. Porter began the search for not just an integrated, enterprise wide system with comprehensive performance, but also a flexible systems delivery partner to handle the implementation and support.
“Endeavour have worked closely with us to maximize the benefits of the integration capabilities of Greentree, I find it absolutely magnificent as far as reports go, and also for direct costing.”Trevor Porter, Financial Controller, Technika |
 |
Smooth lines of transition
The company considered several competing vendor systems including Greentree, demonstrated by local partner Endeavour. Porter said he liked what he saw “Endeavour went the extra mile to understand our requirements, we felt confident they would be in it for the long-haul”. Although the changeover was a big undertaking, Porter had been through the process before and knew getting the right systems integration partner was the key to success. “We had a lot of stock that we had to transfer across and had our own way of doing things,” Porter says. “Endeavour handled the transition seamlessly, we were clearly in good hands from the word go”.
Even though he changed from CBA to Greentree in his previous company, Porter says this change went even more smoothly and the new system went live very quickly. “The main thing is the business did not suffer at all” he said. Initial fears that minor teething troubles might go unanswered proved unfounded, “Endeavour have been very responsive with ‘hands on’ approach to service and support”. The change went according to budget, the company even decided to buy a number of extra modules that weren’t originally planned for. Technika now uses accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory, multiple warehouses, foreign exchange, advance purchase orders, general ledger and analytics.
More of everything
Greentree has been accepted by all the staff. “There were a couple of people who didn’t want the change, but after they had settled in and found out how good the system was, they would never go back to the old one,” Porter says. The staff like it because of its user-friendliness and because it provides a lot more information than they were used to. For instance, Technika previously was only able to do trial balances year to date, whereas now they can also run them month to date.
“In our previous system, 70% of the job was done in the accounting software, but then it had to be downloaded and finished off in Excel,” Porter says. “Endeavour have worked closely with us to maximize the benefits of the integration capabilities of Greentree, I find it absolutely magnificent as far as reports go, and also for direct costing. It’s also very accurate for doing invoices and Profit and Loss reports, and the warehouse control is very good.”
Technika’s warehouses in Queensland and Western Australia used to have to send spreadsheets detailing their stock holdings, so inaccurate stock reports were a problem. Porter says: “We used to raise orders but when someone went out to the warehouse the item wouldn’t be there. And then, if the invoices had already been prepared, you couldn’t cancel it.” Technika had to create a credit note and then re-invoice. “Now we can’t sell negative stock and have to find out why there’s no stock showing, so Greentree is a great tool for stock control.”
“When we installed Greentree we knew we wanted better control of stock and more accurate management reporting. We’ve got big companies who have a lot of stores nationally set up as parent companies with child accounts. Now we can run integrated reports that let us see sales in individual stores. Pulling out single-store figures in the previous system was just horrendous.”
Confident in the detail
These days, Porter can see stock holdings day to day on his own computer. He says users feel a lot more confident in their jobs because of the information they can access. “When we installed Greentree we knew we wanted better control of stock and more accurate management reporting. We’ve got big companies who have a lot of stores nationally set up as parent companies with child accounts. Now we can run integrated reports that let us see sales in individual stores. Pulling out single-store figures in the previous system was just horrendous.”
Porter has seen a lot of time saving, especially in account receipting. “We’ve got some rather big clients who pay us over a million dollars a month, and to process those receipts in the old system took sometimes a day and a half. We can finish them in a couple of hours now.” With productivity and integration maximized Porter says Technika can expect more good things from Greentree, “we made the right choice, we’ve had great return on investment and can do so much more in the future.”
About Technika
Technika imports and distributes around Australia highquality home appliances from Italian manufacturers. Innovative tooling sets Technika appliances apart, while economies of scale make them affordable. The range of appliances includes ovens, dishwashers and rangehoods. The Victoria-based company has a wide retail partner network, as well as a nationwide service network. The company has built up a solid reputation for its appliances, and they are now often included as part of a package when builders sell new homes.
For more information visit: www.technika.com.au
